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Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets

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Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets Clara Greed

AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO

Architectural Press An imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP Copyright © 2003, Clara Greed. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright holder except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP, UK. Applications for the copyright holder’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science and Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) (0) 1865 843830; fax: (+44) (0) 1865 853333; email: [email protected]. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://www.elsevier.com), by selecting ‘Customer Support’ and then ‘Obtaining Permissions’. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 0 7506 5385 X For information on all Architectural Press publications visit our website at www.architecturalpress.com Typeset and designed by Keyword Typesetting Services Limited Printed and bound in Great Britain

CONTENTS

Contents Foreword

vii

Preface

ix

Acknowledgments

xi

List of Figures

xiii

List of Tables

xvii

PART ONE: THE

PROBLEM OF PUBLIC TOILETS

Section One: The background Chapter One: Introduction: background and context

3

Chapter Two: Conceptualising the problem of public toilets

17

Chapter Three: The historical development of public toilets

31

Chapter Four: The development of toilet provision within its legal context

51

Section Two: Differing perspectives on the problem Chapter Five: Cultural attitudes: separating or mixing

71

Chapter Six: Medical perspectives: incompetence or incontinence

95

Chapter Seven: Environmental aspects: global and local

111 v

CONTENTS

PART TWO: THE

SOLUTIONS

Section Three: Design and policy change Chapter Eight: Planning for toilets: city-wide macro level

133

Chapter Nine: Disability or dis-enablement

155

Chapter Ten: Universal urban design: district level

173

Chapter Eleven: Toilet design considerations: micro level

195

Section Four: Creating change

vi

Chapter Twelve: Management, maintenance and finance

235

Chapter Thirteen: Creating change: user and provider groups

257

Chapter Fourteen: Routeways to change

277

Appendix: Toilet standards and guidance

295

Bibliography

307

Toilet terms and acronyms

329

Web links

333

Toilet legislation

337

FOREWORD

Foreword In recent years, thanks to various global meetings such as the World Toilet Summits and Asia Pacific Toilet Symposiums, the issue of Public Toilets has evolved from being an embarrassing subject to one that is gaining widespread awareness and generating lively discussions. Toilet is culture; we visit the toilet several times a day. To enjoy our lives, we need to develop good toilet culture. This culture is made up of many diverse and inter-related issues including Provision, Planning and Design, Cultural Attitude, Behaviour, Public Health, Social Graciousness, Safety, Cleaning Skills and Methods, Building Maintenance, Disabled Accessibility, Setting Norms and Standards, Policy and Legislation, Management, Research and Development, Technologies, Public Education and Environmental issues such as water and sewage treatment and recycling. These issues are also different in each kind of building. A factory’s toilet serves different visitors from that of a shopping centre, or a school, a hospital, an office, a coffee shop, a swimming club or a hotel, and these issues differ again in varying urban, suburban and rural locations. The degree of development or affluence in each location also plays an important role in determining needs and priorities. The needs of the toilet user are also varied. Demands and provision must be different for a man, a woman, a child, an elderly person, an infant and different kinds of physically disadvantaged people like those with visual impairments, incontinence sufferers and the wheelchair bound. Furthermore, cultural differences need to be taken into account, especially in view of rapid globalisation. Clara’s book is an important document that comes at an important time. Due to the long neglect of this subject, the global community, including the commercial sector, governments and non-government organizations are now realising there is an urgent need to address toilet issues and search for new answers and solutions. This book nourishes their searching minds. Many have discovered that good toilet facilities are not only an essential service but can in fact offer healthy returns on investment. Toilets are disease prevention tools. They help reduce the cost of public health provision, and improve people’s quality of life, productivity and morale. As evident by the ‘Loo of the Year Award’ in Britain, shopping centres and hotels alike are finding that providing good toilets earns them good dividends in the form of increased shopper traffic and occupancy rates. Enterprises, like the Great World City shopping precinct and the Singapore Zoo, feature their toilets as an important attraction to

vii

FOREWORD viii

visitors. Beijing, through the Beijing Tourism Bureau, is a fine example of how a city can increase tourism income by improving its image with better public toilet facilities. Clara has taken great effort in meticulously capturing the plight of toilet goers. Reading this book, I felt the title could alternatively be called All you wanted to know about public toilets but dare not ask. The book provides a deep understanding of toilet issues and many useful suggestions. It is an eye-opener for all those concerned with the current toilet situation. Architects, industrial designers, building owners, facility managers and government officials everywhere will do well to study it. This book marks another milestone to the continuous global awareness of public toilets. I am certain it will be a strong catalyst in breaking the ‘taboo’ on this subject. Jack Sim World Toilet Organisation (WTO) Singapore November 2002

PREFACE

Preface In previous research I have investigated the planning of cities (Greed, 2000a), urban design (Greed and Roberts, 1999), urban governance issues (Greed, 1999a); gender issues (Greed, 1991, 1994a) and cultural factors (Greed, 2000b). My observations of dissatisfaction with the urban situation among the general public, and puzzlement at the apparent lack of awareness in the built environment professions of the urban spatial deficiencies highlighted by the women and planning movement, and by other minority and community groups, initially led me to investigate ‘why’ this was so and to undertake detailed research on the needs of women in cities in particular (Greed, 1991, 1994a). In spite of all the verbal diarrhoea advocating equal opportunities, women’s rights, better health and environmental sustainability, the lack of public toilets, and the contempt in which the subject is held, may be seen as the true indicator of the lack of progress that has been achieved, especially in respect of women’s position in society. In this book my emphasis is upon a key ‘micro’ level, detailed component of the built environment – namely toilets – whereas my previous work has been on wider ‘macro’ level policy issues. I chose this topic for further research for two main reasons. Firstly, in the course of undertaking research on ‘women and planning’, many respondents declared, ‘it all comes down to toilets in the final analysis’. Women, especially those with small children, and the elderly, explained how their use of the city was limited by the availability, or not, of public conveniences. The situation has become unsatisfactory for everyone, both men and women, of all ages because of accelerated closure rates, an ageing population and a lack of investment in public facilities. Secondly, I chose this topic because, in my extensive travels by train for my research work, I often could not find a toilet when I myself needed one, and when I did I encountered queues, filthy conditions, plugs which did not pull, and dangerous steep steps; but, occasionally, a cheerful lavatory attendant, innovative designs, and a freshly picked sprig of plastic flowers by the washbasin. My concern with public toilets came to a head in 1994 when I found that a turnstile had been installed at the entrance to the Ladies at Paddington railway station. The toilets had been closed for several months because of refurbishment, but were now reopened. To my horror I found that, in spite of spending millions of pounds, the toilets were still down some awkward stairs when they could have easily have been put at platform level, so much easier for people with luggage. Worst of all, now one had to pay 20p to go through the turnstile, which is 151/2 inches (40 cm) across, hardly enough room for luggage, and the average pushchair is at least

ix

PREFACE x

18” (46 cm) across. As the Consumers Association commented (Which magazine, January 1991: 52–3), British Rail seemed to assume that the average passenger is carrying nothing more than a rolled-up newspaper (and little has changed, see Which, 2001). Mothers with pushchairs at railway stations may be told they are not allowed to use the disabled toilets which may constitute the only passengeraccessible toilets with an adequate width entrance now that turnstiles have been installed. Most mainline London terminus railway stations have toilet turnstiles including Paddington, Euston and King’s Cross, and most are located downstairs. On phoning the Station Manager at Paddington about the problem, I met with an amused and disrespectful response. He told me, ‘you could always go behind a hedge’ (in Central London?). It was then that I decided it was time to become passionate about public toilets and gradually over the years I have picked up speed on this topic, so that now it has quite taken over my life. My initial concern with the lack of public toilets in our urban and rural areas inevitably led into looking at ways and means of ameliorating the situation, and into campaigning for policy and legislative change. In this process I came across a whole world of researchers, campaigners, toileteers and interest groups, who were championing different aspects of ‘toilets’, such as the campaign group as will be explained in subsequent chapters. Much of my inspiration came from All Mod Cons (AMC), the pressure group set up by Susan Cunningham in Cardiff for better public toilets in the 1980s, whose voice continues to be heard within the context of its successor the British Toilet Association (BTA), of which I am an honorary member and avid devotee. So I cannot claim personal neutrality but have nevertheless sought to maintain a more neutral perspective in undertaking academic research on toilets (Greed and Daniels, 2002). I argue with passion that public toilets are essential for creating accessible, sustainable and equal cities, and that they are a vital factor in getting people out of their cars and back to walking, cycling and using public transport. I also argue that the reinstatement of public toilets is a key component in mainstreaming gender into planning policies. Toilet rearmament cannot be done lightly; it involves fundamental cultural change, considerable financial investment, legislative change and a whole set of different priorities which will result in better lives for everyone. We need a restroom revolution, a toilet transformation – indeed, our lives depend on it. Clara Greed Professor of Inclusive Urban Planning UWE, Bristol March 2003

Most of the photos and drawings are my own work unless otherwise stated. I would like to thank Ray Fowler for the photos (see captions for acknowledgments). Thanks to Richard Chisnall and the BTA (British Toilet Association) for their inspiration. Thanks to Paul Revelle and Chris Wade for assistance with finalising my illustrations on disc. 1.6

Ray Fowler for urinal photo

3.1

Isobel Daniels for photo

3.5

Photo from web, courtesy of the Crossness Society

6.3

Baby-changing photo, courtesy of Ray Fowler

6.4

Photos of museum exhibit taken by author with permission of the Gladstone Pottery Museum

8.5

Ray Fowler for Meadowhall photos

10.5

Isobel Daniels for photo

11.5

Women’s Design Service (WDS), Sue Cavanagh, for plan of ideal toilet

11.9

Blueprint of corner style disabled toilet, courtesy of Danfo

11.15

Plan of adult-changing unit, courtesy of PAMIS (Profound and Multiple Impairment Service)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments

xi


FIGURES

Figures Chapter 1 Figure Figure Figure Figure

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4

Closed toilet at terminus of bus route out from Bristol People queuing at London Eye: all who might need a toilet Typical Public toilet in seaside resort Typical urinal: men have more places to pee

Chapter 3 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8

Public toilets at Killerton house, Devon Ancient Greek drainage piping at Ephesus Underground toilets do not provide equality of access Typical nightsoil hatch at end of backyard Bazalgette’s 1865 Cross Engines, near Woolwich Sewage repair van: conserving the heritage beneath the city streets Park Row Toilets, Bristol, washbasin, external view, toilet seat Larkhall Toilets, Conservation Area, Bath

Chapter 4 Figure Figure Figure Figure

4.1 4.2 4.3 4.5

Horfield Common Men’s Urinal, Bristol The Ladies next to the Urinal at Horfield 1960s utilitarian toilet block Broadmead, Bristol Law Courts, The Strand, London with toilets nearby

Chapter 5 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7

Global Toilet Debates (powerpoint guiding document) A Range of logos reflecting stereotypes and societal divisions German tourist bus with disabled toilet logo in back window A range of JC Decaux toilet designs Schoolgirl’s drawing of how big she imagines the toilets to be Danfo butterfly male street urinal, London Urilift in Reading marked by circle on pavement.

Chapter 6 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5

Ordinary people in the park at lunchtime Caring for the Elderly in the community Baby changing at Milton Keynes Exhibits from Gladstone Pottery Museum, Stoke on Trent Typical low level squat toilet layout

xiii

FIGURES

Chapter 7 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9

Deffinitions of sustainability and the cycle of decomposition Recycling skips beside an APC sending out the wrong image Sanpro Bin Close to Bowl Sanpro bin away from bowl An old sanpro disposal incinerator Bin for dog dirt, Somerset Scandinavian doggy toilet: coming to the UK soon Typical Moslem toilet in Singapore Basic Third World toilet behind a curtain


8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8

People arriving at Paddington station: where will they ‘go’? Central coffee cart Bristol: what goes in must come out Good Signage in Tourist Areas showing WCs in City of London Toilets Spatial Strategy Sector Diagram Bus passesengers at Meadowhall shopping Mall find good toilets Department stores still provide main source of shopper toilets Bicycles propped against closed toilet, Smithfield, London Ideal city level toilet distribution strategy diagram


9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8

of wheelchair accessible cubicle: could you reach the toilet roll? Young chap in wheelchair test-driving disabled toilet It’s all relative steps down how inaccessible can you get? Up and down the steps at Moorgate? Is this accessible? Haymarket centre, Bristol steps and slopes with pushchairs Accessible toilets recommended by Joint Mobility Unit (JMU) Smithfield Toilet Options, London. Locked RADAR key toilet with night-time security gate

Chapter 10 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

10.1 District level toilet location principles 10.2 Toilets in seaside resort conveniently alongside the carpark 10.3 Dunster, Somerset, small village with many tourist toilets 10.4 Post office, caspoint and APC Moorgate, London 10.5 Town square with new toilet beside supermarket 10.6 Block level toilet principles 10.7 Piers Gough Toilets Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill 10.8 Inside Ladbroke Grove, 20p for babychanging 10.9 Toilets beside Banbury Cross in townscape context 10.10 Internet facilities and telephone kiosks but no toilets 10.11 Ideal family toilets Thatcham, West Berkshire

Chapter 11 Figure 11.1 The Ideal Toilet Palace for a busy location Figure 11.2 Plan for a uniblock for a local centre Figure 11.2 Aviemore toilets, Scotland xiv

11.4 Oy Shippax APCs 11.5 Women’s Design Service ideal toilet block 11.6 Existing door clearances from Bristol survey 11.7 Comparitive clearance areas in cubicle 11.8 Ideal size of cubicle with cordon sanitaire 11.9 Corner Triangle disabled toilet by Danfo 11.10 Taps, hand-dryers and basins 11.11 Different height washbasins for children 11.12 Range of locks and handles 11.13 Danfo Panopticon Approach to street toilets 11.14 Very basic baby changing facilities in Manchester 11.15 Adult changing room by PAMIS 11.16 Singapore: open air toilet washroom 11.17 Singapore: Chinese mural in the Ladies 11.18 Singapore: Jungle mural in the Gents 11.19 English aluminium toilet bowl 11.20 General view of urinals in Milton Keynes 11.21 Toto Japanese automatic toilets

FIGURES

Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

Chapter 12 Figure 12.1 Figure 12.2 Figure 12.3 Figure 12.4 Figure 12.5 Figure 12.6 Figure 12.7 Figure 12.8 Figure 12.9 Evesham

Golden triangle of provision Lavatory cleaner keeping the triangle working Opening Times in Bristol Insides of an APC typically without a proper seat Workings of an APC inside and out out of order APC in City of London A huge sanpro bin at Parkway Station Bristol Vandalised toilet block in Bridgwater Somerset Service duct area between the Ladies and the Gents in public toilet in

Chapter 13 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7

BTA delegates at Banbury, ‘wot no women?’ Delegates at BTA conference inspecting public toilets Delegates at a Japanese conference inspecting public toilets Group Photo of BTA members, user and provider groups Cartoon of men having important meeting in the Gents Planets Diagram: Forces of change in the toilet world Singapore and Seoul World Toilet Summit conferences

Chapter 14 Figure Figure Figure Figure Figure

14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5

Restroom revolution: Japanese toilets Invisible Toilets: Millennium Square, Bristol Remedial Signs in the Tea Room by Millennium Square Burnham Toilets: changing facilities, enduring inequality Dark Turnstiles forebodings for the future

xv


TABLES

Tables Chapter 3 Table 3.1 Population growth 1801–1901 UK Table 3.2 Urban growth 1801–1901 Table 3.3 Comparisons for UK

Chapter 4 Table 4.1 National public toilet provision Table 4.2 Example: US high school designed for 900 students

Chapter 9 Table 9.1 Differences: Planning and building control processes

xvii


part one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Problem of Public Toilets


LOSE OUT

chapter one . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Introduction: background and context The problem of public toilets and its relevance to architects This book investigates the problem of inadequate public toilet provision and discusses the role of urban design in contributing towards a solution. Public toilet provision has become increasingly unsatisfactory, because of closure of existing facilities and a general neglect and marginalisation of toilet issues by urban policy-makers.1 Why are public toilets of relevance to architects, or to the creation of Great Architecture? Architects are increasingly taking on the roles of urban designer, regenerator and policy leader, as legitimated by the Urban Taskforce agenda (Rogers, 2000). New Urbanism and urban renewal policies demand that architects contribute to meeting social needs through enlightened design. Public toilets are a necessary component for users of the built environment in enabling user-friendly, sustainable, safe, equitable and accessible cities. While writing predominantly for a built environment specialist audience, the areas of health, sustainability and equality also feature strongly in this study as key considerations in achieving better toilet provision. Government policy is putting greater emphasis upon the need to create sustainable cities, by means of reducing the use of the private car and encouraging people to walk, cycle and use public transport. Such a shift creates a need for a concomitant increase in public toilet provision, as mobility patterns change. Likewise, the expansion of the evening economy and 24-hour city puts pressure on toilet facilities and, in particular, the growth of street urination in town centres has brought the issue to media attention. The renaissance in urban design, whose agenda nowadays includes attention to user needs as well as aesthetic considerations, demands a more holistic ‘joined-up-thinking’ approach to meeting public need. Public toilets should be included in the new vision of the city, as valued components of modern townscape, rather than being hidden behind some bushes where they are likely to be vandalised.

CHAPTER ONE • INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

SECTION ONE: THE BACKGROUND: PUBLIC

3

THE PROBLEM OF PUBLIC TOILETS

This book is written from the premise that public toilets should be seen as an integral and important component of modern urban design and town planning policy, at city-wide, local area and individual site level. Designing toilets has been seen by some architects as the equivalent of doing latrine duty in the Army. The provision of public toilets should not be seen as an unpleasant low status function, typically in with local authority cemeteries, allotments and waste disposal departments and carried out, albeit with good intentions, by the public works and plumbing fraternity alone. There is no shortage of existing toilet manuals which provide the details and dimensions of internal layout, plumbing fixtures and fittings. Such precepts appear detached from the wider world of urban design and policy. They deal with internal specifications for individual toilet blocks in isolation from the surrounding environmental situation, locational context and modern user needs. In spite of all this technical guidance, there is considerable dissatisfaction with the end product in terms of building design, levels of provision, location, crime and safety factors, hygiene, layout, disabled toilet 2 requirements and accessibility, and so the time is right for a rethink of the existing government standards. Many have argued (BTA, 2001) that the emphasis upon meeting the minimal requirements of British Standards and Building Regulations encourages little consideration of how the location, level of provision and external appearance

Figure 1.1 Closed toilet in Portishead at terminus of bus route out from Bristol. This closed toilet is at a bus terminus. Well located (and open) toilets are necessary to meet the needs of would-be public transport users in outer Bristol. Subsequently demolished in late 2002. 4

Form follows bodily function This book is not another technical manual – although, of course, ‘plumbing’ is always an important determinant in toilet detail; rather, this book is concerned with the way in which toilet planning can meet users’ needs, within the wider context of urban design. This book is written from the perspective of seeing public toilet provision as part of the solution to urban problems, as an integral component of strategic policy, town centre management, and the urban design agendas. It does not present one ideal architectural blueprint for a universalist, totally inclusive toilet as there are so many local situational variables involved which make it impossible to prescribe ‘one size fits all’ design solutions. The study seeks to present principles, guidelines and ideals to inform the design process in all situations. Throughout, greater emphasis is put upon ‘public’ on-street conveniences as an essential component of creating sustainable cities, rather than majoring on ‘off-street’ privately provided public toilets. While the latter may have a complementary role, they are not necessarily open to everyone and therefore truly ‘public’. Nowadays, toilets in shops or fast food outlets are often cited as a viable alternative, or excuse for municipal under-provision, when in reality access may be quite restrictive in terms of physical barriers, times, and ‘glares’. This book combines social aspects and physical design considerations in developing public toilet guidance. We live in a material and visual world in which toilets are an important concrete physical element meeting vital user needs. Good toilet design is sensitive to the architectural axiom that ‘form follows function’, to quote a truism, and in this case ‘bodily function informs form’, in the guise and design in which public toilets manifest themselves within the built environment. One such social issue is ‘gender’ in respect of the differential levels of provision for men and women. The book incorporates a universalist approach to providing public toilets for everyone (Goldsmith, 2000), but it gives greater emphasis to the challenges created by the under-provision and poor design of women’s toilets. The toilet issue affects all ‘users’, but particularly women, who comprise 52% of the population (ONS, 2002). Men on average have twice as much provision as women, as they have urinals as well as closets and a greater number of Gents toilet blocks overall. Anyone out and about in the streets in the daytime doing the shopping, or undertaking other essential caring tasks, may find themselves without the benefit of a convenient office or hotel to nip back into should they need ‘to go’ while away from home (BTA, 2001). Women are


exacerbate the problems associated with toilets, such as crime, lack of access, urban incivility and depressing, threatening environs. On the other hand, there is nothing worse than disembodied policies and abstract sociological discussion and analysis ‘floating in a spaceless vacuum’ (Harvey, 1975:24).

5

THE PROBLEM OF PUBLIC TOILETS 6

likely to need public toilets more often, and for a greater range of reasons, because of biological differences. While the majority of user groups are female, the majority of providers and policy-making groups are male, and according to women toilet campaigners ‘it simply does not occur to them, it’s not important to them, they don’t find it a problem’. Women have seldom been consulted about toilet design (Cavanagh and Ware, 1991). It is only in recent years with the increase in the numbers of women in architecture and urban design that women have begun to participate in the design process on a professional basis. When the fact that women have fewer public toilets than men is raised, someone is always likely to say, ‘well they could always use a pub’. For a range of cultural, practical, legal and safety reasons, women are less likely than men to go into a ‘strange’ pub to use the toilet, and they are legally forbidden to do so if accompanied by babies or small children. Many ethnic minority and religious women would not enter a premises serving alcohol or fastfood chains selling non-halal (non-kosher) food. Even with liberalisation of opening hours, pubs are unlikely to be open before 11.00 am, thus limiting availability. As public provision is reduced to the minimum, and pubs sport notices stating ‘Toilets strictly for the use of patrons only’, more men as well as women are beginning to notice there is a problem. In other words, most of the population is affected by this issue (Greed, 1996a). The needs of children, the elderly, tourists, public transport users and drivers, postal workers, van drivers and disabled people are not adequately met either by the present situation (Shaw, 2001). The focus of this book is British toilets. Some of the problems are shared internationally but some are peculiar to the British situation, while others are common to the Anglo-Saxon and North European cultural contexts. It used to be said, ‘Britain has the best toilets in the world’, but nowadays many other countries have much better levels of provision. In seeking inspiration and solutions international comparisons and examples will be included, not least from the Far East which is currently in the throes of a toilet revolution. Japan is generally acknowledged to be the ‘toilet leader’ of the world. Other societies’ ideal toilet designs may not be our preferred solution – e.g. the international toilet world is divided over the ‘sit or squat’ debate, the former being a particularly western solution to toilet design. Material from recent World Toilet Conferences in Japan (JTA, 1996a), Singapore (WTO, 2001) and Korea (WTO, 2002) is drawn upon to provide a wider perspective on ‘British’ public lavatory problems. Not only is there a lack of facilities, those that are provided are often substandard. The toilet problem is heightened because of bad design, poor maintenance and management of existing facilities, and lack of toilet attendants. These factors result in insanitary facilities, anti-social behaviour, and an unsuccessful battle against the problems of crime and vandalism that so beset public toilets. Limited opening hours, unequal distribution and inappropriate location of facilities result in ordinary people declaring ‘there’s never a public toilet when you want one’. Unlike buses, three do not come along at once if


Figure 1.2 People queuing at the London Eye. Millions of tourists visit this attraction and all of these people, from all age groups, able and disabled, male and female, might need a toilet. The nearest toilets are down steps, thus immediately excluding many of those in this queue.

you wait long enough! Unlike mobile phones, you can’t buy one and take it with you. Not only are facilities poor within toilets, but getting into the toilet in the first place remains a major issue, as highlighted by a wide range of user groups. Small, narrow cubicles with inward opening doors, leaving only a small gap between the toilet bowl and the door, make public toilet use almost impossible for many. The introduction of environmental requirements for disposal containers for sanpro3 to be placed in every cubicle in the Ladies has further reduced space and created an unhygienic situation with the container rubbing right up against the toilet pan and inevitably the user’s leg. Other factors that reduce accessibility for both the disabled and the abled include steep slippery steps down to underground toilets, installation of ‘pay to pee’ turnstiles, and the expansion of the dreaded APC (Automatic Public Convenience) which is not popular with the public. Yet, some North American cities are very proud of their APCs and see them as a major tourist plus point. In San Francisco a tourist promotion film put them in the same ‘fabulous’ category alongside their historic tramcars! They are larger models, with disabled access, and the toilet bowls have automatically cleaned 7


seats which make them a bit more bearable for women. Public toilets are being closed down in many American states, not least California, because of a crackdown on drugs and cottaging (male homosexual activity in toilets, sometimes known as cruising). In contrast with Britain, there are still likely to be more available to the public in North American department stores, banks and food outlets. In Britain the municipal public toilet is likely to be the only option available in many areas and when that goes there are few ‘private’ off-street public toilet alternatives compared with those found in mainland Europe within cafés and restaurants. In contrast, in late Victorian times and the Edwardian era public toilet provision had a much higher status which was reflected in the quality of provision. Right up to the 1950s, public toilet provision continued albeit often in the shape of basic provision. Provision was mainly for ‘Gentlemen’, and ‘Ladies’ toilets were the minority. This unequal situation was enshrined in legislation that required men to be given approximately twice as much provision as women, and the difference has not yet been made up. This book recommends that women should be provided with not just ‘equal’ provision but ideally twice as many facilities, because women use on-street public toilets more frequently because of a range of biological and sociological reasons. Men take an average of 35 seconds to go and women take 91 seconds because of anatomical differences and different clothing (Kira, 1976; Asano, 2002); therefore, in the US there has been a move towards ‘potty parity’ between women and men (Soifer, 2001). Unequal provision is untenable in the light of modern advances in the fields of equality, under both Equal Opportunities (EO) and European Union (EU) law.

The scope of the book ’Toilets’ is a topic linking to a range of issues, including (in no particular order) crime and vandalism; sexuality (of all types); the environment, water conservation and global sustainability; health, hygiene and medicine; women’s issues, childcare, breastfeeding and sanpro disposal3; public transport and private travel; leisure, tourism and sport; continence, disability and ageing; architecture, engineering and design; sewerage, drainage and plumbing; religion, culture and taboo. In fact, ‘all human life is there’4, and it was a major task to disentangle the various strands as all the issues are interconnected and overlap. All these topics will be found, inter alia, in this book. Doing research involves investigating the cultural, statutory and attitudinal factors that result in this lack of acknowledgment of such a basic human need among those who design and manage our lives and environment5. While much of my work has gravitated towards the realms of social town planning, urban design and women’s issues, it must be stated that the only subject I came top in at university was ‘sewerage and drainage systems’. Yet it has always puzzled me 8

when standing in the queue for the Ladies loo, why other women in the queue do not protest about the situation, especially in these days of so-called sexual equality and girl power. In spite of all the verbal diarrhoea of equal opportunities policy, little seems to have been achieved at the most basic level of toilet provision. Clearly it is time for a toilet revolution. As a result of lack of provision, a range of medical, environmental, social equity and access issues are aggravated and intensified. In spite of the current government’s protestations as to its commitment to social inclusion, equality, health and environmental sustainability, nothing has changed. It has always seemed so ‘obvious’ (to me at least but apparently not to others) that public toilets are a basic necessity, and therefore it is time to write down the reasons and arguments for better toilet provision. After all, ‘everyone has got to go sometime…’. Someone arriving from Mars would not get this impression, for one can search in vain for any mention of public toilets on street maps and tourist guides; in official documents on urban issues; and within ‘serious’ academic and professional work one would find a glaring lacuna (gap) and deafening silence. A woman who came to Britain from mainland China told me when she first arrived in London she was desperate to find a toilet, and seeing piles of dog dirt on the pavement concluded that perhaps these were human faeces and this was the local custom. Fortunately she was directed to a toilet before deciding to follow


Figure 1.3 Realms concerned with toilets.

9


suit and squat on the pavement. So the book relates to the needs of a wide range of types of people who compose society.

The style of the book The purpose of this book is to investigate the factors which have shaped and determined the ‘problem’ of the nature and currently poor level of public toilet provision in Britain and, second, to identify those factors, change agents and processes which might ameliorate the situation, increase provision and provide a ‘solution’, and to suggest improved design standards and means of providing better toilets. Arguably one cannot effectively design public toilets unless one understands the reasons and background to the problems to be addressed. Otherwise one ends up with a mechanistic application of set rules and generalised standards, often with disastrously inappropriate results. Relatively speaking, in the first part of the book ‘the problem’ – that is, the reasons and issues resulting in poor provision – are investigated, while in the second part of the book emphasis is put upon identifying design solutions and policy guidelines. The situation and solutions are looked at from both user and provider perspectives throughout. So, in summary, the contents of the book may be seen as running along two main continua:

Contents Part I, ‘The problem’, comprises Sections I and II, sets out the cultural and attitudinal factors that contribute to the problem, and gives reasons why it is vital that the situation should be improved, because one cannot design something unless one understands the needs and issues involved first. Part II, ‘The solution’, comprises Sections III and IV, gives policy and design guidance that might improve the situation, and means of achieving change, respectively. Albeit Part II inevitably has to refer (back) to the problems identified in Part I, as the debate is always a tense dualism revolving around the key questions of ‘what is the problem?’ and ‘what can be done about it?’. The book seeks to give both ideal (maximum) and pragmatic (minimum) solutions in view of the hostile state of toilet funding. Since building toilets is only half the battle, attention is given to man10

agement, maintenance, financial and organisational issues too. These are all components of the modern urban agenda of maintaining the regenerated city in a sustainable state. Ideal solutions to solving the problem would involve major investment, cultural and political change, and a whole new way of looking at the toilet situation. Therefore, where possible, the book provides both ‘best solutions’ and more pragmatic interim solutions and designs that take into account the realities of the present funding climate. Section I comprises Chapters 1–4 and provides the conceptual, historical and legal context to the ‘problem’ of public toilets. Following the introductory Chapter 1, Chapter 2 provides the conceptual perspective to the study, in order to place ‘toilet provision’ as a valid subject within academic study and professional activity (skip this chapter if you are not academically inclined). Chapter 3 looks at the historical development of public lavatory provision as a means of understanding how we got to where we are now, and in order to learn from the past examples of provision. Toilets from the past comprise a substantial component of the modern built environment and are part of the living fabric of the modern city. Chapter 4 continues the story with particular emphasis upon the legislative context that has shaped the unequal and inadequate levels of provision across the twentieth century. A major problem is that the laws governing local authority provision of public toilets are ‘permissive’ rather than ‘mandatory’ – that


Figure 1.4 The range of public toilet user groups.

11


is, local authorities ‘may’ provide toilets if they so wish, but there is no requirement that they ‘must’. Legislative change is essential in order to enable the provision of better designed, more equal and accessible toilet provision. Section II comprises Chapters 5–7 and considers three of the most dominant perspectives, or sets of worldviews on the toilet problem, which strongly influence the chances, or not, of achieving better provision, and the type of design solutions likely to be adopted. While this book will cover many of the details and practicalities of public toilet facilities and design, it has to be concerned with deeper causal and cultural factors which shape the level of provision and the wider nature of our towns and cities and likely levels of comfort within the built environment. There is no point in providing new and better toilets if they are soon vandalised and closed because underlying social attitudes remain unchanged and unregenerated within society. Chapter 5 considers the cultural aspects of toilet provision, looking at societal attitudes towards bodily functions, human waste, sex and ‘dirt’. To investigate these vexed issues one has to draw upon a diversity of academic and professional realms, including anthropology, history, sociology, religion and feminism, but also plumbing, sewerage, public health, town planning, architecture, sanitary engineering, environmentalism and urban governance, in order to make sense of it all. In Chapter 6 the medical dimensions of public toilet provision are considered within the context of an increasingly ageing population who generally ‘need to go more often’, and women’s so-called ‘special needs’ owing to our ‘different’ biological functions. It addresses both clinical and public health reasons – that is, at both the curative and preventative arguments, for increased toilet provision. Toilet provision and related sewerage and disposal systems have become the subject of considerable debate within the world of environmentalism, sustainability, public health and the new healthy cities agenda. Chapter 7 provides an opportunity to discuss the global context and to make international comparisons with particular reference to other advanced developed nations and in respect of developing Third World nations. Many developing countries do not have water-based sewage systems, and many would argue that it is inappropriate to promote the Western ‘flush and forget’ approach to waste disposal. Instead, a ‘recycle and remember’ approach is more sustainable. Thus by the end of Parts I and II the reader will be aware of the global spectrum of toilet issues likely to impinge upon the design agenda. The second part of the book, comprising Sections III and IV, is concerned with solutions, with presenting urban policies and design guidance in respect of achieving better public toilet provision; and with the means of achieving change respectively. In Section III, Chapters 8, 9 and 10 are concerned with the design aspects of public toilets, working down through the city-wide level issues to local urban design aspects including the siting and configuration of toilet blocks, and thus down to the layout of facilities and design of cubicles and everything there-


in. Thus the debate ranges from high level urban spatial strategy to the question of where to put the toilet roll. Although Section III is more prescriptive in style, unlike ‘toilet manuals’ it retains a more discursive policy guideline approach which seeks to explain and give reasons for the principles presented. Chapter 8 gives a city-wide ‘macro’ perspective on the question of ‘where will they go?’ – that is, on people’s needs for decent toilets within urban space. People of all sorts need to go to the toilet ‘away from home’ (BTA, 2001), not ‘just’ disabled people. As people travel further and spend more time away from home as a result of modern decentralised, car dependent, segregated land uses, a range of improved back-up services is needed. Alternative perspectives and solutions will be discussed which have put an emphasis on ‘planning for the city of everyday life’ (Eurofem, 1996). Emphasis is put upon seeing the public toilet as a strategic component of spatial planning, not a marginalised townscape feature. Chapter 9 looks in more detail at the problem of toilets within the context of the factors that limit people’s access to the city, especially people with disabilities. It is acknowledged fully that dedicated disabled facilities are needed, and far more than at present, but the ways in which this is approached, not least the question of the segregation between abled/disabled facilities and the need for a more inclusive agenda, are also explored. Chapter 10 moves on to looking at toilet provision at the ‘meso’ level in terms of the location, siting and distribution of public toilets at the local, district and neighbourhood level, and highlights the urban design considerations involved. Chapter 11 centres on the detailed ‘micro’ aspects of internal toilet design, of the toilet block, the cubicle and all the components that go to make up the public toilet, and thus comprises the longest and most design orientated chapter. Because of the plethora of information involved, additional checklists of key points and priorities are provided at the end of the chapter in an aidemémoire box. Diagrams are provided to illustrate key design considerations and principles rather than as prescriptive exact architectural drawings. Having set out what needs to be done, the last two chapters look at the means of achieving change. Chapter 12 discusses management, maintenance and finance issues. It is one thing to build toilets, it is quite another to keep them in good working order, open and not vandalised. There are many related issues as to who pays, who maintains them and how their management is incorporated, or not, into the running of public toilets. There is no doubt that sanitary ware manufacturers want more public toilets as it increases their sales, but local authorities are more cautious because of the huge ongoing costs of maintaining toilet provision. In the course of my toilet research I have often come across hard pressed, but well intentioned, local authority toilet supervisors who want to provide better toilets but do not have the power, the policy brief, or the money to generate change. Thus they get all the blame while valiantly trying to fight off vandalism

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Figure 1.5 Typical public toilet in a seaside resort, at Watchet, Somerset. This toilet is in a centrally located car park – ideal for visitors wanting an easy-to-find public loo at journey’s end.

and building deterioration in order to continue to provide a service to the public. Significantly, most departments responsible for running toilets are completely separate from the strategic planning departments in their local authorities, which means that they have neither the resources nor the means of mainstreaming toilet provision into strategic policy-making. Clearly the problem has to be addressed and dealt with at a much higher level, as an integral component of national governmental policy, as left to themselves the typical ‘parks, allotments and public conveniences’ department of the local municipality can never be expected to solve such huge problems on its own. To achieve this, major change is required. Therefore Chapter 13 identifies likely change agents, and outlines the agendas of both key provider groups (including enlightened public sector and private commercial providers) and key user groups including community, pressure and special interest groups who are all campaigning for better toilets from a range of perspectives, including concerns with access, childcare, equality, health, elderly people, women’s issues, and the environment. The final chapter (Chapter 14) identifies promising means of bringing about such change and comprises a drawing together of the whole study. It is one thing to say what should be done, how better facilities might be provided and that ‘the government should do something’. It is quite another matter to implement policy and create actual change. It is argued that in order to effect concrete policy change it is vital to create a cultural change within the hearts and minds of toilet 14

providers. Potentially useful areas of government policy and changing legislation will be identified, ranging from Millennium funding, European spatial planning to local government finance reforms. A range of other legislative and governmental means will be discussed in this last chapter. The wider context in respect of Britain’s place within Europe and the likely effects of European harmonisation and subsidiarity upon urban form, legislation and fundamental ways of life will be discussed. Changing demographics and the development of a more culturally and ethnically diverse population create needs for a more varied and flexible approach to toilet provision. Many of the problems seem to recur in society – there is nothing new and it all seems so obvious – but people have to be reminded again and again. So this book will bear testimony to what needs to be done. ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est le même chose’.


Figure 1.6 Men have more places to pee, as they have the urinals as well as the cubicles, although many facilities are very basic. (Photograph courtesy of Ray Fowler).

Notes 1.

The word toilet is used as it is widely understood internationally. In Britain the term public lavatory is more common, and public conveniences (uses of words will be discussed later). Lavatory originally related to the washbasin 15


2. 3. 4. 5.

rather than the toilet itself. Lavatory is still used in Britain as a less affected, ‘non-U’ or ‘naff’ term than ‘toilet’. Personally I prefer the term ‘lav’. ‘Disabled toilets’ is used for ‘toilets for people with disabilities’ and does not imply there is something faulty or disabled with the toilet plumbing! Sanpro is short for sanitary protection products (including sanitary towels, tampons, napkins etc.) (Tallantire and Carroll, 1996). The phrase ‘all human life is there’ used to be a slogan used by the Sunday People, a British tabloid newspaper. We found this when we undertook Nuffield-funded research on ‘User and provider perspectives in public toilet provision’ based on a small case study of a sector stretching out from the centre of Bristol across North Somerset to Weston Super Mare (Greed and Daniels, 2002). The research continues. Under the EPSRC SUE Consortium, Vivacity 2020: ‘Urban Sustainability for the 24 hour city’, Dr Julienne Hanson (UCL) invited Dr Clara Greed (UWE) to act as expert advisor in the team for Work Package 9, ‘A sustainable strategy for the provision of public conveniences in city centres’ based on a national study of a range of city centre locations (EPSRC, 2003).

Principles for integration into urban design agenda

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Joined up thinking

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Holistic approach

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From the strategic to the detailed

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From the uttermost to the guttermost

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Equality and demographics

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A global perspective

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Access and environment

Conceptualising the problem of public toilets

Placing the study The purpose of this chapter is to provide a conceptual background to the study. The chapter seeks to place ‘toilets’ in a research and policy context. Those who are not academically inclined please skip this chapter. It considers theories and taboos that might help explain ‘why’ the public toilet situation is in such a sorry state, and ‘why’ the policy-makers and government bodies who are meant to be responsible for provision are not particularly concerned – when ‘everyone’ is demanding better toilets. Unless the underlying ‘social’ attitudes are identified and dealt with, it will be impossible to achieve long-term, sustainable change in the physical reality of public toilet design. One reason is that it is still ‘not done’ to talk about toilets and the functions that take place in them. While there has been a sexual revolution, there has not been a commensurate ‘defecation revolution’ (Aglionby, 2001). It is important to look at the aspatial (social) factors that shape and determine spatial (architectural and urban design) realities (Foley, 1964:37) in investigating the toilet problem and its likely solutions. Thus this study is interested in the ‘reproduction over space of social relations over space’ (Massey, 1984: 16), in this case the imprint of cultural taboos and especially gender relations upon the built environment (Greed, 1991: 5) in relation to the chances of public toilet provision in our towns and cities. One of the objectives of the study is to make a small contribution to answering another part of the classic urban question of ‘who gets what, where, and why?’ (Pinch, 1985) (not a lot), and consequently to make recommendations for changing the situation. I include material in the second part of this chapter on the processes of governance, policy-making and potential change. There is no point in coming up with new designs for better toilets without also looking at the chances of implementation and installation of improved provision, as so strong are the taboos that some sorts of solutions are culturally unacceptable. At the close of the chapter a brief summary of method-

CHAPTER TWO • CONCEPTUALISING THE PROBLEM OF PUBLIC TOILETS

chapter two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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ology used is included and, finally, a set of key dualisms (opposites) is presented around which the toilet debate revolves.

Levels of engagement It was helpful to divide up the key toilet issues and causal factors into different categories, at the macro, meso and micro levels, which for the purposes of this study are defined as follows. ‘Macro’ refers to the big issues, to the overall situation, and to national and large-scale factors affecting toilet decision-making as a whole. Likewise, discussions of the built environment, the city-wide perspective, urban master planning, urban society itself and the power of the built environment professions as a whole are all macro issues. This high policy level is extremely important to this research as it fundamentally shapes the chances of toilet issues being taken seriously and included in discussions of funding, resource allocation and urban regeneration priority formulation. In contrast, ‘micro’ refers to personal and detailed issues and, for example, includes the experience of a particular minority individual, the problems of a specific building, maintenance problems, incidences of vandalism, ‘where to put the toilet roll’ and the individual prejudices of the ‘jobsworth’ toilet official. Yet quite small changes at the micro level of daily life (such as increasing the clearance between the toilet bowl and the inward opening door within the toilet cubicle by a few centimetres) require monumental and concerted effort at the highest ministerial level, at the macro level of governmental policy-making. One soon finds that ‘everything is linked to everything else’ and one has to embark on a long and complex quest to get to the root of the problem (Greed, 1994a, 1999a, 2000a and b). There are some ‘macro’ level issues which overarch and influence everything at all other levels, and these are so important in shaping toilet policy that the next chapter is devoted to underlying cultural issues. These include deep-seated attitudes held within society towards excretion, the body and sexuality, which are generally negative and which contribute to the low status and taboo mentality which is often associated with toilet issues. There is already a considerable range of literature on cultural taboos and the obsession for separating out clean/dirty components. A list of key dualisms mentioned in the book as a whole is included at the end of this chapter. ’Meso’ is more difficult to explain, as it contains the idea of movement and transmission between macro and micro levels. In urban terms the ‘meso’ (middle) level is the in-between level, and comprises the local district and neighbourhood level between the whole city and the individual site or toilet location. Organisationally the meso level contains the individual professions, institutions and people that transmit macro level societal attitudes and cultural hang-ups ‘down’ into the micro level of actual policy and design standards. This relationship and process may be represented in a simple one-line flow diagram as follows:

‘Macro’ and ‘micro’ are sometimes used with the disability agenda to mean something different. For example, according to Goldsmith (2000), a macroist viewpoint ‘means’ that disabled people should be treated the same as everyone else – they are mainstream customers and a ‘universalist’ approach should therefore be adopted. In contrast, according to Goldsmith’s definition, a microist approach is based on the view that disabled people are special and should be treated differently and as welfare recipients. In comparison in North America, a macroist approach ‘sees’ disabled people as citizens and equal consumers with constitutional rights. Goldsmith certainly favours the macroist approach, arguing that all facilities should be improved so that everyone benefits. Advocates of the needs of women, children, babies, the elderly and tourists inter alia, argue the same, as so many people find the ‘normal’ toilet cubicle too small to get into if accompanied by pushchairs, luggage, shopping etc. as they jealously eye the disabled toilet provision. So overall my approach is macroist too in this sense, as well as inclusive and universalist, with the proviso that while all facilities should be accessible to everyone, especially women, in some cases additional ‘special’ provision is needed too – e.g. for the users of wider powered wheelchairs, or for those adults who require changing tables because of advanced incontinence and mobility problems.


A universalist approach

Social exclusion One of the problems limiting change is the fact that provider groups, especially local and central government bodies, seldom seem to hear let alone see the needs of user groups. It is as if we are invisible. When it comes to public toilets, 19


the professionals and providers and the users and pressure groups seem to be ‘talking past each other’, manifesting complete mutual incomprehension and lack of awareness of each other’s perceptions of reality (Hillier, 1999). To understand why this is so, it is helpful to see the world of ‘toilets’ as possessing its own professional subculture. ‘Subculture’ is taken to mean the cultural traits, beliefs and lifestyle peculiar to ‘the plumbing fraternity’. One of the most important factors appears to be the need for a person to ‘fit in’ to the subculture. I have argued in previous research that the values and attitudes of the subculture, as held by its members, have a major influence on their professional decision-making. These ultimately influence the level and nature of provision – that is, ‘what is built’ (or, more likely in the case of toilets, what is left unbuilt and considered unimportant). Thus professional socialisation may be seen as a major factor affecting both men and women, resulting in pressure to conform and ‘not to rock the boat’ if they want to progress up the jobs ladder. Anyone talking toilets in the wrong circles may find this is a bad career move leading to humiliation, sexism and potentially social exclusion from the professional group. Indeed such are the powers of professional socialisation that women architects, planners and designers may not necessarily hold different views from men on gendered issues such as toilet design (Greed, 1994b). Gender is a major consideration in understanding ‘who’ receives what sort of treatment; so are class and ethnicity. For clarification, ‘gender’ is normally taken to mean the social role of women in different cultures. This is in contrast to ‘sex’ which is taken to mean the biological characteristics of women. For example, in all societies only women give birth to children, but the gender role of caring for them may differ somewhat between societies and social classes. In the case of public toilets both gender and sex are key factors in understanding the very ‘different’ needs that women have in respect of the design and provision of public toilets. My previous research on the built environment professions, including the world of surveyors, engineers and other construction practitioners, has shown that quantitatively less than 5% of construction professionals and clients are women (Greed, 1999b, 2000c). It is argued that, although their professional decisions are meant to be impartial, neutral and purely informed by technical and policy factors, the individual life experience, age and health characteristics of the decision-makers are major constraints on their worldview and thus on the professional decision they make. Of course there are many other ‘actors’, apart from those on the standard setting committees involved in the wider urban development process (Kirk, 1980: 38–41; Ambrose, 1986: 68–69), including architects, town planners, local councillors and central government level politicians, all of whom have an impact on ‘what is built’ and how budgets are set. Financial institutions and private property developers have a major impact too, not only on private sector schemes, but also on public sector development, particularly if the provision of public conven-


iences is part of so-called ‘community benefit’ or ‘planning gain’ within the negotiations for a new shopping development. The power of different actors in the process varies according to the particular situation. Although all these actors in the development process might not be on the ‘same side’, nevertheless they are mainly likely to be male and not particularly concerned with the question of either public lavatories or, for that matter, childcare provision, crèches or disabled access, unless statutory requirements exist as an issue. Instead, [male] toilet agenda issues predominate, such as crime, cottaging, and [male] street urination and cost cutting. It is not contested there are other overarching ‘macro level’ economic, social and political factors which shape urban space too. Design and development decisions cannot always be accounted for by purely financial, political, practical or technological constraints. Matters related to the gender, race, disability and cultural perspective of the professional decision-makers undoubtedly influence the end product, and the way it is produced. While everyone pleads the importance of the ‘cost factor’ and ‘time constraints’, it may be argued that in fact the subcultural peculiarities of the ‘plumbing fraternity’ actually create additional expense and difficulties. As will be illustrated in later chapters, in some instances less profitable and less practical solutions are made because of ignorance of the needs, potential contribution and the economic significance of minority groups. Stories of committees spending hours discussing the dimensions of a new cistern while remaining completely blind to the impractically small size of the toilet compartment and the general under-provision for women are legendary in toilet campaign circles. Women who try to get involved in the development process and to influence events may feel isolated. The need for identification with the values of the subculture would seem to block out the entrance of both people and alternative ideas that are seen as ‘different’. The concept of ‘closure’, and the social exclusion that results, as discussed by Parkin (1979: 89–90) and first developed by Weber (1964: 141–52, 236) in relation to the power of various sub-groups protecting their status, is a key theme. This is worked out on a day-to-day basis at the interpersonal level, with some people being made to feel awkward, unwelcome and ‘wrong’, and others being welcomed into the subculture, made to feel comfortable and encouraged to progress to the decision-making levels within it. While policy-makers are predominantly male, middle class and apparently unlikely to be using public transport or having childcare responsibilities, those who are the subject of toilet policy – that is, those who need them most – are likely to be so-called minorities, namely women, especially women with children and elderly women, disabled people and those who use public transport and are dependent on local facilities. Significantly tourists also need public toilets; and they may, in their own countries, be of ‘higher’ social significance but as shortterm ‘foreigners’ in Britain they too are unlikely to receive much attention to their needs. Not only are public toilets seen as a low status area of policy concern but

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the users too are not seen to be of any importance. In reality virtually everyone nowadays pays rates and taxes, and so-called minorities constitute, together, the majority of the population whom the professionals and policy-makers are meant to be serving. Clearly it is all a matter of perceptions and ‘how’ they see the world. It is argued that to change policy one must change the policy-makers, and there are no quick answers.

The urban problem The ‘problem’ for women in particular is that although they are significant users of the built environment, e.g. as workers and public transport passengers, and they comprise 52% of the population, the majority of the elderly population and 60% of all potential voters, the built environment is mainly designed by men, who comprise over 95% of built environment professionals and still the majority of politicians and decision-makers at central and local government levels. Women utilise the built environment differently from men because, even today, they are the main carers, often combining childcare and homemaking with work outside the home. This may result in quite different travel patterns and landuse requirements. For example, for many women the ‘journey to work’ is not a mono-destination trip but may consist of ‘trip-chaining’ as they travel from home, to the childminder, to the school gates, to the office, to the shops and back again. All this will often involve a lot of hanging about at cold bus stops if the woman does not have the use of a car. For many women the ideal design would be the city of short distances, of mixed land uses with increased proximity between home and work locations, and a high level of dispersal of local facilities, amenities, shops, and schools. This ideal city form, pioneered by leading European town planners, is called ‘the city of everyday life’ which, incidentally, would also be a highly environmentally sustainable city (Eurofem, 1996). Thus women and those they are caring for require a different pattern of toilets, including a greater number at different locations (Greed, 1999a; WGSG, 1997a,b; Booth et al, 1996; Little, 1994; Darke et al, 2000). Likewise buildings, and the components within, are designed around standards based on the height of the average man (De Graft-Johnson, 1999). In the case of toilet design it would seem that the starting point has been to design around male requirements and then adapt the standards to female needs rather than acknowledging that both biologically and socially women’s use of toilets is likely to be so different from those of men that this requires a totally different approach to design. Not only are women’s needs unrecognised but disabled people (who constitute around 5 million people, the size of the population of Norway) and ethnic minority groups (constituting majority populations in several inner city locations within London and the Midlands) have not had sufficient voice in the toilet debate. Women, disabled, elderly, and ethnic minorities are not mutually exclu-

Urban governance perspectives While my own research has been particularly concerned with the role of the professional bodies, especially those within the built environment and engineering professions in shaping policy, as stated earlier there are other important actors in the process, not least governmental agencies, civil servants and politicians at central and local government levels. Julia Edwards has undertaken parallel studies of the toilet situation in relation to the role of these groups, drawing on her own background in public policy, management, health service and local government research, adopting both a feminist, health and disability related perspective (Edwards and McKie, 1996a). Since her work is of such great value in understanding ‘why’ public toilet provision remains a neglected area some of her key concepts are presented below. Edwards argues that much local government policy-making, that is meant to be serving the needs of the citizen, is in fact misdirected and unsatisfactory. She describes policy-making, in respect of public toilet provision, as ‘organised irresponsibility’ (Edwards, 1998a). She cites Beck (1992) who coined this concept and originally applied it to the ineffectiveness of governmental policy-making in respect of controlling global risks such as oil pollution and drug trafficking, but subsequently the concept has been applied to a wide range of macro level policy-making situations. She also discusses Ham and Hill’s work (1993) on the concept of responsible policy-making within the US. Ham and Hill argue that bad publicity and negative public feedback along the ‘links’ within the governmental policy-making machinery will act as a check and balance to right bad policy-making. She argues that in the British situation policy-making is fragmented and there is no mutual accountability between government departments, so that no such links exist and nothing will change. Edwards applies these conceptual insights to the problem of public toilets for women. She argues that the powers that be can always make much of the deficiencies in women themselves, such as the loss of muscle tone and the effects of age on contributing to incontinence, rather than ‘making’ local authorities culpable for contributing to the problem by closing public toilets. It would seem that loss of public conveniences means that women develop strained bladders. Meanwhile local authorities apparently remain ignorant of


sive groups and in some circumstances – e.g. in rural villages in the South West – the most ‘typical’ citizen may be female and elderly, and not the young male worker whose image is so often used to represent ‘everyone’. Likewise, in many inner city areas the average citizen, statistically, is the middle-aged woman of Afro-Caribbean descent working part-time in the care industry. Women’s ‘different’ needs in respect of toilets in the city of men are discussed later in the context of city planning assumptions.

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their role in creating this medical crisis, and more money is instead put into the NHS incontinence services (or not). Thus the problem becomes one of incompetence rather than incontinence. Similar scenarios could be developed to explain why disabled people are likewise ‘blamed’ for the woes of the toilet world, or why American tourists are seen as over-demanding when all they want are simply ordinary decent public toilets when they come to see England. So there is a blatant lack of ‘joined-up thinking’, fragmentation and accountability which all adversely affects women, yet women themselves are likely to be ‘blamed’ and their complaints medicalised rather than solved through public convenience provision. Edwards comments that Beck suggests democratic feedback and testing are put into effect before policies are implemented, and, as explained later, I have found that others have argued for more accountability and consultation before closures take place. In the case of women this is difficult to implement as they are generally left out of the political forum of consultees to start with, but the British system is highly fragmented and unaccountable in any case. How can such organised irresponsibility be overcome? Beck says the burden of accountability and proof that the policy changes (closures) will not cause health risks should be put upon the instigators of the new policies and not vice versa to prove the ‘technical safety’ and ‘concrete safety’ of the proposals. A reversal of the burden of proof would require local authorities to prove there were no harmful effects to closure before they did so, and she cites Seatown as an example which she has studied. There are problems with this solution as toilet closure is never promoted as a new definitive policy, rather it is often the thoughtless result in a stealthy process of finding soft options to attack in order to save money. Much of the problem revolves around shortcomings in existing toilet legislation which is permissive and discretionary (they may) rather than compulsory and obligatory (they must) under the 1936 Public Health Act. In parallel no special money is allocated or ringfenced for toilet provision and this in turn results in the toilet area of policy being open to attack and defunding. Edwards argues that to change the discourse much is expected of toilet users’ groups, especially women, as in terms of power they are clearly not equal to the government agencies they are confronting. She points out that they are fragmented, under-funded, voluntary and weak as a group. Women, generally, do not speak the language of science or of the policy-makers they must confront. Their voice is fragmented and stretched over a range of policy areas, including disability, childcare, incontinence and safety issues. From a town planning viewpoint, the lack of strategic policy in respect of public toilet provision is extremely serious. The decline in public toilet provision has been initially slow and by stealth. Unlike the Beeching cuts to the railway network in the 1960s, when so many branch lines and their stations were closed, toilet-culling has been more gradual and without any great government

Collaborative community-based approaches to decision-making The question of how to achieve effective and responsive policy-making within both central and local government has been the subject of much discussion, particularly in the realms of town planning and urban policy-making. A set of theories concerning what are known as collaborative, communicative and institutionalist approaches to planning became popular in the 1990s and may be helpful in effecting change. In summary, all these theories focused upon the importance of working with and through social and community networks, agencies and social institutions to facilitate policy change (Healey, 1997: 5). An institutionalist approach takes into account the diversity of the ‘planned’ and stresses the need for participation of a range of stakeholders in the planning process. The emphasis is upon participatory democracy within a pluralistic society. The approach to doing planning is based upon negotiation, networking and liaison with community groups, rather than upon autocratic direction and coercion. Such a collaborative approach may be seen to be at work in the world of public toilets, with the BTA comprising a key ‘institution’ acting as an important link between the private sector toilet producers, local authority providers, local authority policy-makers and planners, and voluntary campaign groups representing users. There are considerable problems with collaborative planning approaches, not least the fact that town planners often speak a different language to that of ‘the planned’. The issues that community and pressure groups consider important may seldom even figure in the discussions of plan-makers – not least the importance of public toilets. Minority groups have expressed concern that the stakeholders are not necessarily dissaggregated in such a way that would allow space for the consideration of the differing needs within the community on the basis of class, race, gender and age. Concern is expressed that many policymakers are ill-equipped to operate a more communicative egalitarian planning


pronouncement. There has been no policy as such – it has happened by default. Just because people travel by car more nowadays and less by public transport and foot does not mean they need fewer toilets; arguably they need more. The present government makes much of the empowerment of the people, of combatting social exclusion, developing responsive policies to people’s needs and getting more people walking, cycling and using public transport. The implications of all this for public toilet policy seem to be lost upon the planners. The final section offers some further insights on the nature of policy-making, drawing on current town planning theory with a view to addressing the key issue of how to generate change.

