Designing London’s Recovery

There are very few public toilets in all of Tower Hamlets. There should be accessible toilets near parks like Millwall Park and Island Gardens Park in Isle of Dogs. Our council refuses to open the public toilets near Island Gardens Station, so people have to wee in the tall grass like animals. This is disgusting and unacceptable in this day and age.

I have IBS and tend to use the loo in a pub (and feel obliged to buy a coffee or something after) or station if I am out and about (which is not often these days). I have also used public loos in an emergency but the only nice ones are in Royal Parks. There is a need for public loos yes, but only if well maintained and safe. There are legitimate concerns around health and safety that require staffing and individual, separate cubicles with their own sinks.

Could we incentivize businesses to keep their toilets open? Say an app could track how often a business lets non-paying customers use their toilet. Businesses could receive subsidies from the mayor for participating. They would also benefit from added footfall.

There's no incentive for businesses to invest in maintaining toilets at the moment, but that could easily be changed. It would help our high streets regain their place in civic life.

I received notification that someone had commented on my earlier comment. I managed to log in with the unnecessarily complex password but couldn't
locate the comment referred to.
Whilst I like the idea of Talk London, the execution of surveys and the website in general are not very professional.

They need to be well lit, easily visible and well signposted. I would be concerned if they were tucked away out of sight if I were on my own. Often they are difficult to locate . Cleanliness is important, with supplies of soap and water. One thing I sometimes find is that there are notices reminding us of the importance of handwashing but on occasions the water is too hot and there is no cold tap available.This is also a potential danger when a parent puts a child's hand under the tap not realising that it's extremely hot. I would be happy to pay to use a public toilet if it meant there were more of them and that they were well maintained but not everyone is in a position to do that. I often rely on using toilets at railway stations, particularly in central London, but they are often closed later in the day. It is vital that we have good facilities in every town . It impacts on people's health and well being if they don't go out as often as they would like because they are fearful of being in the postion of urgently needing a toilet and not finding one. It impacts too on the tourist industry and local businesses as a lack of facilities or dirty, poorly maintained toilets do not encourage people to stay long in a place or to revisit, as I know from my own experience.
Unfortunately I can't think of any good public toilets that I've come across in recent years. I feel very strongly that this is an issue that needs to be urgently addressed as I believe that it has also become a major problem for lorry drivers and other workers who are on the road for much of their working day.

If my daughter or niece is returning after dark I meet her at Brixton Station. I park opposite the station, on Tunstall Road. Last week I waited around 15 minutes and saw 3 men and 1 woman urinate in the street, some out in the open, others at the entrance to flats on the right-hand side . This is a regular occurrence. Brixton has a lot of bars but no WCs. They were shut decades ago.

When I go shopping in Willesden High Road, I use the toilet in the Sainsbury's Supermarket. One day the toilet was out of order, so I had to wait until I arrived home.

I use a square shopping-trolley as a support when walking. I cannot carry my trolley up flights of stairs, which is a problem in most Underground stations. Westminster station has lifts from ground level to the ticket hall and all the platforms but not to the sign-posted toilets (which require a 50p coin for entry through the turnstile). A helpful able-bodied passenger carried my trolley up a short flight of stairs. I had to leave my trolley outside the turnstile while I used a toilet, but the attendant kindly looked after it until I came out. Afterwards I found a member of the station-staff in the ticket-hall and asked him how a wheelchair-user could use a toilet in the station. The answer is that the wheelchair-user has to find a member of staff who can let him into the station-manager's toilet which is on the ticket-hall level outside the ticket-barrier. Next time I need a toilet in Westminster Station I shall do this.

Wembley Park Station is wheel-chair accessible to all the platforms. I think there is a ladies' toilet on one of the platforms, but I have not checked this.

Bond Street Station, Green Park Station and Kilburn Station are wheelchair accessible from the trains to the street, but I have never checked whether they have wheelchair-accessible toilets.

I help run a place in E14 which is open to the public. We provide toilets to the public as we want to encourage folks to come here. But we do not legally have to. We do this at our own expense. We are surrounded by mixed use development schemes, none of which have to provide public toilets. Where there is a larger scheme it should be a planning requirement

What is most important is the availability of useable public toilets. I deliberately dehydrate before going out because of a lack of toilets which should not be necessary in a civilised city.

I would commend the new toilets in Haggerston Park, LB Hackney, which are well maintained and kept clean.

I would be happy to use a public toilet if it were free, well lit, safe and relatively clean. I answered in the survey that I wouldn't search for a public toilet - only because I dont expect their to be any! I would go to a pub and buy a drink in order to use their loo.