.. The Great British Public Toilet Map

The Great British Public Toilet Map launched last Wednesday 19th November on World Toilet Day*

Previous versions of the map have existed since 2011, but this is now the largest publicly accessible toilet database in the UK by some way. It has over 9500 toilets, and I’d be confident of saying that the map will help you to find toilets no matter where you live.

If for some inexplicable reason it doesn’t, you can add, edit and remove toilets until it does! We’ve had over 1000 toilets added this week.

There are also a tiny minority of locations where the data has gone a bit loopy with duplicate loos or inaccurate locations. Don’t be shy about removing those that you think are wrong, or telling us at toiletmap@rca.ac.uk about parts of the country that may need a little attention. You’ll be doing us a huge favour.

You can read more about the map in The Mirror, The Guardian or The Telegraph. Or view our press release.

*As well as World Toilet Day, it was also GIS Day (Geographic Information System). They might as well name it Toilet Map Day.

… User-Centred Design – Urinal Games

An article was published yesterday about a company who are installing games for men to play whilst at the urinal. The game is controlled by peeing.

I’m recoiling already.

Not at the concept. I just hate talking about urinals. I don’t know anything about them. There is no more mysterious public space to a woman than the men’s toilets, and vice-versa (although I have been in the men’s at the RCA once for research purposes and was aghast at how much cleaner they were. What on earth are you all complaining about?)

The BBC’s article about the pee-game is very thorough.

Entitled ‘Toilet gaming technology targets urinal boredom’..

 (‘boredom’? Are people really bored by peeing? I’m very understanding of different views, but if you pee enough to be bored by it, you should probably see a doctor)

..the game “sits above the normal oval ceramic urinal bowl, opening up a whole new world of entertainment…The user is presented with three generous targets to aim for in the urinal: stickers in the unit that read “Start”, “Left” and “Right”.”

… Oxford Street

There are new public toilets planned for Oxford Street!

Woo!

Or is it?

Public toilet blocks don’t get built that often nowadays, but this is different. They’re not really ‘new’ but a replacement, because the last set of public toilets on London’s busiest shopping street were filled in with concrete.

You see there was a set of public toilets underneath Oxford Circus. Access was via a set of steps on a pedestrian traffic island in the middle of the crossing with Regent Street (with men’s and women’s on the opposite sides of the junction).

There was never anyone in them (well, not in the Ladies…). I always thought that this was because of their awful location; maybe no one noticed that they were there?!

Inside they were alright, much like most of Westminster Council’s toilets, as they’d been refurbished in 2005 for £300 000. When I visited the toilets in 2006 and took photos, as-you-do, there was also a plant. I liked that.

Idea #7: What Community Toilet Scheme?

Another day, and another council announces it might close some public toilets and pay businesses to let the public use theirs instead (Tendring Council, in case you’re keeping score).

Not necessarily a bad thing. 10 public toilets can become 100 community toilets for the same price. But whilst public toilets are visible in the street, recognisable, and permanent; community toilets are hidden within businesses, not well understood by the public, and the participants frequently change.

So how do you communicate a Community Toilet Scheme?

There’s the slightly inadequate sticker in the window, which you have to know to look for and which some shops are reluctant to display.

Other than that you’ve got three options: Signposts – today’s topic, Maps – tomorrow’s topic, maybe…, and Apps – see ‘Open Data’ – a whole other topic! *dramatic sigh*

… Answers

For those that don’t know: when you have a WordPress blog you’re told the Google search terms that led someone here.

For example, today I’ve had:

• children toilet layout
• charging for public conveniences
• queue for ladies loo
• eu law and charging to use mens urinals
• london map toilet
• using public toilets
• sanitary bins for lady’s toilets

These have begun to make me feel guilty.

You’ll never find what you’re looking for in a rambling blog, and yet generally I either think I could help, or know someone or something else that could.

So click here for a link to a range of publications and websites etc. that covers:

• Design
• Provision
• Community Toilet Schemes
• Building Regulations
• British Standards
• Government & Academic Research
• Further Reading

Hope it helps!

Alternatively email me at gail.knight@network.rca.ac.uk.

Any question answered! Even if I don’t know…

… Money, Cost & Value – Part II

As the old saying goes, there’s more than one way to fund a toilet.

Having just exhausted the subject of charging the public to use the loos in “…Money, Cost & Value“, I’m going to move on to other ways of generate money, and more importantly, other ways of adding value. (Personally I’d skip the Money part…)

… Council Websites

Public Toilets are run by the council. So if you want to know where they are you’ll find the information on the council website.

I’m not suggesting that this is a particularly convenient way to find out where the toilet is if you need the toilet, but you might be planning ahead or particularly concerned about finding facilities (which you would be if you have problems with incontinence, or if  you’re caring for someone else, or responsible for a group trip, to give some examples).

And with more councils starting and promoting their community toilet schemes, the information for residents and visitors on which businesses are participating is also to be found online. (Some also make printed maps. I love them.)

A few months ago I was on a committee looking at ways to design out crime in public toilets. One thing that we decided to do was to each look at the council websites of Hertfordshire and report back.

It wasn’t a particularly scientific experiment but just the act of being forced to look at and compare 10 different neighbouring councils’ websites threw up more examples of some basic problems regarding public toilet provision. And council websites.

Idea #3: Rate this Toilet

A panel on the wall in the toilet facility so that those visiting could rate the facility in situ.

This information could feed back into a web-based toilet search engine.

It could also be used for rapid response by the toilet provider, spotting any downward trends in customer satisfaction.

Would this work?

Is the implementation to complex?

Are smartphone applications ‘enough’?

A low-tech solution could work as well – pressing a physical button to rate the system with a mechanical counting system.

Or do you think any rating system is too susceptible to manipulation – would mischievous people input fake results? Would toilet providers manipulate the system? Would cleaners fear that it would reflect back on them?

Vote now! (and more importantly, feel free to leave your comments explaining your decision!)

Idea #2: Unisex Toilets

Could unisex toilets be the way forward?

The plan above shows accessible toilets, child toilets and a range of male & female loos.  Some of these could be unisex, others could be reserved for women only or men only. (It also shows a sink in the middle and hand driers to the right. I think the spiky things are plants :) )

The main distinctions are the unisex hand-washing area and the lack of urinals.

The inspiration for this design is the problems that men and women have when caring for people of the opposite sex. This refers to all types of care, including mums and dads looking after their children.  At what age do you start letting them go into the loos alone?

Public toilets are often called ‘The last gendered space’.  Do we need this division of the sexes on top of the privacy of the cubicle?

Are there other advantages to sharing facilities, or would you feel more uncomfortable knowing that someone of the opposite sex was there too?

Would you miss single sex facilities?

Could it work in some cases, but not in others?

Tell me what you think via the comments box at the end, and vote for this idea below!

… Further Reading

‘Public Toilets and…’ is now nearly a month old and beginning to get hits through Google searches that suggest there are people out there who are interested in knowing more. Here are a couple of personal links for more info:

My supervisor Jo-Anne Bichard’s previous study into public toilets was part of VivaCity 2020, a research consortium that developed tools and resources to support the design of socially inclusive cities.

The outcome of this research was The Accessible Toilet Resource, a valuable document for those involved in public toilet design.

And in the name of shameless self-promotion, my own work into public toilets began with my dissertation, available here as a pdf:

The Public Toilet:A Woman’s Place was written as part of my MA at the Royal College of Art in Industrial Design Engineering.