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system, when they do not understand the basic principles of equal opportunities policy and lack social awareness or understanding of the needs of the issues that concern ordinary people. This is especially so when the planners and other local government policy-makers come from technical and engineering backgrounds and lack awareness of social issues and practical problems that affect people’s lives. Real collaborative planning requires accountability because ‘the planned’ are now to be seen as citizens, customers, clients and stakeholders, rather than as the masses who have to be planned ‘for’ and placated. Statutory planning is seen as a service, and one that must be shown to be efficient, economical and rapid. Thus a series of initiatives have been introduced to speed up and improve the planning service, such as Audits and Best Value initiatives (Greed, 2002a, 2000b), which are intended to increase accountability. In reality, in many cases there is no right of consultation, participation and referral when major policy decisions are being made that affect a large majority of the population, such as the closure of public toilets.

Methodology When undertaking the various research studies upon which this book is based, I sought to identify key themes, problems, contacts, concepts, questions and potential means of change in order to help understand and make sense of the situation. In tandem I always sought to incorporate all that was best in terms of standards, design guidance, regulations, urban design principles, town planning policies, etc. One must pay equal attention to the social, political and cultural driving forces enabling or blocking public toilet provision, but at the same time one must deal with the realities of the modern world and plainly state what is needed and how it should be designed, thus weaving together the ‘invisible’ aspatial forces with the very visual, concrete, and potentially aesthetic issues regarding the form that public toilets physically take as components of the built environment. In other words I have sought to take into account both the ‘airy fairy’ and the ‘nitty gritty’ issues (as my students put it) in approaching the question of the design of public toilets. All this involved an extensive literature review across a range of academic and professional realms, looking at both contemporary and historical material. I sought to identify the main groups involved in the toilet world, namely user and provider groups and to discuss the issues with them. Other toilet studies (few though they be) have used interviewing and open-ended questioning. Llewelyn in his study of Welsh public toilets (Llewelyn, 1996) undertook 100 street interviews and visited 265 toilets in 18 towns in conjunction with the Welsh Consumer Council (1996). There have been a range of studies by the various interest groups, usually undertaken by volunteers and local activists. AMC and BTA have 26


undertaken studies of different issues but have kept a weather eye on what is going on. The information gathered by BTA members from visits and ‘undercover’ work for the Loo of the Year Award is a source of useful toilet information to build up a national picture, as published in reports such as 50 of the Best Loos in Britain (BTA, 2000a). I was particularly interested in any studies that included a spatial, mapping element as to the distribution and location of public toilets. As mentioned, studies have been undertaken by transport user groups focused on station and termini provision (Midwinter, 1994). Various disability groups have produced maps and guides of the location of toilet facilities (such as RADAR, 1998). ITAAL (Is There An Accessible Loo), a group concerned with more and better toilets for people with disabilities, has been undertaking an Atlas Guide Project of the whole of Britain showing where disabled toilets of all sorts and locations might be found (ITAAL, 2001). A guide to Exmoor National Park (Pitman, 2001), produced by a voluntary local group, covers all the villages and thoughtfully includes all sorts of details. There has been a long history of desperate guidebooks trying to steer people around our cities – e.g. ‘Access in London’ (Couch et al, 1984) – which show how few and far between toilet facilities are in modern cities. WDS has also investigated toilets in London and carried out ad hoc studies of the London boroughs, usually again in response to complaints or observations from members (WDS ongoing). Some national mapping companies include toilets on their maps but often they are just the disabled ones as with the A–Z. Individual local authorities have undertaken surveys such as Cheshire (1993), a renowned hotspot of toilet activism and WI (Women’s Institute) involvement. Some local authorities have produced their own toilet maps (such as the excellent map produced by the Corporation of London) but to our surprise some did not have any map of the location of their toilets, or any written policies at all. Presumably the main supervisor knew where they all were in his or her head! Newer versions of A–Zs are now showing all toilets, whereas previously they showed none, or only disabled toilets. Likewise, AA street maps, Ordnance Survey street maps (not grid maps) are showing conveniences at last. In the course of undertaking the research for the book, I was successful in obtaining a small Nuffield grant and, with my research assistant Isobel Daniels at the UWE, we undertook a cameo study of 8 provider groups and 8 user groups in North Somerset. The purpose of the research was to investigate the differences between user and provider perspectives in public toilet provision. User expectations and concerns with access, distribution and quality of facilities were found to be very different from provider concerns with saving money while protecting and maintaining toilet buildings. In this study we used a qualitative, indepth approach which sought to go beyond looking at ‘what’ to considering ‘why’, ‘how’ and ‘when’ in respect of current and future provision of public toilets. Methodologically this was an illustrative study using open-ended questions while

27


generally adopting an ethnographic stance to the culture of the organisation in question (Atkinson et al, 2001). While a few examples from this study are included in this book, the full account of the research findings has been produced as a Faculty occasional paper (Greed and Daniels, 2002).

Dualisms Since the toilet world seems to be so riven and divided by different perceptions of the issues and problems, it was helpful to draw up a series of dualisms, or opposites, that have shaped toilet policy and design in order to help make sense of it all. For example, the public/private distinction is crucial in terms of who is doing the providing. As discussed later, the question of whether toilets are onstreet (publicly provided) or off-street (privately provided by the developer or owner of the building in question) and the related insides/outsides dualism was a helpful organising concept. This list is arguably useful as it delineates and structures the proscribed aspects of toilet agenda, which structure and internally control our thoughts, residing deep in the culture. The taboo on talking toilets is strong, and will be pursued further in the chapter on cultural constraints on toilet provision.

Dualisms • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 28

abled/disabled access/fortress accessible/defensible black/white body/spirit brown/blue café/toilet children/adults clean/dirty clean/decent complain/campaign curative/preventative daytime/evening decent/indecent East/West flush/recycle form/function free/pay gay/straight

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

gendered/generic green/gendered help/hindrance hot/cold hygienic/ecological Islamic/Christian insides/outsides (uchi/soto in Japan) Ladies/Gentlemen but Unisex macro/micro male/female man/nature mandatory/permissive manufacturers/suppliers may/must metal/ceramic middle class/working class modest/blatant night/day

paper/water planning/building posh/common preventative/curative primary/secondary privatised/collectivised providers/users public health/clinical practice public/private pure/impure pure/dirty red/green religious/secular shiny/matt

• • • • • • • • • • • • •

sit/squat sit/hover stand up/sit down toilets stand/sit suppliers/managers town planning system/building regulations underground/overground urinals/closets urination/defecation/menstruation virgin/whore water/electricity women/children women/men

Issues to be aware of ➥

Need to engage in toilet debate at many levels, macro, meso, micro

➥

Toilets should be seen as part of wider urban policy debate

➥

Links to social inclusion, urban regeneration, urban design

➥

Many social dimensions, gender, age, race, ability, religion

➥

Huge cultural taboos and constraints on design and provision

➥

Problem of organised irresponsibility and fragmentation of policy

➥

Tendency to blame the individual not the system

➥

Role of decision-makers as against users, and links to urban governance

➥

Always going to be conflicting, even opposite views, on just about every toilet design issue


• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

29


The historical development of public toilets Studying the passed This chapter constitutes a brief history of ‘public conveniences’ up to the start of the twentieth century to show how the present day toilet problem results from deeply held taboos and mores embedded in our civilisation that affected assumptions and decisions made about location, design, likely users and propriety in the past. Historic toilets are important architectural artefacts and townscape components and often the subject of urban conservation policy (Bath, 1993, 1997; Greed, 1996a). The story will then be taken forward into the twentieth century in the next chapter, which discusses the legal context of public toilet provision, which has so constrained subsequent development. Public toilets are part of the heritage industry. This study is mainly centred upon urban development, because this is where greater need has arisen owing to the pressure of numbers of people. Local studies such as a history of Cotswold privies by Harris (1998) provide a parallel account of conditions in rural areas, where the problem of waste disposal was less fraught. One could simply build a privy over the local stream, or spread the nightsoil on the fields as fertilizer (Binding, 1999). Many a quaint, pretty privy is to be found in rural areas, such as the one owned by the National Trust at Killerton House, Broadclyst, Exeter, which has pink walls and a thatched roof. But some quaint toilets are not as old as they appear to be. For example, in Poole Park, Dorset, a refurbished 1930s public loo has been provided with a dovecote in the pitched roof, and looks truly medieval (AMC Newsletter, Winter 1995). Also of interest is the Theatre of Small Convenience, a council-owned building in the Malverns, which seats about 10 people and is nowadays used as a theatre by the owner who runs one-actor plays. Quaint historical examples, although fascinating, are the exception rather than the rule, and part of the whole ‘eccentric Britain’ heritage that is of such interest to tourists (Le Vay, 2000). But we should always be thankful for public

CHAPTER THREE • THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC TOILETS

chapter three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Figure 3.1 Public toilets at Killerton House, Devon. This thatched toilet, maintained by the National Trust, is not typical of public toilet reality but provides a light relief. Rural toilets are a major component of toilet provision for the tourist industry. (Photograph courtesy of Isobel Daniels).

toilets of all sorts, great and small. Such romanticised rural toilets should not be seen as a true reflection of the hell hole many a cottage-dweller used at the bottom of the garden, albeit environmentally sustainable (Pudney, 1954). Let us now trace the history through the ages.

The ancient world There have always been public toilets. Public latrines, as against private dwellingbased closets, were the normal, and only, form of provision for most, except the rich, until the nineteenth century (Cavanagh and Ware, 1991: 9–17). In India this is still the case in many villages (Pathak, 1994), as discussed later. Ancient cities such as Pompeii and Herculaneum contained public latrine blocks, the seats consisting of a continuous slab of stone with, on average, eight holes for users. A shared sponge was passed around as ‘toilet paper’. Such arrangements were generally used only by males. One of the earliest existing latrines in Britain is at Housesteads Fort on Hadrian’s Wall, which provided communal provision for 20 soldiers (Hart-Davis, 1995, 2001). Roman cities and villas were famed for their advanced sewerage, drainage and heating systems. There was a gap of many centuries from 410AD when the Romans left Britain (they arrived in 56BC) before sewerage and plumbing came back into their own again 32

in the nineteenth century. Devotees of Cloacina, Roman goddess of the sewer (and sewerage), would be puzzled by the demand for ‘privacy’ and individual facilities, and by negative modern attitudes towards ‘the sable streams which below the city glide’ (commented on in Trivia Part II, Gay, 1975, originally 1716). Ceremonies in Spain honouring ‘Our Lady of the Sewers’ christianise such ancient deities (Richardson, 2001). ’Studying the passed’ – that is, ancient excrement – is a growing specialism in archaeology, as its contents give information on human settlement, diet and life style. Dr. Miles Russell, lecturer in archaeology at Bournemouth University, organised a session on the ‘Origin of faeces’ at the Theoretical Archaeological Group Conference held at Oxford University in December 2000 (Times Higher, 12.01.01: 19).


Figure 3.2 Ancient Greek drainage piping, Ephesus, Turkey. Most ancient Classical cities had sewerage and drainage. It was many centuries before Western Europe was to reach such standards again.

The Middle Ages In medieval times, public communal latrines were common and 13 have been identified in London, mainly sited over rivers. There was an 84-seater in Greenwich Street called Whittington’s Longhouse after Dick Whittington, Mayor of London, who apparently frequented this establishment in 1480. Communal bath-houses were developed, often with unsavoury reputations. Queen Mathilda, wife of Henry I, ordered a latrine to be erected for the use of the 33


citizens in Queenhithe, a quay near London Bridge. In 1355 the River Fleet in central London choked up altogether from effluent from latrines overhanging this tributary of the Thames. It was customary to empty chamber pots out of upstairs windows by throwing their contents into the street, ideally, calling out ‘gardez l’eau!’ which made this anti-social action legal (hence the word loo from l’eau). Many medieval houses were designed with overhanging upper floors to protect passers by from this unsavoury downfall. As the public toilets were located over rivers and many town centres were focused around the main bridges, the toilets were centrally placed and accessible. Presumably shared toilet facilities engendered a sense of community among users that would be the envy of modern town planners trying to regenerate the inner city. Anyone, including women, still has the right under medieval statutes to squat in the gutter within the boundary of the Ancient City of London, provided they first call out ‘en paine’. It is rumoured that women did this at the time of the great suffragette marches at the beginning of the twentieth century (which attracted half a million marchers) (Tickner, 1987) and others did so at the time of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It is still legal for a taxi-driver to relieve himself on the inner wheel of his hackney carriage (taxi-cab). Likewise the law still requires all cab-drivers to carry a bale of hay (for the horse); this law has not been enforced or put to the test for many a year but, in theory, still applies (although Westminster City Council has been seeking to bring in strict anti-street urination laws in 2002). Nowadays large processions in London can result in complaints of urination in front gardens, shop doorways and alleyways, because of lack of public toilet provision. At the time of the midnight Millennium celebrations, most of the public toilets were closed in central London. Some underground toilets had been closed because of the need to extract soil for the excavation of the Jubilee Line, and have not been reopened since. In creating the inclusive, regenerated 24hour city, it is most important that such facilities should be copiously provided as an integral component in urban regeneration.

The nineteenth century Urbanisation and public health At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Britain was undergoing major economic and social change (Ashworth, 1968). Industrialisation was accompanied by the expansion of towns and cities, and population growth, all of which put greater pressure for better sewerage and drainage systems. Disease, overcrowding, lack of clean water, and insanitary conditions and smells led to demands for greater state intervention and town planning controls (Cherry, 1988; Greed, 2000a). Methods of human excrement disposal, which might have worked for a 34

small village of a few hundred people, such as dropping it in the river, or piling it up outside the house, could create major public health problems when repeated by hundreds of thousands of people in close cramped urban streets. The rapid rate of urban growth and the parallel urban concentration of populations are shown in Tables 3.I, 3.2 and 3.3. Victorian prudery and obsession with hygiene had not yet kicked into people’s consciousness. Most people continued to dispose of their sewage by piling it up outside in the garden in a midden or waiting for the nightsoil man to collect it. Cesspools were commonplace within London. In rural areas everything


Figure 3.3 Underground toilets do not provide equality of access, especially for those with pushchairs or wheelchairs. These toilets are located at the Monument, in the City of London, where there is a very heavy footfall of commuters and office workers, many of whom nowadays are women.

Table 3.I: Population growth 1801–1901 UK Date

Total Population

1801

8.9 million

1851

17.9 million

1901

32.5 million

(See Ashworth, 1968: 7, for fuller details)

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had been spread on the fields and used as manure. Then with urbanisation, before sewers, many ‘better’ houses had earth closets, some with trap doors to collect it all underneath. This waste was called ‘nightsoil’ and ‘nightmen’ came around every night and collected it. Human excrement was a valuable commodity for agriculture and industry. Even as late as post-World War 2 times, nightsoil men were active in some areas, particularly in colonial cities. For example, the television presenter, Clive James, recounts how nightsoil used to be collected in the suburbs in the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, before mains sewerage was installed. It was also the main means of collection in Japan before World War 2 (1939–45) (JTA, 1996). An interesting account of nightsoil removers in County Durham is given by Kilroy (a descendant of the ‘Kilroy was here’ chap who did exist) (Kilroy, 1984: 43). He recounts carts going along the alleyways between the backs of the houses at night collecting the soil from the hatch under each outhouse at the bottom of each backyard. Many people in working-class communities considered it dirty to have a toilet in the house. Such approaches were to prove unsanitary and impractical with the growth of urbanisation. Laporte (1968) gives a French version of excretion history. The following table shows the tremendous rate of urban growth which was occurring in the new industrial towns and cities, which were doubling and tripling in size.

Figure 3.4 Typical nightsoil hatch at the end of the backyard in terrace houses. Nightsoil collection, rather than the flush toilet, was a common feature of nineteenth century industrial cities. (Diagram courtesy of Paul Revelle and Chris Wade.) 36

Date

Birmingham

Manchester

Leeds

1801

71,000

75,000

53,000

1851

265,000

336,000

172,000

1901

765,000

645,000

429,000

(See Ashworth, 1968, for fuller details of many towns)

While there was an overall growth, there were also, as stated, large movements of population from one part of the country to another, on a regional basis, and a migration to the towns from the countryside. This may be summed up in the following table (from Greed, 2000a).

Table 3.3: Comparisons for UK 1801 – 80% of the population was rural. 2001 – 80% of the population is urban.

Not only were there changes in the quantity of people in towns and cities, but inevitably there was a decline in the quality of their lives owing to disease and overcrowding (Ravetz, 1986). Conditions and standards were not that different from the situation in rural areas of the time but, as stated, although people could get away with fairly elementary methods of sewage disposal in small villages, the sheer concentration of numbers in the new cities increased the likelihood of disease developing in the crowded alleyways and tenements. Presumably people were culturally tolerant of such practices and smells and thought nothing of it at the time, prior to the development of the modern public health movement.


Table 3.2: Urban growth 1801–1901

The sewerific roots of modern town planning Sanitation problems could not be solved by personal individual efforts but required civic initiatives and national solutions, as well as ‘town planning’, which might coordinate both land use patterns and provide a framework for massive public infrastructural investment in new sewerage and drainage systems. The spread of cholera and other fatal diseases made intervention necessary, there being a major outbreak in 1832 (and another in 1849). To implement reform there was a need for an effective, administrative structure. The 1835 Municipal Corporations Act laid the foundations for this, enabling the creation of locally elected urban councils, i.e. local authorities, which had the powers to levy rates from householders and 37


businesses, and to use the money to employ professional and administrative staff, in order to carry out these improvements and building programmes. State intervention and provision became more acceptable because of the need to establish a city-wide drainage programme to stamp out diseases such as cholera. In 1840 a Select Committee, headed by Chadwick, on the ‘Conditions in Towns’ was established, leading to the ‘Report on the Sanitary Conditions of the Labouring Population’, and on ‘the Means of its Improvement’ (Chadwick, 1842). In 1843 this was followed by the establishment of a Royal Commission on the Health of Towns (Hall, 1989). In 1844 the Health of Towns Association was founded, and drainage and sewerage reforms were seen as an integral component of town planning for disease control. Much early town planning was defensive legislation against disease, and the early rudimentary sewerage and drainage measures were comparable to the ‘sites and services’ approach adopted in third world shanty-town emergency situations nowadays. Early planning reformers saw ‘the urban problem’ in terms of germs and disease, often combining this with a classist, even eugenic, desire to clean up the lifestyle and breeding habits of the working classes (Greed, 1994b:90–1). In the early twentieth century, more severe forms of this thinking were advocated by Poetz, a racial hygiene engineer in Nazi Germany (Green, 1990). The words unhygienic and immoral seemed to be used interchangeably when describing the lower orders, especially ‘fallen’ women. Concepts of public health and social hygiene were closely linked (Jones, G, 1986; Wright, 1960) as were immorality and assumed unsanitary conditions. Significantly, laws against public (male) urination both in Britain and North America were generally the result of not wishing to offend public decency, rather than concerns with hygiene or the convenience of women (Kira, 1976, Ostler, 1996). The roots of modern town planning are firmly in the sewers. Curiosities such as Dr. Richardson’s model town plan, ‘Hygeia’, took the concept of efficient, germless living to the limits as described by Bell and Bell (1972: 284), but appear entirely logical when seen against the wider public health context of the time and its often condemnatory equating of immorality of the lower orders with lack of hygiene. The problems occurred chiefly in areas where there was a concentration of large numbers of working-class people in poorly built housing around the new factories and mills. They located there because, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, there was very little money or time for commuting and the transport systems had not yet developed, so people were huddled together in proximity to their workplace (Ashworth, 1968). Many local builders cashed in on building substandard tenements and terraces. The 1847 Sanitary Act required sewers and drains to be provided in all new residential areas. The 1848 Public Health Act was the first to give local authorities general powers for the provision of public toilets. This Act also intervened into domestic hygiene arrangements for the first time, with emphasis on healthy design in the construction of houses. It put an end to

Under the city streets The Victorians put a vast amount of investment ‘under the city streets’ in the forms of sewers and drains, within the context of public health reforms. Likewise the city fathers, having made their pile out of the Industrial Revolution, could sit back and distribute their bounty in the form of public works (Bell and Bell, 1972). Civic pride and public building works went hand in hand with reform as manifested in ‘gas and water socialism’ – that is, investment in public works to build up the necessary infrastructure. No expense was spared: public toilets were built of the finest stone, with expensive fixtures and fittings, and designed by famous architects, reflecting the technological and cultural achievements of the era. Flushing toilets were a symbol of scientific and technological progress in the nineteenth century, like computers nowadays (Edwards and McKie, 1995). In 1858, there was a particularly hot summer, known as ‘The year of the big stink’; Parliament closed because of the whiff from the adjacent Thames, and it was decided to do something drastic about the situation (Halliday, 2001). In 1865 the Crossness Engines, beyond Woolwich on the southern bank of the Thames, were opened to discharge London’s waste out to the sea (see http://crossness.org.uk and http://www.tanton.ndirect.co.uk/crossness/). These were built by Joseph Bazalgette, the sanitary engineer, who was responsible for much of the re-sewering of London (Halliday, 2001; Clayton, 2000: 51). As Peter Bazalgette, great-great-grandson of the engineer, has commented, the Victorians’ pride in these four steam engines overcame their prudery and they were named after Victoria, Albert and two of the royal children. The Royal Family, with a range of dignitaries, bravely dined in the new building as part of the opening celebrations. The engines are housed in a magnificent Romanesque building, a cathedral to sewage, which is now a Grade 1 listed building. Bazalgette was responsible for establishing the modern sewerage system in London at a time


back-to-back houses by requiring a back alleyway for ventilation and nightsoil collection purposes, thus sanitation reform helped shape urban design. Subsequently, the 1868 Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvements Act (the Torrens Act) increased government controls further, but the need for citywide rather than just individual dwelling orientated reforms was seen to be primary in stemming disease. Another Artisans’ and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act in 1875 further increased local authority powers to deal with whole areas, as against individual buildings (Ashworth, 1968). Cholera was a waterborne disease, which was no respecter of persons; although it might originate in working-class districts, it could spread anywhere along the unsanitary water systems of the city. As Peter Hall points out (1989: 27), in 1854 a Dr. Snow showed the relationship between a major cholera outbreak and a single polluted pump in the Soho district of London. Increased state intervention and investment in public works was needed to provide better sewerage and drainage systems to prevent the spread of disease (Cherry, 1988).

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when most people depended upon nightsoil collection. On the Continent many other major capital cities invested in sewers, e.g. Paris’s magnificent spider’s web pattern of squares and boulevards designed by Haussmann was mirrored underground by a splendid new system of sewers and drains (Sutcliffe, 1970). A Royal Sanitary Commission was established between 1869 and 1871 which resulted in a series of further acts and improvements. The Metropolitan Water Act 1872 established the principle that the London sewerage system should be water-based, resulting in further major sewer construction and changes in toilet design.

Flushing it away In 1596 Sir John Harrington had invented the first modern lavatory using water (the self-emptying slop pan); in 1775 Alexander Cummings, a watchmaker, patented the U-Bend and the S-bend. In the nineteenth century, Sir Thomas Crapper perfected and widely marketed modern WCs with siphonic cisterns with evocative names like the Deluge (Reyburn, 1989). Such devices are included in a museum exhibit of historic public toilets entitled ‘Flushed with Pride: the Story of the Toilet’ at the Gladstone Pottery Museum, Stoke on Trent, as this is the heartland of traditional ceramic sanitary ware (toilets) manufacture (Blair, 2001). This was established with a Lottery Grant of 1.3 million pounds (15.1.2001), plus European money and manufacturer sponsorship. This grant caused anger locally, as at the same time vital local public conveniences were being closed in the area because of lack of money. Many a museum has suffered from inadequate public toilets, especially for women (Candlin, 2001). In contrast, successful ‘heritage’ sites incorporate good toilets as a high priority in wooing visitors. The 1996 Loo of the Year Award went to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard public toilets. The National Trust, too, has made a valuable contribution to setting standards for visitor toilets (National Trust, 2000) (see Appendix). The 1872 Act was a turning point for Crapper, increasing the demand for his government-approved flushing system as water-based sewerage systems were adopted as government standard. But at the same time the shift from cesspools to flush toilets led to the sewers and water courses being swamped with human effluent, resulting in the need to build yet more sewers to cope with the increase. Subsequently huge programmes of sewerage and drainage system construction ensued in London in the wake of ongoing legislation (Clayton, 2000, Chapter 3). The 1875 Public Health Act is a landmark in the development of state intervention into the built environment. This important Act set minimum and more stringent standards on the design of houses and also on the layout of streets, so it is in a sense one of the first true town planning acts. This was achieved by giving local authorities themselves the power to introduce by-laws controlling the layout of new streets and housing schemes. It contained many provisions related to sewers, drains, toilets and water supply. The 1875 Act was to cast its shadow


Figure 3.5 Bazalgette’s 1865 Cross Engines, near Woolwich, London (used by permission of the Crossness Society). Victorian civic pride and creative genius expressed itself in sewerage systems and pumping stations.

Figure 3.6 Sewage repair van: conserving the heritage beneath the city streets. Nowadays there is a constant battle to repair and renew the infrastructure inherited from the Victorians; sewerage systems need constant maintenance.

41


right over the twentieth century in introducing baseline standards and principles in all sanitation matters, some of which are quite discriminatory towards women by today’s standards, as elements of this Act have never been superseded or repealed to this day. Once the commitment had been made to water-borne systems, there was no turning back. Vast sewerage systems, pumping stations, and sewage works were being built throughout the land. Many cities are still dependent on Victorian sewers, and the Victorians left an immeasurable heritage of public investment which has not been continued into the present day, in spite of increased state intervention and national wealth. In the nineteenth century, public health, housing, sanitation, municipal engineering, surveying, and town planning were all nascent professions which still overlapped and interlinked (Greed, 1991: 50–1). ‘Sanitation and drainage’, ‘gas and water socialism’ and related ‘public health’ issues were key components of the agenda of nineteenth-century town planning (Wohl, 1983; Dyos, 1968: 334).

The emergence of modern public toilets Within this context it was inevitable that public toilets should also contain waterbased flushing systems, and that they should be conceived as an integral component of the great sewerage and drainage revolution of the nineteenth century. This gave the public toilet movement greater strength than it has today as provision was part of the wider sewering process, whereas today public conveniences seem to be dealt with in isolation from mainstream municipal policy. The Victorian enthusiasm for building large public buildings such as museums, libraries and art galleries, plus their fondness for exhibitions and fairs, all led to greater demands for better public toilets. The first public toilets were at the Great Exhibition in 1851 at Crystal Palace, London, and were provided by the toilet manufacturer and inventor, George Jennings. He was also the inventor of the fiendish ‘penny in the slot’ lock for Ladies toilets, hence the phrase ‘got to spend a penny’. Apparently, public provision was not initially provided for women, only men, and a meeting of the RSA (Royal Society of Arts), the organising body, was hurriedly convened to provide more (AMC, 1997 Newsletter, January). Likewise, in the 1898 Great Exhibition in Paris (of which the then new Eiffel Tower was a centrepiece) there were major queues for the public toilets. After the success of the Great Exhibition, the RSA sought to establish a system of public lavatories in London for health reasons. In 1851 it set up a committee of ‘noblemen and gentlemen’ to establish this. Such toilets were supplied with a superintendent and two attendants each, and comprised two classes of toilets, for gentlemen and the masses, and with a separate charge for washing and brushing. The RSA requested that the police visit these establishments from time to time. Mr. Minton (the China manufacturer) donated some of the sanitary hardware for the venture. Under this scheme, in February 1852, the first flushing 42


public toilet for ‘ladies’ opened at 51, Bedford Square. It was strongly ‘classed’ with poorer ‘women’ being offered a cheaper option of standing or squatting over a ‘hole in the ground’ behind a curtain known as a ‘urinette’, whereas ‘ladies’ might sit upon mahogany lavatory seats in imperial splendour. The ‘sit or squat’ debate continues in the world of public toilet provision and will be returned to in later chapters, as will the infamous history of the ‘urinette’ and the possibility of women ‘standing’ over a hole rather than sitting or squatting. Sitting on the same seat that someone else has just sat on is seen as dirty by many, unless there is a servant attendant who will rush in after the user and clean the seat. A public lavatory just for men followed at 95, Fleet Street, with an entrance fee of tuppence. (Significantly men had to pay too, presumably to keep the lower classes out.) These facilities were politely called ‘public waiting rooms’ a phrase still used occasionally in North America for public toilets. The River Fleet had exploded (alongside Fleet Street) in 1846, and this had clearly been a busy location since medieval times when it also exploded in 1355 because of the build up of noxious fumes. It was found that these private ventures could not pay their way, although they served as valuable advertising sites for new products. To this day manufacturer support and sponsorship is still an important component in the fight for public toilets. As to location, and divisions between public and private provision, it should be noted that men already had a vast array of ‘private’ facilities in clubs and pubs according to their social class. There were several other private schemes built in the second part of the nineteenth century. For example, a public toilet established in 1900 in Leicester Square provided 27 urinals and 13 cubicles for men, but only three urinettes and 7 cubicles for women. Likewise one in St. Martin’s Lane, London, provided 5 compartments for women, and 25 urinals and 12 compartments for men (Robinson, 2001: 5). In parallel, a range of street works and improvements were being made throughout the early nineteenth century, in respect of lighting, paving, and ‘watching’ (emergent ‘police’ patrols). Civic improvements included provision of public parks, public benches, signage, refuse collection, bandstands, horse troughs inter alia (albeit the latter was chiefly the result of early animal rights campaign activities). In 1807, Pall Mall was the first street in the world to be gas lit and others rapidly followed, creating more hospitable city streets. Clearly the rightful ‘place’ for public toilets was to be under the auspices of local government too. It was left to the City Engineer, William Haywood, to establish a system of underground conveniences (BTA, 2001: 6), thus funding the modern system of ‘public facilities’. The 1891 Public Health (London) Act gave local authorities the power to use the subsoil of any road for the purpose of building public lavatories, and most of the underground ones date from 1884 to 1925. The 1891 Act stipulated that the area of the ‘subsoil’ beneath the public highway should be used for such toilet facilities and for sewer routing. This has created great inconvenience for generations of women, especially for the disabled and those with pushchairs (Cavanagh and Ware, 1991).

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Nevertheless, the Victorians should be commended as builders of palatial public lavatories and proponents of improved sanitation standards and toilet technology (Lambton, 1978). Because, in Victorian times, public health had the status of a prestige science, sanitary engineering too was highly regarded, and this is reflected in the resources and detail which is lavished upon the building and design of public toilets. They constituted a new and worthy component within the built environment. History repeated itself in the 1960s when some new public toilets were built underground as part of motorway and pedestrian underpass programmes, such as at Centre Point in London, but these along with many others were subsequently closed ostensibly because of tramps and homeless people settling in the access areas. Incredibly, underground lavatories in the 1960s were built by Westminster City Council in order to build underpasses, as they had a statutory authority to build underground loos but not pedestrian underpasses, as supported by the precedent of the case Westminster Corporation v London and North Western Railway Company 1905 Act 38 (Appeal Case, House of Lords). But in provincial cities, such as Bristol and Bath, for example, many public toilets were built on the surface, and they were designed in a classical style to complement the surrounding Victorian or Edwardian architecture, with no expense spared. Nowadays some public conveniences are listed buildings, for example in Park Row, Bristol, an edifice which still retains its original porcelain sanitary ware. Mid-twentieth century toilets tended to be more utilitarian in design (Smedley, 1978). The Park Row toilets, although right beside the University and on the tourist circuit, were left to fall into a state of disrepair. Subsequently, in the late 1990s, they were renovated as part of conservation area improvement, and they are now designated Grade 1 listed buildings. They were closed in early 2001 to be used for an art exhibition of items from the Arnolfini, which were displayed in the Gents. At present (2001) the Ladies is frequently closed while the Gents remains open. In historic Bath, so strong is the urban conservation movement that, when the 1930s Larkhall public conveniences were refurbished, their appearance was changed from that of a twentieth-century municipal ‘concrete block’, functional edifice to a Georgian ‘conservation area’-style pavilion. The fountain set into the exterior and proudly declaring construction in 1907 was in fact moved back into the wall from an adjacent free-standing location (Stringer, 1994: 27–9). In this case money was found for cosmetic ‘lavatorial gentrification’ of the toilet block when usually ‘lack of money’ prevents even the most basic maintenance. Since there were inadequate public toilets for women, other alternatives grew up. Lyons Corner House restaurants, and ‘tea rooms’ in general, were popular with women because they provided toilets, in the days when women would not go into a pub or traditional restaurant on their own. Lyons served the purpose that McDonalds does nowadays in this respect. The first permanent public toilets for women, and men, were built in 1893 opposite the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand, London.

CHAPTER THREE • THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC TOILETS Figure 3.7 The Park Row toilets, Bristol, built in 1904 by Walters and Sons for £1,079, with an additional charge of £514 for the Twyfords sanitary fittings. Top: corner washbasin in the Ladies. Middle: external view. Bottom: mahogany wood toilet seat.

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Figure 3.8 Larkhall Toilets, Larkhall Conservation Area, Bath. When the Larkhall toilets were refurbished, the conservators incorporated in the front wall a previously free-standing fountain. They ‘aged’ the building from being a wholly modern block to a Georgian-style one to fit into the surrounding conservation area.

Changing land use and transport patterns Demand for public toilets is a component of wider town planning, transportation policy and overall urban design agendas. The Industrial Revolution was accompanied and facilitated by a parallel transport revolution, for both goods and people. Following Watt’s invention of the steam engine (significantly a water-based power system), the first main passenger railway constructed was the Stockton to Darlington which opened in 1825. Growth continued, until at the peak in the 1870s there were nearly 16,000 miles of railway (there is less than half that amount today). Increasingly people lived further from their work and distinct residential, industrial and business districts developed within cities, generating a greater need to travel, and the likelihood that people would be away from their homes, and toilets, for many hours at a time. Birth rates were high, as were infant mortality levels, in the new industrial towns. Housing for workers typically consisted of two up and two down terraced houses for many families of six or more with a toilet out the back if they were lucky (Ravetz, 1986). Presumably there was a greater tolerance towards children simply ‘going’ in the gutter in those days when both private and public toilet provision was limited. Early state schools were likely to have poor toilet provision too, with toilets ‘outside’ on the other side of the playground, a common arrangement in the ‘Triple Decker’ Board schools built in London towards the end of the century. A 1998 survey found that there were still over 600 primary schools 46


in England without inside toilets, still waiting to be improved a hundred years later, and the smell of school toilets (and often the bullying experienced in them) was a significant aspect of the modern school child’s growing up experience (Greed et al, 2001). Increasing numbers of women worked in factories and went ‘out’ to work like the men. The emphasis in early town planning upon zoning, separating out and decentralising land uses resulted in the creation of the ‘journey to work’ and made it more difficult for women to combine home and work duties in spatial proximity. The need for public conveniences for women was greater than before as more women were travelling about in the city, commuting to work over long distances. But paradoxically, as moral standards and ‘manners’ became more prudish, women, in particular, were inconvenienced. Robinson (2001) comments that it was considered an abomination and an assault to decency for women to be provided with public toilets. Early ‘feminist’ groups such as the Ladies’ Sanitary Association established in the 1850s campaigned for better toilets. In 1884 the Ladies Lavatory Company opened its own private public conveniences at Oxford Circus for ladies who had to spend the whole day in London (Adburgham, 1989:231). The campaign for public lavatories for women was a key component of the Suffragette Movement, almost with equal importance to attaining the vote. Julia Edwards, from her research on the evolution of public toilets, concluded that campaigners for toilets have always tended to be women because of this blatant inequality. But at least in Victorian times, despite the prudery on such matters, there was a climate of willingness to build public toilets as there was a celebration of sanitation as the new technology. Public toilets were seen as a sign of modernity and technological advancement like computers nowadays. Thus it may be argued that women benefited as ‘citizens’, albeit to a lesser degree, with men, from public works inspired by civic pride and gas and water socialism (Edwards and McKie, 1995). Therefore the women’s agenda coincided with men’s and they made progress, although nowadays this is not necessarily the case (Saunders, 1995). Women had difficulty being ‘heard’ in governmental circles as few women were involved in decision-making bodies. In the nineteenth century, patriarchal, male sanitary engineers predominated. The situation would be much worse today for women were it not for the ceaseless efforts of ‘sewers and drains feminists’ (Greed, 1987: 279) such as members of the Ladies’ Sanitary Association, who campaigned for public lavatory provision and sought to change the discourse from one of ‘plumbing’ and ‘disease’, to that of ‘amenity’ and ‘health’ (Cavanagh and Ware, 1991: 14). Cheap mass travel, especially on the new railways, generated further demand for better facilities for all. Many early railway stations provided wrought iron urinals at platform level for men, but women received less. Some railway companies quite intentionally refused to provide them for women (Richards and Mackenzie, 1986: 139, and Chapter 13). There used to be an 800 ft-long gents

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toilet at Waterloo Station equipped apparently with a plenitude of urinals (this is now the rush hour passageway to the Northern Line). There was more limited ladies toilet provision at Waterloo with different toilets and waiting rooms for first class ‘ladies’, and second and third class ‘women’. Clearly the railway station builders imagined the commuters they were serving to be predominantly male, and women were not made welcome – an attitude which arguably persists today. In contrast, the WC&P (Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway) south of Bristol, up until it was closed by the Beeching cuts in 1965, provided Ladies and Gents wooden toilets on its small rural platforms (Vincent, 1983). In other countries there was a much wider array of station facilities including a crèche at one of the Moscow stations, and kennels for hunting dogs in some Scandinavian stations (Richards and Mackenzie, 1986: 285).

Domestic toilet culture It is not the purpose of this book to get side-tracked into the intricacies of plumbing, nor to get caught up in domestic housing toilet issues. But before proceeding to the next chapter and the modern day, some cultural issues need to be discussed briefly as what people have in their homes, and think is ‘normal’, affects what they expect to be provided with in public toilets. It is significant that nowadays the flush lavatory, with a sit-down toilet bowl, is seen as the ‘normal’ type of domestic toilet. But such arrangements were a long time coming. Water-based flush lavatories and other ‘mod cons’ are extremely recent in terms of historical perspective. Alternative means of disposal, and quite different moral attitudes and manners, resulted in quite different approaches to ‘going to the toilet’. A more ‘natural’ easy-going approach prevailed for centuries, and the coming of urbanisation, industrialisation, ‘progress’ and more restrictive attitudes towards bodily functions created problems that had not existed previously. Answering nature’s call was not such a problem for centuries until it became culturally unacceptable to ‘go’ anywhere except in the public toilet, and then matters were made even worse by such facilities being closed down with no alternative being provided. Prior to the coming of Victorian concepts of hygiene and prudery, it was common for gentlewomen with large hooped skirts simply to stand or squat over the gutter when they wished to urinate (a personal Portaloo!). Apparently no-one saw this as unladylike. So wide skirts were no extravagance but another case of form (and fashion) following bodily function. With long skirts being the norm, the wearing of knickers was not a social priority in the past. Even Victorian ladies were likely to wear pantaloons with a split crotch arrangement, as can be seen from studying exhibitions of underwear of yesteryear at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. While water-based flushing systems were very popular and the established way ahead adopted in Britain, there were always other alternatives based on dry, non-water systems, usually using sand, soil/earth and/or ash. For example, Henry

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Moule of Dorchester patented an earth closet in 1859 which absorbed and neutralised human waste after three days. Incidentally, although his toilet was rejected, he has a street named after him on a housing estate in Dorchester (Hart Davis, 2001). Nevertheless, earth closets using dry systems do crop up again and again in the history of toilets, sometimes in the most unlikely places – for example, Australian outback picnic sites. Some Russian high-rise flats still run on the dry earth toilet system with earth chutes provided to serve all floors. Modern plastic backings to sanpro products imported from the West in post-Communist Moscow are non-biodegradable and make this system increasingly unhygienic. Further accounts of the horrors of wet and dry systems are to be found in the toilet classic, The Specialist (Sale, 1930). After 200 years of assumed progress based on water-based systems, as discussed later, environmentalists are now re-evaluating the worth of traditional dry systems. In the Victorian home, the provision of inside toilets (and bathrooms) in domestic dwellings was increasingly seen as essential (among the middle classes, if not the working or upper classes), and an absolute necessity in the New World of the United States of America (Kira, 1976, Ostler, 1996; de Bonneville, 1997). In Victorian England, toilets inside the dwelling would protect the modesty of ‘ladies’ and save individuals the trek ‘out the back’ in the rain and the dark. There were always some who considered the idea of having toilets inside the house as most unhygienic, and there was much opposition to the early public health acts in working-class areas. Owners of large country houses liked to have ‘the gentleman’s garden’ for guests to relieve themselves. In France, Versailles had no internal plumbing to speak of as was the case in many a château too. Many a smart French lady would carry a bourdelieu (a lady’s travelling pot). Such items are nowadays valuable antiques. Traditional methods of disposal that had worked well for gentry and peasantry in the countryside did not work in the context of large urban populations in the new industrial cities. As many a foundational town planning book, or book on the evils of nineteenth-century social conditions, recounts, it was not uncommon in working-class tenements for 200 people to share one privy, so increasingly housing legislation required individual ‘closet’ provision for the labouring classes too. But privies were not an absolute necessity; one did not have to join a queue with 200 of one’s neighbours every morning as the use of chamber pots among the working classes, and commodes among the more affluent, was commonplace. Lord Lever, philanthropic town planner and designer of Port Sunlight garden city near Liverpool, was also an advocate of improved commode design, and collected commodes and chamber pots (see Wood, 1994). Lever (1851–1925) had bought 52 acres on Merseyside, built his Sunlight soap factory there in 1888, and then started his model village in 1889, which was not completed until 1934. The scheme follows garden city principles but he appeared ambivalent about the value of internal toilets or, for that matter, separate kitchens replete with a sink. It was common to have a separate kitchen, scullery and wash-house, often with

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the water supply outside, a far cry from the modern fitted kitchen when ‘fire and water’ (ovens and sinks) (and, for that matter, water and electricity) are integrated alongside each other. He is an influential figure in the field of urban design, endowing the first Chair of Town Planning at Liverpool University (Cherry, 1988; Ashworth, 1968). Incidentally, in 1997 Lord Irving, the Lord Chancellor of the new Labour government, had his official apartments refurbished and spent £3000 on an Arts and Crafts medieval-style toilet with carved oak panelling which bears a resemblance to fin-de-siècle commode design. The nineteenth century was a period of a vast amount of house building, and this included the construction of middle-class villas, town houses and substantial terraces which still occupy large tracts of our cities. But internal toilet provision was not necessarily equally provided for women as well as men. A Bristol Women’s Architects Newsletter September 1994 shows a ‘gentlemen’s room in the ideal suburban Edwardian villa downstairs with a water closet, small dressingtable and cloak-stand’, but no such facility for the women as designed by the architects, W&G Audsley, in 1894. Some such housing was built with upstairs bathrooms and inside toilets, and provided a ready market for sanitary ware and plumbing fixtures and fittings. Also, there were large areas of better quality, skilled artisan and respectable workingclass housing consisting of miles of little terraced houses built on a grid layout, albeit much of it built with outside toilets but with potential for future installation of ‘all mod cons’ (inside toilets and water supply, plus gas and electricity) (Ravetz and Turkington, 1995). It is significant, therefore, that the public toilet pressure group set up in the 1980s to campaign against the decline of provision should be named ‘All Mod Cons’ (AMC), until it was renamed the British Toilet Association (BTA), mainly because AMC was an incomprehensible term to foreign toileteers. In the next chapter, the story of public toilet provision is taken up to the present day with particular reference to the legal context which so constrains progress.

Principles ➥ Respecting the past ➥ Conserving toilets as part of wider townscape and fabric of the city ➥ Seeing public toilets as architectural features in their own right ➥ Using existing patterns of toilet provision as template for refurbishment ➥ Seeing public toilets as a valid component in urban design and streetscape ➥ Avoiding steps down, replacing facilities at grade in situ where possible ➥ Not removing them altogether but adapting old toilets to new standards 50

The development of toilet provision within its legal context Twentieth-century provision Overground and everywhere This chapter continues the story of the development of public toilet provision, identifying en route the cultural, gender, design and locational factors that have contributed to present day problems. In the early twentieth century, public toilets continued to be built in London by the London County Council (LCC, 1928) and by many of the provincial municipal local authorities. There appeared to be no question that they needed to be provided. To complement the underground toilets of the late nineteenth century, the ‘overground’ toilet was introduced. These were often built at bus and train termini, in parks, near market places and off shopping streets, and were plentiful in large provincial towns and cities. Many of these very useful, yet ugly, little buildings are being closed. In the past one would find several within a mile of each other within the town centre. But fixed distribution standards as to their location were rare, the decision being based on common sense according to demand. New toilets in the 1940s and 1950s in Bristol were located in relation to heavily used bus routes and football venues before the growth of motorcar ownership.

For all the family?

CHAPTER FOUR • THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOILET PROVISION WITHIN ITS LEGAL CONTEXT

chapter four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Some pre-war public toilets included purpose-built children’s toilets, with drinking fountains outside, perhaps to encourage family use, especially in parks. Baby-changing facilities were unheard of, but there might be a bowl of water for the dog outside some public loos. Many had lavatory attendants ensconced in some dark cubby hole within the bowels of the building. While there were facilities for women, many more Gents-only toilets were built, such as on traffic islands along busy thoroughfares, or in highly industrialised areas such as the South Wales Valleys to meet the needs of the breadwinner on his journey to work. 51


Overall toilet block locations tied in with male travel needs rather than women’s convenience. Likewise, in those days, definitions of social class were entirely based on the male head of the household and women’s work was invisible in public policy-making (Greed, 1991). The 1936 Public Health Act, Section 87, sub-section 3, gave local authorities the right to build and run on-street ‘public conveniences’ and to charge such fees as they thought fit ‘other than for urinals’ (see Appendix for all toilet legislation). (The 1848 Public Health Act was the first act to deal with the topic.) This meant that women could be charged and men not, and condoned a lower level of provision for women which was viewed as an additional expense. Payment was made either by penny in the slot or by controlled turnstile entry at the entrance to the Ladies. Turnstiles blocked the entrance of pushchairs, prams, and small children without the money, height or the strength to work the turnstile. Mrs Tobe Aleksander and Joan Robins headed the Chain Reaction Campaign which was started in the 1950s to abolish turnstiles. After a heated campaign the turnstiles were eventually outlawed under the 1963 Public Lavatories (Turnstiles) Act. The rules outlawing turnstiles never did apply to ‘private’ conveniences, only ‘public’ ones, and they never applied to railway stations – hence the installation of turnstiles at most central London railway termini stations, much to the inconvenience of travellers. Large people in New York have campaigned against new narrower turnstiles at the entrances to the NY Tube (subway). Turnstiles are everywhere nowadays, in private premises operated by swipe cards to protect from theft, at a range of railway stations, in public libraries and universities, in sports arenas and even the Glastonbury festival which is equally renowned for its appalling temporary toilets. Interestingly, the 1936 Act renders illegal the fact that men too, nowadays, are being charged to use pub-

Figure 4.1 Horfield Common Men’s urinal, Bristol. In 1900 there were 90 urinals in Bristol, but few for women. At least these Victorian urinals have a screen around them compared with current examples which are right out on the pavement. 52

lic, or at least quasi-public, facilities in some public places, including having to pay for ‘Superloos’.

Municipal functionalism In the post-war reconstruction period, public toilets became more functional and economical in appearance and in the use of modern materials such as concrete and steel which persisted through to the early 1970s. They were usually built in an unassuming, municipal, ‘modern’ style using concrete walls with glass brick blocks for windows, and were replete with white or green tiles inside. A trend towards ‘modern abstract’ architecture was used as an excuse to provide no-frills cheap buildings. Thankfully these were not built underground, but they were often badly positioned, hidden behind trees, down steps, in underpasses, or up unsavoury side streets. Propriety and modesty demanded that they be hidden, and apparently the risks of this increasing the chances of mugging, cottaging and rape were not dominant issues at the time. Many rapidly descended into a bad state of repair, not least because of the use of concrete, the enthusiasm for rendering buildings in white or eau de nil, and the use of high maintenance painted wood exterior surfaces. Poor materials combined with poor maintenance and limited attendance and surveillance were a recipe for disaster. From the late 1970s, a new era of government cutbacks and closure gathered pace under the New Right Thatcher government which appeared to be governed by the principle, ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ and certainly there


Figure 4.2 This Ladies toilet in Horfield has been closed owing to ‘criminal activity’ but the urinal next door remains open. Often when the Gents is closed because of cottaging the Ladies is closed too through no fault of their own.

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was to be no such thing as a free pee either (Friedman, 1991). This mentality has continued to the present day. Few new toilets were built and many were closed in an attempt to save money (for, as the saying goes, ‘they knew the price of everything and the value of nothing’). Toilets have rarely featured in any of New Labour’s many urban regeneration programmes, and toilet provision remains a blind spot for many politicians although arguably they should be key components in developing a local area. Present day public toilets are the subject of later chapters. In summary there are two contrasting trends in modern toilet provision. First there is the fortresslike, vandal-proof, unsupervised on-street public toilet, epitomised by the APC, constructed in vandal-proof metal. Second, much more accessible off-street, privately-provided ‘public’ toilets are to be found in shopping malls, some of the best being at Blue Water Park (shopping mall), near Dartford on the outskirts of London, and at the Milton Keynes central shopping mall. Many incorporate every design principle advocated by those concerned with the needs of women, children, elderly and disabled people. But both these types (the fortress and the modern mall toilet) are relatively rare, because they are new-build. Between these two extremes there is a huge gulf, and a general day-to-day urban lacuna of under-provision of any sort of decent public toilet in many areas, although these are the ones the general public rely upon the most.

Counting toilets The zenith of enthusiasm and commitment to public toilet provision occurred in late Victorian and early Edwardian times and they were not considered an unnecessary extravagance at that time. Since then it has all been downhill, as charted by the following surveys. A 1928 survey of toilet provision in the Inner London boroughs (LCC, 1928) found that there were 233 toilet blocks for men and 184 for women, in which there were 1260 cubicles for men plus 2610 urinals but only 876 cubicles for women. Men also had the benefit of toilets in clubs and pubs. Many a pub toilet had its entrance straight off the street, ‘public’ (albeit maleonly) use being officially agreed between the local authority and the brewery (Robinson, 2001). The next survey of London’s public toilets was undertaken in 1961 by Graham Don, senior lecturer in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Don, 1961). At that time he found that 281 (53%) of public toilets were pre-1918; 178 (34%) were inter-war and only 71 were built since 1940. 60% of the full total were beneath ground level. Incredibly there has been no subsequent London survey, although it was expected that the Greater London Council (GLC) would have conducted one had it not been abolished in 1985/6. The present Greater London Authority (GLA) is certainly aware of the issue, but public toilet provision is not a statutory matter for their concern in developing a Spatial Planning Strategy for the conurbation. 54

Audit Commission The first modern governmental survey of public toilets was undertaken by the Audit Commission, commencing in the mid-1990s, under the requirements of the 1992 Local Government Act to meet the needs initially of the Citizen’s Charter. The Citizen’s Charter is meant to make the government more accountable – to the citizen – in terms of the levels of provision of key public goods and services. Thus an account must be given of the number of public conveniences provided by a local authority, but not the ratio of male to female (see ‘Staying the Course’, Section J: The Local Environment, paras 3 a and b, Audit Commission, 1994, and see Carroll, 1996). This survey has been repeated annually but under confusingly varying criteria. The exercise has been criticised for simply counting what is there (as if that by itself will create more toilets) without setting any benchmarks as to expected levels of service. It can only identify the best among a bad bunch of alternatives, rather than producing a definitive standard to which local authorities must aspire. The results are puzzling. The Audit Commission declares that the best figures are for Westminster where few people actually live. Likewise it implies that Brighton is relatively well-endowed, when in reality there has been public outcry at the closure of public toilets along Brighton Seafront which are vital to the millions who flock there for day trips and holidays. Paradoxically Brighton won an


There has been no national survey of public toilet provision for many years. In the 1990s Women’s Design Service (WDS) provided an overview of women’s toilets (Cavanagh and Ware, 1991), while Eric Midwinter’s study (1994) gave a snapshot of available public toilets at London railway and Underground stations. A national survey was attempted by Welsh MP Jon Owen Jones, who has always been keen to support groups campaigning for toilet improvements (see Chapter 14), by writing to all local planning authorities. His study concluded that both the present-day proportion and amount of public toilet provision for women had declined progressively from the peak reached over a hundred years ago (Jones, 1994). According to Jones’ survey, 42% of local authorities had only 1 public convenience per 5–10,000 people, and the situation has since deteriorated down to 30% according to BTA investigations (Jones, 1994; BTA, 2000a,b). Individual local authorities kept their own records of provision, while a range of interested organisations made their own surveys, such as the Institute of Wastes Management (IWM). Various sanitary engineering companies, disability groups and tourist organisations have kept a watchful eye over the situation. So there is evidence of continuing decline. Over the 10 years prior to 1994, 771 conveniences had been closed in 180 local authority areas (Bartlett, 1994: 1–4) and the rate has picked up even further over the last 10 years, so that there are now large ‘toilet deserts’ where local authorities have closed all their local public toilets (cf Shaw, 2001). The situation has worsened since – over 50% of all public toilets have closed since 1995.

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award from the Civic Trust for improvements to the Seafront in 2001. The Audit Commission has been criticised for its lack of consideration of the relative levels of male/female provision, and clearly gender is not mainstreamed into the exercise. To help matters along, the BTA through its membership, its own surveys and its extensive contacts within local government has sought to produce an augmented overview of the national situation by local authority area (BTA, 2001). Although there is no gender breakdown in the above figures, according to observations men still have approximately two-thirds more provision than women (BTA, 1999/2000). So all the figures above should be divided accordingly. There is a disparity of provision, ranging from one facility per 35 men and 86 women in the best local authority area, to one facility per 6427 men and 11,248 women in the worst. Within each toilet block women are likely to have half as much provision as men and over two-thirds of public toilet blocks are likely to offer less than four toilet cubicles for women. There are in England (only) around 7000 public local authority run toilets, of which around 3500 have disabled access to one or more of their toilets. But there are around 5000 individual RADAR accessible toilets with access including offstreet facilities presumably. Only around 1000 public toilets have baby-changing facilities. In addition, according to the BTA, there are around 1000 public toilets in Wales, 1500 in Scotland and 500 for Ireland (with similar levels of disabled and baby care provision) which gives us around 10,000 local authority public toilets for the whole of the UK. Although no definitive figures exist, it is estimated by BTA that, if all privately provided public toilets are added to this, the total is nearer 14,000 in all. For example, there are around 2500 in railway stations, but very few nowadays in bus stations, 21 airports all with toilets, 60 seaports with public toilet facilities, around 200 national park and leisure facility toilets, and around 200 motorway and service station area toilets, plus shopping malls, theatres, cinemas, sports facilities etc. Significantly, there are now locations

Table 4.1: National public toilet provision SITUATION 1999

Total toilets

Disabled access

London Boroughs

700

350

125

Metropolitan Areas

650

300

75

Counties

5000

2750

900

Scotland

1300

400

130

Wales

1000

350

100

10,000

3500

1330

TOTAL

(Based on BTA’s findings as informed by the Audit Commission)

56

Baby changing

Legal requirements Divide and rule In Britain the provision of public conveniences can take two forms: on-street provision by the local authority, or private off-street provision by the developer or owner of a shopping centre or other private building to which the public has access (such as a department store, shopping mall, or bus station) (Barritt, 1996). The phenomenon of on-street public toilets may be seen as a particularly British solution to the problem, although such provision is found in many other developed countries too, but it is not necessarily the primary, or only, form of provision. In North America public toilet provision has been increasingly moving ‘off-street’ and ‘inside’, being provided as a component of shopping mall development, whereas in some European countries provision is provided within cafés. While some people from overseas, including tourists, expect to find public toilets in England, others may not; but they are still likely to assume that other alternatives will be available, for example in cafés, and will be disappointed and confused when they are not. British Standard BS6465 (Parts I and 2), and the Linked Approved Document G of the Building Regulations have provided the national guideline standards for toilet provision since 1985 and for on-street and off-street public toilets since 1984 (BSI, 1996; DoE, 1992a,b,e, updated 1996 [see www.bsi.org.uk and www.bsi-global.com]). These regulations, until the 1996 revision, made it a legal requirement for men to be provided with approximately a third more provision per set of toilets than women, because men are given about the same number of cubicles as in the ‘Ladies’ plus urinal provision. The 1996 revision has only marginally improved the situation for women1. No wonder there are always queues for the Ladies!


where disabled toilets are provided but none for the rest of the general public, while in the past one was more likely to find only a Gents toilet and none for the Ladies. One of the problems of doing toilet research is that there is no complete set of data which incorporates all categories of public toilet, but a mish-mash of partial surveys by a range of bodies, and this is clearly an area where more research is needed. In comparison, there are many thousands of public toilets in Japan and Sweden which seem to have them on every street corner, whereas there are no public toilets at all in some South American countries. Looking at other essential components of the local street environment, for comparative purposes, there were 78,000 BT pay phones before privatisation, and as at March 2001 there were 28 million road vehicles, 18,000 post offices, 112,000 red post boxes, 20,000 black taxi cabs in London, 60,000 pubs in Britain, and 4225 caravan parks in the UK (with, in 1999, half a million caravans) (see current Social Trends, ONS, 2002).

57


Retail development In off-street locations such as shopping malls, some facilities are miles better but some older locations remain inadequate. I was informed by one developer that he did not like providing public conveniences for women beside food courts as they generated queues, but he did not seem able to grasp the obvious remedy to this problem – more, not less, provision. Even in enclosed shopping centre development, even when 80% of shoppers are women, it is quite ‘normal’ still to provide ‘equal’ provision for men when fewer men are likely to be around to use them. Private developers have had no legal obligation to provide for shoppers, only shop workers, under the current legislation, and local authority provision need only be ‘sufficient’ (as they think fit), a word which is frequently used but poorly defined in much of the legislation covering the provision of both public and private conveniences (cf S.43 of the 1936 Public Health Act, S.28 of the 1984 Building Act and successive legislation). Private developers and retailers have not been required to provide for shoppers, only shop workers, until very recently (Cunningham and Norton, 1993: 1; BSI, 1985, revised 1996). In March 1995, following considerable pressure by groups such as AMC, minimal standards were introduced for customer toilets, based on one male toilet, one male urinal, one unisex toilet for disabled people, and two female toilets for every 1000–2000 square metres of retail floor space (and so forth in proportion to total net sales area)2. At last one began to see customer toilets incorporated in new large store developments and refurbishment schemes – for example, some large branches of Marks and Spencer now have toilets, a glaring omission for many years, although they had them in their European stores. Branches of British Home Stores and Littlewoods generally have toilets because they have customer restaurants and thus fall under other arcane legislation. Although these new standards have improved the situation nationally, they are actually lower than those achieved by some progressive local authorities. Many London boroughs and the GLC (under its Public Entertainment Licence Requirements) previously had much higher and more equitable standards, and prior to the establishment of these new national standards were free to impose them. It requires quite a large retail store to achieve the minimum floor space. A traditional ‘high street’ shop of 660 square feet is only 60 square metres. From a reasonably sized supermarket or, say, a bigger Marks and Spencers of 3000–8000 square feet, we can now expect several toilets. A typical old 1960s shopping precinct of say 300,000 square feet or the huge Metro Centre in Gateshead of 1.55 million square feet (c. 144,000 square metres) should yield many toilets. In these days of intense retail competition it is in the interests of shopping centres and malls to provide good toilets to attract more customers regardless of what the minimum standards might be.


Some department stores, such as Debenhams, have always provided facilities (Lane-Jones, 2001) while newer chain stores seeking to attract family shoppers, such as Mothercare, IKEA and Children’s World, have found provision increases sales. IKEA, the Scandinavian furniture store, is renowned for above average facilities including a shoppers’ crèche and toilet provision, being one of the few stores located in mainly out-of-town locations to provide such facilities. Attitudes change. Ten years ago, a major supermarket chain objected to the wording of toilet requirements given by one London borough planning department that ‘in major developments which attract large numbers of visitors, such as shopping centres and leisure facilities, the council will expect developers to provide an adequate amount of accessible, good quality sanitary accommodation’ (Planning Week, 5.5.94: 7). Ten years later the big supermarkets like to give the impression they invented the idea of customer toilets because they care for their patrons. The problem is now going full cycle, as some such toilets that were opened with great publicity are now being closed and not replaced in certain ‘big name’ supermarkets. Currently improved standards are being formulated for retail by the BS6465 Part I revision committee drawing on existing best practice. Standards required by clients, and set by leading architects and design teams, for prestige commercial office, leisure, entertainment and retail development nowadays are often much higher than the minimum set by BS6465 both in terms of overall provision and ratio of women’s toilets (LDSA, 1999; BCSC, 2003; Chapman Taylor, 2003).

Figure 4.3 1960s utilitarian toilet block, Broadmead shopping centre, Bristol. These were included in the post-war redevelopment of the shopping centre, as it was rightly not assumed that off-street store toilets were available. There seemed to be an assumption in the 1950s and 1960s that there should obviously be toilets provided, unlike today when keeping toilets open is a battle. 59


Leisure facilities Discrepancies in provision are evident in relation to leisure and recreation related provision. BS6465 (Part I) recommended that toilets in public houses should be provided upon a 75:25 ratio in favour of men, but gave no standards for sports stadia. Sporting authorities suggest calculating that provision at football stadia and sporting facilities should be on a 90:10 basis, in spite of the fact that many such venues are used by mixed audiences for pop festivals, religious gatherings and public events (Inglis, 1993). John and Sheard (2000: 149) suggest 80:20 as the club standard and apparently see no problem with this. The Sports Council’s consultative document ‘Toilet Provision in Stadia Planning, Design and Types of Installation’ suggests 85:15. Inglis (1993) advised it is better that clubs should research their own ratio as appropriate to local demand rather than apply outdated rules. The lack of awareness of the need for the provision of public toilets to be linked to sport planning, especially in view of the numbers of visitors, tourists and spectators generated, is epitomised by the fact that Manchester closed over two-thirds of its public toilets during the very same period that it was making itself out to be the ideal European city to hold the Olympic Games. Presumably cutback in toilet provision was one of the many prices to pay for the diversion of vast amounts of public money spent on promoting and reconstructing the city’s sports facilities for the Olympics3. Bookmakers (betting offices) are the only non-food retail outlets where it is required throughout England and Wales that customers’ toilets are provided, but as a male planning colleague helpfully commented, ‘well they would do it on the street otherwise wouldn’t they?’. Incredibly both male and female toilets are meant to be provided but few women have tested the implementation of this regulation for themselves. So if a shop sells food and drink which is consumed on the premises, or if the premises is a betting office, both male and female toilets must be provided currently under S.20 of the 1976 Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act. The licensing laws governing places of entertainment, dancing and where alcohol is consumed affect toilet accessibility. When the lack of public conveniences for women and children is raised, someone is bound to say ‘well they could always go into a pub’ (public house or bar). Under the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act it was made illegal for children under 14 to be in a bar, this restriction being incorporated into S.168 of the 1964 Licensing Act (Glover, 1994). This effectively limited the mobility of women with small children, barring them (literally) from the public house, and from the ‘service station role’ of the inn. In late 1994, ‘children’s certificates’ were introduced to allow children into some bars in a few selected locations. In early 1995 a new system of ‘children’s certificates’ was introduced by the Government, enabling a limited number of pubs to allow under-age children into bars with their parents. Apparently the reason for this was to create a ‘family atmosphere’ to deter violence rather than pri-


marily to reflect the needs of women and children. Divisive legislation has ensured that children, and thus effectively women and families, have been kept out of many pubs, and prevented from benefiting from the original purpose of inns to provide rest and refreshment for travellers. These days few parents would dream of leaving children outside unattended, and so either a parent (usually the mother) has to ‘wait outside’ with them or they simply stay at home (Roberts, 1995; The Guardian, 1995). With increased car ownership and tourism, many rural pubs now provide gardens, play areas and other family facilities, and some premises are providing disabled provision too. The only good point about the licensing laws vis-à-vis toilets is that unlike the Building Regulations they can require retrospective improvement to existing premises. There are over 60,000 pubs in the UK and each one is effectively a gents’ lavatory. While many such premises provide minimal provision, some take a pride in the quality of provision and may use their toilets as an added attraction. For example, in 1997 a pub installed goldfish in its toilet cisterns in Barn Hunting in Stratford on Avon which, following concerns by fish lovers, was approved by RSPCA officials, and now the trend has caught on with many other pubs too. The situation is little better for those who want culture. Glyndebourne Opera House provides inadequate toilets for women. The current liberalisation of the UK licensing laws to allow 24-hour opening is exacerbating the situation in 2003 (Greed, 2002a; CCI, 2002). In contrast, the Covent Garden Opera House. renowned for its queues for the Ladies (Gaffin, 1994), has now been refurbished with a higher level of provision. The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall was refurbished in 1995 with twice the number of toilets for women, another success. There are also many sporting and cultural events held outdoors during the summer and all these, in theory, should be governed by Health and Safety Regulations which require minimal toilet provision, but ‘portaloos’ are often low on the agenda, let alone disabled accessible ones. Higher standards of provision for all, and more realistic gender ratios, for theatre toilets are nevertheless being applied by some more enlightened designers and providers (BTTTPC, 2003) and by local authorities that can still exert powers under the licensing regulations (LDSA, 1999). Recommendations based on a 60:40 female/male ratio, for example, are proposed by these bodies.

Workplace public toilets Similar unequal principles govern workers’ toilets as embedded in the 1936 and 1961 Public Health Acts, the various Building Acts, and the 1963 Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act (the latter being replaced, but not necessarily improved upon, by the provisions of the European-derived Work Place Directive). The problem remains that developers tend to build to minimum standards as set out in the regulations to save space and both capital and running costs. For example, some Computer Aided Design (CAD) computer programs for architects 61


a

b

Figure 4.4 Comparison of (a) female and (b) male toilets at Glyndebourne Opera.

and designers have incorporated an off-the-peg ‘toilet cubicle and block module’ which is far too small and arguably virtually below current standards, as there are always grounds for negotiation and re-interpretation of the original standards to mean something else altogether. Given the under-provision for women in the first place, it is unhelpful that the cleaner’s cupboard and other space-consuming storage areas are often located in the women’s toilet area, using up limited space. Perhaps it is assumed women won’t complain and most cleaners seeking access to these areas are likely to be women. Another field of controversy surrounding work toilets is ‘time to pee’ – that is, rest breaks and toilet breaks. This is a sore point in North America and increasingly a problem at call centres in Britain and the rest of Europe, when even two minutes away from the computer screen can hold up the system, although women taken on average 98 seconds to use the toilet. Apparently some women 62

workers on North American assembly lines wear incontinence pads because of lack of opportunity to relieve themselves, and one call centre manager in Britain was anonymously reported for telling his women workers to wear nappies (Linder and Nygaard, 1998). Thus people need both the time and the place to urinate in the course of the day. Women in traditionally male-dominated employment areas such as building sites suffer even more from generally disgusting toilet conditions and no hot water (Construction Manager Journal, Nov. 2000: 22–4). A woman reported she faced a 40-minute round trip to the nearest Ladies toilet when working on a building site (New Civil Engineer, 19.11.98: 18). In my previous research on women in construction, I came across many a story of inadequate toilets and of male managers, bosses and foremen who kept the key to the women’s toilet and expected women workers to beg for it. Many campaigns have taken place to make provision better on the basis ‘2 and 1’ – that is, to provide one Ladies to every two Gents on building sites, where no provision has previously existed for women construction workers. Another major workplace for children and young people is their school. Many school toilets are badly maintained, unhygienic and the site of bullying.


Figure 4.5 Law Courts, The Strand, London, with convenient toilets in the foreground. Law governs every aspect of toilet provision, even inequality. The toilets in the foreground have been used by generations of people visiting the courts. It is only relatively recently that law courts have been provided with adequate toilets for the public.

63


School standards are unequal for girls and boys, and this seems to be a feature common to many countries as explored in a cross-national study by Huang and Wang (2001) which particularly compares North America with China and other Far East countries. Even in the glamorous world of Californian high schools the situation is likely to be unequal:

Table 4.2: Example: US High school designed for 900 students Based on Section 2902, UBC code, California, based on female ratio of 1 toilet per 45 students, and based on 1 toilet per 100 male students plus one urinal per 30 students. Sex

m

f

Required toilets

9

20

Required urinals

30

–

Total places to pee

39

20

Current UK government guidance (DfEE, 2001) on creating inclusive school design and accommodating pupils with special educational needs and disabilities within mainstream schools has given attention to toilets for all, while the BSI standards set out guidance for schools, with under-provision for female students and staff. In our previous Nuffield research on inclusive school design, we found that girls often imagined there to be more girls’ toilets than boys’ ones and appeared unaware of the inequality (Greed et al, 2001). Changes to access are required under the 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001. Curiously, schools (and strangely post offices) were not ‘bound’ by the Building Regulations until changes were made in 2001 (Schools and Further Education [Amendment, England] regulations 2001 and Postal Services Act [Modifications] No.1. Order 2001). The Education (School Premises) Regulations 1999 sets out basic (and vague) current standards for UK school toilets. Hospital toilets are also problematic, particularly in shared wards where privacy is violated. But some workplaces are awash with toilet provision for their employees. For example, there are 600 loos in the Bank of England building! If one counts all the toilets in the buildings all around one in areas where there are no public toilets, it is a staggering under-used resource. The general public have got wise to this and may seek to use an office block loo. In my travels I have found that some office toilets now have security combination number locks on them, very inconvenient if you are in a hurry. I recently happened to visit a magazine distribution company where there was a Ladies and Gents visibly right beside the Reception area but the Ladies (only) was locked. In contrast, some countries encourage the use of office toilets. For example, in Singapore (2001) 64

Railways and travel Railway operators appear to be oblivious to the good design guides on accessibility produced by women planners, architects and disability groups. Mainline railway stations in London, such as Paddington, Euston and King’s Cross, now have turnstiles at the entrances to female (and some male) toilets, all of which are located downstairs. (Railway stations were exempt from the 1963 Act.) Yet, London Bridge Station, which serves as a busy interface between the Tube and commuter trains, is remarkable in having free toilets at ground level on nearly every platform. At British mainline stations with turnstile toilets, a charge of 20p is made. This is high compared with the usual ‘penny’, but it is low compared with some other countries. Frankfurt Station used to charge 1DM (33p), but this has since risen to around 50p with the coming of the Euro. Finland has the most expensive public toilets in railway stations in the world at around £1 a go. Yet one gets conflicting views from different bodies. In 1997 there was talk of Railtrack refurbishing 2500 stations by 2001, but little improvement is to be found and the trend towards toiletless stations continues. Just a few stations stand out as good – for example, London Bridge Station. In 2002 the Labour government promised more investment in railway toilets, but this commitment has to be set against the virtual collapse of the entire system of which toilets are but one problem. Turnstiles and payment systems create barriers. They restrict the way in which people use land, and their access to vital transportation systems, and force people to use cars, or not travel at all, because of the impossibility, for many, of using public transport. Fire evacuation risk is increased with turnstile installation. Any locking system on lavatories is potentially dangerous for those who get locked inside, as history has proved: In 1958 a lady got locked in a penny-in-theslot toilet and was injured climbing on the toilet roll holder to get out (Sayers v Harlow, 1958). Indeed toilets are dangerous places – for example, in 1997 a 33year-old disabled man was electrocuted at Belmear in the Isle of Wight by a 240volt wire hanging down from the ceiling in a stainless steel toilet, but, as he survived, the council was only fined £18,000. Perusing the local press will result in numerous stories of people getting stuck in the loo as toilets are generally inadequately designed and in particular too small. As other buildings or facilities become privatised, and thus move out of the control of legislation covering public buildings to that covering private premises,


the three ‘Ls’ of Lobby, Lift, and Lavatories were accepted as essential in designing business premises, especially where air-conditioned underground walkways connect shopping centres and give access to the entrance lifts for business offices. There is no such tradition within British cities, and people are more used to expecting on-street than off-street toilets.

65


additional controls will be difficult. Toilet turnstiles are being introduced into a range of privatised public facilities, including shopping malls and, significantly, bus stations. In the privatised bus station in Bristol where there are now turnstiles, the toilets have been moved downstairs and there are now private security guards patrolling the bus station, while at Bath bus station the toilets have been closed altogether. At Bristol there is a baby-changing area at ground level, but it is alongside the disabled toilet and can only be accessed through a door with a RADAR key lock. At the time of finalising this book, the toilets at Bristol bus station had been closed altogether because of a fire started by vandals, and the inconvenience caused was widely discussed on local radio and television but with no early solution except for a row of temporary Portaloos (which were disgustingly unusable).

Further Building Regulation developments By 2000 another phase of revision of the Building Regulations had begun, starting with revisions of the Building Act 1984 – Review of Part H (Drainage and Solid Waste) of the Building Regulations 1991 and associated legislation. In the wake of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995, a range of other Building Regulation changes have occurred, in spite of resistance by bulk house builders. Extensions and amendments to Part M (disability aspect) require level entrance and downstairs toilets in new houses (CAE, 1992; Adler, 2000). Under DDA Part III, from December 1996 it has been illegal to treat disabled people less favourably, and from October 1999 service providers have been required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. By October 2004, under a Code of Practice for Part III of the Act, all buildings will have to be accessible to people with disabilities, including churches, those housing ‘service providers’ and shops. This includes provision of public toilets for disabled people and in the process churches, for example, are providing toilets for all. In anticipation in June 2001, the first addition to Ely Cathedral in 450 years was dedicated in summer 2001, namely a new cloister with new toilets and facilities for disabled people (from Ely Standard, 28.6.01, at BTA conference of that date). There have been other small amendments. The Building Regulations from July 2000 require all toilets over 8 square metres to be fitted with escape lighting, except parts of school buildings with natural light, used during normal school hours, while the DfEE (2001) has produced guidance on inclusive school design. Meanwhile major changes were introduced under the new BS 8300: 2001, ‘Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people: Code of Practice’ introduced in September 2001, in which Section 12.4.3 deals with disabled toilets. These will be introduced in due course by 2004 to tie in with other changes in disability legislation. Part M of the Building Regulations, ‘Access to and use of buildings’, is also being revised in this respect. 66

Examples of better practice can be found north of the Border. Under the 1982 Local Government and Planning (Scotland) Act, Section 26, sub sections 1 and 2, local authorities ‘may make such reasonable charges as they may determine for the use of such conveniences’, and section 2 states conveniences means ‘waterclosets, or urinals and washing facilities for use in connection therewith’, which gives a form of equality in that everyone has to pay. Note the Act only says ‘may’ provide, equip and maintain fixed or moveable public conveniences in such places as appear to them (the local authority) to be suitable. Like the English solution, it is only discretionary but apparently the official expectation is higher that local authorities will still provide public toilets in Scotland. According to Hamish McHenderson, senior lecturer in Scots law, University of Edinburgh, this section follows the recommendations of the Stodart Report, para 197, and the working party on (improving) civic government, para XVII.1 (Stodart, 1981). The 1981 Stodart Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Local Government in Scotland made recommendations upon modernising and tidying up Scottish local government legislation and powers, updating many Victorian acts and archaic functions in relation to markets, fairgrounds and street cleansing. Its recommendations were the basis for this 1982 Act which replaces the antiquated provisions in the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act of 1892 and the Public Health (Scotland) Act of 1897, as well as local legislation, with a simple grant of discretionary power to islands and district authorities (that is all local authorities in Scotland) to provide, equip, and maintain public conveniences and charge for their use. In Scotland, the standard set by BS 6465 on toilet provision in different categories of buildings has been upped by 20–30% in some cases, according to the new Scottish standards accessible at www.scotland.gov.uk/development/bc. In Scotland toilet requirements are established by categorising buildings according to different types of ‘purposes and groups’ (Schedule 3), with the proviso that a survey must be undertaken of likely users before finalising provision, and with disabled provision guidance being integrated into the guidance document (Scotland, 2003). It has also been recommended by the Scottish government that designers should advise building control officers imposing standards control of the likely numbers and composition of people actually using a building at any one time – surely a much more progressive approach. This Scottish act is similar to English local government legislation in that the requirements are not mandatory but implementation depends upon discretionary powers. Likewise, there is no law that says local authorities must provide decorative flowerbeds, fountains, public art installations, or even public parks and open space! Many of them do so and the cost factor is not approached in such a restrictive manner as is the case with public lavatories. In Scotland, the fact that such discretionary powers are linked to the policy-making powers of planning authorities possibly gives


Comparative legislation

67


greater chances of good toilet policy being implemented as part and parcel of mainstream urban policy. If anything, the Scots seem to be more concerned about the erosion of powers over their sewers than pubic toilets. In 1996, the transfer of certain sewerage controls from local planning authorities to new sewerage authorities (Planning Week, 9.1.96:7) which now have permitted rights (without applying for planning permission) for underground installations and other infrastructural developments ‘means’ that the planners have less control over such lavatorial matters. Similar problems exist in Wales, which has been covered by generic legislation for ‘England and Wales’ except in the case of specifically ‘Welsh’ boundary and function changes, such as the 1994 Local Government (Wales) Act. But since the creation of the Welsh Assembly, albeit without revenue levying powers, there is an opportunity for change. The Celtic countries may provide interesting possibilities. For example the Northern Ireland Good Friday agreement includes an Equal Opportunities and Town Planning section in among other more mainstream legislation, which gives the impression that gender considerations must be taken into account in determining policy. Apparently in seeking to establish religious equality between Protestant and Catholic groups, gender, disability and ethnicity also crept into the drafting of the legislation, potentially to the advantage of all (NI, 1998; Reeves, 2000). Unequal provision between women and men is widespread. But some other countries have sought to remedy the situation. In 1976 a New York court ruled that it was illegal to charge women and not men as women could not use the urinals (Bernstein, 1994), but this ruling did not have much effect for it was not until the ‘Potty parity’ law of 1989 in New York, introduced by Governor Mario Cuomo, that equal numbers of toilets for women and men were required by law. This followed a long campaign in which Denise Wells was arrested for using the Gents to draw attention to the problem (and as a result of her experiences went on to become a lawyer (Woo, 1994:7). But equal provision often proves inadequate, and therefore the Massachusetts State Plumbers Board, for example, decided in 1994 that a 2-to-1 toilet ratio for women to men in heavily used facilities should be introduced (Ms. Magazine, July/August 1994:95). Nowadays many American cities are closing both their male and female public toilets because of drugs, crime and cottaging problems, so such successes do not necessarily result in more, better toilets. In Australia the Minister for Planning, Robert Maclennan, in 1994 amended the toilet provision regulations under Class 9, ‘Buildings—management of sanitary facilities’, to require that women’s toilets should be provided at the rate of 1.7 women’s toilets to one of men’s, thus updating the 1993 Building Act, Section 188. This followed a concerted campaign and the publication of research findings from RMIT on the lack of ladies’ toilets in theatres in Melbourne (Wallace, 1997). Likewise in Japan 2:1 provision is now common. The Japan Toilet Association is pressing for 3:1 provision whilst in Britain we remain at a 1:2 ratio

Conclusion We have inherited weak toilet legislation, inadequate toilet standards and generally poor toilet building provision from the past. The chances of achieving adequate toilet provision depend greatly upon underlying legal powers. There is a strong discretionary element given to local government to decide which particular policies and facilities to support and prioritise. Clearly any change in legislation will require the replacement of the word ‘may’ with ‘must’ and must be backed with adequate funding. The continuing story of the battle for equal and better toilet provision will be recounted in subsequent chapters and the legal aspects will be pursued further within the context of creating and implementing change.

Notes 1. 2.

3.

The author is a member of the BS6465 Part I revision committee, currently updating the standards. CONVERSION: Re floorspace provision: 1 square foot = 0.09 square metres, and 10.764 square feet = 1 square metre; i.e. divide or multiply by ten approximately. In contrast, in Suwon, Seoul, Korea, 60:40 male/female ratio of football stadia toilets is provided, with FIFA approval. Currently the Football Foundation in the UK is revising stadia facilities standards, especially for disabled spectators, with additional provision for baby changing to attract more families (Football Foundation, 2003).


in favour of the Gents (Kobayashi, 1995). Under the New Zealand Building Code (NZBC, 2003) since 1995 it has been stipulated that ‘no more than 10% of the people wanting to use a sanitary fixture should wait more than 60 seconds’.

69


Principles ➥

Need for fundamental change in the law to make toilets provision mandatory

➥

Need to change centuries of gender discrimination in levels of provision

➥

Need to provide adequate controls, money and regulation to make this happen

➥

Need for more progressive approach than always designing to minimum standards

➥

Need to revise existing standards including BSI and Building Regulations

➥

Need to use opportunity of European Union standards harmonisation for positive change

ON THE PROBLEM

chapter five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Cultural attitudes: separating or mixing

Cultural constraints This chapter continues the conceptual background to the problem of toilets by looking at the cultural factors that inform policy-making and investigating fundamental attitudes. The chances of adequate public toilet provision are hindered by the subcultural values and attitudes held by professional and governmental decision-makers. Public toilets are seen either as a joke or as ‘dirty’, and as centres of crime, sex, perversion and vandalism (Laporte, 1968; PCS, 2002). Women’s toilets are likely to be seen as either unimportant, embarrassing or the source of smutty jokes. Such a mentality reflects deep cultural taboos about the place of woman in the city of man. A range of historical, philosophical, geographical and sociological perspectives needs to be drawn upon which helps to explain such attitudes. To get the subject taken seriously it is essential to take the joke out of toilets.

CHAPTER FIVE • CULTURAL ATTITUDES: SEPARATING OR MIXING

SECTION TWO: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES

Divide and rule Many of the beliefs which have shaped western urban form and society can be traced back to classical Greek and Roman cities which strongly manifested spatial divisions between male and female realms. These were expressions of associated public/private and inside/outside divisions. The respectable woman lived her life inside the home rather than out in the public places of square and street (Greed, 2000b; Boulding, 1992: 227) but if she went outside she was just a ‘woman on the street’ of questionable morals. The belief in the need for ‘zoning’ for separating out different land uses to create sanitary and organised cities has been a key theme governing the development of modern town planning in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Greed, 1994b). Land use zoning enforced distinct employment zones and residential areas – that is, work and home – the public and the private were 71


kept apart. This may also be interpreted as one means of circumscribing the role and sphere of women’s activities in modern society and keeping women ‘off the streets’. In the nineteenth century a woman who was out on her own ‘fancy free’ in the streets might be assumed to be a prostitute. There is no female flaneuse equivalent to the flaneur (the man about town) (Greed, 1994b). It was assumed that respectable women would be unlikely to move around the city, or travel on the railways, as much as equivalent men. They were less likely to need public toilets, which might encourage immorality attitudes and ‘unsanitary’ conditions. The words ‘zoning’ and ‘sanitary’ are etymologically linked (consider cordon sanitaire = quarantine zone) and urbs sana (the healthy city). Women who move around ‘outside’ the home, i.e. out in the city, have traditionally been seen as ‘out of control’, a phrase significantly also used of the prostitute, and both urologically and morally ‘incontinent’ (a word with many meanings). Their presence may be seen as a threat to the maintenance of public/private boundaries of social life within urban space (Greed, 1994a: 80–1).

The need for cleanliness and hygiene There is an enduring disgust with body wastes, urine, faeces and blood, all of which show that ‘man’ is not just a pure spirit but a dirty body too. This desire for separation from the earthly realm and flying off in the spirit may be echoed in science fiction and space travel. Star Trek First Contact (1996) was the first film in the popular science fiction series to have any mention of going to the toilet in the script. Clearly ‘man’s’ quest ‘to boldly go where no man had gone before’ could not exclude the fact that he had to ‘bodily’ go too. ‘Out of this world toilets’ have always presented major problems for astronauts (Bathroom Today, June 2002: 62). Communal public facilities such as toilets and, for that matter, swimming pools, health centres, holiday camps and cinemas have all been seen both by municipal authorities and by mothers as potentially dangerous places where germs are lurking which need to be strictly controlled and strongly disinfected. The obsession with sanitation in the nineteenth century was as much concerned with ‘social hygiene’ – that is, with morality – as it was with actual germs (Jones, 1986), but it still informs our attitude to toilets and bodily functions at the personal and micro policy level of toilet design, and the perceived fight against disease, dirt and crime therein. A spate of anthropological and sociological books deal with the impact that the need to separate clean and decent (Wright, 1960; Spock, 1969; Douglas, 1966; Reynolds, 1943) has had not only on our wider society but also specifically upon attitudes towards toilets and the accompanying bodily functions. In relation to confused cultural messages about sex and/or toilets, it is significant that Lucinda Lambton’s revised edition of her book Temples of Convenience: Chambers of Delight (Lambton, 1978) 72


was confiscated by Customs officials when it arrived from printing overseas, and impounded as too lewd. The equating of excretion with ‘dirtiness’ is not universally held, nor the linking of ‘sex’ with ‘dirtiness’ either, although most cultures have rules and taboos to prevent bacterial contamination. At the Japan Toilet Association (JTA, 1996b) International Conference in Toyama, North Japan in 1996, where the conference theme was environmental waste, I encountered a totally different set of cultural values. Japanese delegates explained that human excreta was highly valued in the past, and that it was seen as ‘brown gold’ that was spread on the fields as an essential component in fertility. Annual ceremonies used to be held in some Shinto temples in the villages where the Brown Gold was offered to the gods, the equivalent of our Harvest Festival! Likewise in Ancient Rome, the Emperor Vespasian taxed people for the right to clean the public toilets, because the waste was highly valued as fertilizer. The word ‘dirty’ has two linked meanings, namely unhygienic and sexual. It is a word frequently used by respondents in describing public toilets but one cannot specify exactly what percentage of each meaning is included in each use. For example, children are wisely warned to look out for ‘dirty old men’ when using public toilets. The poor are frequently described as ‘dirty’ but whether this refers to personal hygiene or morals is unclear. In the nineteenth century concern was expressed by ‘public health’ (and that’s a term to dissect) officials at the poor living in insanitary conditions. In fact this may have ‘meant’ concern about mixedsex overcrowding of a hundred people sharing the same privy! The public health

Figure 5.1 Global toilet debates. 73


agenda has always been a cultural manifestation of the mores of society (Armstrong, 1993).

Separation or mixing There appears to be a deep-seated need in society to separate everything into good/evil and pure/impure categories, whether it be the sexes, social classes, races or land uses. Does there always need to be a negative to justify and sanctify the positive? According to Durkheim, if there were no evil there would be no good, and so certain activities would need to be criminalized to justify the existence of the justice system and righteous individuals (Durkheim, 1948, 1970). There is a deeper cultural uneasiness about ‘mixing’ regarding cross-cultural divides. Mary Douglas, the anthropologist, described how the tribes she studied in the South American Rain Forest were very concerned about the flying fox, a creature that seemed to be half bird and half furry mammal; they could not categorise it, so they did not eat it and considered it taboo. She concluded that ‘dirt is matter out of place’ (Douglas, 1966). Toilet symbols and language are indicative of cultural divisions. In Saudi Arabian airports it appears, at first sight, that there are no toilets for men, just two ‘Ladies’ symbols with long dresses, but the long black dress signifies ‘Women’ and the long white dress symbolises ‘Men’. On such occasions it is best to wait and see who goes into which door! The Ladies can be much worse than the Gents in some Middle Eastern countries, especially away from tourist areas, where the Gents might be to western standards, but there is only a hole in the ground for women, and no Ladies facilities at all in public and government buildings. Nowadays, the proliferation of disabled toilet logos suggests that there are now three sexes, male, female and disabled. The disabled sign is exclusionary as it suggests only (people in) ‘wheelchairs’ (a small proportion of all people with disabilities) are worthy to use the facilities. Interestingly one does not see Men, Women, and Gay as an alternative, but certainly this has been considered as a means of managing cottaging. While APCs might be a welcome port in a storm in an emergency, they are looked upon with apprehension and you seldom see a queue for an APC. People are frightened of being locked in, swept away in the cleaning cycle, inter alia. People are also concerned that ‘anyone’ might use them as they comprise the ultimate mixed toilet, used by men, women, and in some locations by cottaging couples. Likewise, many ordinary people want mixed hospital wards phased out, not least because of the toileting arrangements. Women may feel acutely embarrassed, stared at, and ill at ease, and this may affect their rate of recovery. The argument that such arrangements create a family atmosphere seem ill-placed when sharing with complete strangers who are not members of their family. This is particularly the case when toilet and washing facilities are shared between the

CHAPTER FIVE • CULTURAL ATTITUDES: SEPARATING OR MIXING Figure 5.2 A range of logos reflecting stereotypes and societal divisions. Male, Female and Disabled: Three Sexes? Male, Female, Disabled, Elderly, Baby: Five Sexes? 75


Figure 5.3 German tourist bus spotted in London: note the disabled toilet logo and other signs in the back window, truly a total mobile life-support system for all, a loomobile.

sexes on hospital wards. Many people are concerned with the poor design and condition of hospital toilets in general, many of which are surprisingly inaccessible and often dirty (Cavanagh, 1994). Clearly mixing boundaries does not work unless women’s needs are prioritised. A scientific study of queuing theory based on observations of public toilet queues recommended that unisex toilets would reduce the queue problem for the Ladies (Matthews, 2000). No account was taken of the fact that women had less provision to start with in the sites chosen for his survey and that everyone would queue longer unless full provision was made for both women and men, including facilities for children and the elderly, who were seen as slowing things down. In general, unisex toilets reduce, not increase, toilet provision. Unisex toilets are ostensibly breaking the zoning and segregation taboos that have so restricted women’s urban lives – but not necessarily in a positive way to the benefit of women, because arguably ‘to be male is to occupy space’ (WGSG, 1984). Men tend to take over and the women hold on and suffer bladder problems as a result, particularly within our culture where people are embarrassed about bodily noises and smells (would you be willing to move your bowels with your boss outside the toilet door?). Some young women are concerned about the noises they might make while urinating or evacuating their bowels. A Japanese company has produced a toilet that plays music to cover the sounds of urination and evacuation, and this is apparently proving popular in Europe too. Most toilets flush in E flat. Islam does not favour unisex toilets or, for that matter, 76


mixed washbasin facilities either, and many Moslem women are very concerned about this modern trend (Hamzah and Hooi, 2001). In spite of people’s ambivalence about unisex toilets, they are featured as the centre of social life in the television series Ally McBeal. Unisex staff toilets are perceived as modern and likely to be popular with younger people, especially by bosses of computer firms, but women of all ages are unhappy with such an arrangement (Daily Mail, 26.4.2000: 5). Clients visiting such offices may also feel uneasy. There are unisex toilets in the Ark, Hammersmith, office building, and fashionable ‘cool’ office developments in the London Docklands. Interlocked arms are displayed on the toilet logo to show that the toilets at the entrance to the new Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) headquarters are shared. When one opens the door one finds just a very large disabled toilet, yet there is no disabled symbol on the door. Town planning is still a very male-dominated profession and fortunately there are separate facilities on other floors. Likewise, in coffee chain outlets one typically finds one ‘mixed’ toilet in the form of an ill-equipped ‘disabled toilet’ that is intended to be used by customers, suggesting that the abled are gradually recolonising disabled toilet provision. Alternatively there will be a separate Gents and expectation that the disabled will share their toilet with the Ladies, with no alternative being offered as is the case in many a public building (in crematoria for example). With the requirements of the DDA 1995 progressively coming into force, it is likely that to meet the law’s requirements we will see more, not less, sharing of toilets between abled and disabled, in the form of the unisex, uni-able ‘disabled toilet’ to meet the minimum requirements of the law.1 Racial mixing in toilets has been a major concern in some societies. In South Africa and the Southern States of the US, separate toilets, water fountains and waiting rooms were commonplace. There would not only be a queue for the White Ladies toilet, provision was even poorer in the Black women’s toilets, whereas the White Gentlemen’s toilet had the highest level of provision. By comparison, as late as the 1950s in port towns in Britain, including parts of the London Docklands, one might find three signs on toilets used by the crew of merchant shipping – namely, ‘Officers, Men and Asians’. Sometimes several hygiene and zoning protocols make clashing demands within a particular location. In 1997 an illegal encampment of gypsies in a children’s play area beside a high-rise council block of flats in Bristol was provided by the council with a portaloo under the public health acts, although their presence there infringed other statutory controls. A fear of gypsies, foreigners, homeless and travellers – that is, ‘outcasts’ – using public toilets and mixing with ‘respectable’ people remains a topical issue, albeit unspoken in these politically correct times. There are class dimensions to be considered too. In Wales, for example, at Swansea railway station, one must choose between Dynion (Men) or Merched (Women). In class-ridden England, overseas visitors may hesitate as to whether their social position entitles them to use the Ladies or Gentlemen’s toilets, or

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whether they should go and find those more democratically labelled ‘Women’ or ‘Men’. Do the rich use public toilets at all nowadays? A Which Magazine survey (2001) stated that only 50% of the public use public toilets, but no indication was given of who was asked in terms of class, gender, life stage and location. Other studies (by men) suggest that on-street public toilets are toilets of last resort – ones in shops, restaurants and pubs being preferred. Such facilities are not necessarily readily available to those travelling out of hours, or with luggage or pushchairs. There is such snobbery associated with public toilet usage, and so many male/female differences, that such statistics should be treated with great caution.

Zoning colours Zoning has affected high-level urban policy approaches, but a dualistic mentality has also affected details of toilet design and societal attitudes towards ‘individuals’ and ‘others’ including black people and women (not mutually exclusive categories). Thus a zoning mentality has both racial and aesthetic implications. In particular the black/white dualism is of significance. ‘Black’ was traditionally seen as the colour of ‘sin’, evil, disease, dirt, and pollution in the West, but sometimes conversely of modernity and high fashion. Whereas Henry Ford had said in respect of his Model T Ford cars ‘you can have any colour as long as it’s black’, in the case of underwear and toilet sanitary ware for many years it seemed you could have ‘any colour as long as it’s white’. Black does not show the dirt and stains so would be so much more practical, although admittedly in hard water areas it will stain and it will still have the same germs as white. Most fridges and washing machines continue to be white, apparently ‘meaning’ they are ‘cleaner’ than their coloured counterparts. In contrast, in industrial kitchens and food producing factories, such equipment is more likely to be black or shiny aluminium, not white. Digressing, I do wonder why computer equipment has always been the colour of rice pudding, or sick. A helpful chap at a major computer chainstore told me he thought this was because this colour showed the dirt quickly and looked faded and old, thus encouraging people to buy new machines. Perhaps if a computer looks ‘off colour’ it appears ‘unhygienic’ and ‘ill’ or possibly ‘diseased’, like a dirty lavatory, creating an illogical desire to replace it. Clearly we do go by appearances and judge a toilet by its colour. Sanitary towels and other sanpro are traditionally white, and nowadays often bleached sparkling white with dangerous chemicals (WEN, 1993) when brown is the real colour of unbleached cotton. Some are also made using GM cotton which has caused great concern. British soldiers coats were red, so as not to show the blood (even if it did make them sitting targets showing up so much). Likewise hospital and ambulance blankets used to be red not to show the blood, and a ‘red cross’ is a sure sign of ‘hygiene’, health and hospitals. So why is menstrual blood ‘blue’ in pantiliner advertisements on the television and not red? One is

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Who is entitled to respond to the call of nature in public? The problem with public toilets is that they transgress public space and bring into the public arena private functions, potentially sexual activities, and women’s private functions. Culturally men have far more freedom of movement, and public space and facilities are built around their needs and travel patterns. It is more acceptable for a man to relieve himself in public. Just like male dogs, any tree or wall will do for male humans (especially walls belonging to pubs [public houses, bars, inns], closed public conveniences, car parks, and football grounds), regardless of the legality of the situation. Inglis (1993) refers to anti-social behaviour such as urinating on the terraces, even by men who would not normally behave like this, and once in the toilet in the washbasins or on the floor if there are not adequate urinals. Once normal behavioural boundaries have been breached, the way is opened for further criminal behaviour (Inglis, 1993). Likewise, once ‘outside’ street urination becomes acceptable, it is a slippery slope down to other forms of incivility and potential crime. Such attitudes start young. I was walking up Park Street, a main shopping street in Bristol, and observed a mother directing her small bursting son of around 5 years old to a convenient buddleia bush between buildings. As the boy peed, I heard his little sister cry out, ‘Mummy, Mummy, I want to go too’, a plea which met with no response whatsoever from the mother. Was the mother doing her a favour teaching her ‘self control’ for as she gets older she will find Ladies toilets are few and far between? This is a vicious circle, as female restraint confirms the entrenched attitude in the professional world of municipal plumbing


reminded of how a feminist group produced a spoof advertisement in the 1980s on this topic which ended up looking like a chain saw massacre – realistic but socially unacceptable. In 2001 a range of slimline sanitary towels available in black as well as white was advertised, but not red yet. Blue symbolises ‘hygiene’ and nowadays one will find washing-up liquid, wet wipes and disinfectant with blue dye added. Blue is also the colour of peppermint but, just to confuse matters, in some other European countries blue is the colour of hazelnut confectionary. Blue and green are also the colours of stuff you put down the loo to kill 99% of all known germs. Yet putting ‘blue down the loo’, that is putting harmful chemicals down the lavatory pan to ‘clean’ it, is much condemned by environmental groups as this toxic mixture of coloured chemicals will eventually end up in the ocean or on the land killing off valuable micro-organisms (National Trust, 2000). Visually disabled groups are concerned about the whiteness of toilet tiles and apparently it is difficult to find the door or the rail or the bowl if everything is gleaming white, designers take note. Colour and contrast need to be taken seriously in creating accessible toilet design (Bright, 2002).

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that women do not ‘need’ to go as often as men. But the effects of under-provision for women are far more deadly, health-wise than the more visible problem of male street urination. Some women do not like transgressing the public/private divide and going ‘in public’, or at least going in a public toilet. Many ‘nice’ women still consider it rather ‘uncouth’ or possibly ‘unhygienic’ to use public facilities, and believe that it is a sign of virtue to go very infrequently, resulting in distended bladders, pain and a masochistic mentality. Likewise frequent bowel movements may be seen as ‘unladylike’ while the current obsession with slimming and reduction in food intake all create an incorporeal woman who has inwardly digested the cultural opprobrium of society towards women’s bodies. Such self-policing on the part of women reduces the demand for more women’s toilets. Why is putting food into the body not seen to be as dirty as excreting it at the other end? This theme was developed in the film, The Phantom of Liberty by Luis Bunuel, which centres around a dinner party scene where eating food is indecent, and everyone sits on loos to eat. This surrealist French comedy occasionally appears on Sky television late at night, and it is worth watching as it seeks ‘to make the familiar strange’ and challenges our assumptions about ‘normality’ (last seen 18.4.96, 1.35 am, Sky Movies Gold). Possibly eating food is disgusting to some people such as those suffering from bulimia and anorexia. People eat in mixed company, eating out is seen as a cultural event, not a shameful disgusting activity. Significantly, in some cultures women eat separately from, and after, the men. Since men ‘can’ go in public and there are more male toilets too, they are less likely to be ‘caught short’ (Birmingham, 1991) or declared incontinent. Clochemerle is the story of the installation of a pissoir (male public urinal) in the village of that name in the Beaujolais region of Southern France. Chevalier comments ‘only males are privileged to overflow on the public highway’ (Chevalier, 1993: 97, originally 1936). Clochemerle is now a tourist attraction in its own right (Derhy, 1996). The pissoirs of France have been notorious in making public provision for men and not for women. There are only two vespasiennes left in Paris now and they are listed buildings, with one used as a newspaper kiosk. Such oddities may be found by consulting the French web page: www.parisnet.com/ english/city/unusual/toilet/poesie.htm. The APC is known in French as the sanisette (little sanitary convenience), while the original pissoirs are known as vespasiennes, goules en vogue, and by many slang terms.

Eurination Nowadays in France, the pissoir has been replaced by the APC, the Superloo. The APC was first pioneered in Paris by Jean Claude Decaux’s company in 1980 and now Jean François Decaux the son runs a multi-million pound, international business which produces all sorts of street furniture, bus shelters, advertising 80


hoardings, seating, etc., as well as APCs. The first British Decaux APC was established in South Kensington, London in 1992 in the form of an advertising column, while their first fully accessible APC was established in 1995 in Russell Square in Camden. In 2001 a combined bus shelter toilet was built by Decaux in Notting Hill, London, designed by the famous architect Sir Norman Foster, just to the left of the Underground (outside 50 Notting Hill Gate) with another at 261 Kensington High Street, outside the Odeon and opposite the Commonwealth Centre. JC Decaux has installed thousands of APCs worldwide including nearly 1000 in the UK (Decaux, 2001). Having now become obsessed with public toilets, France has leapfrogged from a hole in the ground approach to developing the most modern contraptions, bypassing the Victorian sanitary engineering stage altogether. In France nowadays, the Cleanomat ‘no touch’ system is popular, which has a seat that opens automatically with a new paper cover coming out for each user. This has won the Toilette d’Or (Golden Toilet) Prize in France from the French Toilet Association (FTA). (Sadly the FTA is currently disbanded). The flush is activated when 37ºC temperature is sensed (body heat of urine), so it is all very vandalproof and there is no contamination by hand. In France, on-street public toilets, including APCs, are still relatively few in number compared with Britain. Many French ‘public’ toilets are to be found offstreet in cafés and restaurants. The standards and variety of provision varies considerably according to the class and expectations of the clientèle of the establishment. In theory, under French law, any member of the public has the right to use a café toilet without necessarily buying anything, a principle not welcomed by café owners if anyone tries to do so. Overall, Continental European attitudes to toileting seem to be more open. Anecdotally, everyone informs me that if you ask a French policeman, ‘where is the toilet?’, he will look puzzled and shrug his shoulders and gesture to show that the whole of France can be used as a toilet. In Belgium the Brussels Manneken-Pis celebrates male urination, and has its own museum and tourist following. There is also a female version of the statue a few streets away but, significantly, this is seldom mentioned. The Germans are generally known as having a more earthy approach to toilets, and Das Klo restaurant in Berlin is designed around a lavatorial theme (klopapier = toilet paper in German). The equating of scheiss (shit) with geld (gold) in German culture has often been highlighted, not least in Freud’s theories of anal retention (as discussed, for example, by Professor Alan Dundes of California and Dr. Val Curtis, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on the Anatomy of Disgust Channel 4 TV programme of 15.8.2000). You can judge a nation’s culture by its toilets. Many German toilet bowls have a ledge on which to inspect the outcome before flushing it away. In contrast North American toilets have powerful flushes that get rid of it all in one go, with no built-in viewing ledge. French toilets, before the French toilet revolution set

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(a)

(b) Figure 5.4 Combined bus shelter and toilet, Notting Hill (a) designed by Sir Norman Foster and manufactured by JC Decaux. A very high level of design using international architects has been a mark of recent Decaux products. The Decaux UK Headquarters (b) are appropriately housed in an Art Deco building refurbished by Sir Norman Foster in 2000, located in the Great West Road, Brentford, West London. Bus shelters, advertising hoardings and other street furniture are all design co-ordinated [(c) and (d) next page].

in, were traditionally a ‘hole in the ground’ and it is no coincidence that a huge perfume industry developed in France. Britain’s attitudes are culturally somewhere between the two extremes of North America and Europe, ranging from 82


(c)

(d) Figure 5.4

(continued).

modern and efficient to unpredictable and earthy. In spite of the dreadful condition of many British public loos, some are still admired by foreign tourists. The German Embassy announced that ‘Germans like British toilets’ (press release Evening Standard, 3.6.97). A report was given (18.5.1997) in The Times about how the Russian envoy saw British toilets as a sign of the world’s most civilised nation! More commonly, every nation seems to think that other nations smell and theirs is the best system in the world, so for one nation to commend the toilets of another is praise indeed. 83


Our American cousins Britain, relatively speaking, shares an Anglo-American culture with North America, in spite of attempts to harmonise us with the rest of Europe where toilet attitudes are freer. Prudery has been more embedded in North American society. 1950s films had no toilets in their bathrooms and only single beds in marital bedrooms. The 1999 film, Pleasantville, a skit on the hypocrisy of the soaps of the 1950s, includes a scene in which one of the female travellers from the 1990s goes to the Ladies restroom only to find all the compartments are void of toilets. Americans seem to be edgy about their public toilets, and are famed for leaving a large gap (specified as 9 inches or 12 inches in some states) between the bottom of the door and the floor, to prevent anything from ‘going on’ in the compartment, which can put some men off going altogether. Apparently in the past (1930s) many US public cubicles had no door, and nowadays in army barracks, prisons and other institutions there are rooms full of toilet pans for the inmates in the open without any cubicles or walls. Clearly the design of men’s public toilets needs improving too. American words for going to the lav such as ‘using the bathroom’ (where there is no bath!) have a strong association with ‘washing’ and ‘cleaning’, perhaps reflecting the puritan origins of American-English which lacks the coarseness of vernacular Anglo-Saxon terminology of some aspects of English-English (see Acronyms for a list of equivalent words). The American term, ‘I’ll go wash up’ causes confusion if a British person responds ‘I’ll help you wash up’. Likewise, ‘I’m going to wash up in the kitchen’ really means in English-English ‘I am going to do the dishes after the meal’. Clearly the situation is culturally complex. Other American terms include restroom, John, and comfort station. English-English terms include loo, lav, bog, W.C. (water closet) and the wonderfully neutral phrase, public convenience. I have used the slang word ‘go’ to include all trips to the toilet for whatever reason, but acknowledge that this is a particularly English-English term. While some families members will enthusiastically ask of each other, ‘have you had a bowel movement?’, in more refined families people resort to phrases such as ‘I wouldn’t go in there for a little while if I were you’. Yet perhaps we are in good company as Prince Charles in his book Old Man of the Isles (Prince Charles, 1986) talks about the importance of moving one’s bowels after breakfast. Why is toilet talk often equated with being common, with slang and lack of education? Why is low-status dirty work seen as ‘shit work’, an accolade that might be better used to describe high-status, creative valuable activity? A straightforward approach is so much healthier. A recent documentary on the army showed that new recruits were awakened at 5.00 am and given the official command to ‘Shit, shave and shower’ and all within 20 minutes! An army may march on its stomach but it may be hindered by its bowels! Other curiosities include the endearing term ‘dunny’ in Australia. Some of the words used for public toilets suggest affection rather than revulsion. The

Toilet art Public toilets have become cultural artefacts in their own right. Because in our society excretory functions, like sex, are seen as ‘dirty’, it is inevitable that the avant garde, seeking to shock, will use toilets as ‘art’, often in association with depictions of ‘sex’. I am alarmed by those women artists who appear to have bought into the whole ‘male thing’ about the ‘dirtiness’ of bodily functions and, as a manifestation, the ‘ladette’ who mistakenly imagines ‘girl power’ to be like the boys seeking to shock their audiences. (But when it comes to attitudes to street urination presumably they find they are not really one of the lads after all.) The artist, Sarah Lucas, included a full toilet bowl in her exhibition at the Arnolfini Bristol (featured on television, BBC2, 30.11.96, 9.30 pm) while Tracy Emin has taken this trend even further. ‘Disgust’ is the operative word infusing such art, not its antonyms ‘delight’ and ‘pleasure’ which are words seldom associated with excreta. Lucas’s work was part of an exhibition entitled ‘Minky Manky’. This oeuvre was entitled TX: Two Melons and a Stinking Fish, no doubt alluding to the fact that many men say that women’s genitals smell of ‘stale fish’. In reality many women clean out toilets, put down lav seats, wipe the bottoms of the very young and very old, and clean up after male, elderly and/or careless family members. So such ‘art’ is merely annoying to ordinary women who do not have the luxury of being disgusted either by sights or by smell, but simply have to get on with it (Curtis, 2000). Other artists of this genre include Stewart Ridley, ‘anti-hygiene artist’, and Steve Pippin who produced a video made in 1998 entitled The Continuing Saga of an Amateur Photographer. The video shows, in real time, the journey from London to Brighton by train, during which time he goes into the toilet, sets up a camera and darkroom and photographs the toilet bowl, and then packs up all his equipment and walks out of the toilet on arrival at Brighton. No wonder train toilets are always ‘Engaged’! This genre of art has its precedents in the origins of ‘Modern Art’ in the early twentieth century – for example, in DuChamp’s painting of a urinal from 1917 entitled The Fountain. DuChamp saw himself as an anti-art artist (see exhibition ‘DuChamp’s Suitcase’, 30.8.2000). More extreme is the work of Herman Nicht, an Austrian, who undertakes public performance art involving blood and entrails, and also Damien Hirst and his sawn-up sheep. Is this their way of resolving the


Spanish, for example, sometimes refer to public toilets as necessidades (necessities), as well as having more basic descriptors (Muro, 1994). The Japanese ‘kangi’ symbols for ‘toilet’, ‘ka-awa’, mean river house = flush toilet in Japanese; a similar idea being conveyed by the symbols ‘chan se’ in Chinese. In spite of all these colourful terms, members of official government committees on ‘toilets’ are far more restrained – yet again creating a cultural barrier and desensitising participants from daily realities.

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clean/dirty dualism? Efficient sanitation and investment in public toilets would seem a better way to do so. The work of the late Helen Chadwick is far more healthy (Cullis, 1993: 23–4). In 1991 she produced a series of sculptures entitled Piss Flowers. These consisted of bronze casts of the fantastic shapes created by her pissing in the snow in Canada, and were intended to be both beautiful and a way of breaking down taboos about it being dirty or naughty for women to urinate in public (or urinate at all!). Avant garde artist Andy Warhol also went through a phase of producing ‘oxidisation paintings’ based on himself and his friends pissing on canvas and chemically treating the stains to create interesting patterns. In contrast there is a vast popular toilet art and culture of the ‘dirty postcards’ ‘Carry On’ films variety within which many a true word is spoken in jest concerning the nature of British toilet humour – for example, in Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) and Carry On Marshal, the story of a plumbing engineer from Chipping Sodbury who is mistaken for a US marshal in the Wild West.

Sexualising toilets There is an underworld of ‘toilet culture’ that centres around their sexual, rather than excretory, usage. I visit every public convenience I come across (not necessarily to go) but to inspect the premises, to watch how the users tackle the challenge of the building design and, if there is one, to chat to the attendant, ‘as all human life is there’. If I find lost people who are looking for the toilets, I direct them and I complain loudly to all around when toilets are closed, in order to raise consciousness. Looking for background material, I stumbled into a contrasting alien world of sociological literature and contacts centred around the ‘goings on’ in male public toilets. I found an obsession with covert, ethnographic research (social anthropology studies) by male sociologists to observe ‘cottaging’ which takes place in ‘tearooms’ (male toilets) (Warwick, 1982; Flowers et al, 2000). These sociologists’ choice of topic reflects a tendency I found in a range of literature on ‘toilet provision’, namely for men toilet providers, researchers and designers to be incapable, in their minds, of separating toilet provision from sexual activity. There is far more sociological literature on cottaging than there is on toilets’ value for excretion purposes. This is expressed in the world of the built environment professions too in a school-boyish, smutty mentality, and much sexual innuendo, when the topic of toilets is raised, but also in genuine embarrassment, especially when discussing women’s requirements. Even my mature post-graduate male students, some of them members of the rugby club, went bright red when I sought to discuss public convenience provision with them. I found very little on whether a female version of cottaging occurred in women’s toilets, except in erotic s/m lesbian literature such as by Califia (1989: 223 as commented upon by Jeffries, 1994: 159). Elizabeth Wilson, in discussing 86


the future (questionable) progress of women, ponders upon the phenomenon of some women seeing it as their ‘feminist’ right to emulate and ape men in seeking sex in public toilets (Wilson, 2000: 200). Cottaging is not an issue in women’s toilets; rather, most women are more concerned about accessible toilets that they can use simply as toilets. It is a completely different culture. Men’s sexual activities, straight and gay, influence toilet design solutions, reduce access and inconvenience women greatly. Local residents’ groups express concern to the police about public toilets being left open all night as it is believed it ‘encourages’ young people to have intercourse in them. I was told by male local government officials and private security firm representatives that women’s public toilets should not be open in the evenings as it ‘encouraged’ prostitutes and the homeless to use them! Nowadays, many public toilets close at 6.00pm. But women commuters and late shoppers need them. Concern is expressed by women customers and station managers at women prostitutes using motorway (freeway) service station toilets (not about male commercial travellers loitering around Ladies’ toilet entrances). Toilets in shopping malls were seen as encouraging shoplifting. Fears of prostitution, theft, underage sex, drug trafficking, graffiti and vandalism, were quite enough excuse for some operators to feel justified in permanently closing or reducing facilities for women (thus saving running and maintenance costs in the process) (Jones, 1994). A sign appeared on the Horfield Ladies toilets (by the urinal, fig 4.1) when they closed stating ‘these toilets are closed following complaints from the public concerning criminal (sexual) activity’. A council official told me that the notice actually referred to activities in the male toilets, so women were inconvenienced through no fault of their own. No-one suggested that the Ladies must stay open because of complaints about the criminal lack of public toilets for women in that area. Male toilets used for cottaging, or for drug trafficking, would be more likely to get police surveillance than be closed, as was the case with vandalised women’s toilets. ‘Discouragement of use’ seems to be the main policy basis which providers operate upon in dealing with imagined ‘problems’ in women’s toilets. As a result of such closures some women are deterred from going out in the evenings, a culture of incivility builds up and the streets can be taken over by marauding hordes of lager louts who pee where they wish. A balance of women and men of all ages on the city streets in the evenings would create a more wholesome atmosphere, a greater sense of public ‘ownership’ of urban spaces, and this may prove the best deterrent against misuse of public toilets in the long run. The omnipresent concerns of women about the state of public toilets and the problems with using them were not reflected in sociological literature, nor in municipal plumbing manuals, nor in the cultural concerns of the plumbing fraternity. They were to be found in a range of ‘women and the built environment’ sources and many conversations. Many women are uneasy about the fact that many public conveniences are located in pairs with Ladies and Gents facilities

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directly alongside, typically with badly lit entrances, hidden by trees and bushes which block visibility. In this case women want more, not less, separation and zoning. Concern about facilities for children are often expressed by parents, especially mothers, when discussing public toilets, both in respect of the design and scale of facilities; and ‘culturally’ over the question of whether to send a young boy or girl into the ‘other’ toilet on their own. Some young men seemed quite homely in their concerns, and more worried about the lack of changing facilities for babies in the Gents, and the problems of whether to take their small daughters in with them or to find a kindly lady to take them into the Ladies for them, than with the potential for exciting sexual acts in the loos. Where there is a public toilet, mothers may be unwilling to let their little boys into the Gents. In the Galleries shopping centre in the middle of Bristol, I observed (30.8.2000) a woman with two little boys of around 6 and 9 shepherding them into the Ladies, but the older boy kept veering off towards the Gents door. The mother scolded him saying. ‘It’s men’s not boy’s’ but he still ran off in there, and I observed an anxious wait until he returned to her side. Cultural attitudes are stronger than brick walls in shaping toilet use. Some men felt uneasy about using men’s public toilets, and expressed concern about using public urinals; some wished there were more cubicles, and some even preferred the privacy of the APC. Older men expressed fears of violence from ‘lager louts’ once their back was turned, while others were concerned about a humiliating lack of disposal facilities for their incontinence pads, or were worried about slipping over on wet floors especially where there was a step up to the urinal trough. Of course not all men are ‘the same’ and some men fear other men as much as some women fear men. Did the male toilet-based sociologists of yesteryear never ‘see’ any of these problems experienced by incontinent, elderly, disabled men, and those with childcare responsibilities, while spending hours in public conveniences? Significantly, William Whyte, the famous American sociologist and author of Street Corner Society, was a great campaigner for the provision of public restrooms (Whyte, 1981, originally 1964). While many members of the general public are ‘put off’ by homosexual activities in toilets, several high profile cases, such as George Michael being ‘caught’ in a men’s loo in April 1998 in Los Angeles by an undercover policeman, and a subsequent pop video based on the event, plus a more lenient attitude towards gay rights by New Labour, have resulted in a certain risky ‘glamour’ being attached to cottaging. If gay sex is relatively more legal and commonplace nowadays why do they still choose to do it in the public toilets? Culturally it is significant that one of the arguments for including babychanging facilities in both male and female toilets is that it will apparently create a ‘family atmosphere’, the same argument that has been used about allowing babies and children into pubs as a means of diluting the lager lout culture. That is putting a great deal of responsibility upon children, babies and their carers in

Socialising toilets


what are often unhygienic, smelly and threatening surroundings. A baby becomes a political football in this scenario. Also there have been considerable differences of opinion expressed about the question of breastfeeding in public toilets. From a patriarchal perspective this is the ultimate act of private domestic activities invading public space, but from a woman’s perspective it may be seen as a means of asserting women’s rights or as a second-best solution. Dr. Spock, the American childcare guru, suggested that women might breastfeed their babies in public toilets; in this case, therefore, fear of pollution by women’s private bodily functions in public was given greater precedence than the usual fear about infants being endangered by germs in that age of hygiene. Would you want to eat your dinner in the toilet? (Leach, 1979). Generally the view has been that baby-changing facilities, disabled facilities, breastfeeding facilities and ‘ordinary’ toilets should all be provided in separate compartments or sections of public toilet facilities as they do not mix. Curiously, in our society public display of breasts for feeding purposes may be seen as ‘disturbing the peace’ when undertaken in public places, but pornographic literature is everywhere (Greed, 1996d). While men are still free to urinate unopposed wherever they wish, women’s functions are not accepted so readily, even though depriving a baby of its feed may be a life-threatening action. By the way, why are abandoned babies often left in public toilets? Public toilets are places to be born in and to die in. There are all sorts of interesting cultural issues here.

Much of the culture of toilets is off putting. Men are known for making little eye contact with other men in the toilet, and apparently their visit is likely to be undertaken in silence for fear of being thought ‘queer’, although in contrast ‘toilet clubs’ might exist among gay patrons. Nowadays the embarrassed silence may be shattered by some man chattering away in a compartment. But he’s not cottaging, just answering his mobile phone. Schoolboys’ toilets are more lively places, a popular location for bullying, intimidation and sexual inquiry. In contrast, women’s toilets appear to be much more sociable locations. Women frequently talk to their friends, and even strangers, while urinating, perhaps because they do not want to waste valuable time. In a classic American study Brent (1981) undertook research on the sociable use of restroom lounges in department stores by elderly women, who treated the waiting room attached to the toilets rather in the same way elderly men might treat a park bench, somewhere to sit and chat and watch the world go by. Such sociable use of toilets is an unlikely luxury when the facilities on offer are disgusting, the floor is awash and the whole place smells badly. Apparently men don’t notice the smell, or they won’t admit it, and they may imagine the toilets of the opposite sex smell worse. Likewise girls’ toilets in schools tend to be more sociable, a place to try out new 89


Figure 5.5 Schoolgirl’s drawing of how big she imagines her toilets to be.

hairstyles and discuss fashion, but nowadays they are likely to be poorly maintained, dirty and provided with fewer toilets than the boys’ loos. Nevertheless girls may not realise this. They may imagine their toilets are much larger than they are, as we found in our Nuffield schools project (cf Huang and Wang, 2001). Nightclubs are a spawning ground for lavatorial innovations in the name of art, culture, youthfulness and modernity. The Coconut Nightclub (previously known as the Destiny and Elite Nightclub) in Derby in 2000 installed ‘twobicles’ (rather than cubicles) in the Ladies so that women could go to the toilet together and carry on talking. In 1994 Club Velvet in Barcelona had ‘waterfalls’ running down the walls of its unisex toilets (and it wasn’t broken pipes). A New York nightclub called the SoHo Bar, featured in the journal Interior Design in June 1996, earned the title ‘a wash90


room for voyeurs’ and was designed by architects Kathyrn Ogawa and Gilles Depardon. It provided separate male/female toilets but the design brief was specifically that the ‘bathrooms be sexual’, which says it all. Splendid the toilets, and vibrant the 24-hour city: the trouble is that the nightclubs close, the people leave, the cold air hits their bladders and the streets are awash. Creating the 24-hour city (Bianchini, 1991) and the European city of culture has to be backed by provision of adequate social facilities including toilets. The very cultural foundations of the nation will be eroded away, literally, for according to Westminster City Council young men waiting for buses in Trafalgar Square after a night on the town have been using the walls of the National Gallery to pee against and rotting the stonework. As a result temporary urinals were installed for weekends only, to be followed on 12 October 2002 by permanent ones (called Butterfly urinals) provided by Danfo, but for men only. Another version of the Urilift was also installed first in Reading in Spring 2002, and later in London too. This was justified as ‘additional’ provision to counter street urination rather than as a blatant form of discrimination against women who already have less provision and were offered no alternative facilities. But it is questionable whether male street urinals substantially reduce street urination or whether they are another assertion of male control of public space. They certainly do nothing to deal with complaints about men urinating in public (and the related indecency aspects), rather they increase the opportunity. The results of the night-time economy have put more people off coming into cities in the evening and reduced the range of types of people who do frequent the city streets at night, according to recent research (JMU, 2001); families, elderly and disabled people are clearly not welcome.

Figure 5.6 Danfo ‘Butterfly’ Male street urinal, designed to counter street urination behind St Martins in the Fields, by Trafalgar Square, London. 91


a

b Figure 5.7 (a) Urilift in Reading opposite a pub, as the author films a documentary. (b) The Urilift back in the ground, marked only by the circle in the pavement. 92

1.

Current research is finding that rather than making existing abled toilets accessible for disabled people as required by the DDA Act, many local authorities are simply closing their existing toilets thus inconveniencing everyone and avoiding the requirements of the law (EPSRC, 2003).

Questions to ponder ➥

What taboos determine toilet policy?

➥

Unisex, mixed or separate?

➥

Religious and cultural implications of new designs?

➥

Women’s needs secondary?

➥

‘Who’ is imagined to be the ‘normal’ toilet user?

➥

Urinary equality?

➥

Attitudes to street urination?

➥

Advertising pays?

➥

Need for stronger social infrastructure to support evening economy?


Notes

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Medical perspectives: incompetence or incontinence

Medical perspectives In this chapter the attitudes and perceptions of medicine towards toilet issues, as informed by its companion modern science, will be discussed. The cultural agenda identified in the previous chapter, of separating clean from dirty, informs much medical literature in relation to toilets. While this book seeks to emphasise the positive health benefits of adequate toilet provision, the medical discourse is more negative with toilets and excretion often being seen as a source of disease. Within a dominant macho-medical culture a war must be waged against germs, disease, bacteria and dirt in the name of hygiene, using all the power and technology of modern science. In reality it is vital that there are benign bacteria in the gut to break down our food and naturally to immunise us against a range of diseases. From Victorian times a huge ‘killer potion’ industry has grown up to zap germs, be they in our bodies or lurking under the rim of the toilet seat. For example, during the nineteenth century Jeyes Fluid was invented (1871), while Lister invented Listerine, and even such innocuous ‘scents’ as 4711 Eau de Cologne were originally intended to guard against diseases and distempers.

CHAPTER SIX • MEDICAL PERSPECTIVES: INCOMPETENCE OR INCONTINENCE

chapter six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Figure 6.1 Ordinary people in the park at lunchtime. People of all age ranges, including the ‘normal’ and the ‘young’ need public toilets because otherwise they may develop urinary problems later. Holding it in never did anyone any good. Public toilets are needed by everyone not just people who are disabled or incontinent. 95


The medical profession has considerable power over society in shaping attitudes, and filling individuals with a sense of personal blame, fear and shame, for societal issues that can only be solved by public health intervention or cultural change. A division must be put between sacred and profane, clean and dirty, to please Hygeia the goddess of Health. Although this divine female is held in high regard, mere mortal women are more likely to be blamed for all manner of disease, weakness, illness and impurity, rather than praised for all their caring efforts in creating and sustaining Earth’s population.

Public and private perspectives A crucial distinction is made in this chapter between the role of private medicine and public health respectively1. It is concerned with the influence of clinicians (be they GPs, hospital specialists or surgeons dealing with the ‘internal plumbing’ problems of individuals) as against the role of ‘public health’ specialists dealing with entire cities and their populations. Parallel dualisms in health include primary/secondary (healthcare), preventative/curative, privatised/collectivised, public/private and public health/clinical practice. Being a public health specialist is generally seen as less glamorous than ‘being a doctor’2. The former’s regulatory and preventative roles arguably have a greater effect upon the nation’s health while some of the greatest municipal sanitary engineers remain unsung heroes. Nowadays environmentalists and urban planners continue to promote this dimension through the healthy cities movement, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) (Barton and Tsourou, 2000; Brand, 1999). Public health covers a wide range of issues concerned with creating a healthy environment and society. Matters as diverse as sewerage and drainage, food poisoning, water pollution, sexually transmitted diseases (STD), noise abatement, rat infestation, cleaning and waste disposal may all come under the auspices of public health at local authority level (Robinson, 2001). Many a public toilet door contains notices warning people about STD and inviting sufferers to attend their local clinic; these give a further sexual presence to the public lavatory, and add to its seedy ‘dirty’ image and the belief that one might pick up other people’s germs by sitting on the seat or touching the door bolt.

Clinical medicine Gendered priorities Emphasis is given in this section to women’s needs because they seem to have suffered the most from medical prejudices and because they generally need to go to the loo more often as they have a wider range of biological functions. There is a range of ‘problems’ only encountered by women which have featured in feminist literature and the media in recent years, most of which never 96


used to be spoken about. These include the effects of childbirth and epidurals on continence, the impact of female circumcision, and the effects of rape and thoughtless sex. Women have also been the subject of much of the high-tech impetus in medicine, possibly because as ‘the maternal environment’ (but not as human individuals) they are seen as a key link in the reproduction process. Childbirth has been subject to increasing medicalisation, high-tech screening and genome projects (Oakley, 1980; Spallone and Steinberg, 1987; Doyal, 1995; Stanworth, 1987). Women visit the toilet more frequently because of pregnancy, periods and cystitis; to check on worries about vaginal discharge (or to check ‘constantly’ on one’s ‘whites’ if one is using natural birth control to determine fertile days), and simply to check if one’s knickers (pants) or tights are about to fall down, or if one’s period has actually started; because they feel ill, are about to give birth or die; to pray; to cry and to get away, to think and be quiet; to escape from the city of man; or for baby-changing, breastfeeding (as a last resort) or to assist the elderly, children and disabled people. All these uses and visits require good ‘access’, lots of public toilets, plenty of internal space and a welcoming atmosphere. This is quite a different agenda from the cultural priorities dominating male toilets, which appear chiefly concerned with creating a ‘fortress’, defended against drugs, vandalism, cottaging and criminal activity. While women’s problems ‘down below’ have been dealt with within the context of reproductive medicine, the field of urology has been far from gender neutral, and for many years was predominantly concerned with men’s complaints (Kursch and McGuire, 1994). It is only in recent years that women’s specific problems have received greater attention. As in veterinary practice, for many years cats were treated as little dogs and there was no specific feline specialism. Likewise, women were treated as little, and imperfect, men, and there was limited female specialisation. Urology appears often to be a euphemism for ‘STD’ or for male sexual problems. Women’s urinary issues seem to fall between the realms of reproductive/childbirth specialisms and STD/sexual specialisms. While in the city of man, women have half as much public toilet provision as men, in the world of medicine and health, women’s ‘different’ anatomy still receives far less attention or it is tacked on to other pre-existing specialisms as an afterthought. Much medical research to test the side-effects of drugs is undertaken on men only, even when intended for women, because women’s physiology is seen to be ‘too unreliable’, being subject to biological cycles. There is little allowance in this climate for acknowledgment of women’s menstruation and how urination demands might change within the monthly cycle (ORWH, 1991). Periods (monthly cycles) have been seen by medical experts as an illness, and by religious authorities as unclean. Public toilet providers are obsessed with the ‘inconvenience’ of sanpro disposal, especially since environmental controls require sanpro bins to be provided in each compartment, making women’s toilets even ‘dirtier’,

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whereas in the old days sanitary towels were not left to fester but were burnt in small wall-hung incinerators in the Ladies.

Excretory uniformity There is a vast range in what is considered ‘normal’ as to how many times a day a person should urinate, according to ‘who’ is speaking (be they toilet user, toilet manufacturer or medical expert), and especially according to whether the person under scrutiny is male or female. Figures between 3 and 15 times a day are quoted as the average by different ‘reliable’ ‘scientific’ sources, with more than 8 times a day being seen as problematic. Women have often been blamed for going ‘too often’. The average bladder holds 500 ml = 3 cups of tea. What is normal? Every three to four hours? In comparison, popular women’s magazines’ ‘friendly doctor’s advice’ pages are less condemnatory, and suggest that women should urinate every couple of hours to flush out the system to discourage the lingering of ‘germs’, to reduce acidic build up, to help with cystitis, and to prevent toxic shock from leaving tampons in too long (Dawson, 1994; Kilmartin, 1994). Overall changing lifestyles result in changing excretion patterns nationally. Certain forms of diabetes are affected by diet and weight problems, and increased urination is one symptom. Urination frequency may also be increased because of the popularity of diuretic canned drinks of the cola variety. Increased visits may reflect a healthier lifestyle as people consume more roughage and move their bowels more frequently. Moving one’s bowels every day is considered ideal but some people go twice a day, especially men, and some leave it for days at a time without necessarily considering themselves constipated (Heaton, 1998). Half the nation is probably constipated, and bowel cancer is the second largest killer cancer in Britain after lung cancer. Is the concept of averages and standardised normality a meaningful concept in the twenty-first century or a throw-back to Victorian taxonomy? Women are more likely to be condemned as abnormal (relative to men?) and defined as incontinent, when research shows that men drink more fluids than women and ‘go’ more often because there is a higher level of public toilet provision for men. So they may never experience this as a problem of wanting to go and finding there is no loo (Goldsmith, 1992). When late night male street urination occurs no-one says young men are suffering from incontinence or are defective human beings, they are simply ‘pissed’ (a curious term deriving from the ancient custom of the poor drinking the urine [piss] of drunks to get drunk themselves, rather like re-using tea bags?). Incontinence may be defined as unwanted, inconvenient, excessive or uncontrollable urination. Various sources confirm that 1 in 17 children wet the bed, 1% of adults wet the bed, 1 in 3 women have some post-birth incontinence, and 1 in 3 men over 50 experience some problems; altogether 1 in 10 men and

1 in 4 women have some form of incontinence. As the population ages. incontinence increases. It is hard to give precise statistics as incontinence is a grey area, under-reported by some individuals, but over-diagnosed in respect of women. Incontact (www.incontact.org) estimates that 6 million people in the UK suffer from bladder problems. There are varying degrees ranging from mild stress incontinence (an occasional dribble when sneezing) which affects many women from time to time, to constant flow as experienced by some very elderly women when ‘their plumbing has completely gone’. Double incontinence of both bowel and bladder is a more challenging situation, especially for carers, while irritable bowel syndrome adds unpredictability to modern life. This variation is reflected in the range of incontinence pads, from wafer thin to super strength jumbo pads (all of which may end up on the public toilet floor if disposal facilities are not adequate). Dealing with incontinence has become a multi-million multinational industry affecting the environment and individuals’ lives. In contrast some people suffer from not being able to go at all, as they suffer from Shy Bladder Syndrome (paruresis – that is, ‘piss shy’) a complaint particularly experienced by American males (Soifer, 2001). Estimates suggest that


Figure 6.2 Caring for the elderly in the community. With an ageing population and the elderly being cared for by relatives, unisex disabled toilet provision is essential. Sometimes the male may be the carer for an elderly female relative, thus unisex disabled toilets are essential.

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around 5–10% of the male population suffer from this problem at some time in their lives in the US, with 90% of sufferers being male. Piss-shyness (paruresis) may prevent sufferers from using a public restroom. Paruresis can be a jobthreatening issue if compulsory employee drug testing requires an instant urine sample. Most sufferers have experienced the problem ever since they were bullied or attacked in the school toilets as children. Soifer argues that design improvements that enable totally enclosed cubicles, higher partitions between urinals and less threatening Gents toilet environments are necessary. American research shows that the need to get home to their own toilet limits journeys and visits by sufferers to around 3 hours maximum. Interestingly, male paruresis sufferers do not want attendants in public toilets as the presence of others puts them off, whereas many women welcome attendants as it makes them feel safer.

Forms of intervention The solution to female incontinence is often presented as one of medical intervention, through drugs, Kegel pelvic floor exercises, psychiatry, or surgery (Kursh and McGuire, 1994), not by provision of more public toilets. Much store is put upon technological and surgical intervention. An article in the Times Higher

Figure 6.3 Baby-changing facilities at Milton Keynes. Women are primarily the ones responsible for the care of babies and children and, because they need to combine this role with going shopping, carrying out their other duties, travel and work outside the home, good facilities are needed everywhere. (Photograph courtesy of Ray Fowler.) 100


(30.6.2000, From NASA to Knickers by Geoff Watts) discusses the application of space science to problems of incontinence on earth, using non-reversible valves. A culture of heavy intervention prevails. Alarmingly, treatment of incontinence is often seen as a reason for a hysterectomy. The Americans have produced a high-tech vaccine against cystitis, although effective home remedies exist such as drinking cranberry juice (Kilmartin, 1994). Particular condemnation seems to be reserved in medical literature for self-help books for those who ‘go’ when they see a toilet ‘just in case there’s not another one later’ (Millard, 1988). In Britain, and much of Europe, it is likely there will not be another one at the prescribed time. Queen Victoria said (it is rumoured, to the effect, concerning toilets), ‘one should always avail oneself of the opportunity if it presents itself’. (Sometimes this statement is attributed to Prince Charles who, incidentally, has a private collection of lavatory seats.) Many women quoted this maxim to me as their guiding principle regardless of what the experts say. While some younger women prided themselves on their ‘control’, many middle-aged and older women were keen to quote the maxim, ‘if you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go’, as well as ‘there’s no point in holding back, it’s bad for you’. There is a range of self-help literature, of alternative medicines, homeopathy and herbal remedies that has made a resurgence. ‘Everyone’ used to know that dandelions led to bedwetting (enuresis), whereas penny royal had some interesting side effects for women, and it would seem that some of this is now being rediscovered (Beckett, 1978; Culpeper, 1650, 1980). There are all sorts of remedies and folktales related to urinary problems. For example, in Northern Spain, ‘Gatipedro’, a black cat with a white horn, climbs in the window at night and visits children who then wet their bed. Many of the so-called drugs and ‘modern’ wonder solutions are based on centuries-old herbal remedies – for example, extracts from the weeping willow tree (nowadays known as aspirin) cure headaches but also reduce the desire to urinate, as does apparently the mould on top of jam (nowadays known as penicillin). For centuries there were few doctors, there was no NHS and there was no money or status in doctoring, so everyone had their home remedies and solutions, old wives’ tales that were forgotten. Nowadays, with the collapse of the NHS, people are turning to such remedies again. In the US, where health plan coverage is not universal and 50 million people lack adequate healthcare insurance, many are enthusiastic about divine healing augmented by home remedies, and none are the worse for it. As the baby boom generation reaches menopause, it is important to mention that Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) increases the desire to urinate, which is not surprising when a key constituent of the medication is fertile mare’s urine, the sad horses being kept inside living tortured lives as donors of this substance (cf Klein and Dumble, 1994). In Britain only 1 in 5 women of the relevant age group is having HRT treatment (in spite of all the hype). In other centuries and cultures, drinking one’s own urine was seen as a cure-all. Other domestic animals’ urine is highly valued for various purposes – for example, ‘benign urine’

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from cows is one of the best insecticides there is (New Internationalist, June 1998: 13–16). In the past, an ability to ‘read urine’ (and stools and other excretions) to interpret a person’s state of health, and state of fertility, was an honourable and fine art practised by women before the professionalisation of medicine. Gueraula de Codines in the fourteenth century was a famous urologist and practitioner of uroscopy. Her diagnosis work was so successful that she incurred negative investigation by the Church (McVaugh, 1994). Modern toilet bowl design and flush systems make the practice of ‘visual analysis’ before flushing material ‘round the bend’ more difficult. The feminist principle of having rights over one’s own body, and having a healthy life, should include having control and choice over all aspects of one’s urination and defecation. Germaine Greer said that a woman was not liberated unless she had tasted her own menstrual blood (but not her urine). There is a need for an excretary revolution as well as a sexual one. Maybe modern woman would be even more liberated if she spoke openly about the need to urinate and campaigned for more public toilets, thus redefining the agenda as one of public policy rather than personal problems.

Public health In this section the wider public health dimensions of the medical agenda are discussed. Nowadays, ‘public health’ has been renamed ‘environmental health’ in many local authorities. The new agendas of ‘environmentalism’ and ‘sustainability’, although concerned with the ‘old’ issues of sewage and pollution, have not always helped with the toilet problem. The renaming of many ‘public health’ departments as ‘environmental health’ departments signals a prioritisation of the environment over the citizens who live in it. In the process, the ‘people’ element is often left out and it would seem that women’s needs are marginalised. A green/gender either/or dualism has developed. Public convenience provision was a key element of nineteenth-century public health policy, aimed at providing high quality urban services for all citizens (albeit to a lesser extent for women). Sanitary engineering was seen as a high status scientific calling (Edwards and McKie, 1995). By the early twentieth century three negative trends came into play which were to disadvantage the ‘chances’ of a more social and more holistic – as against technological or medical – perspective being adopted towards toilet provision right up to the present day. First, the founding fathers of modern planning often appeared to share the ‘sanitary engineer’s’ perspective, in prioritising the need for sewerage systems at the citywide level, rather than considering the personal needs of citizens for toilet provision (a key distinction). Second, and overarching this, the town planners seemed to be losing ground to the municipal engineers, and the ‘plumbing fraternity’, as to who had control over the planning of such infrastructural provision. 102


Abercrombie (1933), in discussing the importance of THE PLAN, bemoans the fact it had to be produced without ‘a full control of sewage (sic) and pollution’. The 1932 Town and Country Planning Act (Section 3, subsection 6) still required the planner, in producing ‘the scheme’, to make provision for necessary sewerage and drainage work. This was an enabling role rather than a city-wide strategic, sewerage-planning role. Third, there was an ongoing ‘medicalisation’ of what were erstwhile public health issues, in which the details of designing good toilets, sewerage systems and sanitary engineering lost status relative to the increased status of the erstwhile barber surgeon, now recreated as the honoured medical practitioner. Mort (1987: 27) discusses the roots of this trend in Edwardian times, within the context of a discourse on ‘national efficiency and imperial health’. ‘Blame’ for ill health is put upon the individual, especially working-class women, and less upon the effects of the inequality of provision of basic facilities and services, including adequate sanitation. Likewise nowadays, those who campaign for more public toilets have often met with a measure of condemnation and judgement for showing ‘inadequacy’ and ‘being a nuisance’, or are presumed incontinent themselves. Meanwhile politicians, planners and the medical profession seem out of touch with all this turmoil. These attitudes dog attempts to improve toilet provision and raise the profile of the topic virtually a century later. From a preventative policy, public health perspective, it is essential to provide adequate facilities for those with a range of gastro-, intestinal, reproductive and urological problems, but also in order to accommodate the needs of healthy women, including those who are menstruating or pregnant, and thus to help prevent others developing the above conditions. Adequate toilet provision is still vital for all healthy ‘normal’ men and women, because there is a tendency in the town planning literature to see it as being of relevance only to the incontinent, or disabled, and therefore only for what is perceived as a special and very small minority, thus creating false, unproductive abled/ disabled policy dichotomies, particularly among local authority planners. It is now many years since town planners were specifically responsible for the provision of sewers and drains. Town planning has moved away from its public health roots, founded in the battle against cholera, overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Interestingly, the demand of the environmental movement for sustainable cities has led to a reunification of some aspects of town planning and environmental health in respect of reducing decentralisation and rationalising sewerage systems. Privatisation of public utilities and cutbacks in government funding have led to a re-evaluation of the financial aspects of traditional low-density spread-out residential areas, which have to be served underground by a vast system of new sewers and drains. At the same time, many old sewers have come to the end of their lives, and certain inner city areas are now renowned for diarrhoea and dysentery caused by such leakage (Brunsdon and Marvin, 1994).

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Concern for public health issues from the medical profession seems to occur only at times of food poisoning and mass epidemic outbreaks. A return of dysentery is a result of water disconnections (Brundsdon and Marvin 1994). For example, the growth of e-coli (Escherichia coli) has led to a renewed concern with food hygiene and also with toilet hygiene – ‘now wash your hands’. In England, e-coli has mainly been associated with meat, especially beef (Moore, 1997; Pennington Committee, 1996; and see Which magazine, January 1997: 6). In Japan its spread was at one point blamed on radish growers. 9500 people were ill in Japan in 1996 and 11 people died from e-coli, whereas 16 died in Scotland and at least 400 were ill. E-coli is still present but the limelight was subsequently taken by a range of other food crises, including BSE and more recently foot and mouth (which interestingly is not transferable to humans and which animals generally recover from ‘like the common cold’ if nature is left to its own devices, building up natural immunity).

Sit, stand, squat or hover Squatting remains one of the most common forms of toileting in the world today. Over the years various versions of the infamous ‘urinette’ for women have been proposed, but they have received an unenthusiastic response from women themselves. The different biology of women and men results in differing concerns over the hygiene of toilets, especially in respect of the cleanliness and basic design of sanitary ware and fixtures. While men can simply stand and aim and not necessarily touch a public toilet at all, the problem of unhygienic public toilets partic-

a Figure 6.4 (a) Female urinal, (b) Stand, sit, squat, (c) Squat toilet, (d) Another female urinal (middle), (e) A conventional loo (taken by author with permission by curator, Flushed with Pride: the Story of the Toilet Exhibition at the Gladstone Pottery Museum, Stoke on Trent, on special preview visit with the BTA.) 104

b

c

d,e 105



ularly affects women because of the proximity of having to touch toilet equipment, rub against dirty, narrow cubicle walls and unemptied sanpro bins, and sitting on seats that a stranger has sat upon before them. In spite of reassurances from health officials, many people are convinced that a range of germs and problems, including AIDS and STDs, can be caught off dirty public toilet seats. Surveys suggest a majority of women ‘hover’ rather than sit on a public toilet seat (Moore et al, 1991; Cunningham and Norton, 1993). This results in bladders not being emptied fully and thus to urine retention, as hovering creates ‘a kink in the tubes’, and to diseases that facilitate incontinence, leading eventually to more demands on health service resources. It is a vicious cycle as the next user does not want to sit in a puddle from the urine of the last user (who also hovered and wavered). Modern public toilet design does not help. A certain manufacturer of a widespread brand of ‘superior’ APC does not provide toilet seats on the APC pans precisely because around 80% of women hover. Another representative of the same company assured me women did sit on the seatless toilets because they were cleaned after each user. Many women were more wary and felt that a lack of seat sent out the message that APCs are ‘really’ for men and nothing more than glorified male urinals. Fear of catching germs off the toilet seat is justified according to research based on taking swabs from a representative range of toilet seats (Salley, 1996). Mothers still warn daughters before entering, ‘don’t sit on anything, don’t touch anything’. Women are concerned about the lack of running water for washing after using the toilet. Many carry their own toilet paper with them, anticipating non-provision, or are unwilling to touch the unhygienic toilet paper holder. While existing design is poor, innovations such as the female urinal, also called the urinette, have not met with women’s approval for practical reasons. Urinettes require the user either to stand over the toilet, to crouch or ‘to adopt the ski position’ as one ‘trendy’ manufacturer puts it (adding ‘designed for a woman by a woman’ and showing a young woman with high heels in silhouette using the contraption, without any sign of her having a skirt to hold up or slacks to roll down). There are few women toilet designers; it is such a male-dominated area, with the exception of a few ‘avant garde’ designers such as Bettina Mollering, a woman toilet designer (Architects Journal, 5.8.98) whose work is described as ‘angular and artistic’. Cajsa Flensburg designed a urinette with handles either side (Times Higher, 2001) which won her the RSA annual design award. Such contraptions do not give the user the option of deciding to have a bowel movement, and they would prove very awkward in terms of menstrual flow disposal. While for men urination is presumably a distinct, separate activity, culturally and biologically, women have quite a different perspective; as one woman commented, ‘when you go in you never know what is going to come out, do you?’ They are also impractical for an ageing population which requires more physical support, not less. The real attraction of such contrap-


tions is to enable public toilet providers to state that they have achieved ‘equality’ in providing an equivalent to the men’s urinals, using little space, and reducing costs. If sitting is to be abandoned, why have an intermediate receptacle at all, why not go for squatting instead and install an Eastern toilet (also known as a Turkish or French toilet)? Many countries have a tradition of squatting, especially in Moslem societies. With the growth of the Moslem population, some schools and universities already have squat toilets, especially in the Midlands. Anatomically and ergonomically, it is more beneficial and natural for women to squat rather than sit to empty the bladder. It is better for men and women to squat to empty the bowels with the assistance of the powers of gravity (parallels with the arguments for natural childbirth). From a Chinese medical viewpoint, squatting is always preferable (Cai and You, 1997). Heaton (1998), in his work on overcoming constipation, suggests putting boxes around the seat to raise the knees. Lowlevel toilet bowls were popular at one time to simulate squatting, but they fell out of favour in the domestic setting as not suitable to double as urinals, as is the case for most home toilets (being too low to aim at). Also, Western elderly people found them too low to get up from. Clearly culture and habit determine the likely success of different solutions. More adventurous women have advocated ‘standing’ to wee which is quite an art to achieve in modern clothing. This would be no problem at all if women wore long wide skirts with no knickers, as was the case in previous centuries before women became ‘liberated’ and wore short skirts and trousers). Because of frustration with queues for the Ladies, it has been suggested that Ladies/Gents

Figure 6.5 Typical low level toilet. Squatting is a valid alternative, and British designs exist to meet the need. (Adapted from Adler 2000.) 107


might be renamed ‘Sit down’ or ‘Stand up’ to give unisex choice (but less privacy). But ‘standing’ is not necessarily seen as good even for men. In parts of Sweden men are now expected to sit, and it is intended to scrap urinals in Stockholm because they are seen as inherently sexist (Daily Mail, 21.4.2000: 7). This would actually make more toilets usable by women too. In my travels I have come across high-tech squat toilets designed for disabled people with low-level grab rails. In cultures where in the past chairs in general were not popular and sitting on the floor was common, people’s muscles grew used to this position and therefore being expected to sit up on a toilet seat could seem decidedly odd. There have been many instances of Western toilets being installed in other countries where people have jumped up and squatted on the seat, often breaking the pan in the process, as it has never occurred to them to sit to go to the loo. Clearly in the toilet world one should never assume that Western models are best for all; it depends on what people are used to. Fashion is everything. The Japanese consider the sit version more modern than squatting. Apparently in the past, as elite men moved from traditional clothing to Western trousers in the mid twentieth century, the sit version became more popular with them, and by default pedestal toilets were introduced for women too. Before the 1950s it should be remembered that sit flush toilets were not widespread in Japan either. In comparison, there has been a 10% reduction in Turkish toilets per year in France because they are seen as ‘poor’ and the French seem to be moving towards high-tech pedestals instead, passing by the low-tech manual flush of Victorian British tradition.

Conclusion The medical perspective on excretion informs the perceived need for toilet provision in terms of prescribing how often the average person ‘ought’ to go per day. Governments would rather spend millions on high-tech medicine, research, drugs and surgery than attend the essential basics of creating sanitary cities with adequate public toilet provision. The medical ethos also sets a negative agenda in its obsession with hygiene and the dangers of dirt, germs and disease. The nation’s school toilets, hospital wards and public toilets are in a filthy state because of lack of resources, and little ‘human value’ is given to cleaning and maintenance staff. There is a need for greater coordination on toilet issues, so that public and clinical health officials ‘talk toilets’ to each other.

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1. I use private medicine to mean personal, clinical medicine such as going to the doctor as an individual as against the wider agenda of public health which deals with entire populations that is curative as against preventative. The term is therefore not intended to refer to privatised medicine – that is, paying for what we have all already paid for through the NHS. 2. Although at some conferences I have been introduced as Dr. Greed and subsequently encountered people wanting to tell me all about their medical conditions, my Doctorate (PhD) was gained in relation to surveying, as I am a member of the built environment professions. Therefore this chapter is shorter as I am not qualified to give medical opinion, except as a fellow human being.

Key issues ➥

Who says how often women (and men) should ‘go’ and on what basis?

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Incontinence or incompetence?

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Clinical medicine and surgical intervention – friend or foe?

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Public health and environmental health – lost direction?

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Importance of linking public health and clinical medicine

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Sit, stand or hover?

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Huge social costs of under-provision of public toilet facilities


Notes

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Environmental aspects: global and local

Sustainability Introduction In this chapter the environmental aspects of toilet provision will be discussed as another important angle on the problem. First, sustainability is defined and a global perspective is given in respect of toilet issues with particular reference to dependence on water resources. Second, the problem of waste disposal will be discussed with reference to Sewage Related Debris (SRD), including sanpro and toilet paper. Third, international examples are given with reference to the ideas put forward at Far East international toilet conferences, in order ‘to make the familiar strange’ for comparative purposes.

CHAPTER SEVEN • ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS: GLOBAL AND LOCAL

chapter seven

Definitions Sustainability has four recognised elements: conserving the stock of natural assets; avoiding damage to the regenerative capacities of ecosystems; achieving greater social equality; and avoiding the imposition of risks and costs upon future generations (CEC, 1992; Blowers, 1995). According to Brundtland (WCED, 1987) and the subsequent Rio Declaration (UNCED, 1992), sustainability comprises three components: social equality, economic self-sufficiency, and environmental balance. Following Rio, the UK government (DoE, 1994b) produced an ongoing strategy which was concerned with global climate, air quality and policy in relation to non-renewable resources including water.

Water water everywhere and not a loo in sight There is a global water shortage (Vidal, 2002; Ryn, 1995; New Internationalist Special Issue, March 2003, ‘Water Every Drop Counts’ which coincided with the 111


Figure 7.1 Text box: Definitions of sustainability and the cycle of decomposition.

World Water Council at Kyoto, Japan of same month). There are one million cubic kilometres of water on the planet. Every human is composed of 70% water, although only 3 teacupfuls are contained in the bladder. Countries with water shortages include: Saudi Arabia 6 (estimated annual deficit in billion cubic metres per year), North Africa 10, US 13.6, China 30, India 104. Overpumping of aquifers and downgrading of major rivers have major environmental implications. The US is the odd one out, their water shortage being caused more by over-consumption than by environmental, climatic or demographic problems. This is a growing problem in western countries, exacerbated by lack of attention to the micro level of human consumption and to life style issues. In contrast, two-thirds of the water used for domestic purposes in the world is brought from outside the home, from the village pump, by women walking many miles a day to the well, or bought from a door-to-door water carrier (Thekaekara, 2000). In the First World – that is, the developed countries such as North America, Western Europe and many of the Far East countries, water supply and disposal are not major problems, relatively speaking, but waste and over-consumption are. The Second World – that is, the erstwhile Communist block countries – is 112

typified by outdated infrastructure and plumbing systems, and the heritage of over-emphasis upon polluting heavy industry. The erstwhile Soviet block, with its unecological approach to heavy industry and pollution (and draining of Lake Baikal), has experienced greater concern with ‘water’ in recent years. The influx of western interests has led to the closure of many municipal public toilets in Moscow, the establishment of foreign franchised APCs and, more positively, the establishment of the Moscow Toilet Association. In the Third World – that is, the developing world – modern sewerage and drainage systems and water supplies are likely to be intermittent. Imports of Western technology are evidenced by the sprouting of modern automatic toilets – for example, in Mexico City, which ironically is one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world but sorely lacking in basic infrastructural services. Some huge Third World cities have major toilet problems such as Rio de Janiero, the site of the earth summit but described as a ‘city turning into a giant toilet’ (The Guardian, 23.3.2000: 17). Some identify a Fourth World as comprising tribal territories such as in the Amazon and New Guinea where people live at subsistence level in harmony with nature, ‘naturally’ recycle and achieve ecological balance, but stand in severe danger from disease as ‘progress’ and ‘development’ encroach upon them. Societies which are poor or do not have access to modern products are, inevitably, likely to be the most ecological by default. The


Figure 7.2 Enthusiasm for recycling usually leads to waste skips being put alongside the toilets, and in the case of APCs this reinforces their image, by association, as really being just giant, unhygienic litter bins which one is entitled to vandalise and abuse as it looks like no-one cares.

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Fifth World comprises Antarctica and the Arctic which have only relatively recently yielded to human investigation and scientific exploration. Thus the modern Western world is in a minority situation. For example, USA residents comprise only 4% of the world’s population. Of the 6 billion people in the world, at least 2 billion do not have access to sanitation of any sort (Winblad, 1996), and up to half of all people defecate in the open. In India only 20% of the population have septic tanks, and a smaller proportion still are connected to sewers. I tried hard to get definitive figures on the global situation, but it is no exaggeration to say that maybe 80% of the world’s population lack decent toilets and sewerage systems. Water-based sewage systems, and thus flush lavatories, may not be sustainable, even if this has been seen as the civilised solution for the last 200 years. Changing society from a ‘flush and forget’ approach, also known as ‘dump and pump’, ‘bucket and chuck it’, or ‘rush and flush’, towards a more sustainable ‘recycle and remember’ approach would alter the nature of our toilets, both public and private. It would reshape personal toilet habits, toilet design, sewerage systems and the structure of cities. At least a third of the water we use in the home is flushed down the toilet. In contrast the annual ‘Pee Outside Day’ in Sigmoto, Sweden, saves 50% of water usually used in toilet flushing (Internationalist, July 2000). Water shortages are not only caused by domestic households as the really big users of water remain industrial enterprises. Under EC law (EC Directive 85/337, updated to 97/11), local planning authorities are required to take into account Environment Impact Assessment and impact factors in deciding applications for certain categories of new development. Thus environmental assessment considerations have come to affect the whole construction industry, including toilet design (Greed, 2000a: 187). Some bulk house builders are taking this issue on board. Beazer Homes from 1998 have installed a system which recycles domestic waste water to the toilets in some new homes. Incidentally the ill-starred Millennium Dome used the rainwater off the roof to flush the toilets. Many a public toilet will not flush properly, but this is not an example of intentional water conservation, rather one of neglect. However, controlling flushing may be a false economy as people will ‘double flush’ if ‘it won’t go around the bend’, a problem in some households that have installed watersaving cistern devices.

Waste disposal Sanpro disposal There is a need to create healthy, sustainable cities as advocated by the World Health Organisation (WHO), but not in a way that is judgmental towards ordinary people trying to live their lives, without providing viable alternative solutions to daily problems. It is important to steer clear of a course that, in seeking to reduce 114


pollution, condemns women as wasteful, presumably because they are the main users of sanpro and washing machines (Armstrong and Scott, 1992). Sanpro bins are put in the Ladies public toilet cubicles to meet environmental regulations (1990 Environmental Protection Act, Section 34 – Duty of Care; 1995 Environment Act; Lane and Peto, 1995; Ball and Bell, 1998). Sanpro is clinical waste and therefore is often dealt with by specialist contractors along with hospital waste. Bin installation entails related problems of disposal, emptying, management and hygiene. Bins also add to the pressures on the limited space available in the average public toilet cubicle. Women’s Design Service (WDS) was consulted by Southalls on sanpro disposal bin design when the new requirements first came in (WDS, 1993). WDS argues that the ideal solution is an integral unit with a hatch set into the back wall panel, along with the cistern, with a rear service corridor running down the back of all the toilets to maintain space standards within the toilet and reduce contamination. Problems continue in trying to dispose of sanpro in the domestic home, particularly among embarrassed teenagers and in households where facilities are shared with strangers. Some women find it embarrassing and impractical to be told they should ‘bag it and bin it’ rather than simply flushing it down the loo. There are still reported incidences of dustmen being unwilling to take such waste from the home, presumably because any use of a ‘special’ disposal bag (as offered by Boots the Chemist) signals its likely contents. One comes across stories of women carrying soiled sanpro to work or college to dispose of them.

Figure 7.3 Sanpro bin close to bowl. Thoughtless installation of sanpro bins without consideration of the space they take up reduces women’s chances of being able to sit on the seat without rubbing against the bin. 115


Cultural issues need to be addressed concerning the silence, shame and secrecy about menstruation which exists in our society. In view of the problems that sanpro disposal creates, it is astonishing that menstruation is seldom discussed in high-level environmental conferences. Most women will menstruate for 30 years for around 5 days in every month. At any one time around 12 million women will be doing so in the UK. Menstruation is ‘natural’ but it is also ‘unmentionable’. Women have, until recently, been relatively silent about its costs. Women’s sanitary products were at last made partially exempt from VAT from 1.1.2001 but this was only reduced, not abolished, from 17.5% to 5%. A campaign to remove VAT from incontinence pads met apparently with laughter in Parliament (supported by Nicholas Winterton, Conservative MP, February 2001, Daily Mail; and see Continence Foundation, Summer Newsletter, 2000). The VAT tax collected from sanpro has never been used specifically to deal with disposal or other necessary facilities related to menstruation. Such items often appear to be seen as ‘luxuries’ that cause ‘problems’ to ‘normal’ people (men). The problem of discarded sanitary pads, disposable nappies and inconti-

Figure 7.4 Sanpro bin away from bowl. There should always be a good space (at least 250 mm) between the bin and the edge of the seat and, if this makes the cubicle larger, alternative ducting systems should be considered as menstruation is a serious business that does take up space, money and resources, probably more so than defecation; it is not a temporary little dainty inconvenience and should be budgeted for accordingly. 116

nence pads found in and around many a public toilet is simply a microcosm of a wider problem found across the built environment. Because people in high-rise blocks have less hope of disposing of such waste because of faulty waste chutes, storage and refuse collection, it is often imagined that such problems are a ‘class’ issue created by ‘unmarried mothers on council estates’ when in fact it is a problem that affects people throughout society, although householders with front gardens can put their rubbish out in a less conspicuous manner, and some can drive to their ‘amenity site’ (rubbish tip) and hastily dispose of their smelly garbage. There is a need for a change of cultural attitudes towards women’s needs (LWPF, 2001). There are now several key women in senior positions working in waste management within local authorities, the private recycling industry, and for voluntary organisations such as Waste Watch and the Women’s Environmental Network. It has frequently been observed that men tend to emphasise the global and more general issues of ‘saving the planet’, whereas women are more concerned with the details of packaging, sanpro disposal in toilets, and the question of ‘who’ exactly is going to do the recycling. Not everyone has the use of a car, nor the benefit of a door-to-door collection system for waste material. The elderly in particular may find the challenge of dividing their rubbish into several different categories quite overwhelming.


Figure 7.5 An old Southalls disposal incinerator at the RIBA headquarters in Portland Place, dating from the days when sanitary towels were burnt and entire schools, offices and factories used to be knocked out by the smell of burning when this took place each day. Likewise at home women were more likely to burn sanpro in the fire or the boiler in those days rather than put it down the loo, or in a bin (replaced 2003).

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Some local health authorities are now providing limited numbers of recyclable incontinence pads to the elderly, presumably to save the environment and money too, rather than offering disposable pads. Some elderly people may not be capable of regularly washing them and so this is putting additional burdens on vulnerable people, and increasing domestic energy consumption. Only 40% of pensioner households have automatic washing machines and generally they lack many of the items that the rest of the population consider to be vital to ‘normal life’ (Gilroy, 1999). Rather than individual blame, what is needed is a greater collectivisation of the problem through commercial ‘nappy washing’ services or through local authority intervention, combined with better servicing of public toilet facilities in respect of sanpro and incontinence pad recycling. An overarching concern for increasing sustainability might be just the impetus that is needed to introduce new approaches to public toilet provision, and towards toilet management, cleaning and sanitary disposal. A culture of ‘care’ as well as ‘cleanliness’ is important to ensure that environmental policies do not result in overflowing sanpro bins, and this means extra investment in staff time and wages (Cleaning Matters, 2000) BICS (2003). Smaller, less obstructive bins are possible if they are emptied more regularly. If sanpro disposal is not treated seriously at the toilet end of the equation then the result will be seen at the coastal outlet end of the sanpro voyage through the sewage system. Many a beach and seashore are polluted by the remains of sanpro, and many sewerage systems are blocked up with non-disposable items which should never have been put down the toilet in the first place. Items containing or backed with plastic prove particularly problematic. There is a range of invisible chemicals and pollutants that end up going down the toilet too from bleached sanpro, disinfectants and cleaning fluids (see Dwr Cymru/Welsh Water, 1995a, 1995b,1996). Women are particularly concerned about toxic materials included in some sanpro products which not only cause toxic shock within the body but adversely affect the whole environment, this long being an international issue of concern (WE, 1992). It often seems that women themselves are blamed as the source of chemical pollution, rather than as victims of the situation. This is because the oestrogen from contraceptive pills reaches the water supply through women’s urine and many rivers are now full of it, with fish, livestock and human men all imbibing it. In addition non-biodegradable contraceptive devices are flushed down the toilet, in this case mainly by men, with increased usage being created by the AIDS epidemic.

Toilet paper Sanpro, nappies and toilet paper are all big industries ‘vital’ to the economy. Environmentalism had drawn attention to the hidden costs of ‘production’ and ‘consumption’ and the benefits of ‘decomposition’. Decomposition is the next 118


essential stage towards restoring environmental assets and balance through ‘recycling’ – that is, decomposition and recomposition of natural materials. In other words, every society should be composed of ‘producers, consumers and decomposers’! Any public toilet strategy should recognise our responsibility in keeping the planet healthy (Turner, 1996: 30). Use of toilet paper combined with water-based toilet systems creates problems. One research study stated that each person flushes the home loo 3.48 times a day and uses 11.5 sheets of paper a day, but this may be a gross underestimate (Imperial College, 1994). Manufacturers estimate that the average person uses 8 sheets of toilet paper per bowel movement – at least. The equivalent of 4 million toilet rolls are disposed of per day by the entire British population (from an OU television programme, Metropolis, 19.1.95). This seems a conservative estimate, as many people use toilet paper for a multitude of uses such as removing make up, sneezing, cleaning up spills, and some women use toilet paper in relation to light menstruation and incontinence too. Indeed, women generally blot after urination whereas men use toilet paper only after defecation. Toilet paper is only part of the problem. People put all sorts of things down the loo, including tea bags, goldfish, rings, disposable nappies, even bits of bicycles! Nowadays, lavatory roll manufacturers stress the softness, and absorbency, even the moistness of their product. The market leader was advised to reduce the thickness of its paper when, following a massive marketing campaign, it was found this brand was blocking ancient sewers which were not up to taking all this new waste. Apparently they had made the paper even thicker than in North America because they believed Europeans ‘folded’ rather than ‘scrunched the paper’ before using it. It was not so long ago that everyone used to ‘scrape’ using hard, shiny Izal toilet roll rather than ‘blot’ using modern soft absorbent tissue. Hard paper is still provided in some public toilets, especially in the Gents. Many European mainland sewerage systems cannot even cope with ordinary thinner lavatory paper so a container is provided at the side of the toilet since thick American paper is enough to bring the sewers to a standstill. This is not a problem unique to ‘man’ as apparently howler monkeys use leaves to wipe their bottoms. Disposal of excreta is a problem shared by all God’s creatures. Cats are very clean and bury their doings, but dogs leave them out as a territory marker. In the wild animals have different approaches to the dung problem. Rabbits leave their droppings in piles and usually in a communal warren on the edge of their patch which also serves as a territorial marker. Likewise, badgers leave their droppings in funnel-shaped latrines within around 20 m (65 ft) of their sett. However, rabbits eat their own droppings to extract maximum nutrition from their food so the droppings found are generally second time around droppings. Herbivores in general tend to produce lots of small droppings, with the exception of cows that produce large pats. Carnivores, including dogs, wolves, and even humans, tend to produce one or more sausage-shaped stools. In the case of foxes these may be distinctively twisted and are generally

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deposited on open ground, not covered. Sloths come down from their trees once a week to defecate, much to the delight of the waiting forest insects. Clearly for some naturalists this is a fascinating subject and they can readily ‘see’ what animals are around just by looking at their droppings (Readers Digest, 2000; and see Poo, Bellamy, 1997). Dog dirt is a big environmental and health issue. Local authorities find that dog dirt on pavements and lack of public toilets are the topics they receive the most complaints about. The 1996 The Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act gives local authorities powers to create areas where it is an offence to let dogs foul, with a fine of £25, and prosecution if owners refuse to pay. Other countries have produced purpose-built high-tech doggy loos – for example, the HG Dog Toilet design by the Swedes which has a circular sweeper which clears away the offending material; the first one in Britain has been installed in High Wycombe. Clearly there are problems about infection from dog faeces, but one must also acknowledge they are God’s creatures too and some of the last to excrete so visibly in the city of man now that we no longer have horses and cattle in our streets.

Figure 7.6 Bin for dog dirt, Somerset. Dog dirt is a major issue in many cities. Rather than banning dogs from parks, beaches and streets, alternative means of efficient disposal are needed. But, even 40 years ago, dog dirt was not picked out as a special problem as many streets still had cart horses, milk horses, coal horses etc. going on their daily rounds and anything deposited was likely to end up on the garden; indeed, it was a blessing if a horse ‘obliged’ outside the house as it was ‘good for the roses’. In many cities of the world, animal dung of all sorts is still a major component of the street scene. 120

In the world of humans much depends upon cultural associations and traditions in respect of animals when advertising toilet products. The Japanese find it extraordinary and unclean to have a dog advertising human excrement paper, and the award-winning Andrex puppy dog advert does not feature as much in advertising campaigns in the Far East, but has won the equivalent of advertising ‘Oscars’ in the West. Following a takeover and a change of production methods Andrex experienced a slump in sales in 1996. An article entitled ‘Puppy leads Andrex fight back’ (Springett, 1996) suggested that people preferred cheaper supermarket brands. Another leading brand countered by advertising its products with a range of forest creatures including a cartoon of a bear who goes off on the quiet with a toilet roll to do his business.


Figure 7.7 Doggy toilet: coming to the UK soon. A Scandinavian Public toilet for dogs (loved by dogs as it provides a warm patch in the snow full of smells in the long Arctic winters!)

Water instead of paper Most of the world’s population do not use toilet paper, and most of the women in the world do not use, nor have access to, modern sanitary protection for financial, practical and cultural reasons. Indian toilet experts have explained at international toilet conferences that ordinary Indian people thought it was a joke, a story put out to discredit the colonial invaders, when they first heard that the white man used toilet paper. Some Westerners use alternative materials. 121


Newspaper is still used in some areas, especially within the erstwhile Soviet block, modern newspapers with colour photos generally being seen as less absorbent. Elsewhere leaves, water and cloth are the most common solutions. Most people in the world do not have electricity, televisions, cars, computers or phones. In developed and western countries and cities we have the mixed blessing of sewerage systems, loo paper, cleaning agents, bleaches, disinfectants, and detergents, sanitary towels and other sewage-related debris (SRD). The problems these modernisations have created are immense for the environment. In many Moslem societies, in some Jewish, and in a range of Far Eastern cultures, there is a requirement or preference to use water rather than toilet paper. Under Islam (submission to Allah) people are meant to pray five times a day, and part of the preparation for prayer includes ritual washing and in some interpretations is perceived to include urination. Under Shariat (Moslem law) it is obligatory for the Muslim to perform ‘istinjaak’ cleansing after ‘najis’, that is when impurities, both urine and faeces, are passed, so they need to cleanse both passages using water. It is best to put a water tap or receptacle on the left side of the cubicle as washing is done with the left hand. Many Singapore toilets are squat ones, and all are now equipped with a water hose and nozzle, which apparently are often stolen as they are so useful (Greed, 2002b). Jewish tradition also puts an emphasis upon the use of water for purification, especially for women, the mikveh bath (after menstruation) leading to plumbing innovations, while the Turkish Bath or ‘hamman’ also predates and feeds into the western concept of the ‘bathroom’ (de Bonneville, 1997). In Malaysia the vast majority of the population are Muslim, and it has been argued that the provision of toilets that satisfy Islamic law does not create any additional problems for non-Muslims (Hooi and Hamzah, 1995; Hamzah and Hooi, 2001). Moslems enter the toilet with the left foot first and exit right foot first. Such details affect door hanging, orientation of the toilet and overall design. In the past, most mosques were provided with running water and some with toilets – for the men at least. Turkish mosques have traditionally provided both male and female toilets. For seclusion they are located down steps (creating the same access problems as London toilets but for different reasons) (Habip, 2001). Emphasis is put upon privacy and modesty. While Moslem toilet law is quite sophisticated, some other religions have more complex laws that require them to urinate and defecate some distance from each other, all of which have implications for toilet design. In the Bible the Israelites are advised to take a shovel and go to the outside of the camp to achieve privacy. In Deuteronomy 23, verses 12–14, individuals are advised, ‘thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad, and thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon, and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee, for the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy

CHAPTER SEVEN • ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS: GLOBAL AND LOCAL Figure 7.8 A typical Moslem toilet in Singapore with water hose, and for washing purposes, so no paper waste is generated, a Moslem toilet up step.

camp be holy, that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee’. In other words, carry a little shovel and bury it to avoid stepping in it. Private, secluded toilets bring their own hazards and created the beginnings of the ‘crime and design’ agenda. For example, Judges 3, verses 15–25, tells of how Eglon, king of Moab, who ‘was a very fat man’, was killed by Ehud who stabbed him while he was in the toilet, and he was not discovered until Ehud had escaped as no-one dared to go in, for ‘surely he covereth his feet in his summer 123


chamber’ (also translated wardrobe/guardrobe). In other words Ehud assassinated the king while he was busy having a bowel movement and when he did not come out for ages his servants were sent in and found him dead. Over the centuries a range of prominent people have been born or died in toilets (Hart-Davis, 1995) and public toilets remain a popular place to collapse in – all the more reason to provide safe, accessible toilets with emergency supervision.

Far East comparisons Making the familiar strange In seeking to transcend the constraints of the British context, this section offers some illustrative examples of the range of toilet issues that have been incor porated within the wider environmental agenda globally, drawing on the proceedings of the 1996 Toyama International Toilet Conference in Northern Japan (JTA, 1996a), where the theme that year was specifically environmental issues, and the World Toilet Summits in Singapore and in Korea (WTO, 2002). Themes discussed in Toyama included the effects of global tourism on wilderness locations, industrial pollution, global water supply, health issues and toilets in emergency and disaster situations. In Singapore greater emphasis was put upon the fact that apparently practical scientific solutions to these issues might be culturally unacceptable for a variety of religious, gendered and social reasons. Various ‘modern’ ideas go against tradition, and often common sense too. For example, heated debates arise at international toilet conferences over the value of unisex toilets. An emphasis among Moslems upon separating male from female users precluded installation of unisex toilets, so favoured by Australians and ‘liberated’ westerners. A compromise of putting the urinals in a separate room, and making all the rest unisex cubicles as adopted in parts of Australia, can be interpreted as giving the men extra space and making the women share with the men, or as giving more flexibility. Women from the West also express concern with sharing with men because of fear of germs and mess, as ‘men don’t bother to put the seat down when they leave’. Good policy and design ideas gleaned from these conferences and from membership of the Far East-based World Toilet Organisation are incorporated in Part Two. Over 800 delegates attended the Toyama conference. The proceedings of the Singapore Summit suggest that the toilet revolution was continuing unabated in the Far East, not least because of the continuing pressure of tourism. The FIFA Soccer World Cup in Seoul, South Korea, in 2002 and the 2008 Olympics in China have led to renewed investment in public toilets. In both conferences senior ministers of the environment from the participating countries attended, and many national toilet associations are government-funded, not voluntary organisations, because toilets are seen as such an important issue (WTO, 2002).

The keynote address in Toyama was given by Junko Tabei, Japan’s foremost woman mountaineer, environmentalist, and first woman of any nation to climb Mount Everest and to have climbed each of the highest peaks on each continent. She addressed the ecological and environmental problems of increased pollution with greater numbers of tourists, explorers and climbers going into wilderness and mountainous areas. She was introduced as the first woman to ‘climb and clean Mount Everest’! … (feminist analysis = ‘it’s OK for a Japanese woman to be a mountaineer as long as she cleans the mountain too’). Her talk, which was more ‘earthy’ than any BTA conference presentations, discussed the problems of dealing with human excreta in mountainous areas. Apparently some Japanese mountains are now covered in toilet paper ‘like the snow’ and many a nasty surprise lurks in the undergrowth. On her expeditions she always took back all her own waste material, including faeces. She described how she had used a simple compacting ‘solidifier’ machine available from Japan Toilet Association (JTA). In Antarctica everything froze in an instant and they took all their urine and faeces back in the plane with them: a case of TYO (Take Your Own [excreta back]) rather than BYO (Bring Your Own [booze]) as the Australian delegates commented. The theme of wilderness defecation in national parks was taken further by the next Keynote speaker, Kathleen Meyer, survival skills specialist and environmentalist from the US, who wrote the refreshingly frank book, How to Shit in the Wilderness, which was a runaway best seller in Japan (Meyer, 1994). She discussed the problems in North American national parks, and how the US park rangers now had powers to send anyone back down the mountain who did not follow strict procedures about not shitting on open ground near the mountaineering camps. Much of the discussion subsequently related to urban toilets and it was suggested she write a sequel entitled How to Shit in the Urban Jungle. Attention then turned to the problems of the Australian outback. The Australians are world leaders on green toilet technology as they have the right combination of a waterless continent, western know-how and increasing Asian cultural inputs to solve these problems for the globe. There is a range of recycled compost public toilets being developed. In Australian universities, several people are doing PhDs and funded research on many aspects of toilet use and sewerage, including Mrs Robin Law, civil rights toilet campaigner in New Zealand (Kitchin and Law, 2001). Others are researching toilet vandalism, cottaging and ecological non-water-based issues. In England where the climate is quite the opposite, wet and windy, a wind-powered toilet block was established in North Yorkshire, Staxton Brow near Scarborough, built by Rydale District Council in 1998, which generates both light and hot water, and others are underway. The theme of ‘emergency toilets’ was also addressed, as to what people do when people are suddenly deprived of their lavatories by natural disaster. This


Toyama

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was within the wider context of a special session on the effects of the Kobe earthquake, and the need for an international data bank and internet connection between countries to help each other out as to emergency toilets, expertise and help in such circumstances. ‘Emergencies’ can be sudden like earthquakes, or slower and gradual like famine and ecological disaster, and both must be considered. Governments are often very keen to give international relief support including toilets. As one of the officials from the Kobe earthquake region explained, a kind American gift of masses of emergency ‘toilet’ units for domestic use was a real problem as they were too big in scale for both Japanese people and to install into existing buildings, and they were only of the pedestal type.

Singapore Greater emphasis was put upon the cultural, religious, visual and design aspects of toilets in the Singapore conference of 2001. The theme of waste disposal retains high priority too, particularly among Indian and Japanese speakers. When using more organic approaches to waste disposal, the importance of dividing urine from faeces as a basic ecological principle of good sanitation was stressed; water-based disposal was to be avoided at all costs, hence the importance of the principle ‘don’t mix it’, of ‘separation’ as the way ahead (Pathak, 2001). The use of two-pit pour-flush toilet technology, as developed by the Sulabh Indian Toilet Association, is seen as scientifically appropriate (Pathak, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2001). Greater attention remains to be given in the toilet world to the third issue of menstrual blood, the disposal of menstrual san-pro, or the problems of menstruation itself, possibly because, like at all toilet conferences, women were in the minority. Nevertheless there is now a serious commitment to ‘decontaminate’ faeces, which are seen as potentially very dangerous material, but at the same time there is a desire to recycle treated sewage. British production of such products is also becoming more widely available to ordinary gardeners as well as the agricultural industry as it is being sold in local garden centres by Wessex Water in the Bristol area. I have investigated the sanpro situation walking around the shops in the Far East and found all the same old panti-liners and plastic backed goods. In most ladies toilets there is a sanitary disposal bin, usually a minute dainty little plastic affair with a lid that would hardly hold more than a couple of sanitary towels. Japanese public toilets are built to a very high standard, well equipped and lovingly cared for by their devoted attendants. Presumably because so many of the toilets had attendants the bins would be more frequently emptied, as capacity does relate to the intervals between toilet cleaning and disposal collection. Out on the streets all their public litterbins come in threes for glass, paper and other, and they subdivide everything rigorously (even when drunk!). Household waste in many areas of Japan has to be put out in see-through plastic bags to check no-one is throwing away the wrong sort of rubbish, such as vegetable

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material. I have heard that some women find this a problem in terms of disposal of personal items, ranging from sanpro to old underwear. Many kitchens have compactors for organic food waste which is then spread on the garden or collected for the many flat/apartment dwellers. In spite of acceptance of the worthiness of the low-tech ecological solution principle, it was most noticeable that while the ‘westerners’ and those from developing countries were strongly advocating ecological, and often low-tech, solutions to global sewage issues, many of the Far East delegates and the trade literature which I picked up were definitely obsessed with high-tech solutions – for example, from Toto toilet manufacturers. Ecological yet high-tech approaches were to be found which incorporated water conservation measures, scrupulous sifting, separation and purification of sewerage (Johkasou, 1996). For example, in Indonesia there is a continuing combination of massive investment to create a modern infrastructure, combined with ecological solutions in a country where there are many dispersed traditional villages without sanitation as well as concentrations of major cities (Darmawan, 1996). Within the international toilet scene, priority is put upon the race to develop the flush toilet that uses the least water, three-litre flushes being the standard in many parts of the Far East, 42 in Singapore combined with extra-strong ‘flushes’, four- or six-litre dual flushes in Australia. Alternative recycling methods are available to reduce water use. The waterless urinal has been developed using chemical traps, while the thinking urinal is activated by sensors, and can be pre-programmed only to flush at certain times, such as school breaks, or football half-times. Thus the most modern technology is used in a discerning manner to achieve environmental sustainability. There is attention to disposal detail at both the countrywide and the district level. Such technologies resulted in sanitary engineers achieving much higher levels of purification in ‘parts per thousand’ than we had ever dreamed of in the West with extensive use of computer monitoring and electronic gizmos, much recent investment, and ecological applications too. Japan is a nation of contrasts and paradoxes, and its manufacturing industry is still not that efficient in terms of preventing chemical waste, as the Minamata saga has shown, where the release of toxic chemicals into the bay resulted in ‘Dancing Cat’ disease and mass poisoning of hundreds of humans and animals. While there is good and bad in Japan as in any nation, we were generally very impressed by the cleanliness, the sense of public duty and national investment in toilet facilities. The problem of the humble British toilet was just one pebble on the beach among so many other international toilet issues. EU harmonisation of plumbing and introduction of reduced flushing mechanisms are bringing the environmental agenda in Britain into line with international trends. As well as the emphasis upon technical plumbing issues, and upon quantitative levels of provision, qualitative, ergonomic and social issues are high on the agenda. Women designers, architects and engineers are prominent in the world

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Figure 7.9 A basic Third World ‘modern’ toilet, behind a curtain: the reality for billions.

of toilets in the Far East but they are more often found working in consultancies than visibly to the fore at conferences. Women’s influence is clearly visible in the level of provision in women’s toilets, in childcare and baby-changing facilities and in the fact that many modern buildings contain a ‘women’s room’ set aside for their use. Architects such as Junko Kobayashi (1995) who has designed both public toilets and school toilets are prime movers in the Far East toilet revolution. Overall there is nowadays a greater emphasis on moving beyond basic toilet provision and creating attractive surroundings, as found in off-street shopping mall toilets in Singapore, where murals, quality materials and attention to design detail creates a high standard of provision, as discussed further in the design chapters.

Conclusion: the big picture There is a vast range of toilet issues at the global level, and a whole set of clashes and differences of opinion over ideal toilet policy, again along the lines of sit or squat; flush or recycle; high-tech or ecological; public or private. Travel certainly broadens the mind. The global environmental movement potentially offers the British public toilet providers many models for change and can be a means of increasing support for the demands of toilet users. It is important that environmental policies are thought through carefully and gender-proofed as otherwise they can cause other, new problems. For example, putting sanpro bins beside every toilet bowl in the Ladies creates major problems for women. Indeed this 128

Key issues ➥

Globalisation of toilets, but avoid toilet imperialism

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Need for toilet design consultation, rather than imposition on developing countries

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Toilet evolution and revolution underway worldwide

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Increased comparison with mass tourism and travel

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Water-based toilet systems not sustainable

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Water-saving flush systems big issue in the interim

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Most of the world do not have western toilets

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Menstruation is a major issue for half the world’s population

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Sanpro disposal needs integrated component solutions (not temporary bins)


approach is symptomatic of the lack of awareness and underestimation of the amount of sanpro, toilet paper, incontinence pads and SRD that is disposed of in public toilets. Without a proper cleaning, collection and management regime, and well-designed facilities to start with, such material becomes a health hazard and access barrier within toilets, and might well end up floating around at the seaside at the water’s edge if disposal facilities are overflowing, or perceived as too unhygienic to touch.

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part two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Solutions


CHANGE

chapter eight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Planning for toilets: city-wide macro level

Part two: the solution Part two is concerned with developing solutions both in terms of design guidance and means of creating and implementing change. In Section III (the next 4 chapters) toilet provision and policy guidance will be discussed. In Section IV (Chapters 12, 13 and 14) means of generating change will be explored with reference to both change-making groups (of providers and users) and changemaking strategies, legislative reform, urban governance and new policy directions.

Hierarchies and levels

CHAPTER EIGHT • PLANNING FOR TOILETS: CITY-WIDE MACRO LEVEL

SECTION THREE: DESIGN AND POLICY

In this section (III) emphasis is given to the spatial and design aspects of toilet provision. When developing guidance on the location, distribution and design of public toilets, it is vital to see the problem in terms of a hierarchy of levels of provision ranging, for example, from supplying large facilities in central locations serving large numbers of people converging on the main transport termini; to the distribution of a strategic sprinkling of smaller facilities in local neighbourhood centres serving a smaller catchment area; and ‘down’ to the installation of individual facilities in less frequented areas where nonetheless the passing motorist or walker might desperately need a toilet. Therefore this chapter and the next look at the ‘macro’ city-wide aspects of toilet provision policy, with Chapter 9 incorporating a strong access dimension to the debate. Chapter 10 looks at the ‘meso’ district level and Chapter 11 investigates the local site and toilet block level. The drawings used in this section are not intended to be detailed architectural plans but rather illustrate key design considerations. Design guidance is added in italics throughout this chapter. Key points and minimum requirements are gathered together in summary form at the end of each chapter to provide an aide-mémoire for reference. 133

THE SOLUTIONS

The missing link In this chapter I seek to give an overall view of the city and explain the likely modern toilet needs of its inhabitants, as a basis for taking toilet ‘plan-making’ further, and in order to identify key ‘hot spots’ where toilets should be provided. Many local authorities have no such overall toilet strategy or plan, and little awareness of differential levels of need, resulting in a very fragmented policy situation. Such authories have inherited a hotchpotch of toilets which were built at different times for reasons lost in the mists of time, and which they kept open as best they could against difficult odds. Some authorities have a spatial toilet strategy, but this was often used to ‘rationalise’ and reduce the number of toilets available rather than to plan for a wider coverage and increase in facilities to meet the demands of modern travel patterns. For example, in our Nuffield study we found that North Somerset district had a location policy based upon putting toilets into three categories, strategic (on main roads and in central areas), tourist (by seaside and other attractions), and local (villages and local centres). In the course of the cost-cutting rationalisation process, the local ones were most likely to be closed, as they were seen as the least important, but from a sustainability viewpoint these were the most important to local people – hence the many complaints when local toilets were closed (Greed and Daniels, 2002).

Women and men This chapter discusses the toilet problems women and men encounter at the citywide planning level, as briefly mentioned in Chapter 4. Compensatory attention is given to women’s needs because women constitute 52% of the population (ONS, 2002). Women comprise the majority (variously) of the population and of the low-paid, single-parent families, carers, urban poor, ethnic minority population, those without cars, the disabled and the elderly, all of whom are likely to need public toilets ‘more’. Contrary to media and marketing images, 60% of women (and men) in the UK are aged 40 plus, and 60% of women are more than dress size 14 (but not necessarily the same ones!) and thus more and larger toilet cubicles are needed and more of them. Improving facilities and access for all concerned does not take away from men’s quality of life, it enhances everyone’s lives. The elderly compose nearly 20% of the population, but over 50% in some localities popular as retirement areas. At least 12% of the total population are officially categorised as ‘disabled’ (Matthews and Vujakovic, 1994), and many more experience temporary or permanent disablement (see next chapter). Over two-thirds of disabled people are over the age of 60, and the majority of the elderly are women. Eighty per cent of single-person pensioner households are car-less and 75% of these car-less pensioners are women. The very groups who might most need public toilets cannot 134


Figure 8.1 People arriving at Paddington Railway station: Where will they ‘go’?

Figure 8.2 Coffee cart in centre of Bristol: what goes in must come out; but the increase in coffee outlets has not been matched by commensurate provision of public toilets.

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Figure 8.3 Good signage in tourist area showing WCs in City of London (albeit they are located down steps when you get there). However, many toilets are never found by desperate members of the public, owing to bad signage.

avail themselves of the nearest motorway service station facilities without a car. Toilets are essential to making city centres more accessible to everyone. What is good for men is not necessary ideal for the opposite sex because of social as well as biological differences. Women’s lives and needs are not the same as those of men. They are more likely to be the ones responsible for 136

Parents and children Women are still chiefly responsible for child care, and therefore have to deal with the problems of getting pushchairs up and down steps, through narrow entrances and into small cubicles. Nowadays, many men undertake childcare duties too, and experience similar problems, including the question of ‘which toilet to go into’ to meet their toileting needs. One often sees anxious fathers out on their own waiting for their offspring to emerge from the forbidden zone of the Ladies toilet. Apparently 35% of children under 12 are primarily cared for by the father because the mother is working, this being the case particularly for those involved in shift work. One also sees forlorn-looking husbands waiting for their wives to come out of the toilet and wondering whether to ask a passing woman to go in and look for her. There is always the worry that the spouse has passed out inside a locked cubicle. Older children have their needs, activity patterns and travel needs, which affect both road safety and personal safety considerations. The agenda is a negative one of assumed misbehaviour, drugs and vandalism. Toilet vandalism increases during school holidays but that does not mean that all young people are guilty. Children may be the last great minority to be ‘discovered’ as worthy of priority policy treatment (Adams and Ingham, 1998; Bartlett, 1999). Children will need a toilet several times during the day, and family outings need to planned around such eventualities. There are 5.7 million households with one or more children under 12 years of age; 1.3 million of these households are made up of single parents. While stressing the importance of children’s issues, most women (and men) out in the city are not in charge of children or babies. Many women want to be seen as individuals in their own right who may want to use the toilet. After all, the needs of children are seldom used as an argument to improve provision for adult men. Even the most independent woman will soon note the discrepancy in toilet provision. If her car breaks down she is just another woman, walking down a badly lit street, wary of all around her and unlikely to find a toilet if she needs one (Lamplugh, 1988 and ongoing research). People living in rundown areas encounter poor toilet provision as a daily reality. Rich people too can be severely disorientated and inconvenienced when travelling as tourists and suddenly finding that no public toilets are available.


childcare, and a range of other caring roles, all of which generate different usage of urban space. Because women have less access to the use of a car, they comprise the majority of public transport users in many areas. Women’s daily activities and travel patterns are likely to be different and more complex than men’s, as many will be combining work with childcare and other commitments (Sapsford, 1995).

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The past legacy: a potted history of women and planning policy Women are scarcely visible in much of the nineteenth-century urban planning literature. If working-class women are mentioned, they are likely to be seen as those who caused the problem of low morals and poor hygiene and child neglect (Richardson, 1876). Upper- and middle-class women were frequently presented as neurotic and ‘selfish’ (Durkheim, 1970), so pandering to their lavatorial needs was not encouraged. The first wave of feminism at the turn of the last century had a strong emphasis on the built environment (Greed, 1991, 1994b) which was reflected in model communities, and in cooperative housing ventures pioneered by women (Hayden, 1981; Pearce, 1988) and, as stated in Chapter 2, with Ladies lavatories. With the coming of the Welfare State and post-war reconstruction town planning, planners appeared more concerned with women’s issues but only within the context of ‘women and children’ as invisible servants of their offspring, apparently without needs and lives of their own as citizens of Britain (Wilson, 1980). Studies of ethnic minorities, the elderly and disabled people initially concentrated more on the needs of men than women within these minority groups. The vandalism of public toilets was more likely to evoke sympathy for ‘bored youth’ (usually male youth) than anger at the problems users encountered. Sociological studies emphasised male problems such as cottaging and juvenile delinquency rather than women’s social needs. Pioneer women who went into architecture and planning in the 1960s and 1970s reported that they were not made welcome or seen as valuable people who had a unique insight to offer on how real people experienced the built environment. Any mention of toilets was seen as a joke. Subsequently influential American ‘women and planning’ books (Wekerle and Whitzman 1994; Hayden, 1981, 1984; Stimpson, 1981) were followed by a range of British studies (WGSG, 1984; Matrix, 1984; Roberts, 1991; McDowell and Sharp, 1997). The field flowered in terms of publication if not in terms of implementation (Greed, 1994b; Little, 1994; Darke et al, 2000), but ‘talking toilets’ even among feminists was not a good career move. Some remained steadfast in dealing with practical issues. A Canadian periodical entitled Women and Environments has been consistently supportive (WE, 1992 onwards). In Britain the Women’s Design Service has maintained its output of policy and design guidance (WDS, 1990 onwards). In the 1980s the Greater London Council (GLC) women’s committee produced a series of influential reports (GLC, 1985, 1986) that gave official recognition to women’s planning issues, and so the issues were gradually being incorporated within local government in the more progressive authorities. Professional interest gradually grew. The RTPI produced a Practice Advice Note (PAN) on ‘Planning for Women’ (RTPI, 1995). Subsequently there was an

A city-wide perspective Zoning the city A ‘macro’ level perspective will be adopted in identifying the problems and suggesting where public toilets might best be provided. One of the key problems is the separation of different land uses by zoning policies. This extends the distances that need to be travelled and creates decentralised, low-density cities that are difficult to access without a car. Such a city form is unsustainable environmentally and increases the costs of sewerage systems and other infrastructural services. One of the main problems for women has been the way in which the city has been ‘seen’ by mainstream planning theory, and from this flows a whole series of problems as to the location, distribution and design of different types of land uses and related facilities, not least public toilets. In the early twentieth century famous planning theorists such as Geddes (1905), Abercrombie (1933) and Le Corbusier saw the main components of the city, and life itself, as home, work, and play (residential, employment and leisure areas) (Greed, 1994). This viewpoint makes the fundamental mistake of equating work with what is done outside the home, and ignoring all the ‘home-making’ and childcare which occur inside the home but also spill into the outside world.


attempt to get the words ‘toilets’ included in the revision to this document (RTPI, 1999). The revolutionary moment had passed, as planners were now saying ‘Oh, we’ve done women, you should be concerned with the environment’, a curious statement when so many women’s issues directly relate to the environment, especially toilets. Reactionary trends were setting in by the 1990s, such as the installation of toilet turnstiles and accelerated closure of on-street premises. Today the battle continues.

Employment realities Over 70% of married women work outside the home. The separation of work and home, and the associated separation of employment areas from care-related facilities such as food shops, schools and community buildings increased the travel burden of women. Much transportation planning has been based upon the assumption that the ‘journey to work’ is an uninterrupted trip in the rush hour by car. Women workers often undertake intermittent, lateral journeys, rather than radial journeys straight to and from the city centre. Such journeys are typically undertaken outside the rush hour if they work part-time, and are more likely to be by public transport or by foot. For example, a woman’s daily journeys might be as follows; home → school → work → shops → school → home, and may not necessarily be by car. Journeys may be even more complicated if women need 139

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 8.4 Key toilet locations along a sector radiating from the city centre of Bristol, out to Weston. (From Nuffield Trust Study [Greed and Daniels, 2002]).

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to double back to take a child back home to the toilet after they declare they want to ‘go’ just when they nearly reach their toiletless destination – for example, the local public library. Public toilets along the way would be a great help to women and men, especially at transport interchanges. This is particularly so in large conurbations, not least London, where traffic congestion and interminable train station delays are a feature of modern privatised travel. Women commuters are not necessarily travelling alone but may be accompanied for part of their journey by children whom they are taking to school or childminder. Thus, as women move through urban space, they take many of their ‘private’ ‘domestic’ duties and needs with them in the form of their children, and therefore matters such as children’s toilets, breastfeeding and baby-changing facilities must also be provided in the city, outside the home. While in the nineteenth century the working man could be assured of his wayside urinal on his way to the mill, factory or dockyard, working women have been less well served. Women office workers have constituted the largest single employment group in Britain for more than 10 years (ONS, 2002). On average 60% of all workers in offices are women, and 80% of all workers in the central area, including shop workers (Greed, 1999a). In spite of central area regeneration initiatives, there is a continuing trend for central area headquarters to decentralise to green field out-of-town sites and ‘business parks’. These locations are difficult to reach for those without transport and miles away from shops, schools and other facilities, but they employ large numbers of female clerical and support staff. Planners do not seem to be aware, even now, of the implications for transport policy, land use and location decisions, and the level of accessibility to the built environment planned into new developments. Policy: To support the daily movement of such sectors of the female population, proper social infrastructural provision, including public toilets at all main transport termini, railway stations, bus stations and heavily used bus stops, is essential. The care industry has the highest rate of growth investment and employment of any sector, and most of its workers are female (Gilroy, 1999; RTPI, 1999). This has been the result of the pressures of caring for an ageing population, demands for increased childcare provision and a reduction in state provision for the disabled. A substantial component of care workers’ time is likely to be spent in dealing with incontinence. Likewise, the cleaning industry is a major female employer. Many of the women who work in these industries rely on public transport, travel at non-peak times, and walk considerable distances to their work. They are unlikely to find public toilets available when they need them. Care assistants, who go into the private homes of elderly and disabled people, may be out all day but find it awkward to use their clients’ toilets.

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Policy: More public toilets are needed in the suburbs and in all the ordinary ‘in between’ areas, where carers and cleaners travel around often on foot or by bus. There is a small growth in ‘telecommuting’ – that is, people working at home by computer but at present less than 5% of people work in this way, and many of them are self-employed. Such home-working massively reduces the overheads of employers, particularly in terms of building provision. This may in the future generate an even greater need for people to get out and about in their leisure time, requiring more public toilets linked to recreation rather than employment.

Residential areas The interwar period was characterised by the growth of mono-land use for suburban housing estates at relatively low density, consisting of both speculative private estates for the new middle classes and decentralised estates for council housing. There was a greater level of social and physical infrastructure at the neighbourhood level, including local shopping parades, schools, banks, pubs, churches, and other community buildings – and local public toilets, particularly at bus termini on the edges of cities. Such facilities were often built, or financially supported, by the housebuilder to attract buyers. The urban infrastructure was geared to people who used public transport or walked, and there was a good distribution of local supporting services and facilities. In the post-war reconstruction period, vast rebuilding occurred in many bombed urban areas, and many a damaged Edwardian public toilet was replaced by a shiny new concrete monstrosity, but some were never replaced. In the suburbs local authorities continued building traditional low-rise houses, in the form of dispersed council estates (public sector projects) often miles from anywhere. Green open spaces were commonly provided within the estates, paradoxically often accompanied by signs saying ‘No Ball Games’. To meet the needs of residents visiting the nearby shopping parade, many included brick-built public toilets, often with an attendant provided such as in Basingstoke, Hampshire, where residents were renowned for taking a pride in ‘their’ toilets, or in Southmead, Bristol. Council estate toilets nowadays are generally vandalised, covered in graffiti, and even when closed may still provide a focal point for youths, as part of the urban drug scene. Policy: The provision of toilets in suburban housing estates (be they council or private) is essential, not least for bus passengers with long waits, bus drivers, postal workers, and ‘white van man’ – that is, the tradespeople, delivery persons, repairmen and care workers without whom modern life would collapse. In the 1960s, car ownership grew and public transport began to decline. Beeching cut railway branch lines and rural routes, just at the time when outer 142


suburban estates were growing. The small railway stations that remained were downgraded, unstaffed and left to their own devices, toilet facilities soon falling casualty to cost-cutting. There were other insidious trends towards greater ‘efficiency’ (for whom?) in the siting and concentration of new health, school and social services facilities. The age of the out-of-town comprehensive school campus, retail park and hospital complex had arrived. The tradition of cities based on walking distances and upon a hierarchy of close-knit local centres was doomed. In other words, the urban fabric was unravelling. Policy: Such out-of-town locations need public toilets independent of whether there are likely to be facilities inside the buildings (which may not be open to the public). Toilets are needed at the end of every bus route and in the main focal parking points on the edges of cities and in all out-of-town development locations. The question ‘how do you want to live?,’ as posed in a government campaign in 1972 (DOE, 1972), inspired different answers depending on whether you were a car driver wanting lots of car parks, fast new motorways and out-of-town centres, or whether you were a walker and public transport user. Most planners fell into the former grouping so they could not see what the problem was. All the important aspects of streetscape and pedestrian needs, such as toilets, bus shelters, seats, pedestrian crossings, decent width footpaths and pavements (sidewalks) and street lighting were marginalised in their minds. Policy: It is vital to provide public toilets in locations where there are significant numbers of pedestrians walking past, standing and waiting for buses or for shops to open, as part of an integrated, user-related urban design strategy. The 1960s were marked by the relatively short but disastrous phase of highrise council flat development. Living high above the ground created all sorts of problems including supervision of children, disposal of rubbish, and drying of washing. As Alice Coleman notes in her study of high-rise estates (1985), if children wanted to go to the toilet urgently, it was too far to go right up to the top of the building again, and so a problem of human faeces developed around play areas which lacked any proper toilet facilities. Policy: It is vital to provide toilets in areas of open space, not just parks, but also in relation to so-called landscaped areas around high-rise housing estates (housing projects) where children play or ‘hang out’. Studies have shown that women want public toilets on urban allotments and in city farm projects too. Another ‘achievement’ of post-war planning was the new towns, also much criticised by women planners (Attfield, 1989). In the early days there was reasonable provision of public toilets as a component of the neighbourhood unit around which many of the new towns were structured. The neighbourhood centres were undermined by the spread of out-of-town centres, and the whole infrastructure unravelled through lack of funding, supervision and interest. This

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resulted in blighted local precincts and vandalised toilets, that were subsequently closed, thus further discouraging people from using local centres. Policy: Any refurbishment project should always include accessible public toilets as a high priority and integrated component. Eventually the pendulum had begun to swing away from ‘new build’ towards a concern with inner city renewal, urban conservation and the regeneration of areas laid waste by earlier planning policies. Greater public investment was put into such areas, and a series of government initiatives were introduced including the creation of urban development corporations, Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) projects and English Partnership schemes (Greed, 2000a). These were supported by ‘spin’ about the importance of regeneration, social inclusion and ‘joined-up thinking’. Public toilets have seldom featured as a component in any of these schemes. There is a need for a ‘regenderation’ of regeneration (Brownill, 2000) as women’s demand for toilets is ignored. The desire to bring back ‘life’ into the inner city and to create the 24-hour city has often resulted in people peeing in front gardens on their way back from the wine bar or the nightclub. Likewise, residents of exclusive dockside apartments resent pedestrians using the ‘interesting architect-designed’ recesses of their buildings as emergency urinals. Policy: All urban design projects, urban regeneration programmes, tourism initiatives and renewal projects should incorporate toilet provision into their plans as a high priority and an integral component of creating the 24-hour city, regardless of whether there are off-street toilets in pubs and clubs.

Retail development There has been much criticism from consumer groups of the planners’ condoning the development of out-of-town retail developments with little consideration of how people would get to and from them. New large retail units inevitably put local shops out of business and reduced choice for those who lacked a motorcar, and in turn contributed to the decline of the quality of town centres, including their public toilets. Nowadays, there are vast urban ‘deserts’, tracts without banks, shops, toilets, bus stops, anything (Shaw, 2001). Would-be shoppers’ chances of fulfilling their purchasing needs are dependent upon transport and upon there being adequate toilets and other amenities when they get there. The property press is renowned for discussing ‘user requirements’ in terms of the needs of ‘developers, tenants, retailers and distributors’ but not the shoppers themselves (Greed, 1991: 79). Retail gravity models have measured the ‘attraction’ of centres quantitatively in terms of thousands of square feet relative to length of car journey distance, whereas the qualitative aspects of toilets, crèches, disabled access, cafés and public transport have been underestimated – resulting in some centres ‘unexpectedly’ failing to attract projected shopper numbers. 144

As stated, some new shopping malls provide excellent toilets, especially Bluewater (Dartford, London), Merryhill (Sheffield) and Milton Keynes. Some traditional department stores have continued to provide reasonable toilets for their customers and have increased turnover as a result. The situation is very patchy. In some shopping centres the council has closed all the public toilets, the stores do not provide them either, and multi-storey car parks that used to provide toilets for their customers have locked their facilities too. The revised building regulation standards now require larger stores to provide toilets. This has ‘forced’ some well-known chain stores to provide customer toilets after many years of resistance. While such in-store facilities are to be welcomed, they do not compensate for lack of town centre facilities, particularly after hours. All shopping streets, centres and even neighbourhood shopping parades should have public toilet provision, which must be accessible, linked to public transport and car parking, and open at least one hour more either side of shopping opening hours.


Figure 8.5 Bus passengers at Meadowhall Shopping Centre mall find good toilets beside the transport exchange. (Photograph courtesy of Ray Fowler).

Leisure The leisure and tourist industry has been growing over the last 20 years and many a historic land used for ‘sport’, especially playing fields for predominantly male 145

THE SOLUTIONS

ball games, has been inaccurately labelled ‘public open space’ on development plans (Greed, 1994b: 136). There has been relatively little consideration of women’s leisure needs, and their needs often get subsumed under the needs of their children for ‘play areas’. The gross overprovision of men’s toilets in sporting stadia sends out a very strong message that ‘Sport is not for all’, thereby weakening Britain’s competitive edge. If more toilets for women were provided, you would encourage more women in the same way that, if you build more roads, you will encourage more cars. The participation and ‘presence’ of women in leisure and recreation contributes towards a ‘family atmosphere’ and arguably reduces laddish behaviour which so easily tips into criminal behaviour and damage. Many tourist venues lack adequate toilet provision. People queuing for the Millennium Wheel in London have suffered from no public toilet provision except for those found in the basement of McDonalds, but there are proposals to build (only) 24 toilets, a figure which apparently includes staff toilets. Policy: The provision of adequate toilets for women and men should be a condition of granting planning permission for all leisure, sport and entertainment and tourist facilities.

Transport issues The transport infrastructure is the key factor in structuring the city and linking land uses together, while the relative levels of public and private transport affect

Figure 8.6 Department stores still provide main source of shopper toilets, but why not an independent one in the location as central hotspots with pedestrians, cyclists, buses, perhaps on the pedestrian space shown? 146


people’s chances of accessing the city. With increasing demands for people to leave their cars at home and go by public transport, one would imagine that better toilet facilities at transport termini and interchanges would be an obvious necessity, particularly in view of the amount of delay and hanging around in cold weather that our inefficient transport system generates. Public toilets seldom feature in the debate. A policy of positive discouragement to travel seems to be in force, evidenced by installation of turnstiles at mainline railway stations and the closure of public toilets at bus stations as part of the cost-cutting that has come in with privatisation and deregulation of public transport. There appears to be a total lack of joined-up thinking, or even ‘talking’, between the disparate public and private bodies responsible for the different aspects of transportation in our cities. Cyclists face toilet problems, being out in all the elements and wanting toilets, washing places and dry areas for storage as well as safe routes (Kean, 1994). Yet the needs of cyclists are often portrayed as ‘leisure’ or as a ‘children’s’ issue. Likewise, pedestrians require back-up services such as seats, toilets, bus shelters, lighting, dog dirt-free pavements and safe and smooth-surfaced streets. (Remember ‘a pedestrian is someone who has parked their car’.) Lack of public toilet facilities adversely affects tourists, overseas visitors, people on family holidays and anyone going to a strange town or resort for the day. Motorists have motorway service stations and there are 12,500 petrol stations in Britain of which many have toilets (but many are locked) and such facilities are generally not available to the non-motoring public. Car drivers are getting stuck in motorway traffic jams for hours nowadays. Portaloos have been installed along the stretch of motorway near Dover to cater for queues created by cross-Channel strikes. During the petrol blockade in September 2000 when many motorists were stranded in queues for hours, many local authorities closed their public conveniences allegedly because cleaning toilet staff could not get to work, just when people needed them the most. Dire circumstances require dire solutions. The portable urinal (male and less convincing female versions available) invented by Cliff Conway from Bournemouth has sold millions. There is also a Taiwanese car which contains a built-in toilet in the seat. Men have the advantage here, and can always use a bottle. This is one of the most widespread but seldom mentioned solutions. In the USA there has been a blitz on urine-filled bottles being thrown out along interstate highways (Wilson, 2001). For example, men are fined $2500 ‘a go’ for doing so in Oregon. In Britain it has been recommended that motorway service stations should be located every 35 miles. Alternative suggestions include additional service areas just containing toilets in-between as apparently 80% of people who stop at motorway service stations stop to use the toilet rather than to buy anything. There are proposals for increasing the number of toilet facilities just for lorry drivers, but a draft for the design of ‘lorry driver units’ only showed facilities for

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Figure 8.7 Bicycles propped against closed toilet, Smithfield, London; why not open? In order to create the sustainable accessible city, walkers, cyclists, public transport users all need toilets.

men. The country is short of 10,000 lorry drivers, and so this is hardly in the spirit of equal opportunities. Airlines are little better. According to the Consumer Association, there is one toilet for every 44 passengers on the average jumbo jet, but this includes first and business class ones, and the reality in economy class can be one toilet to every 200 passengers! The numbers of toilets on trains can vary from 1 to every 30 passengers on some modern intercity trains, to none whatsoever, with an average of around one toilet to every 200 passengers. But airports are much better, particularly good on areas where passengers have to take their luggage trolleys into the loo, giving cubicle dimensions of 1700 deep × 1800 wide and 2000 mm high (BAA, 2002). Railway stations are a particular problem as they deal with large numbers of travellers en masse. Studies of the London Underground on behalf of user groups show progressive closure of public toilets at stations (Midwinter, 1994). Very few toilets have been included in the new Jubilee line (Access by Design, 2000). Some of the most prestigious, architect-designed ‘grands projets’ lack toilet facilities. The Docklands Light Railway in London; the extension of the Paris Metro to La Défense, a major tourist attraction serving an area of magnificent modern architecture; and the Washington DC subway system – all lack toilet facilities at any station or within the vicinity. There is some provision on the new Jubilee line but it is badly signposted and limited (see Access by Design, 2000). Even in Toilet 148


Heaven (Japan) Matsukawa (1994) undertook a survey of central Tokyo and found that the many changes of level involved in traversing the underground system were equivalent to walking up all the stairs in a high-rise block, and so their wonderful toilets could prove inaccessible. The London Regional Transport Users Committee has frequently written to station providers to highlight the situation. In response it has been stated that there is no mandatory requirement for railway stations to provide toilets for public use! The Railway Inspectorate’s Blue Book on Operating Requirements is only advisory, and only applies to new works, while the various Health and Safety Regulations seem to be flouted regularly. According to correspondence, the Railway Inspectorate has no intention of stretching health and safety legislation to include matters of ‘personal comfort and hygiene’. Rather, there is a complete refusal to accept any responsibility, and the most ‘helpful’ suggestion was that there should be signs showing the location of the local public lavatories nearest to the station, thus pushing the responsibility back on the local authorities. The Sapsford Committee (1995) on passenger facilities considered the problem of customer toilets on the London Underground, but it was composed entirely of male members with the exception of one woman. The groups it consulted were also male dominated and in no way represented the interests of women, children, the elderly or disabled people. Clearly there is a need for much better standards to be brought into effect and enforced. Arguably, lack of facilities results in hygiene problems, as men pee into the track, and this also might cause the points to short out on the Tube. A similar view is that the provision of food and drink franchises on station concourses puts the station under obligation to provide adequate sanitary facilities for customers. European Regulations came into effect in British law in 1992 through the EEC Workplace Directive (no. 89.654/EC) and now apply to staffed railway stations by virtue of Section 1-3 of the Offices, Shops and Railways Premises Act of 1963. There is no requirement for public use, but it states, ‘where facilities provided for workers are also used by members of the public, the number of conveniences should be increased as necessary to ensure that workers can use the facilities without delay’. This is extremely vague and imprecise. Even railway workers have problems, particularly female ones. Privatisation and fragmentation of railway functions has exacerbated the situation. The whole system is a tangled mess of overlapping legislation with no-one taking overall responsibility. Any realistic integrated, sustainable, land use–transportation planning strategy would incorporate these issues, and vastly improve the provision for disabled people, young children and babies in railway stations, and on board trains. Disabled passengers are often expected to travel in the guard’s van, although, curiously, several carriages away new ‘automatic disabled toilets’ are making an appearance on some trains, with dodgy doors that can swing wide open, and a high probability of being ‘Out of Order’! Traditional train toilets are clearly aimed at the male front-facing user and are unisex. Likewise, if the government is seri-

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ous about reducing dependence on the motorcar (PPG 13, ‘Transport’), the London Underground system would be made more user-friendly. More lifts, and wider-step escalators, would be installed for people with pushchairs, luggage (which travellers are likely to be carrying), and for disabled people. Policy: All major transport interchanges must provide free, accessible public toilets, including railway stations, bus stations, and significantly large car parks, especially multi-storey car parks (used for Sunday trading too). Since transport and journey-related toilets are so vital, this alone might solve 50% of the toilet problem.

The planning system Intentions or implementation? There is no requirement that public toilets should be shown in any development plan, included in any planning policy document or taken into account in the development control process, with the exception that public toilets may be provided by the local planning authority in national parks under the 1968 Countryside Act (Section 12 [1] and [2]) when their area includes national park land; and local authorities may provide toilets in country parks (Section 7 [2]), and on or near common land (Section 9 [3]). Some local authorities have chosen to incorporate toilet policies into their planning policy documents although implementation has often been unfulfilled – for example, Bristol (Bristol, 1993: para CS18 on toilets) stated: CS18 The City council will seek to improve deficiencies in the provision and quality of public toilets across the city. Where appropriate this may be achieved in new development. New public toilets must be fully accessible to disabled people and include separate children’s changing and feeding facilities. They must also be designed to ensure maximum safety and security. Implementation: Through the use of planning conditions and planning obligations. Also through close liaison with the Directorate of Health and Environmental Services to identify suitable locations for new toilet provision. (Source: Deposit Bristol Local Plan (Bristol, November 1993)

This is an admirable ‘model policy statement’. By 2001 the situation had long since moved on in Bristol and such aspirational toilet statements are more likely to be found within Best Value documentation. While there have been instances where these 1993 conditions were subsequently used successfully, overall there has been a decline in provision (Greed and Daniels, 2002).

Not a valid issue? Toilet policies have been labelled as too ‘social’ and taken out of development plans as ‘inappropriate’ or ultra vires – that is, outside the scope of physical land 150

CHAPTER EIGHT • PLANNING FOR TOILETS: CITY-WIDE MACRO LEVEL Figure 8.8 Ideal city level toilet distribution Strategy Diagram.

use planning. Toilet provision is a land use matter and not purely ‘social’, and therefore a planning matter, because it affects the way people use land, limiting access for those who for medical reasons require a toilet, including children who may want one immediately, and ordinary healthy women and men if they are out all day. Many women planners argue that not only is ‘toilets’ a land use matter, but ‘gender’ is a land use matter too because women use land differently from men, and in the case of toilets biological sexual differences should be a ‘material consideration’ in planning decisions (Greed, 2000a). Childcare (daycare) too has not been considered to be a land use, but rather a purely social issue of no relevance to town planning. Adequate childcare pro151

THE SOLUTIONS

vision would have major spatial and financial implications for central area office development, and residential area space allocation (Greed, 1993: 237) – a fact which is taken into account in some American cities (Cullingworth and Nadin, 1994: 251). If public toilet provision were taken seriously, a major building boom would occur.

Too detailed/too general Some planning inspectors dealing with development plan approval matters have seen ‘standards’ and policy guidelines on crèches and toilets as too detailed for inclusion in a high-level development plan. They cannot be inserted in related local plans, and detailed planning conditions cannot be enforced unless the principle is established at strategic development plan level. Others have ruled that demanding provision of such facilities as toilets, crèches and buggy parking counts as imposing ‘quotas’ on developers and this is frowned upon (something that would not be said about car parking spaces which are ‘of course’ a valid land use matter). There are differences in attitude among developers. Some are keen to comply to get a better planning permission and to please their customers, whereas others object to paying for toilet provision. Town planning policy-making has always been seen as a procedural planmaking process, rather than as the application of a set of rules, for otherwise planners would be technicians rather than professionals exercising judgment. If their judgment is biased then it has to be challenged. In the final analysis, it is all a matter of attitude and political will. Toilet provision has been seen as an integral part of childcare facility provision in Southampton (1991), while Birmingham planners have seen toilet provision as a contributory factor in creating a more peoplefriendly, accessible city (Birmingham, 1991). Interestingly, while some toilet campaigners would welcome fixed distributional standards, others take the view that there can never be any toilet standards because every location and circumstance is different (but that never hindered the advocates of car parking standards). The debate continues.

Planning gain Attempts have been made to increase provision by means of ‘planning gain’ (bargaining with the developer or owner to get provision in return for a better overall planning permission) (Greed, 2000a). ‘Planning gain’ is a non-statutory term which covers additional ‘concessions’ which the local authority derives from the developer in entering into an agreement to provide certain amenities in return for more favourable planning permission. ‘Planning agreements’ and ‘planning obligations’ are entered into under Section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1991. Circular 16/91 (with updates 22/83) sets out the parameters of what the DTLR considers to be ‘reasonable’ factors germane to a planning 152

Summary


gain agreement. Planning gain is not a bribe as it is done for the benefit of the community, and has to be directly related to the development in question. Typical examples include the provision of public conveniences, crèches, landscaping, seating, and street improvements. Agreements must only be used for the purpose of ‘restricting or regulating the development or use of land’ and must be ‘reasonable’ (Circulars 22/83 and 16/91, and see PPG1). Even if the developers are willing to build social facilities, someone has got to pay for their maintenance and management. Nowadays, good Town Centre Management (TCM) is seen as a means of achieving better toilets, over and above the planning system, as discussed later (Lockwood, 2001). People often ask ‘but how many toilets should we provide and where?’ As to how many, BTA members have recommended that ‘a local authority should provide no fewer than 1 cubicle per 500 women and female children and one cubicle and one urinal per 1100 men, and no fewer than one unisex cubicle for use for people with disabilities per 10,000 population and no fewer than one unisex nappy changing facility per 10,000 people dwelling in the area (Cunningham and Norton, 1993). The relevant ‘population’ in question should include commuters, tourists and visitors as well as residents. This standard should be used in calculating facilities relative to town centres, shopping streets, railway passenger needs, bus stations, car parks, etc. As to ‘where’, this is where the skills of the planner and urban designer come into play. It is essential to make a proper survey of the local situation, of footfall, user demand, gender ratio and likely user needs.

Public toilets should be provided in: ➥

All main public transport termini and stations and major car parks

➥

Central areas, and in all district centres, and local shopping centres

➥

All parks, allotments, urban farms and leisure areas

➥

At main junctions and by post offices in all suburban areas

➥

Out of town developments in office, industrial and retail parks

➥

In all villages over 5000 population and every 5 miles along main roads

User consultation and public participation should shape toilet policymaking. A toilet strategy, an overall spatial plan setting out the hierarchy, location and distribution of public toilets should be provided for every local authority as part of mainstream planning policy development. 153


Disability or dis-enablement

Dis-enabling attitudes This chapter continues the theme of developing spatial policy and design guidance in respect of toilet provision in order to create more accessible and healthy cities for everyone, with reference particularly to the needs of people with disabilities. It is argued that a universalist approach is needed to remove the disenabling barriers of urban design and planning, as this benefits everyone as part of mainstream planning policy, rather than treating the registered disabled person as a separate entity (EPSRC, 2003). The abled/disabled division is unhelpful in respect of toilet provision, particularly for all the ‘others’ who do not easily fall into either category, and so policy must be based upon a more enlightened approach. First, current definitions of the disabled will be discussed, with an account of the different models of disability and their implications. A history of disability legislation is given, which is taken further in respect of the roles and duties of town planners, urban designers and building control officers to ensure access (Palfreyman and Thorpe, 1993; Swain et al. 1993).

CHAPTER NINE • DISABILITY OR DIS-ENABLEMENT

chapter nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Who is entitled to use a disabled toilet? One in eight of the population is classified as disabled – that is 7 million people in Britain, the equivalent of the whole population of Greater London or more than the population of Norway. One million are blind or partially sighted, 700,000 have poor eyesight, 7.5 million are deaf or have hearing impairment. Only around 3% of disabled people actually use wheelchairs, but many others have mobility problems, fragility or lack of stamina which prevents them from accessing the built environment. According to Incontact, 6 million people suffer from incontinence. According to the Centre for Accessible Environments (CAE), up to 20% of the population might prove to be covered potentially by the provisions of the 155

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 9.1 Wheelchair accessible cubicle; could you reach the toilet roll?

Figure 9.2 Young chap in wheelchair; user surveys and test-driving are most important (with thanks to my students on access project). Courtesy of Giles Kilminster productions and Adrian James 156


1995 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (including the incontinent). Those disenabled by the environment include everyone whose access is restricted by turnstiles, steps, narrow doorways and small cubicles (Matthews and Vujakovic, 1994). My students undertaking project work on the ‘planning and social inequality’ course included among ‘the disabled’, those encumbered by pushchairs (baby buggies), luggage and shopping; those temporarally disabled by illness or accident; the pregnant; the incontinent; those with restrictive conditions such as heart problems and blood pressure; the elderly; all small children trying to reach up to an adult size world (Adams and Ingham, 1998); and all those without a car; – in addition to the officially registered disabled (Jones, 1994). All these disenabled groups are physically prevented from using the ‘abled’ toilets, but they do not count as ‘disabled’. In our Nuffield research, several respondents took the view that the use of disabled toilets should not be based upon a right for a particular group of people, but on the question of whether the individual in question could get into and use the ‘abled’ loo, whether or not they were registered disabled (Greed and Daniels, 2002). If this approach were adopted, more accessible toilets would need to be provided for everyone, to take the pressure off dedicated disabled toilet provision. Being abled, as against disabled, may not last a lifetime – hence some refer to the non-disabled as TABs (Temporarily Able Bodied) (see New, 2001). While current access policy emphasis is upon wheelchair users, Selwyn Goldsmith (2000) notes that there are not that many people in wheelchairs around (although whether this is a self-fulfilling prophecy because of discouraging design and barriers to access is another matter). In his surveys, undertaken

Figure 9.3 It’s all relative; steps down; how inaccessible can you get? 157

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 9.4 Up and down the steps at Moorgate? Is anything accessible in this setting?

Figure 9.5 Haymarket centre, Bristol: a struggle with steps and slope for those with pushchairs. Toilets are in the tunnel, to the right. 158


both in Britain and in other Western European countries, pushchair users were found to be far more numerous and also had great problems with access. Therefore he and many others recommend that public toilets and all public routes and buildings should be as accessible for pushchairs as for wheelchairs. Although a single baby buggy (pushchair, stroller) is 550 mm wide, a wheelchair is 750 mm wide at least, and a double buggy is at least 900–1100 mm (Adler, 2000), entrances to public loos are far less. The full implications of this recommendation are enormous in terms of space standards and creating barrier-free environments (cf Holmes-Siedle, 1996), but current access legislation does not cover pushchair users’ rights nor link to women’s equality demands (Manley, 1998). At present disabled toilets are represented by a wheelchair logo. Is this meant to represent ‘all the disabled’, or just wheelchair users, or even the wheelchairs themselves? Is ‘disabled’ a third sex? Seldom does one see the representation of a male or female human alongside this inanimate logo. The wheelchair sign makes many people, even disabled people, feel ‘unworthy’ to use the disabled toilets. Desperate abled people, and people with genuine but invisible urinary disabilities, suddenly affect a limp as they rush to use a free disabled toilet, just in case anyone is watching. The use of ‘disabled toilets’ is not even necessarily available to those who need to go to the toilet most because of disabling urinary problems (a condition which is unlikely, alone, to qualify someone to be classified as ‘disabled’ or to sit in a wheelchair). ‘Continence’ (sic) now figures as a component in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Schedule 1, para 4 (1), section D. ‘Sanitary and Changing’ is now a category in its own right and given greater prominence in BS 8300 (2001), so space must be allowed for both activities, as also recommended by PAMIS (BSI, 2001). In contrast, some of the registered disabled people who are issued with RADAR (Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation) keys to open such toilets may not urgently need them because they are fitted with a catheter (as is the case with some male wheelchair-bound people who have lost function in their lower body), or they may not suffer from incontinence at all. Even active young people might have a catheter. For example, a young black woman solicitor explained on television in the Spring of 2001 how she was refused entrance to a nightclub because the doorperson assumed the spare catheter in her handbag was an offensive weapon. Many a parent with a pushchair who tries to use a disabled toilet may be told off or looked at disapprovingly, as will those with hidden disabilities even if the disabled toilet is empty. In contrast seldom does one find wheelchair users using babycare facilities as the only accessible toilet available. Those responsible for small children (especially with baby buggies) often complain that disabled facilities are not open to them, as they do not have a RADAR key. As yet there is no equivalent BABAR (‘baba’) (Babies and Buggies Accessible Restroom) system for those who want larger compartments to allow pushchairs in and babycare to be

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undertaken. Incredibly, at Bristol bus station, both the disabled toilets and the baby-changing compartments are behind an access door that can only be opened with a RADAR key. The decision to lock disabled toilets remains controversial (Chisnell, 2002). RADAR argue that they have no choice but to lock the doors to avoid vandalism and anti-social behaviour. Locking might ‘protect’ the toilets but it makes them doubly inaccessible for all. In some locations the local authority adds a security gate over the RADAR toilets at night, further restricting access. Surely, if human rights and the value of toilet provision were taken seriously, there would be a strong argument for all toilets to have attendants to keep an eye on both the abled and disabled toilets and to assist people in their toileting needs. Incidentally this would contribute to job creation, provide a path into the caring professions, and make our cities more secure and friendly too. The current requirements for improving disabled facilities seem to be an excuse among some unenlightened providers to make ‘abled’ provision even more substandard, narrow and challenging for everyone else. Thus the divide between abled/disabled provision is growing. While in the case of buildings in general ‘if you improve access for the disabled it makes it better for everyone’ because fewer steps, more lifts, and widened doorways benefit all building users, in the case of toilets, unlike building entrances, the abled and disabled do not share the same facilities – rather, toilets are even more strictly divided into abled or disabled as a result of DDA requirements, and there is no spin-off effect for all to enjoy. When the abled enviously and often resentfully eye the improved toilet facilities for disabled people, and they see what is possible, then demands for improved abled toilets increase, which can only be good for the cause. In the original Part M of the Building Regulations (which is currently being revised to tie in with BS8300) (DoE, 1992b, BSI, 1992) the introduction stated that ‘toilet provision for the disabled should be equal to that for the abled’. Nowadays the situation is reversing as the abled experience declining standards of access and convenience, and in some locations there are disabled toilets but no adequate toilets or access for the abled. For example, Parkway Railway Station in Bristol was redeveloped in 2001. For years passengers have complained that they are sent up one set of steps and down another just to reach Platform 1, when arguably they could have reached it straight from the entrance level. Incredibly, even more steps and a higher gantry-covered walkway over the rails was installed in the new scheme. Disabled toilets are installed at both levels, but abled toilets are only provided down the steps by the entrance and not near the platforms, in spite of automatic ticket barriers having been installed. There is now a lift for disabled users. A better solution would have been to make it more accessible for everyone including those carrying suitcases. Incidentally the Ladies toilets contain the tallest, biggest sanpro bins I have ever seen, rising above the seat and making it impossible for users not to rub against them. Hope lives on. The movement for inclusive and universal design is growing with the UKIUD (UK

The disability agenda Nowadays the demand for disabled toilets has developed as a result of changing attitudes to the rights and capabilities of disabled people, and this should be seen as a triumph compared with the attitudes that existed in the past, as set out in the description which follows of the changing models of disability. However, there is a downside in that the current agenda has led to its own forms of compartmentalised thinking for, as explained earlier, the disabled/abled division has become so strong that many people do not fit into either category and therefore their needs do not have the same weight given to them (Oliver, 1990). Under the historical medical model, disability is seen as an illness and as permanent, set within the confines of the hospital or institution, and limited to what was imagined to be a relatively small number of people, whose needs were unlikely to impinge upon the community or the built environment ‘outside’. In recent years a policy of care in the community, albeit unsupported by adequate financial investment, has precipitated the need for planners to make the environment more accessible for a wider range of disabled people. Then there is the charity model which appears to give little role to state intervention. The image is one of pity, embarrassment, do-gooding, dependency and sympathy, and rattling charity collecting tins. This contrasts sharply with the third approach, the social model of disability, which is based on disabled people having human and civil rights (Kitchin and Law, 2001). The emphasis is shifted towards seeing society’s attitudes, and thus the design of the built environment, as disabling and ‘making’ people disabled. According to this model, architects, town planners and urban designers have a major role to play. In line with the social model, disability groups argue that people should be able to gain access to buildings, with no fuss, no assistance, on their own, as normal, and that they should have a right to enter buildings as workers, shoppers, theatre goers, toilet users, students, or simply have the right to ‘hang out’ and pass the time of day in public spaces without ‘special’ arrangements having to be made, and without them having to be on their best behaviour as ‘deserving cases’. Nowadays another model is developing which is the privatisation model in which personal self-effort, private insurance and buying yourself out of it, or changing yourself rather than changing society, is presented as a valid philosophy – with little regard to the financial and attitudinal factors involved. Since it is such an individualised view, there is no place for structural societal change – for example, to the built environment – within this depressing future scenario.


Institute for Universal Design) which is the UK branch of the European Institute of Design and Disability (EIDD), trying to push for more enlightened design. Such objectives are not new (ACE, 1992), and they are widespread (Cavanagh and Zaveri, 2000) in a changing agenda.

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THE SOLUTIONS 162

History of disabled access Concern over disabled people increased as a result of World War II, with an inevitable emphasis on the needs of ex-servicemen, and the polio outbreaks in the 1950s whose victims were often children and young people; there was also the gradual growth of motorcar accidents in the post-war years which affected everyone. The Invalid Tricycle Association was founded in 1948 and these useful contraptions were a common sight in post-war Britain. The provision of special adaptations to the built environment itself is much more recent, surprisingly so (Goldsmith, 1997). How did people manage before? With great difficulty presumably! The history in respect of access to the built environment is charted by Goldsmith (1997) who himself suffered from polio and sometimes uses a wheelchair. It was mainly as a result of influences from North America and Scandinavia that the disability access movement took off in Britain. An international conference held in 1961 in Stockholm was a landmark for designing for the disabled in Britain as it affirmed the idea that the built environment was not fixed but could be changed. Tim Nugent, from the University of Illinois, was particularly active in producing the first American Standard A117.1 on accessibility. This provided a template for subsequent British Standards. Nugent developed a programme to make the University of Champaign-Urbana in Illinois accessible. He put great emphasis upon disabled students enrolling and getting around by themselves – ’the assault course approach to access’. By today’s standards the disabled toilets advocated seem narrow and designed for men (facing frontwards), perhaps because of the previous emphasis on ex-servicemen. Subsequent legislation in the USA, namely the 1967 Architectural Barriers Act (since updated), 1973 Rehabilitation Act, and 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, resulted in widespread adoption of standards, albeit with considerable opposition. Within the entire American movement the emphasis was upon treating disabled people as ‘citizens’ and therefore integrating provision with mainstream facilities. Under these Acts ‘public bathrooms’ must have at least one fully accessible toilet in both the Ladies and the Gents. There is emphasis upon both detail and strategic urban issues. (For example, no mechanical restrictions should be put on the flow of toilet paper.) Accessible toilets should be located in relation to accessible routes to reflect people movement between and within buildings, which is an ideal urban design principle. Perhaps marked disabled/abled segregation was avoided owing to America’s turbulent past in respect of black/white division and the civil rights movement. Vietnam war veterans returning in the 1960s demanded their rights as American citizens. Nowadays in America ‘disability’ is no longer seen as a subject of charity for ‘do gooders’, but a serious mainstream business and civil rights issue, with major spatial design implications, thus making it a valid issue for town planners (Albrecht, 1992). Within the civil rights agenda in respect of disability,


the right to go to the toilet, when, where, and as often as one wants, is an important right. In the USA, standard ‘public bathroom’ provision is in decline for similar reasons as in Britain – vandalism, crime, financial constraints and lack of commitment and appreciation of their value to the community. Urination as a human right is not taken as seriously as the rhetoric suggests. Meanwhile, in England, Alfred Morris MP took up the disability legislation campaign, resulting in the passing of the first ‘modern’ act, namely the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. Section 4 required providers of [some] buildings to which the public have access to be accessible to disabled people, subsection 1 specifying the requirement of ‘sanitary conveniences’ for the disabled. It was subsequently amended in 1976 to include places of employment too. Section 5 of the Act required local authorities to make provision for disabled unisex toilets in new local authority public toilets, hence the birth of the disabled toilet in the UK. This was only required ‘as far as is practical and reasonable’, which may be seen as an escape clause; also, there was no enforcement of the Act. There were no stipulations about how many disabled toilets should be provided and just one was the norm, as if it were imagined that few people would use the facility; and sometimes that one was located in the Gents. In parallel, the British Standards and related Building Regulations were being restructured. In 1967 the first relevant Building Standard had been produced, namely, CP96 Access for the Disabled to Buildings (subsequently superseded by BS 5810). (Significantly the main standard toilet regulations were known as Part P!) The specifications were seen as inadequate in that they specified a unisex disabled toilet without enough space for helpers, wheelchairs, or women to do a three-point turn in order to sit down on the toilet; the pan was too high for most women too. Women were becoming more prominent in the disabled toilets movement, including the campaigner Lady Hamilton and Barbara Edwards, a sociologist who surveyed the disabled toilet access situation. The topic did not have the profile it has today and much remained unchanged until the 1970s, ultimately resulting in Part M, first introduced in 1992 and subsequently updated, which encapsulated many of the lessons learnt over the years. Currently Part M is being updated again. Nowadays the situation has reversed with some areas having no toilets for the non-disabled but at least one for the disabled, thus disenabling great numbers of people and, as stated, resulting in large numbers of people falling outside the abled/disabled dichotomy. The background history is continued next within the context of an account of town planners’ gradual awakening to disability issues.

The planners’ view of disability Having described the overall development of the disability movement in terms of history and composition of the disabled, this section looks at the development of planners’ and architects’ involvement in the story of disabled toilets. Planners 163

THE SOLUTIONS

(a)

(b)

(c)

164

Figures 9.6a, b, c Accessible Toilets recommended by JMU 2002 (courtesy Rebecca Lockwood, JMU): (a) elevation for disability; (b) plan of side transfer cubicle; (c) peninsula cubicle.


have a relatively peripheral role in determining the provision of public disabled toilets, although they have a central role in many other aspects of urban policy and design. On-street public toilet provision for abled or disabled is not a requirement of planning law. A major problem is that requirements for toilet provision may be judged by the planning authorities to be ultra vires – that is, outside the remit of planning law – because such provision may be seen as too ‘social’ (see Chapter 9). Public toilets should comprise a key component in any accessibility and mobility strategy in order to create socially and environmentally sustainable cities. Town planners have not been particularly aware of disability issues and few of their number are disabled (75 at the last count). These are mainly elderly or retired members (Greed, 1999b). Disability issues seldom appeared in town planning texts until the 1960s. It was said at a planning appeal that ‘accessibility’ is about ‘movement’ not ‘facilities’, and therefore toilet provision was not a valid condition to impose upon a developer, because it was not a land use matter. The needs of ordinary people making their way around the city by foot or wheelchair has never been a high priority. In 1996, a Department of the Environment spokesperson said that ‘transport is something you get into’. This view was reiterated by Martin Simmons, head of planning at the GLA (Planning, 27.08.01: 8). Walkers, wheelchair users, cyclists and users of public transport all need toilets, and they are all disabled relative to those with a car. Yet there has always been a small but active group of town planners and architects who are more socially aware and who have shaped professional standards (Fleck, 2002). Little could be achieved if the government did not enforce regulations for disabled access. To continue the story of disabled access, following many years of campaigning for provision of access for the disabled, the government gradually took the issue on board. The Disabled Persons Act of 1981 led to the insertion of additional requirements into the planning legislation of the time. As a result, local planning authorities were required to draw the attention of developers to the provisions of the 1970 Act, and also to offer relevant design guidance with particular reference to the relevant building regulations (Davies 1996: 232). This is still a factor which must be taken into account in determining (deciding) a planning application, as updated currently under Section 76 of the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act. The planners were not required to impose requirements themselves. Thus planners are required by law to have regard to such matters in dealing with planning applications. Many consider that central government guidance is somewhat ambivalent about the whole issue of planning for the disabled (Imrie, 1996, 2000; Hall and Imrie, 2001). The government had produced several design guidance reports such as Development Control Planning Note 16, Access for the Disabled (DoE, 1985b), but never seemed to realise the full design implications of creating accessible cities. Meanwhile the RTPI produced Practice Advice Note No. 3, Access for the Disabled, in 1988. On paper this is a commendable document which says:

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THE SOLUTIONS

(a)

(b)

(c) Figure 9.7 Smithfield, London: are these accessible toilets? (a) Overall view; (b) steps down (with inadequate handrail); (c) the new street level disabled toilets. 166

There was still not much design guidance on how to increase access. British Standard BS 5810, Access for Disabled People, subsequently updated in 1992 (with minor alterations), set out the principles, and Linked Document M of the Building Regulations translated these standards into design requirements. Overall, emphasis was put on wheelchair-accessible toilets. A government document produced at the time (DoE, 1992b), Sanitary Provision for People with Special Needs: Project Description and Key Findings, estimated that an average of 19% of all people had special needs, based on 27% of women and 10% of men at that time. This was a valuable document but its findings had little influence in improving facilities. While national standards remained somewhat static, a whole range of innovative standards, designs and initiatives were developed by ‘good’ local authorities and by disability groups themselves, all of which have been drawn up in the subsequent revision of the standards. While over 90% of the building stock comprises existing buildings, not new development, the controls and design standards do not necessarily cover older buildings, and government consultation papers over the years on disability access gave no indication of changing this (ODPM, 2002). Subsequently, after much campaigning, the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act was introduced. This Act appeared initially to relate mainly to employment situations. Section 21 deals with the provision of goods and services, and talks about removing physical barriers. This is somewhat undermined by subsequent paragraphs which talk about ‘alternatives’ and the question of ‘reasonable expenditure’. The Act was apparently modelled to some extent upon the American civil rights approach to such legislation but, by the time it had gone through Parliament, it was seriously disabled itself by attacks and stalling techniques. As sections progressively continue to come into force, there seems to be more concern about ways of evading than implementing these issues. Requirements for greater access in new domestic housing, especially the compulsory provision of a downstairs toilet and level access to every new house, have met with approval by housebuyers (users) in spite of initial opposition by housebuilders (providers), according to Consumer Association surveys. All sorts of ‘little’ regulatory changes have implications for ‘toilets’, such as the new regulations which came in in 2000 requiring that emergency escape lighting is provided in all public toilets within off-street facilities over 8 square metres in area (with notable exclusions). Organisations such as JMU (Joint Mobility Unit) continue to campaign for better provision, producing a range of design standards. Design is


’Disability includes a wide range of conditions: it covers more than the obvious such as blindness or confinement to a wheelchair. Breathlessness, pain, the need to walk with a stick, difficulty in gripping because of paralysis or arthritis, lack of physical coordination, partial sight, deafness and pregnancy can all affect a person’s mobility in the environment. Access for the disabled will also benefit parents with buggies and the elderly. (RTPI PAN 3, 1988)

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only half the battle – intelligence and good management are needed too, as shown in Figure 9.8. Disabled people in wheelchairs are finding that under current Health and Safety regulations care staff are not allowed to lift them without a hoist, but very few disabled public toilets have hoists, which makes the toilet unusable, especially for women. Therefore built-in hoists are needed in all disabled toilets to enable users to pull themselves up or to enable carers to move them up and down.

Planning policy guidance Planners always argue that, unlike building control officers, they are not concerned with enforcing ‘rules’ but rather they need to operate their professional judgment in a flexible manner to determine planning applications and to develop appropriate planning policy. The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) provides national guidance and support to local planning authorities through the production of PPGs (Planning Policy Guidance notes), circulars and White Papers. A selection of the main references to minorities and social issues is now given in respect of so-called minority issues to illustrate the problem. (The PPGs are being constantly revised so their contents are subject to change.) Local

Figure 9.8 Locked RADAR key toilet with night-times security gate over access. This is becoming a common practice in local authorities to stop people using the toilets as an overnight shelter or for activities for which they were not intended. 168


authorities have considerable discretion as to how these policies are applied, and much depends upon the political will of the local council in question. For example, some local planning authorities will meet with developers and architects before the planning application stage to discuss the access implications of a proposal (cf Fleck, 2002) whereas others are not so proactive. At the forward planning strategic policy level, there is no statutory requirement that toilets, abled or disabled, should be shown on a development plan or local plan, and there are no planning standards whatsoever governing the distribution. PPG1 General Policy and Principles in paragraph 55 says ‘the development of land and buildings provides the opportunity to secure a more accessible environment for everyone, including wheelchair users, and other people with disabilities, elderly people, and people with toddlers or infants in pushchairs’. It does not make it clear how far planners know what exactly these ‘opportunities’ are, and how they relate to concrete measures. This PPG is seen as somewhat negative because it also implies that it is the role of the Building Regulations, not the planners, to deal with these issues. PPG3 Housing talks about ‘developers considering whether the internal design of housing, and access to it, can meet the needs of the disabled, whether as resident or visitor’. Paradoxically the PPG goes on to state ‘the Government looks to the Building Regulations and not the planning system to impose requirements’. PPG12 Development Plans and Regional Planning Guidance is the most useful one of all for giving ‘space’ for ‘social’ issues to be taken into account. Paragraph 5.48 states that: The Regulations [on the preparation of development plan documents] also require planning authorities to have regard to social considerations in preparing their general policies and proposals in structure plans and UDP Part I documents [the policy aspect]. In preparing detailed plans too, authorities will wish to consider the relationship of planning policies and proposals to social needs and problems, including their likely impact on different groups in the population such as ethnic minorities.

PPG15 Planning and the Historic Environment, paragraph 3.28, has a short section on increasing access for the disabled to historic buildings, stating ‘it is important in principle that disabled people should have dignified easy access to and within historical buildings’. Again it is quite apologetic and ambivalent about what this might entail in practical terms. English Heritage have produced a useful document, Easy Access to Historic Properties, which makes practical suggestions on location of entrances, provision of handrails, and use of paviers and large paving slabs to create accessible, yet historically sympathetic, ground surfaces. CAE have produced a video, Keeping up with the Past (CAE, 1998), and the City of London Corporation has produced Designing the City, a guide for disabled access along the narrow streets of the City of London (Fleck, 1998). PPG15 is seen as one of the most promising documents in that it deals with ‘old’ build169

THE SOLUTIONS

ings (admittedly mainly ‘historical ones’) whereas the Building Regulations only apply to new buildings. The report, Development Plans: Good Practice Guide, issued in relation to development plan preparation, is also of significance (DoE, 1992b). Paragraph 3.79 states, within a discussion of social issues and the ‘particular sections of the population’ to be considered in relation to the implications for plan-making, that ‘perhaps children, women and homeless people should be added to the list’. This document was being updated in 2001 and it is hoped that next time it will include more material on both women’s and disabled people’s needs.

Building control As can be seen from the above description, town planners have limited powers over toilet provision. The British system is characterised by a bewildering range of government departments and levels each with its own ‘function’ and ‘territory’ jealously guarded (Greed, 1996d) – that is, with fragmentation and disorganised responsibility again. Many different government bodies hold some measure of regulatory control, but none appears to hold enough power to implement change to increase toilet provision. Many of the toilet standards and ‘rules’ are administered through building regulations, and not through town planning. PPG3 warns,’the government looks to the building regulations and not the planning system to impose requirements’. Should the planners seek to impose detailed building regulation-like controls into planning decisions, they are likely to find that their requirements are ruled to be ultra vires. Many concerned parties have argued that it is ‘too late’ to leave detailed design matters to the second stage (after planning), when the plans go to the building control officer for scrutiny. Indeed ‘good’ local planning authorities will ensure that liaison takes place early on through the access officer. The ‘culture’ of building control is not famed for its social awareness, and the regulations were developed to deal with structural matters, fire and safety, and nowadays environmental considerations, not to facilitate people’s ease of use of buildings. Quite apart from the social side of the debate, fulfilling the requirements of Section 76 (to provide disabled access) might lead to substantial changes in the external appearance and layout of a building, thus putting the scheme back to the planners. Table 9.1, in comparing the building regulations with town planning processes, speaks volumes as to the ‘culture’ of the two. For example, there is no requirement for consultation or participation as there is in planning under the Building Regulations controls, and therefore user needs are marginalised. Clearly, in seeking to mainstream toilets into all levels of town planning and built environment policy, there is much room for change, but not much room to go to the loo! 170

Planning Control Process

Building Control Process

Socially orientated culture, wider development plan policy perspective

Technical perspective, concern with individual building

Local policies and planning variations (this may result in varying provision and uncertainty for users)

National objectives and standards (people know what to expect)

Standards measured against approved plan

Measured against national criteria

Applies to most types and ages of land use and development

Applies to new build, rebuild and major structural repairs and extensions. Various exemptions such as ‘no worse’ situations, and straightforward refurbishment

Developers/builders need to find out planning requirements

Developers know what is expected as nationwide

Long approval process before work starts

Once plans are deposited work can start, or can start with simple provision of notice

Work in progress seldom inspected

Work in progress inspected

Public can inspect plans and plan register

Plans are not open to public

Clients and public involved and think they know about planning

Decisions seen as technical and unlikely to be understood

Consultation and public participation

No such outside liaison

Councillors must approve decisions

Officers make final decision

Planners must consult with many groups and liaise with access officer

Only consult with Fire service

Concerned with physical, and various social, economic and environmental factors and other onand off-site issues

Structural factors, fire and safety

Mainly land-use control and external design control

Mainly internal and structural design control. Also environmental considerations such as heat loss, plant efficiency, use of sustainable materials

Must advertise major changes

Can make changes, relaxations

Can approve phases of plan

Must approve whole scheme

Some control over future provision/fate of conditions

Cannot control future management or maintenance of access features


Table 9.I: Differences: Planning and Building Control Processes

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Key points Maintaining specific facilities for disabled people, while: ➥

Providing adequate toilets for all

➥

Not dis-enabling everyone else through narrow cubicles, poor access, steps

➥

Providing unisex disabled toilets for spouse partner carers

➥

Putting disabled facilities, baby-changing, adult-changing ‘between’ the Ladies and Gents

➥

But having supervision and attendants where possible.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Universal urban design: district level The urban design context Introduction Having investigated the need for public toilets at the macro level of urban spatial structure and for all people in society in the last two chapters respectively, this chapter focuses on the district level: the placing of public toilets in relation to the levels and hierarchies of centres, districts and neighbourhoods that together constitute the physical cell structure of a city. Emphasis is put upon seeing public toilets as an integrated, prominent and ‘normal’ component of modern urban design.

CHAPTER TEN • UNIVERSAL URBAN DESIGN: DISTRICT LEVEL

chapter ten

A new urban agenda In recent years there has been a renewal of interest in the field of urban design owing to increasing dissatisfaction with town planning across society. Urban design may be defined as ‘everything that town planning is not’ (Cowan,1995; Jacobs, 1961). In the past, urban design was somewhat peopleless, overconcerned with aesthetic issues, as the great designer looked ‘down’ (like God) on the blueprint on the drawing board. Yet traditional urban design, which created grand squares and splendid public buildings, is to be valued as it embodied a spirit of civic pride. Nowadays the urban design agenda is more concerned with user needs, with the realities of moving around the streets and planning for everyday life. The concerns of disability and access groups, women and planning, crime and design, environmentalism and community development are all found within the new urban design agenda (Greed and Roberts,1998). Urban designers are taking an important role in current urban regeneration programmes, and within the ‘New Urbanism’ (Rogers,1999). Urban design is the art of ‘place making’ – creating street environments that people feel happy in as part of the Making Places campaign and seminar series, 2001, organised by Urban Designers and Planners. 173

THE SOLUTIONS

But ‘urban design’ is not all ‘good’. A desire to create ‘exciting townscape’ can result in a threatening environment with blind corners, irregular frontages, narrow alleyways, footpaths away from the houses, pedestrian underpasses, and often poorly lit, meandering routes: all of which offer havens for public urination and other street crime. Varied texture paving surfaces can confuse pedestrians as to where the road stops and the pavement ends, and can make the manoeuvre of pushchairs and wheelchairs hard going (Essex, 1973, 1997; Greed, 1996c, 1999a). Urban design is looked upon with healthy suspicion by disability groups. Some urban designers have felt they have lost their artistic freedom because of access requirements, crying, ‘Disabled?: don’t spoil our design!’, (LBDRT, 1991: 6–8). Sticking public toilets in the middle of ‘their’ design may offend misplaced sensibilities. Likewise, one has to be wary of urban renewal policies that eradicate the ‘clutter’ of public toilets, old phone boxes, public benches, litter bins and street kiosks – all of which are essential, albeit poorly maintained.

The design process Good urban designers are not only concerned with ‘what’ is designed but with ‘how’ it is done and with the needs and views of the general public as users of cities. The Urban Design Group’s objectives (Roberts and Greed, 2001) include the importance of ‘empowerment’ in respect of user needs as well as designer and provider factors. From this concept of empowerment flows a range of other issues such as the importance of involving the community in the design process, social justice, social mix, access, diversity, equity, conviviality, creative thinking, sharing visions, as well as mutual learning, public participation and adopting a responsive approach (Roberts and Greed, 2001). At all stages gender considerations should be ‘mainstreamed’ into the process, in terms of disaggregation of data collection, survey, participation, testing of designs and feedback, because women’s and men’s toilet needs are not the same – indeed, they are often quite opposite and different from each other. SURVEY Plan-making has three stages, namely, SAP = Survey ➝ Analysis ➝ Plan. Applying this approach to the development of toilet policy, the planner needs to ‘survey’ the existing situation of the area in question, identify problems, note lack of facilities, and consider future demand trends. When deciding how many toilets are needed, rather than blindly following given standards, a good urban designer will set up a survey and count how many women, men and people with disabilities are actually out and about in the vicinity concerned (or in a comparable location in the case of new development). A survey of user numbers and composition is now a compulsory component of complying with Scottish toilet building standards (Scotland, 2003). 174

ANALYSIS The planner then analyses the situation and comes up with a range of alternative planning solutions that are put out for public reaction. The views of the public are taken into account in the final revisions and eventually ‘the plan’ is produced, although even then it is subject to review and updating in the light of changing circumstances. To carry out such a process local authorities would have to monitor the toilet situation more rigorously. In contrast, some local authorities do not even have an up-to-date map of where their toilets are, although I was typically advised ‘Bert in the maintenance department who sends out the vans, he knows where they all are, you should ask him.’ It is incredible that such an important facility is not a high-level component of the spatial planning strategy of every local authority but is so marginalised and fragmented (cf. Edwards,1998a).


An individual toilet provider’s knowledge of the overall toilet situation in an area is often patchy. In our research one local authority, for example, was just concerned with ‘its’ toilets and appeared ignorant as to whether there were toilets in bus stations, car parks and other off-street locations making the provision of a proper survey very difficult. Good toilet plan-making would include a survey of all sorts of public toilets in the area to build up a realistic strategy which takes into account gaps, toilet clusters and toilet deserts – that is, a total picture of the distribution of facilities, regardless of which organisation happened to provide them. To implement, good working relationships would need to be made with both public and private providers, and, as discussed in Chapter 13, appropriate tax breaks and other incentives would need to be given to the latter to open their toilets up to all in under-toileted areas.

PLAN As to detailed toilet design, layout and final plan, a representative range of user and age groups would be consulted on design requirements rather than applying outdated minimal standards. This process alone would give the local community involved a sense of ownership and stewardship, resulting in less likelihood of vandalism, particularly if schools, nightclubs and sporting organisations were involved in this process. Thus a collaborative approach would be adopted which would engender a sense of responsibility and ownership of ‘their’ public toilets among users, and would help reduce vandalism (Healey,1997). This communitybased approach is very different from the remote heavy-handed ‘top down’ approach currently found in many areas (Roberts and Greed, 2001, Approaching Urban Design).

Inclusive plan-making In order to develop a credible toilet strategy the following needs to be done (as based on current urban design methodology): 175

THE SOLUTIONS

• • •

• • • • •

• • • • • • •

Identify transport links and movement patterns, nodal points, centres and interchanges and areas where the most pedestrians are likely to be found Undertake a demographic analysis of the residents Calculate the numbers of commuters, tourists and shoppers visiting the area, and undertake a male/female workforce breakdown for the toilet area in question Identify main area magnet land uses and types of development Evaluate what toilet provision is there already Ask ‘why’ it is there and if the area it serves has changed Seek to retain what is in the right place by retrofitting and upgrading Identify locations for more toilets and consider surrounding constraints such as links to parking, transport, local amenities, residential areas, general ambience Identify cultural, historical, heritage factors that might enhance situation Mark social locations, positive or negative, social or criminal Appraise property values, proposals for the area, major new adjacent developments Involve fully the local community, and representative user groups Decide on location and move to specific standards and design stage Consult men and women equally Consult disabled, ethnic minorities, heavily represented age groups locally

Such a policy-making process would not be onerous for the planning authority who already produce similar plans on all sorts of other developments.

Planning for toilets Setting toilet standards While such a participatory approach is ideal, providers still want ‘standards’ and ‘rules’ to go on. People often ask what standards should be applied as to where and ‘how often’ toilets should be located in our towns and cities. In essence, ‘as many as possible’ with the proviso that at minimum there should be toilets at all centres, transport termini and stations and within all heavily used localities (see ‘Toilet distribution hierarchy’ below and summary of standards at the end of this chapter). There is a huge variation in what already exists. For example, my local district shopping centre car park has around 120 parking spaces, and five female toilets provided by the council, generous male facilities and one RADAR toilet. My nearest multi-storey car park has around 800 parking spaces but only three women’s toilets (one of which is marked ‘for staff use only’ and another of which is frequently closed), no visible disabled facilities and a large set of male facilities. There is another multi-storey with over 1500 spaces built in the 1970s that has public toilets but they have been locked for years. Thus toilet provision, both on176

CHAPTER TEN • UNIVERSAL URBAN DESIGN: DISTRICT LEVEL Figure 10.1 District level toilet location principles.

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THE SOLUTIONS

street local authority provision and off-street private provision, has grown up in an ad hoc manner as a matter of luck rather than judgment. Clearly there is a need for a coordinated toilet strategy linking both public and private provision within the context of a good ‘town plan’.

Toilet population ratio Policy: BTA members have recommended that ‘a local authority should provide no fewer than 1 cubicle per 500 women and female children and one cubicle and one urinal per 1100 men, and no fewer than one unisex cubicle for use for people with disabilities per 10,000 population and no fewer than one unisex nappy changing facility per 10,000 people dwelling in the area (Cunningham and Norton,1993: 17). The relevant ‘population’ in question should also include commuters, tourists and visitors as well as residents. This standard should be used in calculating facilities relative to town centres, shopping streets, railway passenger needs, bus stations, car parks. Few countries have managed to produce workable standards as to the distribution and location of public toilets, a task which the DETR (now DTLR) and BSI have so far failed to achieve. In Japan some municipalities have such standards. For example, in Toyama standards are based on the principle that no-one should have to walk more than 200 metres to find an on-street toilet. Most public parks contain one, and toilet provision is linked to a network of small green spaces found every 250 metres, and larger green areas every 500 metres (Miyanishi, 1996). The city was laid out on a precise grid, following wartime bombing, with toilet provision, public transport and amenity space being integral components of the design. (The city should be compared to Birmingham in size and scale.) Incidentally, the tricky subject of World War II was mentioned in passing at an international toilet conference in Japan, with an enthusiastic account of how American Intelligence had over-estimated the size of the Japanese force when seeking to invade a Japanese-occupied island because, owing to dietary differences, the Japanese produced four times the amount of faeces one would expect because of all the healthier, high fibre material they ate. Presumably this is a specialist branch of military intelligence! Britain does have standards on off-street public toilet provision which is calculated relative to building use and floorspace, and such a system is found in several other countries such as in Singapore (Onn, 1996). In Britain on-street provision seems to have grown in an ad hoc unplanned manner. In our enthusiasm for new toilets it is important that we value and retain any that still survive. We should investigate previous locations as a good template for future locations, as there was probably some very good reason why the toilets in question were put there in the first place. However, the toilet survey will reveal areas where the previous location is now inappropriate because of changes in land use and transport patterns. It will also identify ‘toilet hot spots’ where new ones should be located.

178


Figure 10.2 Toilets in the seaside resort of Watchet, Somerset. Located next to the car park, they are shown in the context of the townscape.

Figure 10.3 Dunster, Somerset: small tourist village with high density of public toilets. 179

THE SOLUTIONS 180

Toilet distribution hierarchy City centres All town centres should have as many toilets as they had 20 years ago, before the cuts, as an absolute minimum standard, albeit located in relation to undertaking a survey of areas of greatest demand and ‘toilet magnets’ such as shopping centres, tourist attractions, parks etc. This standard should exclude all off-street public toilets, such as those found in shops, pubs and malls which are not open out of hours. Every city centre should provide at least one well-signposted, 24hour block of toilets, based upon the ‘toilet palace’ proposed in the next chapter. This should be placed as centrally as possible in terms of pedestrian flow so that people get used to the idea that they will ‘always’ find such a toilet in any town they visit. All railway stations, bus stations and transport termini should provide free toilets, which are fully accessible and not down steps. At least some toilets should be available on a 24-hour basis, for women as well as men, because they too are out and about in the evenings travelling, working and at leisure. In addition, off-street toilets should be provided in association with retail development as specified by the British Standards for shopping malls and large retail developments. The standard requires 1 male toilet, 1 male urinal, 1 unisex toilet for the disabled, and 2 female toilets for every 1000–2000 square metres of retail floorspace (and so forth in proportion to total net sales area). This is a start, but it is not retrospective and does not cover traditional high streets. Similar standards need to be applied, as part of the approved spatial development plan, based on collating all the floorspace of every retail outlet as specified in the Use Classes Order (shops, banks, etc.). The ideal goal should always be toilets that people can gain access to directly from the street without having to enter private premises. In the transitional phase all existing restaurants, cafés and pubs should be required to make their toilets available to the general public. A rates allowance would be given for this, and additional funding would be given to provide better access and disabled toilets. The cost of providing disabled access, as required under the DDA, has been a bone of contention among small business owners and shopkeepers, so this proposal will help solve two problems at once. ‘Shop improvement grants’ along the lines of housing improvement grants would be a fair way to deal with this issue. Many British towns have long rows of shops extending out from the centre serving adjacent residential districts and these might be served with toilets at every half mile along the main road. This is not excessive for, if one looks at many such a street, one will find a surprising range of fountains, horse troughs, small parks and public toilets dotted along their length but many of the latter are now closed. It should not be assumed that ‘everyone’ can use pub toilets for example but, as shown in Figure 10.1, distinct public toilets should be provided for each specific public facility.

District level At the district and local neighbourhood level toilets should be provided in conjunction with all local shopping centres, car parks and transport termini, according to the toilet population ratio, with the ‘uniblock’ being provided as the absolute minimum. In deciding ‘how many where’ the survey process should help identify ‘hotspots’ where toilets might best be located. A combination of a parade of shops, significant local public facilities such as pubs, take-aways, churches, clubs, pubs and bus stops, signifies a potential ‘toilet hotspot’. Do not assume that good facilities exist for people to use in public facilities such as schools, hospitals, libraries and law courts.


High levels of provision will generally be achieved according to the toilet population ratio, resulting in both large blocks in central locations and a good distribution of smaller facilities. The minimum facility that should be provided is to be based upon a common American highway-side solution of a small block comprising 4 Ladies cubicles, plus two cubicles and two urinals for the Gents, with each ‘side’ including one accessible larger ‘disabled’ compartment, plus one unisex and multi-use (uni-abled) toilet available 24 hours (see Chapter 12). This I call the uniblock. Everyone will be reassured to know that a toilet palace with wider facilities is to be found in the main centre, especially public transport users. In areas where there is a high level of female employment the proportion of Ladies facilities would be increased as 80% of workers in the central area offices are women, and in all cases the proportion provided should be based upon the demographic and employment surveys undertaken. People will get to used to ‘what to look for’ as to the likely location of toilets in a strange town. Once people know they can rely on finding toilets, and that they will be open and usable, it is likely that the ‘missing millions’ will venture out of their houses and many will travel further afield and for longer periods, thus increasing the economic and social viability of many areas, reducing car use and creating a healthier environment for all.

In-between areas Many areas are not particularly busy, central or exciting. Towns and cities are composed of all sorts of ‘in-between’ urban areas; over 30% of housing stock is to be found on council estates of various types and at least another 40% comprises ‘suburbs’.Eighty per cent of the population may be defined as suburban. These are the areas where ‘white van men’, bus drivers, postal workers, care ladies, schoolchildren are to be found, all of whom need public toilets. In such areas where there are no natural nodes or focus points but ‘just houses’ a spatial strategy should be developed that there are uniblocks located at key junctions along main spine roads, especially by bus stops, the exact amount being based 181

THE SOLUTIONS

upon a survey of likely numbers of users. Residents should not simply have a toilet imposed upon them – full participation should be encouraged, with offers of rate reductions, and payment for keeping an eye on the toilet. Women planners have argued that there is a need to introduce new ‘multipurpose’ community buildings into suburban areas that consist only of housing at key spots in estates, especially in America where the suburbs are so much bigger (Kunstler,1994). Working mothers would be assured that a range of childcare, elder care and after-school provision could be provided locally. Others have suggested extending this to providing a place for delivery men to leave parcels, public toilets and washing facilities, with a café offering light refreshments, plus some sort of common room for the local residents. More modestly, some have suggested converting individual houses into ‘rest stops’ that provide toilets, meeting-places for local residents and a range of back-up facilities. Such an approach might solve many other problems too, as well as saving the toilet from vulnerable isolation. When one considers the number of coffee shops that have grown up in recent years and considers the principle ‘what goes in must come out’, such levels of provision are entirely reasonable. In ‘problem estates’, as against ‘leafy suburbs’, more careful measures may be needed. Where possible toilet provision should be combined with other ‘public’ buildings in such locations to give a sense of ‘authority’ and to contribute towards the development of a new community core. Public toilets may be ‘strengthened’ if they are put alongside, or are in the form of, shared facilities, with post offices, police stations and libraries, but such an arrangement may

Figure 10.4 Post office, cashpoint and APC, Moorgate, London: all you need. 182

Less built-up areas Within urban localities there are many areas of open space, including parks large and small, playing fields and landscaped areas. Some, such as allotments, have never had decent toilets, particularly for women, and this must be remedied. Many of these areas have been equipped with public toilets but many have been closed owing to vandalism. Restoring provision, but with better supervision and the return of park keepers, would improve such areas. Making the sports ‘pavilion’ or changing room toilets available to both women and men might not only improve toilet provision but also ameliorate the vandalism problems associated with such buildings which are often seen as male territory and treated accordingly. Some very useful toilets are already located on the edges of parks and commons, and many a car commuter has eyed them hopefully, although they are unget-at-able because of double yellow lines, and unapproachable if colonised by undesirables. Temporary parking might be provided alongside, which in turn would make them less isolated. Toilets in the ‘real countryside’ are even more of a problem. Opening up the toilets at a village hall or church to passing travellers might solve the toilet problem in more rural locations. In our research we found that some rural local authorities were keen to enter into agreements with local shops, halls and cafés to make their toilets available to the public or to maintain adjacent local toilet facilities. Where there are no settlements but miles and miles of moorland or fields, rural planners for the area should draw up a spatial strategy of distributing public toilet blocks at key intersections of footpaths, at scenic spots and other honey pot areas. Local farming diversification policies should include tax allowances for farmers who provide rural toilets for hikers and walkers. At least one uniblock should be provided in all settlements over 5000 population, a figure which is used in France as the minimum for the provision for various public amenities. As stated in the last chapter, local planning authorities do have the power to provide toilets in national parks, but the number and distribution is not specified. Attention should be given to ensuring that at least one uniblock is provided on the main road approach to out-of-town business park locations, possibly with a short-term layby, as people can spend hours driving around trying to find decentralised offices and have no guarantee of toilet relief upon arrival at their destination. Toilets should also be provided at least every five miles along main A roads;, indeed many routes have a range of toilets already spread along them dating from various epochs, albeit many are now closed. Toilets should be pro-


create ‘calm in the eye of the storm’. Putting them alongside already vulnerable street furniture such as telephone boxes and bus shelters where dissolute youths hang out may court trouble. Monitoring of the situation is a mark of good planning, and attention to the design of the surroundings is vital.

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vided at least every 35 miles along motorways and, as stated, at all stations and termini. Toilets should be provided at every three miles along cycle routes. Cycle parking facilities with toilets, good washing and drying facilities, and left-luggage lockers should be provided for cyclists in all town centres. At least one basic block should be provided for every car park of over 100 cars, with the toilet population ratio applied to all car parks. In practice all this will not lead to ‘toilets everywhere’ but good coverage might be achieved by a strategic distribution of toilet blocks which meet, for example, the needs of car park users and also provide relief for passing motorists and pedestrians. Toilets must be located in open, visible locations with good signage, and served by accessible pathways and routeways. Even in off-street locations such as shopping malls, a free standing toilet block gives more flexibility and more external surveillance (WDS,1990), but on the other hand blocks that are integrated in with retail units give a greater sense of ‘normality’ and savings are made in wall construction. Information about toilets should be given on road signs on all main roads (e.g. ‘5 miles to next toilets’), and mobile phone text information services should provide toilet information in the same way they provide taxi and hotel information. All road maps, tourist leaflets, TV travel programmes and guidebooks should also provide toilet information as a matter of course. In terms of hierarchy not all public toilets will provide the same number of facilities in every location. Rather, heavily used central locations will be provided with toilet palaces with every lavatorial amenity, whereas every small local area will have at least a basic ‘uniblock’.

Toilet block positioning Pride of place Having established how many are needed and where, this section looks at the more detailed aspects of toilet siting. In deciding where specifically to put a new toilet block facility, the principles of good urban design should be maintained. Thorough site appraisal should be carried out as would be the case for any ‘normal’ development. All the art and science and accumulated knowledge of civic design should be applied to public toilets because they are important urban artefacts in their own right. The infrastructure beneath the city streets is a major constraint, but should not be the only consideration. All the art and science of a century of modern town planning should be applied to the initial decision-making processes that determine where they will be located and in what numbers. The principles of urban design in respect of ‘where to put the toilet’ need to be applied in relation to the ‘morphology’ (form) and ‘armature’ (structure) of the area in question (Greed and Roberts,1998: 34). Designers need to be able to 184


Figure 10.5 Town square with new toilet by supermarket, Clevedon, Somerset, provided as a result of planning gain when the adjacent supermarket was built. But watch out for skateboarders in the barren surrounding square!

Figure 10.6 Block level toilet principles. 185

THE SOLUTIONS 186

‘read’ an urban area, to identify the key features, nodal points, edges, barriers and characteristics that affect pedestrian movement and give it its character and overall ambience. An awareness of such hierarchies and divisions and the relative extent of the catchment area of different central points might ensure that toilets are the more effectively located to ‘catch’ users by enabling them to find the toilets easily. As a general principle, toilets should be proudly placed out in the open and not hidden but thoughtfully designed. Toilets should be located in central public thoroughfares and squares, in open well-lit areas, and people should be proud of them as an important townscape statement in their own right. Toilet designers should consider the way in which the toilet block complements or clashes with surrounding buildings, whether it completes a vista, fills in a gap or creates an out-of-place eyesore. Toilets should be subject to the same design controls, especially in urban conservation and regeneration areas, as any other sort of building, and their location should be included on all statutory planning documents, local plans and development plans in accordance with the changes in planning legislation recommended in Chapters 9 and 13. Liaison with the town planning, environmental and architectural departments of the area in question are a requirement of good toilet planning. This is particularly important in conservation areas. The resuscitation of previously closed toilets alone will result in a chronological mixture of architectural styles. Some are beyond recall, having been turned into shops, bungalows, offices and restaurants. When Thurrock Council in Essex closed its public toilets and replaced (some of) them with Superloos, one located in South Ockendon was turned into the Raj Indian Restaurant (nicknamed Vinda Loo). There is a need to create ‘Great Toilet Architecture’. Ladbroke Grove (Westbourne Park), in Notting Hill in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, is a rare example of this (and featured briefly in the Spice Girls 1997 movie). Built in 1993 and designed by the architect Piers Gough, these public toilets consist of a triangular structure which has received much critical acclaim. Their installation has also been found to increase property values in the vicinity. These toilets create what the economists call a ‘trickle down effect’ in helping to spread national wealth into the community (Angresano,1997; Friedman, 1991). But Gough’s toilets could be better. They are closed on Sundays and have limited opening hours. They have been declared sexist – women are charged 20p and men are not (Independent, 1994). There is even an awkward coin in the slot lock on the babychanging facilities, but the internal aisle is so narrow in the Ladies that no-one would manage to get a pushchair this far. The Notting Hill Carnival attracts 1 million people and all that is available are the 6 cubicles in this toilet block. Subsequently JC Decaux installed two combined bus shelter/public toilets in the borough, designed (externally at least) by Norman Foster (Decaux, 2001), making Kensington and Chelsea a toilet design hot spot on the architectural map of the most famous and arty public toilets in the land.


Figure 10.7 Piers Gough Toilets, Ladbroke Grove, Notting Hill, London.

Figure 10.8 Inside Ladbroke Grove, 20p for baby changing and 20p for the Ladies. This toilet is always quoted as an ideal example in the architectural press, partly because it is disguised as a flower shop! But Evening Standard readers declared it to be the most sexist public toilet in London, presumably because it charges for babychanging and there are more places to pee in the Gents than the Ladies and it is free for the men. 187

THE SOLUTIONS 188

Access and siting Toilets should not be located on steep slopes, or rendered inaccessible by steps and excessive ramps. Ideally all toilets should be positioned ‘at grade’ – that is, on the level, not down steps or only accessible through vandalised lifts or up urine-soaked steps. Ramps should be provided where there is no alternative. Handrails and gentle steps should also be provided as well, for those who cannot cope with ramps, such as people with arthritis. Ramps must be built according to the required standards. Attempts at building modern ‘accessible’ toilets in the 1990s have produced some interesting conflicts. For example, Castle Park toilet in Bristol is located beside the shopping centre, and can only be approached by a steep slope. Notices declare it to be wheelchair accessible. Good access for the disabled should not begin at the ramp but run right through the urban area so that people can penetrate and make their way through to the toilets. There also seems to be some confusion as to who it is for as it is only open during office hours. An important urban design principle is that townscape should be readily legible and permeable so that people can easily make out the layout and the main routeways without confusion or fear (Lynch,1968). Otherwise people experience disorientation, get lost and spend ages looking for the toilets. Of course good signage is vital but people like to ‘know’ that if they see a particular type of area they are likely to find a toilet there (although nowadays if they find one it is likely to be closed). The footpaths to the toilets should be part of the pedestrian routeway system for the local area. The toilets should not be seen as a nuisance hidden down a dead end. Increased footflow past the toilets is likely to reduce loitering and increase overall surveillance and integration with other ‘normal’ land uses. Good footpath links should be ensured from toilets to tourist coach pickup points, bus stops, pedestrian crossings and car parking. Toilets should not be placed on dangerous traffic islands. This may require rerouting the traffic rather than closing the toilet. To enable people to get to the toilet, paths and pavements should be at least 2000 mm wide to facilitate two laden pushchairs to pass easily and for families to walk along together. There should be no paths that suddenly narrow to less than 500 mm or are covered in muddy puddles and broken paving stones. It is bad practice to put the community’s recycling bins and paper chaser skips alongside the public toilets as this impedes pedestrian access to the toilets; also, the inevitable flock of traffic cones generates a bad image and in the case of bottle banks appears to encourage vandalism, resulting in smashed bottles being strewn all over the surrounding paths and car parks. A particularly worrying trend is putting recycling skips alongside APCs as if to denote this is clearly the section for rubbish containers. The public oblige accordingly by adding to the pile, dropping cans, fast food wrappers and other rubbish alongside, creating an ideal ‘earthbox’ spot for street urination. Indeed, if the Gents is locked, or they

Crime prevention considerations All these improvements should reduce the chances of criminal behaviour, because of increased visibility and natural surveillance. Toilet coverage by CCTV surveillance should be provided as part of the overall town centre management strategy where necessary but, of course, there should be someone on the other end actually watching and ready to respond as otherwise the public soon loses faith in such devices. There should be no blind corners, dark alleyways or tall bushes screening the toilets. Short prickly bushes around the walls may discourage graffiti and vandalism but they can also catch litter on their spikes so, as with everything else, there is a need for careful management. Good lighting both outside and inside the toilet is essential. ‘Crime and toilets’ is discussed further in Chapter 13. The toilets should be surrounded on all sides by clear paving or tarmac. Where there has to be a boundary demarcation, the use of open railings or spacer bricks is preferable to high hedges or solid walls. Entrances, as indicated, should face on to the main street and not be put around the back. Particularly in the case of the Ladies, there should be some sort of internal circulation zone so that women do not have to come straight out on to the street and so they do not have to wait uneasily on the pavement, or leave their pushchair, toddler, dog, bicycle and/or suitcase in public view while going to the loo. Overall, attention should be given to the visual perceptions of people entering and exiting the building. Factors to consider include views in and out, issues of privacy, visibility and surveillance. Can users see who is lurking outside? Many women are wary of exiting APCs straight on to the street, and the inclusion of a spy hole which would enable them to see if anyone is lurking outside, as found in some Far East toilet doors, would be a good idea. Will users be dazzled by the sun on exiting, or will they face the grim prospect of fighting their way through dark undergrowth? Is the toilet block over-


won’t/can’t pay for the APC, the ‘helpful’ solution adopted by many men is street urination on the toilet walls or adjacent skips. Once a creature of habit knows where its earthbox is it will return to the same spot again and re-establish its territory markings. Attention should be paid to micro-climatic issues. Windy locations should be avoided to prevent clothes rising in a sudden swirl, or shopping bags or toddlers being blown over, as people exit. Natural ventilation might be improved by careful siting in relation to predominant wind direction. Beware of frosty hollows because of freezing pipes. Consider likely problems of too much direct sunlight in terms of smells and hygiene. At the same time, a toilet’s entrance should not face or back on to Mecca. Moslems in Accrington in Lancashire asked that the public toilets on their new housing estate should face away from Mecca and that the toilet bowls should not be towards or away from Mecca (20.5.99 Ceefax).

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Figure 10.9 Toilets by Banbury Cross in townscape context. They are highly secure from a crime point of view and fit into the landscape, but the ‘pay-to-pee’ system may be offputting to those not familiar with this particular entry system.

looked by surrounding buildings so that neighbours can see what is going on and keep an eye on the place? There is no ideal location or design that will solve crime. Maurice Broady, a sociologist disquieted by the apparently magical powers attributed to design, stated ‘architectural design, like music to a film, is complementary to human activity, it does not shape it’ (Broady, 1968). Oscar Newman (in ‘Defensible Space’, 1974,1995) stressed the importance of the quite 190

Signage Ideally there should be a natural flow of pedestrian movement as people find toilets where they traditionally and intuitively expect them to be located, and others in doubt follow the crowd. To avoid uncertainty, especially for overseas tourists, there should be adequate signage. This should say where the toilets are and how far, where the nearest available one is in the event of the one found being closed and what the opening hours are, and where alternatives and the nearest 24-hour toilet are located. A list of facilities available and extent of accessibility should also be included in respect of the needs of women, the disabled and those with pushchairs and babies. Signage should include internationally understood toilet symbols, and several languages in cosmopolitan areas. While some local authorities now provide Braille signs, these may be difficult to locate if up on a wall with no sensory or tactile trail provided to guide users to the facilities in the first place.

Parking and traffic control


simple strategy of ensuring that there is a distinct demarcation between public and private space around buildings in large housing estates, so that people think twice before crossing such boundaries and indulging in graffiti or vandalism. Likewise an impression that the toilet ‘belongs’ to the community and is under surveillance will improve the situation.

At least three short-term parking facilities should be provided for those specifically using the toilet with a redeemable voucher from the attendant for 10 minutes’ use. This may entail rerouting access roads, and why not if it increases the chances of traffic passing close to the toilet block, thereby increasing natural surveillance? There are too many public toilets down side roads where traffic seldom passes. Pedestrian access to the facilities should be facilitated by zebra crossings or other traffic control means, particularly when toilets are located on traffic islands or on busy main roads. Busy road intersections are good locations in terms of personal safety, but it should be remembered they are potentially dangerous locations in terms of road safety. Safety rails to prevent users, especially children, rushing out into the traffic should be installed. This is important where toilet doors open directly on to the road as in the case of APCs. Liaison with highways and road safety representatives is an essential as part of the overall design process. Many a traffic-calming scheme and ‘red route’ nostopping designation has neutered toilets. Toilets should be integrated into the modern street pattern and into traffic management policy. Nowadays traffic engineers are very fond of introducing artificial barriers by means of speed bumps and chicanes, so some additional space for toilet parking even on main roads can 191

THE SOLUTIONS

hardly be the cause of objection. On the outside walls of the toilet, bicycle racks should be provided on the basis of half as many spaces as there are cubicles. Covered ‘parking places’ for pushchairs (baby buggies, strollers) should be incorporated where possible as was the case in the London Borough of Haringey. All facilities should ideally have attendants, as a building and its contents cannot defend itself (see Chapter 13). A space should be left for dogs to be tethered while the owners partake of the facilities. A dog water bowl should be provided or, in the event of an unsupervised toilet, a self-filling ground-level dog watering device should be provided. Disabled toilets should provide enough space for a guide dog (seeing dog) to accompany its owner into the toilet. A water fountain might also be provided prominently on the outside of the building. In larger facilities provision should be made to enable people with wheelchairs, pushchairs and luggage to access the toilet block fully with at least 1500 mm turning space on all main aisles and access points (see Chapter 12). A receptacle for ‘sharps’, for drug addicts, should be included as the lesser of two evils.

Valuing toilets Whatever the nature of the design and location, much depends upon the attitudes and ‘toilet culture’ of both users and providers, and this is reflected in the amount of money, care and commitment and respect they give to public toilets. As Lewis Mumford is rumoured to have said, ‘a civilisation may be judged by the

Figure 10.10 Internet facilities and new telephone kiosks on Bristol centre but no toilet, in spite of the huge demand with maritime events at the Docks, plus Bristol promoting itself as ‘the city of culture’. 192

way it disposes of its waste’ (Mumford,1935[1965]). In such a society buildings and services which meet the excretory needs of its citizens would be respected landmarks and sources of civic pride, not underfunded, vandalised ruins, and those who addressed these issues would be respected.


Figure 10.11 Ideal family toilets, Thatcham, West Berkshire (courtesy of Isobel Daniels). These are located right in the middle of the main street, not hidden away down an alleyway, so there is a high level of natural surveillance and sense of safety.

Standards ➥

Toilet provision should be in line with the overall toilet strategy and hierarchy as recommended in Chapter 9

➥

A proper SAP (Survey, Analysis, Plan) programme should be undertaken to ascertain local needs

➥

Needs of tourists, shoppers, workers, commuters, visitors AS WELL AS residents should be included in toilet calculations as to need

➥

Key toilet hot spots should be identified and provided for, such as central area shopping centres, district centres and local centres

➥

Toilets should be provided in relation to all transport termini, bus stations, railway stations, tube stations and multi-storey car parks. 193


Toilet design considerations: micro level A new attitude to toilet design From the whole to the roll This chapter seeks to give policy guidance on toilet design. It starts with the design of the toilet block as a whole and works its way down to the details. There are already many detailed design guides on the precise dimensions and locations of rails, toilet pans, washbasins, mirrors etc. and so it is not the purpose of this chapter to give precise guidance on these. ‘The problem’ is that some toilet manuals deal with each component without seeing how they inter-relate with each other spatially. Emphasis is upon a user perspective on negotiating toilet space, in order to alert readers to likely hazards and barriers encountered by would-be toilet users. Both abled and disabled people have such difficulties manoeuvring within toilet blocks because of the ill-thought out positioning and relationship between objects within cubicles, even if the toilets are designed to current standards. Since some of the proposals are more achievable than others, a minimum and maximum standard or condition will be provided as appropriate – for example, when retrofitting existing toilets as a transitional solution. A textbox of key points is provided at the end of the chapter. Lastly, issues of hygiene, lighting and ambience are considered. Policy statements are included based on the author’s own research and drawing upon other organisations’ recommendations, including AMC, BAA, CAE, JMU, PAMIS, WDS, National Trust, and Continence Foundation, all of which have web sites where updated standards may be found. Virginia Newman, architect with Sheppard Robson in London, gave valuable feedback on the proposals. Comprehensive guidance is also given by Waltham Forest (2000), specifically Wendy Davis their Access Officer and architect; by Gateshead Access Panel (1997) and by the Access Officer for the Corporation of London (Fleck, 1998). The chapter is also informed by BSI 8300 (BSI, 2001: 113–125) section 12.4 which specifically deals with disabled toilets, and by BS 6465 Part 2.

CHAPTER ELEVEN • TOILET DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS: MICRO LEVEL

chapter eleven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Facing the realities of toilet design In 1953 the Architects’ Journal (no.117) devoted several pages to the then state of public toilets and stated, ‘to a good doctor there is no physical or mental aspect of his patient which should embarrass him. He may be worried or shocked by what his diagnosis reveals, but if he’s any good, he is not embarrassed. Correspondingly, therefore, there should be no type of building, and no human function related to it which should embarrass the architect!’ (cited in Cavanagh and Ware, 1991). This wise advice was never fully taken on board as an integral component of inclusive post-war reconstruction architecture and planning. Civic pride in public toilets was never regained. There are many different views as to what is ‘best’ and for just about every argument there is a counter argument. As a guiding design principle when ‘testing’ new designs, it is important to ask all relevant users, women as well as men. An APC manufacturer produced a new type of disabled toilet, and only asked a severely disabled man to try it out. The manufacturers did not ask a disabled woman as well, because they imagined that ‘if it was good enough for him, then ‘’anyone’’ ought be able to use it’. But women have different needs from men, which cannot be subsumed under the needs of the ‘worst’ male case. Subsequently this design was challenged by a woman in the toilet industry who was very aware of disability issues because of her family circumstances; it was later modified. Policy: Wherever possible the views and participation of likely user groups should be welcomed into the design process in order to establish acceptable principles. Both women and men should be consulted when asking both the abled and the disabled.

Toilet palaces: more not less An inclusive, universalist approach to toilet design is central, with compensatory greater provision for women. The trick is to meet a diversity of needs within the ‘same’ facilities. Adopting a universalist approach to toilet design that includes everyone’s needs, results in the ideal of ‘toilet palaces’ – that is, substantial buildings. The main toilet palaces would be open 24 hours with a full range of facilities in heavily used locations, but other locations would have more pragmatic provision. Policy: There would be a hierarchy of levels of provision ranging from ideal toilet palaces in central areas to more basic ‘uniblock’ facilities in dispersed locations.

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Space standards need to be generous to enable access and circulation within the block because facilities for disabled people have been integrated in with ‘standard’ (abled) toilet provision and, since women with pushchairs and/or small children comprise a substantial proportion of all users, facilities are also pushchair accessible. As stated, an average pushchair is around 550–650 mm wide and 850 mm long but its total length is nearer 1000 mm and 1450 mm with a person pushing it. Double buggies range from 850 mm to 1000 mm in width by 850 mm in length, and again up to 1450 mm including the pusher. Even a small carrycot is around 580 mm long. Required turning circles are as much as for a wheelchair. Goldsmith (2000) provides a detailed set of drawings of turning circles and manoeuvring spaces for wheelchairs and pushchairs (it not intended to replicate this work here). To get a small pushchair into a ‘normal’ toilet compartment requires much wider dimensions than are currently used. Some pushchairs (buggies) are getting larger and more padded as they are designed to fit in the back of large car hatchbacks and to be taken out on reaching the shopping mall, rather than to be ‘driven’ along the pavement to the local shops. Thus a new approach may be needed, different from the days when women were more likely to take a fold-up pushchair on a bus. Goldsmith was criticised by disability groups for not providing enough space for the larger motorised wheelchairs. Policy: Space standards in abled toilets should at least accommodate modern pushchairs and be as generous as is possible both for manoeuvres inside the toilet block and for access to and around the building. The current provider agenda appears to be based upon a desire for control, cost-cutting, economies, standardisation of units, and less not more – for example, replacing a traditional row of toilets with one APC. A fortress mentality prevails which is driven by a desire to prevent crime and cottaging in men’s toilets. This agenda restricts accessibility for everyone and detracts from the specific design needs regarding women’s toilets too. In contrast, this chapter incorporates a women’s agenda on toilet provision as women comprise the majority of users. Increasing public provision for women and other minority groups is good for everyone as it facilitates a greater family presence and encourages a wider range of people to be ‘out and about’ on the streets of the 24-hour city. This helps ordinary people to reclaim the streets from the hostile male-dominated yob culture that creates the ‘right’ atmosphere for the criminal activity which blights so many of our cities, particularly in the evenings. Policy: Emphasis should be given to greater unimpeded access, which in turn contributes to attracting a wider range of users and thus more natural surveillance.

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THE SOLUTIONS 198

The toilet block Overall configuration The nature of the design fundamentally depends upon whether the toilet block is attended or not. All toilets should be provided with attendants where possible. In unattended toilets it is recommended that male and female toilets are not put directly alongside each other in the traditional semi-detached, mirror-image, bookend approach, but that more creative solutions are found to ensure that women are not intimidated and discouraged from using facilities because of the proximity of the Gents and its potentially unsavoury clientèle. Emphasis should be put upon the attendants being provided with windows to see who is coming in and out (WDS, 1990). In unattended situations the Ladies and the Gents toilet blocks should be separate and put at a little distance from each other but, where male and female toilets are located in the same block, the women’s toilets should be located nearest the entrance, so that women do not have to walk down a corridor that passes the Gents toilet and run the risk of intimidation and chances of attack. It is best to avoid long shared male/female corridors and have the toilets springing from the main access early on (WDS, 1990, page 4). Controlled entrance to babychanging and unisex facilities is to be advised, but not to discourage legitimate users. Better to have attendants who can see what is going on than key systems. There should be a neutral ‘meeting place’ outside the toilet blocks where family members can wait for each other in safety, subject to natural surveillance. This is achievable if toilets face onto a main routeway and are out in the open and not hidden. Within a toilet block, possibly located as a buffer between the Ladies and the Gents, there should be unisex toilets provided for the use of disabled people and accessible to both sexes. Many women are wary of using unisex toilets (abled or disabled) late at night. They should not be located in such a way that they are construed to be part of the male territory, encouraging misuse and extreme off-putting embarrassment for both female disabled users and/or female carers of disabled people. These might be located as separate buildings in between the Ladies and Gents blocks or they might be located as a link building between the Ladies and Gents, provided there are also separate entrances for the Ladies and adequate screening if one of the unisex facilities is adjacent to the Gents. In comparision, in the US, legislation requires that at least one disabled toilet ‘shall be a feature of all toilet rooms’ – under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Architectural Barriers Acts (Goldsmith, 2000: 6; Congressional Digest, 1989). So there are disabled toilets in every washroom, they are not segregated and are combined with accessible routeways through the building. For those accompanied by carers of the other sex there need to be unisex facilities too.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11, 12.

PAMIS size adult-changing toilet Disabled toilet, unisex, nearest the Gents Unisex changing area for babies or those who need more space Baby-feeding and changing area Attendant’s room Storage for pushchairs, luggage etc. Children’s toilets Supervised entrance (but not barrier pay system) All night unisex and uni-able toilet on outside of building with CCTV nearby Disabled toilet, unisex, nearest the Ladies Extra large end cubicles with hydraulic doors for double buggies and disabled people

Figure 11.1 The ideal toilet palace for a busy location. Huge enough to include everyone and everything, my plan has nearly twice the floorspace for women as men, to allow almost twice the provision. (Note this plan is for discussion and seeks to illustrate the key issues diagrammatically; it should not be taken as a definitive blue print.) Lots of washbasins in the Gents are provided because 70% of men do not wash their hands. N.B. Note the whole block divides into three linked zones, Gents on the left, shared facilities in the middle, and Ladies on the right. Lots of space for manoeuvre is provided. A major cause of inequity has been to give equal floorspace to the Ladies and the Gents, whereas to achieve equality of ‘places to pee’ women need twice the floorspace.


KEY

Policy: Very careful thought should be given to the organisation of male and female toilet areas to enable separation but also unisex access to facilities for carers.

Unisex toilets and APCs APCs are the ultimate unisex facility. Unisex facilities should not be provided as the only option available, as they are unsuitable for high volume usage and the

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Figure 11.2 Plan for a uniblock for a local centre, based on minimum provision with retrofitting of existing facilities in mind. This diagram should not be seen as a blueprint but rather is based upon considering ‘What if we changed this and that?’ in relation to the floorspace of a real (but anonymous) small public toilet where, in spite of its size, the Gents currently has almost twice the provision of the Ladies. Based on a local user survey, there would be a large cubicle in the Gents for the many elderly, semi-ambulant and incontinent men in the area to use, which would mean a trade-off in respect of possible use for cottaging that might be controlled by a frequent attendant and cleaner programme and maybe CCTV.

problems of pushchairs and shared (parent/child) occupation have still not been solved. Single APCs should only be used as a temporary measure prior to installation of a full range of toilet cubicles for male and females, or as an additional provision in areas where adequate, but centralised, traditional facilities are available. If the toilet planning policies suggested in the last chapter were adopted, we would suddenly have a major ‘official’ deficit of public toilets and it would be necessary to buy in such prefabricated instant solutions (as was the case with prefab housing during post-war reconstruction). Other specific groups need toilets too. One of the major Scandinavian APC manufacturers has entered into a partnership with London buses to provide key200


pad operated cubicle toilets to be painted in bus red for drivers. As yet there is no commensurate provision for passengers. There are around 18,000 drivers of public transport in London and many lack toilet facilities. Bus drivers used to ‘go’ in the depot when buses went from depot to depot, but now they stop and start in all sorts of places. Further, for safety reasons, drivers are not allowed to take their takings into public toilets and are not allowed to leave the money on the bus either, hence the need for dedicated driver toilets. APC manufacturers also have agreements with Railtrack to provide toilets for staff and drivers, but none for passengers. One of the reasons for the London Underground strike in Autumn 2001 was lack of toilet facilities at outlying tube stations. When I suggested, to one such provider, that the real need is for passengers’ ones too, the argument came back, ‘well, the passengers vandalised them before so they don’t deserve them’ (most passengers never vandalise them). All this arose because there were previously only 100 female tube drivers out of 3000, then a further 300 were recruited following an advertising campaign (including adverts in Cosmopolitan magazine) offering high wages but, as it turned out, poor working conditions, especially lack of toilets. The idea of public toilets for all is being replaced by ‘niche’ toilets for some, according to occupation (employment). This is a worrying divisive trend, particularly for passengers. Policy: APCs should not be used as a substitute for existing toilets, but may be considered for additional provision in peripheral, 24-hour, and specific localised sites. If they have to be used, they should be large enough to accommodate a carer and pushchair, and the toilet bowl should have a seat.

Attended toilets Much more can be provided in attended toilets because the situation is more secure. Skilled personnel, with appropriate training, will be needed to run the better designed toilets proposed in this chapter. New ‘super-attendants’ would be much more than a cleaner and hapless defender of their block, and would hold National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) in cleaning specialisms. They would be trained in customer service, in providing local tourist information, and in First Aid. The ability to answer queries in at least two languages would be required in metropolitan locations. Their pay would reflect their new status. Rather than just housing ‘toilets’, we need to think of multi-function community resource buildings, truly ‘convenience stores’, each with their own caring staff (Hayden, 1984). Showers and washing facilities would be a welcome addition in busy urban areas, transport termini and recreational areas. Diversification of toilet facilities by combining news-stands, left-luggage facilities, coffee kiosks, taxi offices, telephone, internet and fax facilities should be considered. In larger toilet palaces additional space might be built that could 201

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 11.3a and b Aviemore, Scotland; block, plan and elevation. For comparison, this is one of the more enlightened designs, highly commended by both Loo of the Year Award and architectural critics in Scotland. 202

CHAPTER ELEVEN • TOILET DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS: MICRO LEVEL Figure 11.3c Aviemore, Scotland: outside, back view and inside entrance payment guichet. Note the constraints of the site, which falls away on one side.

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Figure 11.4a and b Photo of Oy Shippax APC outside and inside. Is this the shape of things to come? Undoubtedly clean, convenient and high quality but rather scary?

be rented out to house tourist information centres, local community ‘cop shops’ and launderettes inter alia, thus making the toilet more economically viable. Every toilet would have on its walls a town map, bus timetables, taxi information and other publicity posters, while fly posting, graffiti and seedy advertisements would be less prevalent if the super-attendants did their job well. In attended toilets it is possible to create a more integrated layout with a ‘multi-user carer zone’ which links the Ladies and the Gents, all within the same overall building. To encourage people to feel safe using the building, it is important to have one main supervised entrance over which the attendant/s can keep a watchful eye, but nevertheless to make it welcoming and wide enough for all to gain access. A range of specialist facilities radiating from the entrance should include baby-changing rooms, cubicles for disabled people, adult changing facilities, and a full range of standard Ladies and Gents toilet facilities. There would also be at least one larger accessible toilet ‘each side’ too, and, as will be explained below, all cubicles and dimensions should be more commodious than at present. Thus people would have more choice and would not have to force themselves into ‘special’ categories to get adequate provision. Policy: Attended toilets should be provided where possible, and space for them and for a diverse range of other uses as indicated above should be allowed for. Therefore flexible space for future extensions to the toilet block should be included in the design. 204

It is widely recommended as ‘best practice’ that women are provided with at least twice the number of facilities as men. If men are provided with 6 urinals and 2 closets in a particular facility, that is with 8 units in all, then women should be provided with 16 closets. In the real world at present the BSI rules pertain which are far from equal. As a compromise it is recommended that women should be provided with at least equal provision to men, and that urinals are included in this calculation (or in the case of trough urinals the number of users is based on dividing the length by 650 mm, or 760 mm for disabled users). In the case of sporting facilities and large public events where the male/female ratio might alter substantially according to the occasion (football match or pop festival), designs that


Ratio of provision

Figure 11.5 Women’s Design Service’s Ideal Toilet Block (still not bettered) with thanks to Sue Cavanagh and all those involved at the WDS. 205

THE SOLUTIONS

incorporate flexibility by means of moveable partitions between the Ladies and the Gents are recommended (Inglis, 1993). Policy: As an ideal there should be a 2:1 ratio of female to male provision and as a pragmatic minimum a 1:1 ratio is essential. Since so many modern toilets are made of moveable, slot in, modular panels this should not be an impossible challenge to meet. Standards for sports stadia remain at 85:15 ratio. Inglis suggests that if men object to ‘their’ toilets being commandeered for the women, then simply make the ratio 85:20 or more by adding temporary toilets. If part of the Gents is likely to change sides, then Inglis recommends that this should be an area free from urinals (or the sight of them). Thus the typical Gents would end up with more cubicles and fewer urinals to accommodate such flexibility: indeed some would suggest the phasing out of urinals (as suggested in Stockholm), a highly controversial suggestion. If fathers should need to take their female children to the toilet, there should be cubicleonly areas set aside in the Gents for this purpose. ‘Children’ are defined by WDS (1990) as those under 12. While children’s facilities might be unisex, it is preferable to aim at separate facilities where possible. Such criteria should affect the design of both off-street and on-street toilets in the vicinity of large crowd magnets such as football stadia.

Toilet compartments Cubicle dimensions There is no BS minimum toilet cubicle size for standard (abled) toilets. On consulting the British Standards and related Building Regulations, one is confronted with a confusing pattern of recommended activity zones and circulation spaces. Individual dimensions of inanimate fixtures and fittings are prioritised, rather than a holistic set of principles derived from user needs provided. Only a small percentage of all toilets conform to such BS standards as do exist on toilet provision; the vast majority were built before they were introduced, and the standards are not retrospective. Of the newer ones, some are built mechanistically to the minimum standards with little understanding of the ‘reasons’ behind the requirements. Paradoxically, nowadays, better off-street toilets – for example, in shopping malls – far exceed these standards, which suggests that at least some private sector commercial developers realise ‘bathrooms mean business’ even if public local authority providers do not yet understand that ‘restrooms mean regeneration’. The BSI standards apply to all sorts of sanitary conveniences, domestic, office, on-street and off-street. Policy: In defining more appropriate standards for cubicle dimensions, some of the best guidance comes from the Women’s Design Service. WDS has recommended 900 mm by 1700 mm including 200 mm of ducted cistern 206

Doors The door, in particular its arc of clearance, takes up the most space within a cubicle and is a major constraint on the overall length of the cubicle. WDS recommends at least 750 mm arc clearance, making around 900 mm total cubicle width allowing for door posts (stiles). Ideally we need wide doors and more clearance if women are going to bring their shopping, pushchairs, accompanying small children (and perhaps dogs) into the cubicle. Under BS 8300 disabled toilets have much wider and longer doors and the difference between the dimensions of abled and disabled toilet doors is marked. In the case of much wider and longer doors (over 900 mm) power assisted doors with infra-red opening devices would be ideal in attended toilets for double buggies. One of the biggest problems for women is the lack of space between the edge of the door and the edge of the toilet pan. In the course of her research, the author found cubicles as narrow as 700 mm across by 1000 mm long with the door touching the lavatory pan. Women need more space to get into the cubicle, do a three-point turn and reverse on to the toilet pan to urinate: a very different constraint from the relatively simple needs of the forward-facing (male) toilet user, although everyone needs to sit or squat to defecate. There is a strange and apparently moveable 450 mm diameter circle of ‘activity space’ shown in BS 6465 Part 2, which ‘moves’ in different diagrams. Figure 15 of Part 2 shows the 450 mm too between the door and the pan edge for ‘nondomestic WC compartments’, but other illustrations therein, such as Figure 13, shift this 450 mm circle sideways, greatly narrowing the gap between door and pan. BS 6465 also shows a range of options including ones with an insensitively named ‘luggage zone’ which presumably is not just for suitcases but appears to be the only place one might also stow a narrow folded pushchair or a thin toddler. The inclusion of a 450 mm circle between the pan and the door would greatly help women access the toilet, but it would create a long cubicle; and, if we offset the toilet bowl, this will reduce the width. 250 mm has previously been recommended by WDS, 1993, Inglis, 1993 and the National Trust, 2000, as the absolute minimum needed.


and integrated sanitary receptacle with a 750 mm door, resulting in only 1500 mm depth, which is much more modest than the author’s ideal, but pragmatically practical and much better than many an existing local authority toilet cubicle. The author’s proposed standards are much more commodious, in order to acommodate everyone including the abled, dis-enabled and a considerable number of disabled people too. Policy: Toilet cubicles should be a minimum 900 mm wide by 1700 mm deep, but up to 1110 mm by 2050 mm would be an ideal maximum giving lots of space for everyone.

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Figure 11.6 Existing door clearances found in our Bristol survey.

Policy: there should be a 450 mm ideal space between the edge of the door and the edge of the pan, but a pragmatic minimum of 250 mm. An alternative is to have an outward opening door as is found in French toilets (see AFNOR, French ‘BSI’ standards) (www.afnor.fr). The door has to be guarded or cubicles with outward opening doors can only be set at the end of the row of closets, so the door can swing back onto the end wall. A way around it is to set the toilet doors in echelon so that the doors back on to the previous compartment, but can this create ‘plumbing’ problems on the rear wall. Other possibilities include folding and sliding doors or, as in the case of some American toilets, no doors at all! Automatic, electronic doors that shrink back into the door frame can be seen in the Far East, and when used on some APCs can solve such problems, but such high-tech approaches would be too expensive and too much of an invitation for vandals at present in the UK. Policy: Privacy, modesty, religion and cultural factors need to be taken as seriously as technical structural constraints in designing toilet cubicles and doors. One needs doors for privacy, but also there should be some means of reaching the toilet occupant if there are problems. American standards specify at least a 9 inch toe clearance under the door, and many states require 12 inches, plus little ‘gaps’ between the door and the doorposts, presumably because of the problems of cottaging found in male toilets. All this helps increase the overall dimensions of the compartment but may put users off. Those men who require privacy because of shy bladder syndrome (Soifer, 2001), and those who are frightened a hand will reach under and steal their valuable laptop computer, want a 208

Sanitary bins In Ladies’ toilets a major problem is the location of the sanitary waste bin (sanpro bin) which is 210 mm wide minimum as required under the Environment Acts 1990 and 1995 and BSI standards. The only place to put the bin in many compartments is right beside the toilet bowl in an already narrow compartment. This results in unsanitary overflowing bins potentially rubbing against women’s legs and outer thighs when they sit down on the toilet. Women need to sit down to use the toilet, or at least they need to hover over the pan. Some bins are taller than the top of the toilet seat as well as sloping outwards and they block access to one side of the seat by the user.


better solution. Moslem designers recommend the use of louvred doors to increase ventilation, yet provide modesty with some visibility in an emergency, as an alternative to a gap (Hamzah and Hooi, 2001). Outward opening doors are already recommended in the case of disabled toilets, and would no doubt benefit the abled too. As with everything in toilet design, what is good for one person may be unusable by another. Some independent wheelchair users cannot reach out enough to close the door, unless they have very long arms, so clearly the situation is complex. JMU (2000) recommends a high kick plate to protect the wheelchair, with pullbars on the back of the door. JMU guidance also warns that outward opening doors can be dangerous for those with visual problems (JMU, 2002). In standard toilet arrangements outward opening doors can block the access corridor and can hit people waiting. This is yet another reason for having wider access aisles or more space in the cubicle. Policy: At a minimum 750 mm width doors are acceptable, but 800 mm or 900 mm are much better provided they do not reduce the clearance between the door and the toilet bowl. At least one outward opening door should be incorporated, opening on to the end wall.

Figure 11.7 Comparative clearance areas, adapted from BS 6465 showing clearance: note the off-centre circle. 209

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 11.8 Ideal size of cubicle with 250 mm cordon sanitaire all around the bowl to stop the problem of the sanpro bin touching the users thighs. There should be a minimum space of 250 mm (but ideally 450 mm) between the door and the edge of the pan to enable women to get in and turn around and sit down more easily. Note this is a diagram based on ‘What if we met all the space requirements women want?’ and is not a blueprint but should be used for discussion and awareness-raising when designing cubicles. The door is the biggest element so to make the cubicle smaller and still usable, consider changing the door’s length, making it outward opening, folding or sliding and consider ducting the sanpro bin and cistern.

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Toilet bowls and seats


It is recommended that a 250 mm clearance is (also) maintained right around the toilet seat, even if this makes the toilet closet quite a bit wider. To avoid this ‘extravagance’, simply install an integral ducted disposer along with a ducted cistern. Alternatively the toilet bowl can be set out further from the wall and the sanpro container can be set sideways behind the seat. If the door is hung on the ‘other side’ from the bowl and the bin, with a bit of juggling a more usable cubicle can be achieved without over-lengthening the compartment. The full waste management and design implications of menstruation are seldom taken seriously. Sanpro disposal should be treated as real disposal, and integrated disposal provision should be provided in the same way that every toilet has a cistern, rather than adopting a temporary plastic bin approach as if the problem is minor and temporary and too embarrassing to face. There are many examples of toilets recently built that have the sanpro bin smack against the toilet pan and that lack adequate space between the door and the pan (such as at the newly refurbished Parkway railway station in Bristol). BS 6465 Part 2 Figure 15 already states that adequate space should be made available for accommodating disposal bins without coming in too close proximity to the pan area, and a specific ‘disposal bin zone’ is shown, but other figures, such as Figure 13, have the bin right next to the pan; there is no clear direction but a range of options which weaken the requirement. Policy: There should be a 250 mm minimum between the toilet seat and the sanpro waste bin. Ideally sanpro disposal should be ducted into the wall, or the bin should be set behind the toilet bowl, a possibility in wider cubicles.

Traditionally in Britain both men and women have sat down on the toilet to move their bowels, whereas women have also sat to urinate (therefore sitting beats standing 3 to 1). The top of a toilet bowl is generally around 450 mm high with, say, 25 mm more for the seat. WDS recommends a variety of heights to accommodate children which might be 300 mm for preschool up to 330 mm for primary school age with a little higher for secondary juniors (DfEE, 2001). North American adult toilet bowls are generally a little lower, around 430–485 mm (17–19 inches), perhaps because, according to some American medical authorities, lower bowls are believed to facilitate bowel movements. There is considerable debate about the height for disabled toilets, 450–475 mm is the common standard, but it all depends on the transfer height from the wheelchair. Some recommend an intermediate ‘transfer shelf’ for disabled people, to let them down (or up) gently. Hydraulically adjustable-height toilets are available but seldom in Britain (as featured in the Gladstone Museum ’Flushed with Pride’ exhibit in Stoke-on-Trent). In Japan TOTO has perfected various electronically adjustable hydraulic pan versions, but again they are too expensive and complex to use in on-street UK public toilets. 211

THE SOLUTIONS 212

Since of necessity women will continue to hover until they are convinced seats are clean, bowls in abled toilets should not be so high that it makes it impossible to hover, especially where no seat is provided. Some small women have difficulty putting their feet on the floor in standard toilets. If the toilet bowl is enclosed as an integral part of the toilet unit (as on airline planes and some APCs) it is very difficult to put one’s legs sufficently far back each side of the bowl to hover, and so women will hold on to any available fixture to steady themselves (thus weakening toilet roll holders etc.). Policy: Ideally, adjustable seats should be provided but since this is likely to be too expensive in the present situation, before deciding on the exact height of the toilet pans used, consultation should be undertaken among users. As a minimum, provision of different (slightly lower) toilet pan heights in women’s toilets should be allowed for, rather than basing everything on the average height male (especially since men use pan toilets less than women). As discussed in the medical chapter, urinettes (female urinals) are not a valid solution to any of the toilet problems identified. They may be seen as an intermediate obstruction, preventing both squatting and sitting but requiring the user to come into close proximity to a potentially contaminated receptacle between one’s inner thighs. Also, since most women blot with toilet paper after urinating and at least a quarter are likely to be menstruating at any one time, the chances of urinettes getting clogged up are high (particularly if they have a covered ‘plug hole’ rather than an open U bend). While Western women are unsure about them, in the East great concern has been expressed by Moslem women about such contraptions and most prefer to squat (as for them the required change in position is more radical, requiring moving ‘up’ rather than ‘down’ as in the West). It is recommended that most women’s public toilets continue to be sit toilets, with no urinettes, but that, as an alternative to sit toilets, squat toilets (rather than urinettes) are offered in a ratio of 1:10 in Ladies toilets. This ratio could be higher in tourist and ethnic minority areas where Moslem and other users accustomed to squatting are numerous. Squat toilets also have the advantage of being cheaper, offering less hardware for vandalism, being generally of lower maintenance and arguably being more natural, thus contributing to the reduction of national constipation problems too. It is vital to carry out full toilet public participation among the local population to find out what they want and to give them a sense of ownership of the facilities provided. Policy: If a toilet provider is considering an alternative to sit toilets in the Ladies, squat toilets should be considered rather than female urinals. As to the precise design of sit toilets, there are millions of versions available. Most public toilet bowls are pedestal form. Corbelled, cantilevered ones, and flush into the wall versions, are seen as more hygienic and more vandal-proof but more complex and costly to install. People may try to squat on them or they may simply break under the weight of larger users. In an emergency, trapped users

Disabled toilets In this chapter I have already allowed for a fair amount of mixed, universal use between abled/disabled in the proposed toilet palaces with much larger ‘normal’ cubicles which would be equipped with grab rails too as required. But many disabled people are fearful of their disabled toilets being taken away and there are many people, especially in an ageing population, who need dedicated disabled toilets. Under Part M (updated by BS 8300), the space allowances have been more generous for disabled cubicles, namely 1500 mm × 2000 mm, or 1500 mm × 2300 mm, or 2000 mm × 2500 mm with a 1000 mm door, or even more: a huge contrast from the tiny abled cubicles found in some locations (consult the updates on the JMU website at [email protected] which contains detailed guidance on every aspect of disabled toilet provision). In the following section key aspects are revisited in terms of policy guidance within the context of the overall block. Space is needed both within the cubicle and outside for wheelchair manoeuvre and most guides recommend a 1500 mm turning circle to accommodate the average wheelchair, even if people are doing a series of three-point turns. Modern motorised ones may need more room. Like people, wheelchairs come in many different sizes and types, so a variety of sizes of compartment should be provided, where possible. If a local user survey is undertaken, questions should be asked about the type and dimensions of wheelchair used by potential users. But ‘more space is not necessarily better’. Much depends on how the space is arranged internally, especially as to where the toilet bowl is located and what obstacles are located within the toilet. So there are endless variations and debates, but as a general principle users, both male and female, should be invited to test-drive the toilet design at the earliest opportunity to see what the prac-


are likely to stand on the pan in their attempts to get out of the cubicle, while drug users may stand on the pan to hide illegal substances in the cistern or the ceiling. Whatever the height or style, as a principle, all toilets should have a seat, and it should be continuous, not one of those male ones with a gap in the middle (the male horseshoe as against the female full circle seat). Toilet seat lids are not appropriate for public toilets and add further to hygiene problems. Users should be able to put the seat up if they so choose. Immoveable seats as found on metal toilet bowls are not recommended. There are a variety of paper and plastic seat coverings that drop down or roll around when the plug is pulled, creating a hygienic seat for the next user. Unless they are installed in vandal-proof, protected off-street environments, such as surgeries or hotels, they simply invite vandalism and are prone to malfunction. Policy: All toilets should have moveable seats without lids.

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tical problems are likely to be. The ‘handle bar’ corner toilet developed by Danfo in Scandinavia, which apparently conforms to most North European disability standard requirements, is an interesting new approach. Policy: Attention should be given not only to the disabled toilet cubicle itself but also to its context and access, with surrounding spaces and aisles that accommodate at least 1500 mm circles for manoeuvring.

Rails There is much debate about where to put grab rails in disabled and standard toilets. The general view is that it is bad to fix rails immediately alongside the toilet as this blocks any chance of lateral transfer on to the loo, and can get in the way of helpers too. It is not the intention of this chapter to prescribe exact rail dimensions and locations as this is already covered by many disability groups, and, as shown in the earlier JMU diagrams, rails should consist of both fixed and drop down versions. While in Britain most rails are located at the sides of the

Figure 11.9 Corner triangle toilet for disabled users (designed by, and courtesy of Danfo). With handle bars rather than rails, this is an alternative to BS 8300 solutions and conforms to Scandinavian and German disability requirements. 214


toilet bowl, in some other countries there are additional rails on the back wall of the toilet (as in the US) and grab rails that come down directly at the front to help people stand up afterwards (as in some Far East examples). Some countries’ standards have so many fixed support rails to help ambulant disabled people that wheelchair users face a maze of hurdles. In Japan some rails are designed for disabled squatting users too. Whatever the location, grab rails should have at least 35 mm diameter to be grabbable, securely fixed and with a clean surface, although others would say that it is better to have a textured surface for a better grip. Grab rails might also be provided in association with urinals, ‘abled’ washbasins, squat toilets, sprung doors, dryers and vending machines. In discussing ‘rails’ within the context of ‘the cubicle’ it must be stressed that the rails should never be positioned in such a manner that they make it more difficult to open the door or in a way that restricts movement within the toilet. This is particularly important in the wake of implementing DDA requirements ‘on the cheap’, when some bright spark decides to make an already narrow ‘abled’ toilet ‘accessible’ by putting up rails on the walls, thus narrowing the cubicle’s usable space even more. While rails are important in ‘abled’ toilets to ambulant elderly people in particular, shoving them in along with jumbo size toilet roll holders, sanpro bins and other gizmos leaves very little space for the user. Good management is essential as leaving temporary items such as a bucket or a bowl out on the disabled toilet’s floor, even for a short time, is sure to inconvenience some would-be user. Policy: Deciding where to put rails should always be done with reference to what else is already in the cubicle, and in association with potential users, as well as drawing on current good practice by JMU, CAE, BSI etc.

Toilet rolls Having ‘been’ (used the toilet), the next problem is to access the toilet roll. It is recommended that toilet rolls are set at 600 mm to 650 mm height, which should be usable from a seated position using one hand. Roll based dispensers are less likely to get blocked, whereas single sheet dispensers tend to be inadequate and time consuming to use. Pulling on the last piece of paper that someone else has just touched using the hand that has wiped their bottom, while inadvertently rubbing their hands on the surrounding dispenser, is another reason to make many people carry their own paper. Some local authorities appear to see it as their duty to deter people from using public toilet paper. The American legislation (Goldsmith, 2001) specifically states that nothing should stop the flow of paper in disabled toilets, and would that this applied to abled UK toilets too. In disabled toilets the toilet roll should be usable by a one-armed disabled user. If the lav roll is too far away, users cannot reach it, so a helpful person festoons the grab rails with string to hold a dangling toilet roll, making life difficult 215

THE SOLUTIONS

for other users. Toilet paper should be located in an accessible dispenser that is not likely to hit either the inward opening door of the cubicle or the user’s elbow. Toilet paper on a roll is to be preferred, particularly in private, off-street public toilets, provided it is secured to the wall in such a way that two hands are not needed to tear paper off. Alternatives such as individual sachets of toilet paper dispensed from the wall at minimum cost have advantages in terms of hygiene but are barely cost effective and may malfunction. In some countries this is seriously seen as a means of helping to pay for the toilets and tissue is sold from dispensers. I was once asked at an international toilet conference, ‘How can the British afford free toilet roll?’, a good question in these days of cutbacks. Great attention must be paid to the location of toilet rolls in disabled toilets, so that paper can be grasped and pulled out by those with the use of only one hand as well as avoiding it getting in the way of wheelchairs and lavatorial manoeuvres. As stated earlier, some cultures do not use toilet paper and prefer washing instead. In situations where water rather than toilet paper is used it is essential that a tap or other water source is provided alongside or near the cubicle in both women’s and men’s compartments and in disabled toilets where local user surveys have shown there is a demand for this preference. Water supply taps should have enough space below them to put a jar or other container under them for washing purposes. Many Western women would like individual taps within toilet closets too, particularly those who need to wash themselves because of thrush or for other medical reasons. Some women carry plastic bottles of water with them for these purposes (not for drinking) and many a self-help medical book advises women to ‘wipe from the front to the back’ with water after using the toilet to avoid a range of ‘irritations’. To save space and maintenance, some continental toilets have washing facilities and soap dispensers over the toilet bowl, some offstreet customer toilets even contain bidets (de Bonneville, 1997). Women also want washbasins outside the toilet to finally wash their hands as door locks and handles are often contaminated. Policy: Toilet paper should be freely available from a holder that does not prevent the free flow of paper. Alternative water facilities should be available in all toilets where local residents and/or tourist demographics indicate a need for this.

Flushing levers Having completed the paperwork, now is the time to pull the flush. For many years high-level cisterns with chain pulls were the rule and many still exist, usually in local authorities that still provide Izal toilet paper (shiny scratchy paper). ‘Getting the plug to pull’ was a perennial problem throughout the British Empire. Nowadays, low-level flush toilets are more common in public toilets and almost universal for domestic toilets. The flush handle should be around 900 mm above ground for both adults and older children to reach. Ordinary toilets use around 216

CHAPTER ELEVEN • TOILET DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS: MICRO LEVEL Figure 11.10 Taps, hand-dryers and basins. These taps are easier for the disabled and can be switched on and off by everyone with their arms without having to touch them so ideal for the abled toilets too, but let down by dryer height and broken bins. 217

THE SOLUTIONS

7 litres per flush and low-level flushes use around 4 litres. In disabled toilets the flush handle should be 800 mm up from the ground, but some say 700 mm is better. Automatic flushes that operate after each user are more hygienic. In Europe, as a result of EU harmonisation of plumbing standards, new bylaws were introduced in 2001 allowing direct flushing water controls to be used on closets and urinals for the first time in Britain. This means that the traditional cistern and siphonic valve that is universal in Britain will be phased out, with water coming directly from the rising main water supply. This will result in increasing use of automatic no-touch controls and reduction of water flush from cisterns to around 6 litres, resulting in water saving and more compact systems, which will have major toilet design implications and will open the market to more foreign products that conform to the EU rules. There is a move towards modernisation and streamlining of toilet provision as a result, but it is very difficult to install modern ducted systems – for example, in old public toilets where there is very limited space. One local authority told us that the rear service duct was so narrow that they had to employ a ‘narrow plumber’ to carry out maintenance. Likewise, trying to create longer, wider cubicles is almost impossible without moving all the door-posts outwards and then extending the outward walls to accommodate the new standards. To improve toilet provision, new build, as well as refurbishment, is vital to achieving better facilities. The use of automatic electronic sensors which flush the toilet, turn the taps on and off, dispense soap, and ‘keep an eye’ on the installation are of value in increasing hygiene, but require ongoing maintenance and supervision, and contribute to higher capital and running costs. Ecologically friendly, dry toilet mechanisms based on a mechanical chute system and recycling are suitable in wilderness areas. Solutions based on solar energy are best left at present to warmer climes although wind-based systems to generate flushing, heating and lighting have been achieved. Experimentation continues. There are even waterless, biological APC systems available which are more environmentally friendly, but this does not solve the user-related design problems associated with APCs. Policy: Automatic infra-red triggered flushes are the best solution in terms of hygiene and convenience, but as a minimum manual flushes that actually work even when subject to frequent usage should be provided.

Shelves Many women have stressed the importance of providing hooks and shelves to put bags and clothes on, both in the compartment and in the washing area. Also shelves are a requirement in disabled toilets. Because this is not a specifically ‘plumbing’ matter shelves have received low priority as a luxury, but they are important for hygiene and toilet-usability reasons. If a handbag is put on the toilet floor and then later on put on a table or desk, heaven knows what germs 218


Figure 11.11 Different height washbasins make it easier for children to wash their hands too, but dryers should also be at a suitable height for all (courtesy of Ray Fowler).

are clinging to its base, which will then spread to other surfaces and people. Shelves are important in disabled toilets, particularly as many users cannot reach all the way down to the ground, and now BS 8300 includes shelf specifications in its design guidance. Shelves should not stick out into valuable usable space in the cubicle, and so their location needs to be harmonised as an integral component of the whole design. Shelf corners should be rounded and shelves should be tilted back to the wall very slightly to stop things rolling off them. Policy: A shelf sufficient to hold a handbag or colostomy equipment should be provided in all toilets as an ideal, but as a minimum at least a hook for bags should be provided.

Locks and levers Fiendish locking mechanisms make people feel uneasy about using public toilets and some women prefer to leave the door unlocked with a shopping bag wedged tight against it. Penny in the slot mechanisms are particularly feared. Touching toilet door locks and latches is unhygienic, and thus, as stated, many 219

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 11.12 Range of locks and handles, including a BR train toilet lock (would you think twice before touching it?) plus an easy access lock at local garden centre toilets.

women are not in favour of having washbasins inside toilet compartments. Washing facilities within cubicles adds to occupancy time and increases queues. Many would like emergency cords inside all toilets to call for assistance; after all, one reason for going to the toilet is feeling unwell (cords are now standard in disabled toilets under BS 8300). For both disabled and standard toilets door locks should be easy to use, and have lever handles of 200 mm minimum length and 35 mm diameter. L-shaped door handles on hinged doors, and D-shaped on sliding doors as provided for disabled toilets, are ideal. Doors should be capable of being opened from outside in an emergency, and where possible outward opening doors should be installed in small cubicles. At least 300 mm (12 inches) space should be provided at the top of the door so people do not feel they are locked in and to allow for someone to crawl in in an emergency, but a gap under the door is less acceptable for privacy reasons. Thus cubicle doors and walls should provide adequate privacy, but offer the occupant means of escape in an emergency. Many a Third World ‘sites and services’ toilet block has been shunned by women for modesty reasons because gaps have been left between the floor and walls for ventilation purposes, while gaps under Western public toilet doors lead people to put their bags, computers, cameras and other valuables on their lap while using the loo, in case a hand stretches under the door or adjacent wall. Colour coded and internationally understood means of showing whether a compartment is occupied should be used (red for occupied and green for empty). One of the reasons people are fearful of APCs is that they cannot see the outside. As stated, a small thickened one-way glass panel or spyhole on the 220

The Gents While urinals do not take up much space, there is a need for greater circulation space so users are not too close to each other. Users need a 500 mm activity space each in front of the urinals plus another 600 mm circulation space running along behind them, giving 1100 mm in all, whereas Americans recommend at least 1200 mm in all. Users each need around 650 mm space sideways for each user (Adler, 2001). Trough urinals can cater for all heights but those that are accessed by a step are problematic for disabled people. Grab rails might be installed for ambulant disabled users. Likewise, urinals should be provided in a variety of heights. As mentioned in earlier chapters, there should be a range of heights available for users, or the option of a traditional trough, and grab rails should be integrated where possible, perhaps at the end of the run on the side wall and on the facing wall. A height of 500 mm is suitable for ambulant disabled men and one of 380 mm maximum for wheelchair users. There appears to be a growing demand for more privacy at the urinal, and for panels that obscure users from their immediate neighbours. This is particularly important for men suffering from shy bladder syndrome and those with other medical or psychological difficulties. Adler (2001) and BS 6465 should be consulted for further information on the Gents, as one of the purposes of this book was to ‘right wrongs’ and put the emphasis back on women’s toilets that are so neglected in many a toilet tome. Nevertheless, men’s toilet needs should not be


door might increase visibility from inside so that users can see who is hanging around outside. Disabled toilets that can only be accessed by a key will die out as greater attended provision is provided and as the toilet culture improves nationally, but they may remain a necessity in some areas. The introduction of European-wide swipe cards, as being trialled by the ‘Eurokey’ organisation, may also contribute to the demise of the RADAR key. Swipe cards for all toilets, for abled and disabled people, might reduce vandalism if the user’s identity were encrypted on the key, but this would no doubt also lead to delays, fraud, malfunction and fear that someone was counting how many times people accessed the facilities. In this scenario bonus points and airmiles on loyalty cards (used as swipe cards) for faithful customers of brand APCs may no longer be a joke. Policy: Easy-to-use locks without payment systems should be provided, colour coded to make it clear if the toilet is empty (green) or occupied (red). There are all sorts of other details that only disabled people notice, so make sure both male and female disabled people test-drive any new disabled toilet designs. Attention should also be paid to keeping them accessible. For example, don’t let the cleaners shorten the length of the emergency pull by tying it up to make cleaning easier, for if someone has fallen down on the floor they will not be able to reach it!

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taken for granted as there is a need for more research on user preferences in terms of urinal design and privacy issues. Policy: The issue of greater privacy for urinal users needs to be taken more seriously, and alternatives such as increasing the number of cubicles and reducing the number of urinals need to be addressed. This would also increase flexibility – for example, at football stadia – should some of the Gents need to be converted to the Ladies for pop festivals or religious rallies.

Circulation and activity space Having exited the cubicle, the next issue is the amount of internal access space within the toilet block. Such space is abolished altogether in designs where individual unisex toilet compartments open straight on to the street, each with their own front door. This does away with the ‘need’ for washbasins and thus reduces vandalism and internal areas where anti-social elements congregate.

Figure 11.13 Danfo Pantopticon approach to street toilets. This has individual unisex doors on to the street and individual washbasins inside the cubicles. This is a much favoured solution by some providers as it reduces all the loitering areas and makes access very visible. But such cubicles must be large enough for pushchairs, accompanying children and suitcases. As with APCs, some women are wary of exiting straight on the street or waiting in full view, and prefer access from an internal corridor. 222


For security reasons, women are wary of single-user toilets without any internal corridor or ‘privacy zone’ between the toilets and the street, as they do not want to leave pushchairs, or children, hanging around waiting outside. They do not want to come straight out on to a ‘strange’ street without being able to peek out and see what is going on. In other words a toilet block with its own internal corridor giving access to individual closets is always preferable to the ‘Panopticon’ approach of the individual prison ‘cell’ opening straight on to the street (Foucalt, 1972 alluding to Bentham’s work). Unisex cubicles do not necessarily reduce queues, except by putting women off altogether. Also, unisex provision often results in a male takeover, but can have advantages too. Many such blocks do not contain urinals (except in Australia) and thus the traditional male advantage is lost. Also such cubicles, containing washing facilities, are usually larger than standard cubicles, enabling women to take in pushchairs, and providing a limited range of disabled access. Uni-able (mixed abled and disabled) as well as unisex facilities can result in complaints from all parties as some users take much longer than others to use the toilet. Whatever the style of the toilet block and cubicles, all facilities within the toilet should be at grade level with no further steps, thresholds or slopes. Steps down to the washbasins are particularly unhelpful. A minimum 1500 mm width circulation space is recommended between the toilet doors and the edge of the washbasins or opposite wall. If we allow for factors such as outward opening doors on disabled toilets and in baby care facilities, both of which are now integrated within the main toilet block, plus lots of turning space, lobby, refuge, and manoeuvring around modesty screens space and vestibule space, it soon begins to mount up. Most toilet block access doors are too small, but adding double doors requires considerable space. In comparison, in designing accessible schools (DfEE, 2001), a width of 750 mm per leaf is recommended where there are double-leaf doors, and space must be allowed for lobbies and ‘refuge’ space from double doors swinging back on to would-be users. Overall it all adds up in space terms. Policy: Unisex toilets should considered only be as a final unavoidable solution. Even when toilet provision is rationalised to reduce space, greater attention must be given to the space around the toilet installation in terms of access and circulation.

Washing and drying Once out of the toilet we are then confronted with the problems of policies on hand-washing facilities, with debates revolving around the merits of hot and/or cold water; solid or liquid soap; towel or hand dryer. Most public toilets have cold water, but occasionally one comes across a helpful notice saying, ‘Beware very hot water’; but, if there is no way of diluting it and no plug, 223

THE SOLUTIONS 224

what can be done? 40 degrees centigrade is the recommended temperature. As to drying, roller towels get ‘stuck’ unless maintenance is constant, which should be possible with an attendant. Air-based dryers can spread germs unless their filters are regularly changed, while tissues and paper hand towels increase waste. ‘Wipe your hands on your skirt’ or ‘shake your hands in the open air’ is age-old advice. The maximum height of anything to be operated by hand should be placed at around 900 mm from the ground, and not more than 1200 mm from the ground, not at eye level which is around 1400–1700 mm depending on height. Mirrors should start at 900 mm from the ground and go up to 1700 mm or even 1800 mm. But women also like full-length mirrors provided they do not invite being kicked and broken. Paper towel dispensers can be fitted at 950 mm. Washbasins can be as low as 700–750 mm to accommodate children and disabled people whereas 800–900 mm is around average, bearing in mind that, if the counter in which a basin is set is 750 mm high, then one still has to put one’s hands down into the basin. Generally the washing facilities in women’s toilets might helpfully be set around 100 mm lower than in the Gents. BS 8300 recommends washbasins are set at 720–740 mm and suggests adjustable washbasins, set at the best height by trained assistants. Reading all this guidance it was difficult to link the luxury of such diversity of heights with the reality that all one is likely to find in some public conveniences is a cracked 1930s washbasin with a dribble of cold water. Minimal contact with equipment is to be advised; therefore lever taps or electronic taps are to be preferred. But automatic taps should provide a reasonable amount of water, not a brief tepid dribble. Some automatic sensors cannot sense darker skin so they must be calibrated so that ‘white skin’ is not the norm. There has been a trend towards the all-inclusive combined washer, soap, dryer, contraptions (such as the ‘Wallgate’) which are not ideal but vandal-proof. Hot and cold taps should be marked, and colour-coded as should everything else. In other words, attention should be paid to detail and management control. There are two problems with having wash basins within toilet cubicles. Firstly, since the lock and door handle are one of the main sources of germs, hands are recontaminated on leaving the cubicle. Secondly, washing within the cubicle greatly increases the queue for the loo as valuable cubicle occupancy time is wasted, which is particularly crucial in the Ladies where cubicles are likely to be limited. Therefore it is recommended that washbasins should normally be outside the cubicles, or if they are inside, a greater number of cubicles is provided and additional basins are provided outside the cubicles too. Policy: washing and drying facilities should be adequate, easily accessed by all in terms of height, and not separated from toilet cubicles by a step. Additional washbasins with infra-red no-touch taps outside the toilet block in attended facilities should be considered for those who prefer to wash their hands after completely exiting the toilets.

To make toilets fully inclusive children need to be fully integrated into the space standards as frequent customers of public toilets. Goldsmith (2000) argues women with pushchairs are far more numerous than disabled people with wheelchairs and that they need larger accessible toilets too. But unlike disability there is no law covering women, or women with children. But women with pushchairs are at least 10 times more likely to be out on the streets at any time. In specifically family-related locations they are 30 times more numerous (whether this is cause or effect is another debate). WDS recommend smaller cubicles for children with a 710 mm door in a 750 mm wide toilet, whereas others recommend toilet cubicles containing both an adult and child toilet. Rubber safety strips to prevent little fingers getting caught in doors is a good touch. Ordinary cubicles should be designed to accommodate single buggies in shopping areas and the larger cubicles should accommodate double buggies. Baby-changing facilities should be an integral part of all public toilet blocks so all public toilets should be fully pushchair-accessible and baby changing tables should be provided in separate compartments. Baby-changing counters 900 mm in depth should be provided where possible but, if this is impractical in retrofitted toilets, a retractable baby-changing table with security straps is an alternative. The location of such facilities should not be too public where space is limited. The argument that adding baby-changing facilities will somehow create a family atmosphere and reduce crime detracts from the fact that such provi-


Babies and small children

Figure 11.14 Very basic baby-changing facilities in Manchester: an add-on right on top of the waste bin and squashed beside the hand dryer. 225

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 11.15 Adult changing room (designed by PAMIS).

sion is perfectly valid expenditure in its own right, while such ‘family policy’ without proper design and management safeguards is putting a huge personal safety risk on the babies and parents concerned. Interestingly, BS 8300 highlights the importance of ‘sanitary and changing facilities’. Space must be allowed for both activities, as recommended by PAMIS too (BSI, 2001), but ‘only’ within the context of disability (especially incontinence) whereas in reality ‘changing’ (and related disposal of soiled items) is a large and unrecognised function of public toilets for all age groups, generating sanpro, nappies (diapers) and a range of incontinence pads large and small. The National Childbirth Trust (BTA, 2001, Section 2.9) recommends accessible toilets in all town centres and major shopping complexes, with automatic double door access, no steps, a clear, clean, warm and bright atmosphere, and a main open area large enough to accommodate four double buggies and a wheelchair. At least four wall-mounted adult size seats, two changing tables at adult height, two ordinary tables to take the weight of a child and a sink per table should be provided. All wall-mounted baby-changing tables should be attached sideways to a solid wall in order to stop the baby rolling off. But others say the table should open out long-ways with the short end attached to a wall so that mothers can access the baby from both sides. Debates also rage about restraint straps and other details, but at least these issues are now on the agenda after years of invisibility. 226


NCT recommends wall-mounted toddler seats to be installed near the tables and others would welcome these in standard compartments too. Large, clearly labelled nappy bins are stipulated, while nappy dispensing machines and disposable potties are on the agenda too. Quiet private baby-feeding facilities are requested but these should be far away from the main toilet area. BTA does not recommend putting such facilities in the toilet cubicle itself (would you eat your dinner in the toilet?). This is another essential facility that needs to be provided in a further multi-purpose community facility in every area. In comparison, in Japan, many public toilet blocks contain a disabled toilet, and many ordinary Ladies toilets contain what looks like an old fashioned dropside cot with a plastic covered mattress for baby-changing. There are also some with quite a complex range of facilities for babies including bigger wash basins, electric sockets, easy chairs for mothers and wall-mounted baby seats. There is a high standard of provision and dedicated attendants in most toilets. Space is made available for adult-changing facilities as campaigned for by PAMIS, while facilities are provided for incontinence pad disposal and purchase in both the Ladies and the Gents. Increasingly, larger office blocks are also introducing dedicated mother and baby rooms for staff and visitors, suggesting a greater level of care and a more welcoming environment. Policy: Baby-changing facilities should be an integral part of all toilet blocks. Ideally they should be located in a supervised unisex zone, and additional facilities should be provided just in the Ladies. At minimum at least one baby-changing pull-down table should be provided, but not at the expense of taking away an existing cubicle in the Ladies. The disabled toilet should not have to double as a baby-changing room.

Toilet ambience Building materials The materials used inside the toilet block must be hygienic, easy to clean and vandal-proof. It is often recommended that walls should be white for cleaning or tiled or stippled. But white does not necessarily mean clean as irregular surfaces can harbour germs and mould. Pale colours are better in terms of giving a light and clean appearance. But, in the interests of meeting the needs of visually impaired people, there should be a strong colour distinction between doors and walls, and essential grab rails. Maintenance should not over-ride the issue of utility for the user. Graffiti is another major problem to be tackled, but involving the community from the start and getting local children doing ‘official’ toilet murals can increase the sense of ownership and reduce misuse. In Singapore many toilets are covered with murals and themed such as the Wild West toilet, the Jungle toilet, the Venice toilet etc. This helps deter graffiti but can be confusing to those with visual disabilities or with cultural sensibilities; but it makes a change from the neglect found in the West. 227

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 11.16 Singapore: open air toilet washroom.

Figure 11.17 Singapore: Chinese mural in the Ladies.

228


Figure 11.18 Singapore: jungle mural in the Gents (with the more built-up Moslem urinal).

Figure 11.19 English aluminium toilet bowl. These are cold to the bottom and often have unsanitary integrated seats, whereas men report that aluminium trough urinals are noisy and splash more.

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Figure 11.20 General view of urinals, Milton Keynes, so much simpler for men (courtesy of Ray Fowler).

Continuous flooring is better than anything with joins in it, while traditional tiles are of questionable value on walls or floors. Wet slippery floors should be planned out by sloping the floor (slightly) to a central drain. Partition ceilings enable easy access to services but secure ceilings are being installed in some inner city areas because people hide drugs and stolen goods in ceiling cavities, as well as in cisterns, behind mirrors and under sinks. In Bristol some historic marble floors in the Victorian toilets are being eaten away by lemon juice which is apparently used by some drug addicts when injecting. Aluminium, stainless steel and a range of pre-fabricated ‘plastic’ materials are used instead of traditional porcelain for toilet bowls, urinals and squat toilets, for cost, vandalism and hygiene reasons. Some materials are robust but visually they soon discolour if cleaned wrongly, such as aluminium which otherwise is virtually vandal-proof, although cold to the touch. Plastic substitutes are particularly popular in the Far East, while stainless steel is popular among Australians where vandalism is a problem. The use of metal can be dangerous. Policy: Form follows function. Function is beauty, beauty is function! Visually exciting, interestingly designed toilets may cost more but they generally get more respect from users and thus less vandalism. 230

Where electric lighting is provided, movement-activated lighting or automatic lighting at dusk are energy saving possibilities. Alternatively manual light switches under the attendant’s control are suitable, and to avoid users having to use unhygienic light pulls or switches. But lighting should be to a high standard so that people do not feel they are descending into a dark cavern, thus contributing to fears of encountering criminal activity. Ultra-blue light makes it difficult for drug addicts to see their veins to inject, although they can get round this problem by using fluorescent marker pens, and the light can deter certain bugs and germs too. According to BS 8300, lighting should not be less than 100 lux, and it seems reasonable to apply this to all toilets. A certain fast-food chain has replaced all its customer toilet light bulbs accordingly. But apparently ultra-blue and ultra-violet light make sex in toilets more exciting. Natural lighting through skylights rather than wall windows is safer and deters vandalism. Heating should be provided for the convenience of users and in the winter to prevent frozen pipes; and that does not mean a pre-war paraffin stove! A range of glass block bricks, ‘pipe lights’ and concealed lighting solutions is also favoured by some toilet providers. However, the trend towards lower lighting levels is not ideal for Ladies toilets, disabled toilets or for anyone with a medical condition, where users may wish to inspect any discharge for signs of discoloration or blood. Policy: Ultra-blue anti-drug lighting should be shunned as it creates gloomy interiors conducive to other goings on, and also prevents women in particular from checking for discharges (and using the mirrors to make up).

Smells and hygiene


Lighting

Public toilets are the subject of far greater problems than domestic toilets. Calc build up and staining are major issues in urinals, which are generally chemically treated. Frequent old-fashioned cleaning and the use of decomposing starch can allay the situation more environmentally, albeit more labour intensively. Toilets should be designed with a view to easy cleaning from the start (no little gaps and crevices). Full participation would involve toilet cleaners and attendants at the design stage. All drains and waste pipes should be easily accessible for cleaning, including concealed systems. Dedicated space should be made available for cleaning equipment, not a corner of the attendant’s room or a spare toilet. Natural ventilation can reduce smells more than the use of artificial air fresheners. But many prefabricated toilet installations and APCs have no natural ventilation, windows or daylight. There is also a trend within buildings of all sorts to install toilets internally without access to an outside wall window. The use of ‘bloo’ down the ‘loo’, and scented air sprays, has been much criticised by environmentalists but curiously it may make the public toilet seem more ‘homely’ and familiar to users, as psychology is all in reducing misuse. Setting a high standard 231

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of cleanliness and maintenance is the best way to prevent misuse. All these measures may make people linger longer, but why not if they are decent honest toilet users? All in all, if better toilet standards are achieved, people will feel happier and more comfortable in every way. Policy: Natural smells generally clear rapidly and are preferable to artificial air fresheners and scents so beloved by some toilet providers. Regular cleaning and good ventilation cut down smells.

Japanese toilets: all-in-one solutions In the future it is likely that toilets will be more high-tech and built more as a prefabricated total toilet unit or ‘pod’, particularly if future legislation is retrospective in requiring a higher standard of toilet provision for both abled and disabled users. The height of the high-tech approach is to be found in Japan where firms such as TOTO, the Toyotas of the toilet world, have revolutionised the toilet market, so they require a special mention in looking at the future of toilet design. There are valuable lessons to be learnt from Japan, as any systems that reduce the need for users to touch appliances and which save energy and deliver an effective flush system are to be welcomed. High-tech solutions should be applied if they benefit the user and increase hygiene standards, but this must be

Figure 11.21 Toto Japanese automatic toilets with all the gizmos for the disabled. 232


balanced against the initial cost to the environment, and long-term costs in terms of upkeep and maintenance. TOTO toilets include an array of gizmos and buttons alongside the toilet pan which electronically control the flush, provide a bidet spray, a hot air on the bum drying system and ‘responsive flushing’. Even humble little neighbourhood public toilets have photoelectric cells on the toilets, but to make them flush you are asked to put your hand in front of a unit in the corner by the door before you leave, not to break the beam with your bottom, as in some European versions. Many Japanese toilets come as complete units – walls, floors and all electrical and plumbing fittings included, which presumably could be fitted into ‘modernised’ houses or could be designed to operate as ‘ready to go’ public toilet units. Japanese toilet manufacturers are likely to be high-tech electrical companies, more akin to computer manufacturers, whose mentality contrasts with that of Western sanitary ware manufacturers established in the nineteenth century who emerged from separate plumbing, ceramics or metal manufacturing industries. But this trend is also evident in the development of the APC by European companies, leading to a totally different corporate toilet culture based much more on profit-motivation and computer technology than on a culture of public service and municipal sanitary engineering. Japanese designs are not always appropriate for Western needs (and average human dimensions) but they have set the standard of what might be in the future. With the increasing globalisation of toilet technology, toilet producers from different nations are always keen to copy, and adapt, ideas from abroad to meet their own local cultural needs.

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Minimum standards ➥

Develop toilet hierarchy with largest facilities in areas of highest footfall and demand, but with a range of smaller facilities in local areas

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Avoid ad hoc approach just because a piece of land happens to be available somewhere

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Prioritise toilets into urban design as focal features at the fulcrum of the local area

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Aim at widest possible access in terms of range of people and building dimensions

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Allow 1:1 male/female at minimum and 1: 2 in favour of women as ideal

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Abled toilets must be pushchair accessible

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Plan for integrated unisex wheelchair toilets and also dedicated provision

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All toilets should be on the level, accessible, and not down steps

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Width of cubicles minimum 900 mm, maximum 1100 mm, but must have 250 mm between side of pan and sanpro bin, better ducted or recessed into wall

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Length depends on space between the door and the edge of the pan, minimum 250 mm, maximum 450 mm between pan and door edge, with minimum 1700 mm cubicle length and ideally 2500 mm to accommodate pushchairs, luggage, toddlers etc.

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Allow for variety of size of urinals and heights and aim for greater urinal privacy

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Provide at least one hook on back of every door in the Ladies

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In disabled toilets provide hooks, rails, shelves, emergency pulls but make sure they are not too high or low or in the way, so test-drive every addition

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Use infra-red flushes, taps, dryers where possible, but as a minimum the less touching the better

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Provide attendants as ideal, for good surveillance and frequent checking of premises

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Always consult user groups and aim at participation, with sense of ownership, and think about everything as ‘the devil is in the detail’

chapter twelve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Management, maintenance and finance The Golden Triangle of toilet provision Key considerations in achieving improvement to toilet provision are the quality of toilet management and maintenance. Designing and building the toilets is only part of the battle. According to Singaporean toilet authorities, good toilet practice may be represented as a Golden Triangle, based on (1) good design and provision, (2) good management and maintenance, (3) education of users, training of cleaners and attendants, and cultural change in societal attitudes towards toilets (Onn, 1996). In comparison, Danfo, the Swedish toilet manufacturer, identifies three other requirements for successful toilet provision: design, location and management. In this chapter firstly the provision of toilets is set within the wider urban management policy and town centre management debate, then the funding and management of the toilet block is discussed, which inevitably involves tackling crime and vandalism. In fact, the initial capital cost of building a toilet is only a small part of total expenditure, perhaps 20% at most over a 10year period.

CHAPTER TWELVE • MANAGEMENT, MAINTENANCE AND FINANCE

SECTION FOUR: C R E AT I N G C H A N G E

Daily realities A few months ago I went out to do some shopping and decided to pop into the public toilet. To my horror I found that without warning the central shopping precinct toilets were boarded up, with no signs advising the public as to alternatives. I had been in communication with local councillors on closures and had been led to understand that there had been a trade-off whereby two far-flung toilets had been closed in exchange for keeping the central one open. The closed toilets were installed originally as part of a planning gain agreement 30 years ago, were well-used and loved, and were not vandalised or in disrepair. So I drove up to the motorway service station and used the facilities there. I noticed 235

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Figure 12.1 Golden Triangle of provision (Source: Singapore Toilet Association).

in the service station car park that a young father was competently changing his baby’s nappy with her stretched out on the car bonnet in full view, his solution to the problem of no baby-changing facilities in the Gents. I returned home and contemplated how in spite of years of demands for equality and access, and New Labour’s emphasis on joined-up thinking and a policy of social inclusion, we had lost one of the few public facilities that so benefit the public.

Figure 12.2 Lavatory cleaner in Ely, Cambridgeshire. The cleaner keeps the Triangle working, cleaning out the disabled toilets. 236


The next day, on my way to do a quick bit of shopping down in the centre, I saw that the door to the Ladies was no longer boarded up but it was still locked. I spied two council workmen leaning against their white van beside the toilets. They explained that these toilets were not being removed but that the electricity board had closed them for repairs after a bad spate of vandalism in the Ladies a couple of days earlier. They told me that they were part of the maintenance team that goes around repairing toilets and that they had spent the morning installing £500 worth of new windows in these toilets. They found needles used for drugs precariously balanced on one of the window sills; these could have dropped down on anyone standing underneath using the washbasin and so they had called out the environmental health people to check the building over for drugs before proceeding. The more senior workman explained to me how the council had spent £15,000 in one year alone (2000) on this one toilet and that it would be cheaper to provide an attendant. We discussed the few attended toilets in the area and they explained that they were never called out to them and that you could eat your dinner off the floor of the one in Weston-super-Mare that had won a Loo of the Year Award, but that over seven public toilets had been closed this year in Weston (parallels with what happened in many South Coast seaside resorts, which is bad for tourism). We discussed the question of charges, and whether they should be for urinals too. One commented that there were only charges ‘if they want to sit down see’ … ‘oh arrh but the Ladies they do want to sit down’, his colleague gently reminded him. We discussed the problems of vandalism, ‘we did this all ‘ere out in vandal-proof paint but it did do no good, they were picking it off just loike that’. We then discussed the options of having roof lights instead of wall windows, but apparently this had resulted in young boys climbing on the roof to find out where the windows were (cf. Kenvyn, 1995). The council installed deterrents (spiky bits on the roof) to keep them off, but apparently ‘they aint allowed to do that no more see’, as presumably this could cause injury and then the council might be sued by angry parents, ‘and we would ‘ave trouble with they social services zee’. I felt encouraged by such genuinely kind and helpful workmen who discussed issues in a totally unselfconscious caring manner. They were dedicated to their job, and they knew every one of ‘their’ toilets intimately. Truly all human life is here in the world of toilets. Further cutbacks were made in North Somerset and a hit-list of toilets for closure was drawn up. In the course of the Nuffield research, we interviewed local councillors who explained to us that they had been required to cut £60,000 of the public toilets’ budget and to do so they had identified key criteria that would mark out toilets for closure. These included water meter readings from the installation, levels of vandalism, centrality of the toilets and availability of other facilities. Even toilets with attendants that were well maintained were also marked for closure along the seafront at Weston-super-Mare, where it was judged there were ‘too many’. Closures elsewhere inconvenienced bus drivers, the ladies who ran

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the mobile library, and other user groups in the villages. Since more people go abroad on holiday there is a greater dependence on day visitors to Weston, who are more likely to need public toilets as they do not have a hotel base to return to if the need arises.

Toilet priorities There is a need to change the culture and priorities of toilet provision. It is necessary also to establish a more equal, more gender aware, set of objectives and priorities in the provision of public toilets, and to consider the effects of toilet provision (or lack of it) on other aspects of urban policy, including crime prevention, town planning, and city centre management. Positive reasons for retaining or opening toilets, such as lack of provision, especially for women, are seldom cited in toilet policy, only negative ones. Many local authority toilet providers seem obsessed with ‘male toilet problems’ such as cottaging, drugs, vandalism and increasingly street urination. Within this context the ‘female toilet problems’ of access, childcare, clean toilet seats and equal provision are seen as far less important. Section 249 of the 1933 Local Government Act states, ‘no person shall in any street or public place to the annoyance of residents or passengers commit any nuisance contrary to public decency or propriety’. Similarly in New York, concerns with public urination are more related to public decency and ‘offence to women’ than to hygiene or the lack of facilities (Kira, 1996, and private correspondence). Increased prosecution has caught innocent offenders (New York Times, 1995). A four-year-old boy was fined $50 for producing ‘noxious liquid’ alongside a bridle path in Central Park where horses do far worse. His accompanying grandmother got a ticket on her driving licence for violation of the city administrative code for letting this happen. There were no toilets nearby. In Britain drives towards zero tolerance are likely to catch the desperate and incontinent as well as the wilful urinators and exhibitionists. Attempts have been made to argue that, legally, liability lies with the local authority in failing to provide facilities, thus inciting street urination. Members of the public are entitled to sue the local authority in these circumstances for causing them to commit a crime. Women exercise extreme self-control, or are deemed ‘incontinent’ if they complain about the lack of Ladies loos. According to the Institute for Alcohol Studies, there has been an increase in licensed outlets and lack of an adequate service infrastructure to cope with the numbers involved. Town planners have little control over toilet demand except by limiting the location of licensed premises, and putting ‘conditions of planning permission’ on in respect of controlling the opening hours, in liaison with local authority licensing authorities, police and magistrates. Culturally ‘the problem’ is seen as one of ‘male street urination’, not lack of provision for women too, and the ‘solution’ is seen as street urinals for men only,

238


not equal provision to meet women’s equally pressing needs. There are half a million workers entering the city each day as well as many tourists, and it is estimated that over 80% of users are visitors, and presumably at least half of these would be women. Lack of toilets was described as the ‘shame of a civilised city’ (Evening Standard, 30.3.01: 18). The Audit Commission has decreed that Westminster is one of the best authorities there is in terms of toilet provision, basing this extraordinary verdict on the ratio of resident population (not commuters) to number of toilets (Audit Commission, 1996). The public works department has the power to implement male-dominated solutions (such as street urinal installation) without any form of planning permission or reference to wider urban policies on social inclusion, crime prevention, urban design and user needs. Catering to the needs of young male youth, and ignoring the needs of women and families, condones binge drinking. Male domination of the city’s streets is enforced by the ‘scent marking’ of the dominant pack’s territory by street urination. Increasing provision for women would make more women feel welcome and create more of a family atmosphere that might dilute the yob culture and criminal atmosphere that dominates so many British town centres in the evening nowadays. The Joint Mobility Unit has undertaken research highlighting the increased social exclusion of older and disabled people from our cities in the evening as a result of the 24-hour city policies (JMU, 2001). This is a British problem, although it is echoed in some other North European cities. To meet male street urination problems in Amsterdam, columnshaped male urinals, called the Urilift, rise up hydraulically at night having been sunk into the pavement during the daytime. The manufacturer’s leaflets state, ‘while women who are desperate go in search of a toilet many men with only the slightest urge relieve themselves in public’ (well, the women will have a fruitless search!). This state of affairs has been challenged by Dutch women under their ‘emancipation’ legislation, but the counter legal argument has been that Urilifts are exempt as ‘urinals are not toilets’! It is estimated that 60% of all women are wary of going into the city centre at night (Tallon and Bromley, 2002). In contrast, in Southern European cities, women, families and older children all come out in the evenings and walk around and sit in cafés and restaurants without feeling out of place, and one simply does not see such large concentrations of male youth out on the street in the late evening. Many Mediterranean eating establishments provide customer toilets, albeit of varied quality. In Britain the requirements for toilet provision in all establishments selling food should be tightened to include sandwich and coffee chains, sports stadia and other significant user-generators. Regulations exist, they just need enforcing. For example, a football ground had its food franchises taken away because no hot water was available in the toilets, and there were inadequate women’s toilets, and it was argued that public health regulations had not been adhered too. Possibly night-clubs should provide both Women’s and Men’s toilets, that can be

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accessed from outside, after they are closed, in the same way as old-fashioned pubs used to for men (only). Thus night club users could collect a ‘rain check’ that entitled them to return to the premises where their beverages were consumed later in the evening when ‘it’s gone through them’.

Town centre management Although town planning has failed miserably to tackle toilet needs, Town Centre Management (TCM) has given greater attention to the issue, particularly in respect of attracting people to centres within a highly competitive retail situation. Town centre managers argue that good management is a means of ‘building atmosphere, experience and amenity’. As was said at a BTA conference in Ely in 2001, ‘towns are judged by their worst toilets rather than by their best’, so an area’s toilets need to be good ‘all over’, not just in special showcase locations that a visitor may never stumble upon. There are over 300 town centres with their own managers. In York the TCM offices are situated over the main public toilets. In contrast many a town has a lavish Tourist Information Centre and then down the road there is a dilapidated block of public toilets. A key TCM report (Lockwood, 2001) has identified a set of variables that determine the attractiveness of a town centre and convert this into the financial implications in terms of retail trends and turnover per square foot, on the following: • • • • • • • • • • •

festivals and events Christmas planning marketing and promotion public transport parking environmental quality toilets street cleaning streetscape security policing

If toilets are part of a comprehensive package for town centre renewal and regeneration and if they are given status under the authority of town centre managers, rather than being ‘just’ an unwelcome component within a planning gain (Section 106) agreement, they are brought into the wider urban policy arena. They are less likely to be isolated and picked off one by one as often happens when the responsibility for their provision resides solely with the public works 240


department, and the planners and urban regeneration experts never ‘think toilets’. Lockwood argues ‘the business case’ that lack of toilets is a major unrecognised factor affecting the length of people’s stay in the centre and the whole image of the place. In contrast, modern shopping mall designers do everything in their power to encourage people to stay and rest and then get their second wind to carry on shopping, including provision of ‘pamper zones’, rest areas with armchairs and good toilets. In the average high street, shoppers have to contend with limited parking, difficult access, no facilities for women with small children and virtually no toilets. The whole experience can be frustrating, exhausting and off-putting. No wonder mail order or internet shopping are the preferred solutions for many, even those with good incomes who would welcome the chance to shop in a more friendly environment. ’Good bathrooms are good business’ according to ‘Jerome’, a guest from New York who attended a BTA conference, and who was representative of public spirited people who realised that ‘restrooms’ were vital to the well-being of cities. He remarked, ‘If women are staying to do their make up in the toilet then it is a safe place’. This is a serious issue in American cities where people are always looking over their shoulder, in case they are going to be mugged. TCMs argue that since toilets are so important in British cities too, funding should be made available from additional business taxes and as a component of ‘business improvement zones’, as the retailers are the ones to benefit by increased customer visits. Arguably such support should be made available from existing revenues and not as an additional charge, as toilet users and shopowners have already paid for such public services in their rates and taxes. There is generally lack of interest at local level for provision because ‘the people who use it are not the people who pay for it’, although, arguably, it evens out as people travel to each other’s areas. A positive attitude towards provision would develop once businesses were convinced that ‘public’ toilets have ‘private’ benefits in terms of increased turnover to surrounding businesses. There is money in toilets, as premises, such as restaurants and hotels, that have received Loo of the Year Awards have increased turnover (BTA, 2000a, b). A Loo of the Year Award (LOYA) is the Oscar or Emmy of the toilet world and was originally sponsored and run by enlightened companies within the toilet industry. People can nominate their local loo, within a series of categories covering both on-street and off-street toilets used by the public. An incognito inspection of likely toilets is undertaken under the auspices of the BTA, based on the criteria set out in Appendix 1 which in themselves are a good basis for toilet design and management guidance. But, contrary to a legendary advertisement slogan that appeared in the Exchange and Mart for many years, it is not necessarily true that ‘there’s money in slot meters’ when it comes to toilets. Charging users is all part of a defensive,

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minimalist approach to toilet provision which backfires in reducing the overall attraction of the area in question, thus affecting its economic vitality. Signs saying ‘Toilets for customers only’ would be replaced with ones saying ‘You are welcome to use our toilets’ once shopkeepers realised the value of having ‘customer restrooms’, and BTA is trying to launch such a campaign. TCM representatives argue that this should be an integral component and requirement of any town centre renewal programme.

Private provision of public toilets On-street public toilets in Britain have become vulnerable to attack and closure. Off-street toilets in private premises such as cinemas, pubs and restaurants are not famed for their adequacy, especially for women, in spite of required BSI standards. Hygiene standards leave much to be desired, but premises seldom get checked up on because of a lack of public health inspectors. In other countries various arrangements pertain. In France and Spain cafés, bars and restaurants are required to provide toilets, and non-customers have a right to use them. Yet, one hears grim stories of ‘bouncers’ stopping people using club toilets in France (cf. Shaw, 2001). Arguably, compared with Britain, in France urban toilet provision is poor, especially for disabled people, in spite of the rise of the APC, and people still return with stories of ‘bad toilet experiences’. Some are much better than comparable English public toilets and, as in any country, it’s all a matter of getting used to identifying toilet locations. Putting ‘public’ toilets within the curtilage of shops, churches, halls, restaurants and pubs can increase provision, but access may be limited by the host’s opening hours. A reduction of business rates could be given to those willing to install toilets and additional help with insurance and tenancy issues would be supplied by the local authority in question. In New York some office blocks let the public use their ground floor toilets, presumably in exchange for more lenient zoning permission. Some fast-food chains do provide good customer toilets. In some countries a condition of permission to set up a fast-food branch is that the public will have the right to use the toilets, but this soon gets ‘forgotten’ with time. Indeed the author has seen signs in central London fast-food outlets stating that the toilets are for customer use only and that to use them a key token must be sought from the manager. Many petrol stations also provide toilets nowadays, although this may involve getting a key from the cashier, and again the Gents is often open while the Ladies is locked. Throughout Europe the motorway service station is the new public toilet, with people travelling out of towns to use them, and even paying motorway tolls just to gain access to their facilities. An alternative is to run on-street public toilets privately. In Italy and Austria, generations of the same family have run a particular public toilet as a small busi242


Figure 12.3 Opening times at Colston, Bristol and/or at Piccadilly/Westminster London. One of the biggest complaints is that toilets open too late and close too early thus reducing the public’s benefit from the facilities and arguably excluding many people from access to the city.

ness, receiving some government recompense, and also ‘tips’ which are a strong tradition on the Continent. Such toilets generally comprise ‘traditional’ blocks in format, often resplendent with Art Deco railings and ornate urinals. They are usually located in tourist, religious pilgrimage or retail centres. In Britain, in central areas where there is high demand and 24-hour toilets would be ideal, there is a case for such provision. In some Asian and Far Eastern countries a caretaker’s house is attached to the toilet, the family committing themselves to full-time supervision. Such an arrangement might be attractive to active retired people, and to those with a nursing or care industry background. In contrast, large multi-national toilet provision firms are emerging, such as MacClean in Zurich. These are non-APC firms, which provide good quality attended toilets, in various countries, often at around a pound a go. Their toilets are often located in smart central locations within existing retail units with an ordinary shopfront, with a range of toiletry goods for sale, creating the designer ‘toilet shop’ (along niche ‘Sock Shop’ lines). While this commercial approach provides a good service, it is expensive and appropriate only to prime locations where reasonable returns can be made. 243

THE SOLUTIONS 244

Toilet franchising firms provide a middle way between private and public provision, leasing out toilet units and entering into installation, management and maintenance agreements with local authorities and other bodies. Rather than providing traditional blocks or fitting into existing shop fronts, free-standing APCs and prefabricated system-built blocks are provided. It is cheaper nowadays for some local authorities to rent toilets from firms such as Danfo, Decaux, Interpublic, Oy Shippax inter alia than to provide them themselves. The effects of CCT (Compulsory Competitive Tendering) and the decline of DLO (Direct Labour Organisation by local authorities) mean that many local authorities no longer have their own building force to construct toilets, or manage them. Such companies are international in scope and so Britain gets ‘the same’ as all the other countries colonised. Decaux has its own training college in France, thus seeking to create a uniform culture of service and cleanliness worldwide (like a McDonalds ‘university’). Much of Decaux’s revenue comes from the advertising on the sides of the APCs, whereas other APC providers make their money from providing a toilet service to the local authority. Large local authorities, such as Bristol, have studied the APC options and are in a position to design and build their own modified versions of APC models, thus saving money and adding to the repertoire of toilet types (Robertson, 1996). Toilet wars are going on between the main APC providers to get the best pitches and to sign up cash-strapped local authorities to their system. Many members of the public are wary of APCs, which is hardly suprising as they are generally so vandal proof and technologically advanced that mere humans are cowed by their alien presence. A publicity campaign and education programme is needed to create public confidence in such contraptions, assuming they are adopted more widely. In areas where most would-be toilet users are likely to be women, children and the elderly, such inventions are not suitable. If necessity dictates use, then at least there should be more explanation for the public as to what to expect – perhaps some television adverts showing what they are like inside and what to do in an emergency. Many experience claustrophobia in APCs and it is recommended that one-way thickened glass is provided so people can see outside but they cannot be seen from outside. Some means of breaking the glass or pulling the equivalent of a ‘communication cord’ as in trains in an emergency would be reassuring, with the proviso that a fine would be made for misuse. Less than 10% of all British toilets are APCs, although they comprise over half in some local authorities, which have culled their toilets. People need reassuring that they will not be trapped inside and swept away in the next cleaning cycle if they pass out. Most APCs are linked electronically to their headquarters and will send a voice message to the occupier; if they hear nothing back, they will open the doors after a preset time or send an operative to investigate. Advertising campaigns stress the computerised reliability of APCs. One multinational APC company shows a picture of a computer circuit board on the cover

Evolving toilets Trends point towards increased use of ‘all-in-one units’ with globalisation of the toilet businesses. In the past, different firms were responsible for different components (such as china, metal or plastic components) and different local authorities managed them in different ways. Nowadays we are moving towards a total product and related management package all within one organisation. It is important to press for adequate space standards as toilet design power becomes more centralised in the hands of fewer producers, whose first love may not be toilets. Some toilet manufacturers also produce a range of street furniture, such as bus shelters, seats, litter-bins etc. Others have diversified into toilets from businesses previously centred on security services, car parking, waste management, vending machines, construction and shipbuilding, bringing more male-dominat-


of its advertisement package for its automatic self-cleaning toilets, which have an electronic link to the central computer through a modem installed in the back of the toilet. The toilet phones up and asks a man to come out and mend its overflowing cistern, to replace its toilet roll or to rescue a human trapped in its works. According to BT, APCs make 50,000 wrong number calls a year (mainly to householders’ phones). If the APC cries wolf once too often, response in a real crisis will be unlikely.

Figure 12.4 Insides of an APC typically designed without a proper seat. 245

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 12.5 Workings of an APC and ordinary APC located in Greenwich.

ed business cultures into the already gender-imbalanced world of toilet provision. In spite of the increasing privatisation of the health sector, and also the growth of residential homes for the elderly, no-one from those sectors has yet launched into the toilet provision industry, although arguably they would be more ideally placed to do so in terms of culture and training. 246


Figure 12.6 Out of order APC in City of London.

Figure 12.7 A huge sanpro bin at Parkway Station, Bristol (biggest yet).

In order to make public toilets more profitable, some have been combined with news-stands, even small tourist shops are ‘leased’ out as complete units in areas that otherwise were poorly served. In some European capitals, APCs are covered on three sides by an array of advertising, news-stands, telephone facilities and snack bars. There are opportunities to make the toilet a focus for public facilities, as suggested earlier in relation to my toilet palaces. 247

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Similar provision is needed in the countryside, possibly adding a post office too. In Wyoming, the attendant lives in a ‘trailer’ alongside the toilet and keeps an eye on remote interstate highway rest area facilities (Wilson, 2001). Alternatives in rural areas might include private households being enabled to open up their toilets to public use, again with full recompense and a reduction in rates. This would be ideal in houses where there is already an outside toilet or where there can be controlled entry, and would be very useful in areas where there is a bus terminus out in the suburbs but no public toilet. Toilet need fluctuates according to events. Many public toilets are temporary toilets for pop festivals such as Glastonbury. When providing temporary toilets disabled versions should be provided too, creating portable accessible toilets.

Paying to pee Nowadays great value is put upon individualised personal wealth and possessions. Mobile phones are replacing telephone boxes, internet banking is replacing bank branches. There is no personal mobile toilet to replace public toilets. Toilets still have to be provided as a shared ‘communal’ facility (which individuals can’t carry around with them in their pocket or handbag). It has to be provided by some overall body, by the local authority or privatised provider – and it costs money. From the provider’s point of view, ‘there’s no such thing as a free toilet’. Charging individual end users at the point of delivery brings in very little revenue and is inefficient. People have already paid in their taxes and rates, and furthermore it is discriminatory to charge women and not men under outdated sexist legislation. There is no logical reason for turnstiles in railway stations where automatic ticket barriers already keep out those without tickets to ride. The only possible argument for charging is that it helps reduce vandalism and other criminal activity. One still sees vandalism in pay-to-pee toilets. If charging is meant to prevent vandalism, why do so many women’s toilets as against men’s still have penny-in-the-slot attachments on them when it is a well-known fact that few women indulge in toilet crimes? Charging for toilets can cost more than not charging. A toilet provider has to pay for the turnstiles or penny-in-the-slot equipment, increased security, for someone to go around and collect the money, and for another man with a van to go around to repair the coin payment equipment. This is in addition to paying for cleaners and maintenance staff, plus managers who supervise these people’s work, inevitably someone to collate statistics for performance targets for the latest Best Value exercise and someone else in the Clerk’s department to add it all up. In contrast, manufacturers, suppliers, and contractors who install, manage and clean toilets make money from charging local authorities and other public 248


toilet providers for their services. Although, to paraphrase a company’s slogan, ‘there’s money in waste management’, it’s not a rubbish industry’ there is little money in human waste management per se, particularly when the immense investment in water and sewerage systems is added to the costings. There is certainly money in all the trappings, hardware, management structures and services associated with the toilet provision. Taking the wider picture, free public toilets would greatly contribute to the economic wellbeing of an area, not least by increasing tourism. Greater provision for women would increase their presence and that of families on the street, thus challenging the male domination of public space and the related crime problems. Better public toilets at transport termini would contribute to creating more environmentally sustainable cities as people would feel more comfortable about using public transport. Unfortunately, we are living in a culture which undervalues public investment and no longer believes that the provision of universally needed services and facilities which benefit everyone should be based upon non-profit-making public provision. Successive governments have undervalued the importance of ‘social capital’ and public infrastructural investment ‘to oil the wheels of capitalism’ (Saunders, 1979). Likewise, there have been attempts to privatise public transport and make bus services more profitable, often the price being the withdrawal of less profitable services, resulting in people travelling less. Removing public toilets may discourage some people from going out altogether and thus reduce the revenue of local shopkeepers, particularly in small towns and villages where pensioners comprise a substantial proportion of customers. Also, as stated earlier, toilet providers do not think in terms of the large numbers of women travelling around to work, with or without children needing toilets. Not only should public on-street toilets be free, but all toilets should be free, especially at railway stations. The cost of using the station toilet should be an integral part of what one buys with a train or bus ticket; arguably, contractually, it already is. Whatever the arrangement in the future, public or private, funding for public toilets should be ringfenced, and protected. Rate and tax allowances, direct payment and grants should be given to all those business and domestic premises, and to charitable, leisure and religious organisations willing to provide public toilets in their buildings which can be accessed by the public.

Accessibility and equality The public toilet world is increasingly having to come to terms with the demands of increased access for disabled people to enable accessibility, or ‘AccessAbility’ as it says in the Bristol Shopping Mall at Cribbs Causeway. This should not result in existing abled facilities being closed in favour of new more accessible facilities, leading to an overall reduction in provision. Rather the onus should be upon all 249

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toilets remaining open, even doubling provision, bearing in mind that women have less provision to start with. Some London boroughs have been closing underground toilets and installing disabled-accessible APCs on pavement level. In no circumstances should RADAR toilets be discontinued, or replaced with a shared unisex/uni-ability APC. With time, more accessible, usable, attended universal toilet blocks may make their function less important, but not yet. There is a need for vigilance to ensure that some other department does not reduce access by placing, for example, a skip or a new pedestrian layout straight outside the toilet entrance. There is a need for greater liaison between the department responsible for toilet management and all other local authority departments, especially highways, planning, landscaping, recreation and environmental services to make sure everyone is working together on toilet issues. An inter-departmental public toilets liaison committee might be set up to ensure a harmonious approach to urban design around the toilets. There should also be liaison between all public toilet providers in a town or city, be they off-street or on-street, including those responsible for toilets in bus stations, railway stations, car parks, shopping malls, leisure and entertainment venues etc. This might lead to the development of a proper, inclusive public toilet survey and future strategy, instead of the patchy, uncoordinated approach that prevails at present in many an urban area. Such an approach would lead to more sustainable cities, in which access, mobility and transport policies were supported by well-distributed, reliable and better organised public toilet provision.

Attendance and site management Building a toilet is only half the battle: keeping it in one piece a month later is another matter altogether. Vigilance and speed of repair must be maintained if the toilets are not attended, in order to give the impression that someone is watching over the local population. Light bulbs must be replaced as soon as possible, messes cleared up, toilet paper replaced, bushes and trees cut back, litter collected and the remains of illegal drug and sexual activity sought out and cleared away. One would imagine, given the demands of the job, that only saints would sign up to be toilet attendants, but human nature being what it is you can’t trust anyone. Stories abound of wicked toilet attendants locking and blocking off cubicles to save having to clean them, thus adding to the queues, and much worse. It is essential that cleaners, maintenance staff and cleaners are all fully trained and supervised. Details on ‘how to clean’ are beyond the scope of this book but vital. Regular checking of cleaning, especially emptying of sanpro bins, is vital. Nowadays some local authorities have every piece of equipment barcoded, and items are scanned after checking, including bins, bowls and cisterns. Such activities must be done ‘religiously’ as there is nothing worse than a notice 250


on the toilet wall declaring the toilet was checked half an hour ago, when the whole place is clearly overflowing with rubbish and dirt. According to the Institute of Wastes Management, it is recommended that toilets should be cleaned at least four times a day in areas of high usage, sanitary bins should be emptied and any outside litter should be cleared up too (Robinson, 2001). There is now an NVQ Level 1 in Cleaning and Support Services: Building Interiors that is being used to ensure that cleaning staff are up to standard. In fact ‘cleaning’ is the biggest industry in the country, with catering and ‘hospitality’ coming not far behind, all areas where there are high levels of female employees and low pay and poor esteem (Cleaning Matters Magazine) (BICS, 2003). Importance should be given to training and to giving attendants a sense of pride and belonging. The Good Loo of the Year Award emphasises the role of attendants, and to win the Attendant of the Year award is the greatest accolade. Local authorities and private sector public toilet providers need to recognise toilet talent and reward it with praise and remuneration. Some attendants take great pride in ‘their’ toilets and it is considered better to assign a particular toilet to a particular cleaner, rather than having a man going round with a van, thus creating a sense of ownership and healthy competition. If a toilet attendant lived beside the toilet, as suggested earlier, no doubt the motivation to create a clean toilet would be greater, because of personal pride and for fear of contamination. In contrast, in order to cut costs, some providers (not very taken by all this) suggest that cleaners should walk between three sites at least. Greater investment in attendants would enable toilets to be open more, ideally at least 18 hours a day to cater for people going to work, for daytime users, and for people out in the evenings. Not long ago conveniences used to be open until 11 pm as ‘normal’ (Cavanagh and Ware, 1991). In heavily used tourist and entertainment areas where the ‘24-hour city’ is increasingly promoted, such as in central London, Bristol and Manchester, round-the-clock toilets should also be provided, especially in areas where there is a concentration of nightclubs (Montgomery, 1994; Bianchini, 1991). There should always be at least one toilet open in all areas of human habitation and activity. ‘Time planning’ is becoming as much a part of ‘town planning’ within the EU (ARU, 1997, 2000; Belloni, 1994).

Education The trick is to create a sense of civic pride and to make it a matter of fact that toilets should be of a high standard before anyone thinks otherwise. In Japan, for example, there are magnificent toilets everywhere, and the standard of maintenance is very high. (But there are some bad ones too, and there is a Japanese web page devoted to this uncharacteristic fact.) There is a high level of public sector investment in facilities, and people do not appear to consider toilet provision an additional tax burden. We were told at the JTA toilet conference that, 251

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just like providing an airport, public toilet provision is considered a necessary civic expense, part of a nation’s social capital, a sign of prosperity and a means of keeping the nation attractive. The Japanese instil good toilet attitudes early. For example there is a ‘National Toilet Day’ when all age groups go out and tidy up and care for the toilets, promoting the caring involvement of schools, youth groups and young people of both sexes in environmental, public health and caring roles in the community. It is customary in some schools for the pupils to clean the school themselves still, and cleaning toilets is seen as an honourable occupation. At a Japanese toilet conference an enthusiastic woman teacher described camping trips for school children in the national parks and mountains, which included class projects based around the problems of disposal of excreta. When the call of nature arises the teacher digs a hole and pupils are encouraged to examine, measure and discuss each other’s faeces and to write this up as a project. These exercises are popular as they relate to health and hygiene classes, and are often extended by the children undertaking comparative questionnaires, interviewing members of their families on their personal ‘toilet habits’: a refreshing approach to student projects! There were also competitions for children to design and draw the ideal toilet and generally there is no sign of a sense of smutty ‘toilet jokes’. In Europe, and especially in Britain, people do not treat toilets with respect. An APC manufacturer confided ‘we cannot change the people’s behaviour, but we can change our design to allow for this behaviour’, alluding to his vandalproof and easy-to-clean APC designs. Elsewhere measures are more drastic – for example, there is a fine of £200 for not flushing a public toilet in Singapore. Two men were shot by the police in a confrontation at Yulin bus station in China for not paying the fee to use the public lavatory (14.11.98). This suggests that such facilities are very highly valued, that someone is always watching what is going on, and if any crime is committed retribution will be swift. Free toilet provision is not an option in a country where for many people using a public toilet might well be an expensive special treat. From North America one hears tales of armed toilet attendants, but then many a security guard is armed because of much higher crime rates.

Broken window theory: changing expectations One of the biggest problems affecting British toilets is criminal damage. The solution is often seen to be one of guidance on materials rather than changing the ethos of the area in which they are located. Toilet manuals recommend that public toilets need to be of vandal-resistant material without wooden elements that might weather badly, rot or need repainting, thus adding to the rundown appearance of the block. Nowadays side windows get broken so often that roof lights are popular, although some vandals will try to climb on the roof. Traditional 252

CHAPTER TWELVE • MANAGEMENT, MAINTENANCE AND FINANCE Figure 12.8 Composite of a vandalised toilet in Bridgwater, Somerset. The images show the problems of a secluded side street location, broken glass block windows filled in with brick and signs to keep vandals off the roof.

thick glass bricks get broken and are no longer incorporated into toilet blocks, and so the use of materials becomes limited basically to tough vandal-proof metal or brick. There is a need to change the culture to reduce the vandalism. From the world of American criminology and crime prevention theory, broken window theory (Wilson and Kelling, 1982; Miller, 1999) moved the debate ‘down’ to the importance of the neighbourhood local level and specifically to the importance of the ‘image’ of the ‘state’ of local facilities, such as public toilets, as a metaphor which says everything about the state of society itself (Poole, 1994; Pain, 2000; Scottish Office, 1994). Wilson and Kelling argue that what people most fear is disorder, not crime, as disorder has a profound effect on quality of life. To counter disorder rather than put emphasis on crime-fighting, instead pay attention to nuisances such as drunks, broken windows, vandalism, graffiti, ‘panhandlers’ (beggars) etc., all of which are 253

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signs of disorder; in ‘the incivilities model’ signs of physical disorder include abandoned buildings, broken windows, litter and social disorder, drunkenness, drug use, prostitution etc. This inattention leads to the community’s inability to control itself through confronting residents’ shared concerns as communal obligations break down and crime flourishes. According to Greene and Taylor, 1991: 198–99, when social incivilities become widespread, residents make fewer efforts to control things, resulting in further expansion of incivility, so residents use the streets less, there are fewer eyes on the street and so more crime. The solution is to make the public toilets symbols and in-neighbourhood examples of good social control and organisation, rather than outward symbols of the rot that has set in within central government. This is a powerful argument which is couched in the language of a government that seems more concerned with ‘image’ and ‘spin’ than it is with the perfectly legitimate and rational arguments of ordinary tax-payers. This is topical for Britain now because of the provisions of the Crime and Disorder Act 1999. Section 17 states, ‘without prejudice to any other obligation imposed on it, it shall be the duty of each authority to which this section applies

Figure 12.9 Service duct area between the Ladies and the Gents in public toilet in Evesham, winner of a Loo of the Year Award. One of the biggest complaints and reasons for queues building up is flushes that will not pull. Also sanpro bins should be ducted into the back wall where possible. With increasing EU requirements for more efficient flushing and greater monitoring controls, modern public toilets are high-tech installations requiring considerable investment and staff training to maintain in tip-top condition. (Wise and Swaffield, 2002).

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to exercise its various functions with due regard to the likely effect of the exercise of those functions on, and the need to do all that it reasonably can to prevent, crime and disorder in its area’ (Cockfield, 2001). ‘Authority’ includes ‘a local authority, a joint authority, a police authority, a national park and a Broads authority’, according to planning law. Positively it could be interpreted to mean that local authorities must design crime out of public toilets and that they are accountable if the way they supervise or neglect public toilets promotes crime. Negatively it could be construed as a reason for closing toilets down, to prevent providing a shelter for criminal activity, especially cottaging. Good toilet management and especially a high level of sustained cleaning and maintenance is always a sign that toilets are cared for and that someone is around keeping an eye on the situation, which is itself a deterrent to crime. The problems of drugs, crime, sex, cottaging, vandalism, violence and theft are not necessarily inevitably associated with toilets. Rather they are inevitable in neglected, unsupervised buildings and structures, be they derelict buildings, desolate run-down areas, remote car parks, back staircases and unsupervised lifts in old council blocks of flats, and of course public toilets. Providing toilet attendants contributes to the public toilet’s role in combating crime, providing an extra pair of eyes on the street. Likewise, there is a need to restore keepers to parks, conductors to buses and bobbies to the beat to create a sense that someone is there watching what is going on in the public realm (Osborn and Shaftoe, 1995). There has been increasing privatisation of the public realm (Punter, 1990), and in the process a reduction in facilities, as well as a shift in emphasis from one of public service to one of control. CCTV may monitor the situation, but unlike a toilet attendant a camera cannot talk to people, clean premises and create a sense of goodwill. Much of the battle is about changing the toilet culture, and changing the expectations of users, and thus the standards of providers, cleaners and attendants. Some Japanese toilets used to be known as hell-holes, but they embarked upon a concerted fight against the four ‘K’s of kusai, kurai, kitanai and kowai, which mean smelly, dark, dirty and uninviting conditions. Clearly Britain needs a similar fight. Once immediate attention is paid to repairing broken windows, getting rid of graffiti and generally investing money, time and effort into public buildings, many of the problems ‘leave’, or rather the problem people stay away and let legitimate users get on with their lives. Some good local authorities operate a zero tolerance approach to toilet misdemeanours, often in conjunction with local police forces also aiming at zero tolerance on even the smallest crime. This is one of the strongest arguments for improving public toilets as they are a visible symbol of the values of society and of ‘how far people can go’. Putting a public toilet in an urban area is like putting a ‘loo-bloo’ tablet in a toilet bowl, its effects spread far beyond the bend, metaphorically speaking, and out into the community.

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Summary ➥

Golden Triangle of design, management and maintenance

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Attendants essential where possible

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Importance of cleaners and valuing them financially and socially

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Equal provision day and night

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Integration with town centre management

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‘Bathrooms mean business’

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Role of APCs and public concerns

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Question of charging

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Broken window theory: need to repair as soon as possible

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Value of public toilet as community focal point

Creating change: user and provider groups Identifying champions of change This chapter identifies the main groups involved in the fight for better toilets, many of which have proposed policies and improved design principles that have informed the proposals put forward in this book. Toilet campaign group objectives are included in this chapter as ‘means of change’, while toilet design and management criteria as to what they want to achieve are included in Appendix 1 as they comprise in their own right the basis of good design and maintenance guidance. First the story of the development of the user-based toilet campaign groups is given, including the BTA, as a cameo of the role of grass-roots bodies in creating social and sanitary change. User groups are key contributors to creating progress, bringing new insights, expertise and enthusiasm. Following this, provider groups will be discussed including manufacturers, suppliers, purchasers, governmental bodies and the professionals who advise policy-makers. In the concluding section the process of bringing about change is discussed as the power of user and provider groups comes together to create ignition of the toilet revolution (cf Hill, 1997). Chapters 13 and 14 also provide a means of bringing together the various strands, themes and trends, briefly identified earlier in the book, that are concerned with change and, therefore, the future of the public toilet.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN • CREATING CHANGE: USER AND PROVIDER GROUPS

chapter thirteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

User groups All Mod Cons ’All Mod Cons’ (AMC) (All Modern Conveniences) was founded in 1985 by Mrs. Susan Cunningham in Cardiff, Wales. Her initial objective was to attempt to get better provision in her own local area when her own children were little. 257

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Twenty-five public toilets were closed in 1980–1981 in the Cardiff area (BTA, 1999: 6–9). AMC achieved a high profile and considerable publicity. This led to demands for information from other parts of the country, and AMC grew into a national campaign. Much of Susan’s time was spent fielding questions from the media and the public, working from her living room. Susan got the local MP involved, namely Jon Owen Jones. Susan started an AMC newsletter which began as a photocopied letter and developed into a professional news sheet which circulated widely. A voluntary ‘steering group’ developed and by 1996 a proper committee structure had been established with regular meetings taking place (often by telephone conferencing). Committee members included David Adler, author of The Metric Handbook (Adler, 2000), Sue Cavanagh from the WDS, David Pollock, then Director of the Continence Foundation, Julia Edwards from the University of Glamorgan and the author. Many, but by no means all the user group representatives, were women. Emphasis was placed upon networking with other groups with similar interests such as the Continence Foundation. On the Continence Foundation’s advice, AMC took on charitable status, in order to put it on a firmer footing financially.

All Mod Cons toilet policy objectives 1996: what 1. To promote the provision of sanitary facilities for men, women and children in line with their levels of need in public places. 2. To act as a forum to bring together and facilitate communication between all interested parties – i.e. users, providers and manufacturers, legislative, regulatory and standard-setting bodies, both in the UK and internationally. 3. To achieve legislation requiring appropriate provision of sanitary facilities. 4. To achieve opening hours of sanitary facilities that meet users’ needs. 5. To work for improved accessibility to sanitary facilities for everyone, including people with disabilities and certain medical conditions, older people, children and their carers. 6. To promote improved standards of design, hygiene and safety, taking full account of sustainability and environmental issues. 7. To encourage provision of attendants and other supervision. 8. To encourage standard provision of facilities for nappy changing, preferably by way of unisex rooms incorporating special facilities for young children. 9. To be a focal point for information and advice on the design, use and maintenance of sanitary facilities appropriate to different cultural, religious and ethnic groups. 10. To promote the subject of public conveniences as a serious issue. 258

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Development of media contacts and publicity Involvement in decision-making bodies on setting of toilet standards Production of publications Undertaking survey and research work Parliamentary lobbying and political support Developing international contacts Networking with similar groups Linking professional and community groups together Setting clear annual and long-term objectives Holding regular steering group meetings Producing a regular newsletter and progress updates Drafting a Constitution

The British Toilet Association By early 1999 AMC had merged with Loo of the Year (LOYA). The liaison was a marriage of convenience between user and provider groups. The BTA is currently headed by Richard Chisnell who had previously worked in the toilet industry, with Ray Fowler, also from the industry and a key figure in LOYA activities, working alongside him (See Appendix 1 for LOYA objectives). They are assisted by their wives, Maureen and Pat respectively, who have both contributed vast amounts of time and work to the toilet movement. Susan Cunningham remains as a committee member but owing to personal circumstances is taking a less active role. The BTA mission statement is as follows: ‘To represent the interests and aspirations of ‘’away from home’’ toilet providers, suppliers and users of all types and to act as the catalyst for change in the pursuit of standards of excellence in all areas of public toilet provision and management.’ While AMC membership comprised more women and user representatives, BTA is more male in composition and its agenda is arguably more provider orientated. Manufacturers are keen to support and sponsor BTA, as more public toilets would mean more markets and sales for them. Initially there was some concern that commercial sponsorship might compromise the unbiased nature of the pressure group, but commercial firms have proved strong allies who are also socially and environmentally aware of the issues involved. BTA has many positive aspects and is seen as having an important role to play in acting as an interface between user and provider groups and is a potentially vital transmitter of change between the two. As potential suppliers of local authority contracts and private sector orders providers – that is, manufacturers and suppliers in the worlds of sanitary ware, plumbing hardware, sanpro, toilet paper, cleaning services, waste management, lighting, security and disability aids – are all interested in public toilet con-


Summary of AMC campaign aims: how

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ferences. Beyond the limited market of supplying actual public toilets, contacts may be established by manufacturers that lead to contracts to supply other sectors and institutions such as schools, hospitals, prisons, offices, hotels, sports stadia, universities and public sector headquarters. Any large building generates a lucrative consumption level of toilet rolls, soap, cleaning fluids and disposable items, quite apart from the considerable cost of installation of sanitary ware and fittings. Prominent participants include Cannon Hygiene, Armitage Shanks, Twyfords, Proctor and Gamble, as well as a range of APC companies, Danfo, Shippax and Urilift being particularly keen, as well as Adshell, Decaux and InterPublic being involved inter alia. There are observable differences in cultural perspective emerging between user and provider groups within the BTA, on matters such as the provision of APCs and male-only street urinals, although many manufacturers and providers would be only too keen to install more comprehensive and equal toilet facilities if local authorities invited them to do so. The BTA is keen to stress ‘the business case’ that more toilets is better for everyone in terms of industry profits, user satisfaction, urban prosperity and economic viability. A number of companies have pledged to be BTA Industry Champions, helping to sponsor events and activities while benefitting from the toilet network and extensive contacts established by BTA. They are also encouraged to use the BTA logo on their products, which undoubtedly is a worthwhile endorsement, not least because of the related standards set by the Loo of the Year Awards.

Figure 13.1 British Toilet Association delegates at a conference in Banbury in 2000 – ‘wot no women’? 260


Figure 13.2 Delegates at BTA conference inspecting new toilets beside Banbury Cross.

Figure 13.3 Delegates at the Japanese Toilet Association conference, inspecting public toilets at Toyama.

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BTA campaign objectives These are: • to focus attention on issues relating to the provision of public or ‘away from home’ toilets, and therefore to campaign for: 1. appropriate legislation relating to the provision of public toilets by local authorities; 2. high standards of public or ‘away from home’ toilets in all areas, including municipal locations, health, education, transport, leisure, hospitality and retail establishments; 3. the provision of an adequate number of facilities for women, in relation to the number of facilities provided for men; 4. adequate facilities for specialist user groups, such as wheelchair users, elderly people, babies and young children, and people with medical conditions; 5. the provision of secure, fully attended public toilet facilities, with extended opening hours; 6. the eradication of all types of social misuse and vandalism in public toilets; • and to provide: 7. a forum for public toilet providers, contractors, suppliers and users to share concerns and ideas and communicate best practices; 8. consultancy and information services to Association members on a range of relevant subjects; 9. links with similar Toilet Associations in other countries. (BTA toilet policy guidance is given in Appendix 1.) Just about every developed country has its own equivalent of BTA, especially in the Far East where the Japan Toilet Association (JTA) has taken on an international coordinating role among such groups. More locally, the French Toilet Association had a similar role to the BTA, awarding annual prizes for the best toilets and campaigning for more toilets, albeit within a different cultural context. The late Professor Dodin of the French Toilet Association was instrumental in promoting toilet issues over the last 20 years in France and abroad, particularly in respect of the research he established at the Pasteur Institute on the links between the spread of tropical diseases and the level of toilet provision in the Third World. More recently, new toilet associations have grown up in Moscow, Beijing, Mexico and Turkey. The one in South Korea, the Korea Clean Toilet Association, has become a serious rival to the Japan Toilet Association, spurred on by the need to build better public toilets for the FIFA World Cup in 2002, while China is undertaking a toilet revolution to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Games. It would seem the arms race has been replaced by the toilets race, as governments pour large amounts of money into toilet rearmament – but

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not the UK or Europe. At the 2001 World Toilet Summit, the World Toilet Organisation (WTO) was established under the chairmanship of Jack Sim, President of the Restroom Association of Singapore.

Disability groups There is a range of voluntary and community groups concerned with different aspects of disability, and the problems of going to the toilet have always been ‘the fundamental problem’ for all sorts of people with disabilities. Many of these groups are linked with BTA. The Centre for Accessible Environments (CAE) includes architects and town planners, as well as medical people, who want to improve the design of the built environment to facilitate greater access and mobility. RADAR is a significant voluntary body but it has had some difficulty maintaining its funding and organisational structures, not least because of administering their key system which is, not, surprisingly, part of local government services. RADAR is best known for providing the National Key Scheme for Toilets for Disabled People (NKS), but this is only one small part of all its work. RADAR was founded in 1977 following a merger of earlier bodies. Its achievements include amending the fire regulations to enable disabled people to have access to many buildings, and it was at the forefront of the DDA campaign and the introduction of the Disability Rights Commission created in April 2000.


Figure 13.4 BTA committee members representing user and provider groups.

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At the local level, most local authorities nowadays consult with their local disability liaison group on a range of access issues. In spite of this apparent success, even disabled toilets have been subject to cutbacks, closures and neglect by local authorities. Diana Twitchen and her husband have been highly proactive in developing a map of all accessible toilets in Britain, as part of the campaign ‘Is there an Accessible Loo?’ to complement RADAR provision (ITAAL, 2001). There is an expanding Europe-wide system of accessible toilets being developed, using the ‘Eurokey’, which is strong in Switzerland, Germany and Scandinavia.

Continence groups Substantial administrative assistance and support was given to AMC, and BTA at its inception, by the Continence Foundation (Cunningham and Norton, 1993). Their advice and experience have been invaluable in developing the Constitution, objectives and organisational structure of AMC and subsequently BTA. The medical link has brought with it support from health practitioners, such as continence advisors in the Regional Heath Authorities and liaison with other voluntary groups such as ‘ERIC’ (Enuresis Resource and Information Centre) (concerned with bedwetting and incontinence among children) and Incontact. PAMIS is campaigning for adult-changing tables in public lavatories for incontinent adults with profound impairments. Incontact is the ‘other’ major incontinence group (www.incontact.org), drawing under its umbrella a wide range of other interest groups. Involvement with the medical fraternity is a ‘two-edged sword’ because of ‘medicalisation’ and ‘dis-enablement’ of toilet issues. Relatively speaking, it is progressive nurses rather than doctors who are likely to get involved in public toilet organisations, whose caring ethos is redefining the medical discourse and providing a ‘healthy’, non-patronising, viewpoint with which the general public can identify.

Tourism groups Public toilets are not ‘just’ needed by the incontinent but all the travelling public, and ordinary citizens, are likely to need toilets if they are out all day, ‘away from home’. A range of travel and tourism organisations are supportive of BTA, such as Women’s Transport Network, National Trust, British Tourist Association (the ‘other’ BTA), various transport users’ groups, and some coach and train operators. Britain is an international tourist destination. Sir William Lawrence, Chairman of the British Toilet Association, is also a Chairman of one of the British Tourist Association’s main committees. BTA has also featured on the CNN news web page in its European Travel Section in November 2001, and as one of Yahoo’s ‘pick of the week’, both of which contributed to a sharp increase in number of hits (previously www/britloos.co.uk, now see www.loos.co.uk). Type the words ‘public toilets’ into a search engine and thousands of entries will be returned, some of which are local authority and voluntary organisation web pages, although some are prurient or erotic in content. From the Far East 264

Women’s groups Women are involved in toilet groups because of the unequal provision for them and because of their role as ‘carers’ for other members of the family and society. Women are involved in local community politics and the voluntary level of social action as a whole, but they are under-represented in official politics and local and central government levels. There are relatively few women at management level among toilet provider groups and they generally comprise a small percentage of the delegates at toilet conferences. Public toilet provision has long been a key ‘political’ issue for women, including early suffragette groups at the turn of the century, and it continued as a ‘feminist issue’ throughout the twentieth century. Involvement by women in toilet issues is by no means a recent event. As stated earlier, the Ladies Lavatory Association was active in getting provision started off in the nineteenth century. Nowadays more traditional and less overtly feminist groups such as the National Council of Women, the Mothers Union and especially the Women’s Institute (WI) have been active in campaigning for better provision, especially at the local level. Likewise, groups set up by women architects, planners, engineers and surveyors have been supportive of demands for better toilet provision. Women’s Design Service (WDS), and in particular Sue Cavanagh within that organization, has made a huge contribution to developing better design principles for women’s toilets (WDS, 1990; Cavanagh and Ware, 1991; Cavanagh, 1994, 1998). In North America, Women and Environments (WE), an organisation composed of women architects, planners and environmentalists, has highlighted the need for better provision within the context of creating better urban design as a whole (Skjerven, 1993).


perspective, the UK and especially the tourist centre of London may be seen as extremely arrogant and complacent in not providing adequate toilets for tourists, in comparison with the high standard of provision in new shopping malls – for example, in Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. This is a serious issue as 1 in 7 of the work force – that is, 1.8 million people – work in tourism in the UK, contributing to over 7% of the economy.

Environmental groups The Rio Earth Summit (see last chapter) called for each local authority within the signatory countries to promote sustainable development (Church and McHarry, 1994). Under the related Agenda 21 programme, emphasis was put upon the importance of local consultation and the role of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organisations) and community groups to work alongside government to implement sustainability policy (Greed, 2001). Most local towns and cities nowadays have some sort of Local Agenda 21 programme running, especially within Greater London and other conurbations. There is a role for public toilet pressure 265

THE SOLUTIONS

groups to be involved in such initiatives, within the context of water conservation, waste disposal and creating sustainable cities. Women have been active in linking ‘toilets’ to ‘sustainability’ issues. There is a range of specialist women’s environmental groups, including Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) which has been introducing recyclable sanpro products (Tallantire and Carroll, 1996; WEN, 1993). As seen earlier, the development of non-water-based toilets and environmental sustainable sewerage systems is a major international issue.

Coastline and seaside groups Groups concerned with coastal pollution are valuable allies too as nonbiodegradable sanpro and other SRD litters our beaches. In South West England, Surfers against Sewage, founded in Cornwall, is concerned about the impact upon surfers, swimmers and sea shores, and its effective publicity recounts the horrors of ‘dolphins swimming in shit’ (as they delightfully put it). Even when a seaside resort is successful in gaining a Blue Flag to show the water is pure, the town may still prove unattractive because most of the public toilets have been closed. A lack of toilets is always a sure way of turning away both coach parties and individual families. Likewise, Tidy Britain (‘Keep Britain Tidy’) acts as a national watchdog keeping an eye on litter, dirty conditions and poor public facilities, and campaigning for change.

Ethnic minority groups British black and ethnic minority people have often found themselves marginalised in environmental initiatives, even in their own districts and areas of personal experience. In inner city areas everyone wants better public toilets as part of the regeneration of their area. Some ethnic minority groups and particular religious groups, including Moslems, want the choice of Turkish style toilets too, and do not want public toilets facing Mecca. It is unlikely their views will be heard, given the composition of many decision-making committees. A desire on the part of the local authority to ‘clean up’ a rundown area, in the name of either environmentalism or crime prevention, may result in the closure, not the improvement, of public toilets. Young people may be seen as potential vandals rather than as legitimate public toilet users. Built environment professionals from ethnic minorities and minority individuals entering the toilet industry have a pivotal role in raising such issues, and introducing new ideas and designs to provider organisations.

Community groups People may not be aware of national campaigns for better public toilets; they take public toilets for granted and do not realise there is a problem until one closes in their area. Then they ‘discover’ they are not the only community in the 266

Charismatic individuals There are just a few charismatic individuals of international fame, such as Alexander Kira, who have done a great deal to forward the public toilet movement. Kira’s famous book The Bathroom, republished in England in 1976, and his work on the length of time it takes for women to urinate compared with men, has been invaluable in arguing for greater provision – twice the number of facilities for women as against men (Kira, 1976, and see World Architecture, November 1996, for a summary of his life). His Japanese equivalent is Professor Nishioka (see Manchester Guardian Weekly, September 1996) who has also carried out research on the time it takes for women to go, compared with men, and contributed to generating the entire Japan toilet movement (Asano, 2002). Saiko Samamoto is Director of the Japan Toilet Association, while Mr. Koo Ue is the Secretary, and Junko Kobayashi, a woman architect, is a prominent figure in toilet design. In India Bindeshwar Pathak is a key toilet campaigner (Pathak, 1994, 1999, 2001; Singapore, 2001). More locally, Susan Cunningham and Sue Cavanagh are undoubtedly heroines of the British Toilet Movement. There are also many other women and men who have campaigned tirelessly to improve public toilet provision, but who are invisible to the public eye. Richard Chisnell and Ray Fowler and their wives also have long service records as toileteers.


same situation, and they make contacts with the national pressure groups. There has been a tradition in Britain of voluntary groups organising ‘grass-roots’ campaigns on a variety of subjects, such as homelessness, the need for better public transport, nursery provision for small children and street lighting. Such activities often come into being as a result of ‘blind spots’ on behalf of government bodies and official policy-makers. Indeed many government bodies seem quite out of touch with people’s requirements over public toilets. There are many Neighbourhood Watch, Crime Concern and local anti-crime and vandalism groups, some of which are concerned with the problems associated with public toilets. The Suzy Lamplugh Trust has been active nationwide in addressing the crime and design aspects of public safety for women, including public toilet issues. Concern has been expressed that a new bill, introduced in 2003 on sexual activity in public, made it clear that couples who had sex in a public toilet would no longer be prosecuted as they couldn’t be seen; but this still reduces the number of cubicles available for excretion and arguably condones cottaging and prostitution.

Provider groups Central government: regulatory bodies As stated earlier, there is no mandatory requirement that public toilets must be provided, and no national toilet strategy or spatial policy document. The whole 267

THE SOLUTIONS 268

situation is very ad hoc, fragmented with a mixture of ancient and modern legislation governing toilet provision (Edwards, 1998a). Occasionally national level government bodies obliquely allude to toilets as part of some other policy realm – for example, in respect of national environmental standards, health and safety regulations, or at the regional level through water board policy (for example, in respect of resorts gaining a Blue Flag award). Toilets are simply not mainstreamed into government policy. Technical issues are seen as inappropriate for debating in parliament and thus toilet policy development is not part of the normal democratic process. Rather there is a series of nominated technical regulatory committees concerned with British Standards and Building regulations which are firmly set in the technical provider domain, rather than socially concerned user territory. One of the problems that campaigners have had to tackle is that the BSI committees responsible for the drawing up of the standards have been unrepresentative in composition of provider groups. In the early 1990’s Susan Cunningham was coopted on the committee as the first toilet woman. Previously there had also been another woman on this panel as a representative of the BSI Consumers Group, namely Mary Bickley. The Consumer Group was originally founded in 1972 as the Women’s Committee to give women a voice in BSI committees. Bodies officially consulted by BSI on toilet design were previously bereft of women’s groups, user groups, and there was an under-representation of consultees concerned with social, health and environmental issues. Instead sports groups, brewers and publicans organisations and manufacturers were featured. On raising this issue one was likely to be advised that user groups (especially women) were unlikely to have the technical knowledge to contribute to the development of specialist industry standards. Manufacturers represented on the committees seemed unaware that there was a national outcry as to the contents of the toilets standards, because they moved in another world and seldom met women and other user groups. Currently BS6465, Part I, is under revision again, and it is hoped that this time greater emphasis will be given to user needs and good practice guidance rather than to predominantly plumbing considerations and technical specifications. In comparison the new BS 8300 in 2001, for the first time, provides not just standards, but given some explanation and discussion as to ‘why’ certain changes are needed which is a far more intelligent approach (BSI, 2001). Meanwhile the BSI has revised its Standards format the BS0 (the base ‘Standard of Standards’ format) now requires both normative and explanatory commentary sections for every standard. The requirement to harmonise standards across the European Union means that in the future BSI standards will have to conform to CEN (European-wide standards) too. For every BS standard there is a committee thrashing out the wording in association with European colleagues. Few women are present in this pan-European enterprise either. Indeed, rather than there being users and manufacturers represented, within these European-wide com-


mittees the emphasis appears to be upon a manufacturer-centred approach to testing products and verifying standards, for example the watertightness and tensile strength of bathroom appliances (rather than user requirements and difficulties). Clearly EU pronouncements on EO have not filtered down yet sufficiently into the world of Euro-plumbing. The current BS6465 Part I Revision committee, in great contrast to the past, this time around includes several women as well as more socially aware men, participants including inter alia John Griggs (Chairman) from BRE (Building Research Establishment, Environmental Engineering Centre), Mike Rymill from the British Bathroom Association (manufacturers), myself Clara Greed, Mary Bickley (who is also on various European standards committees), Michelle Barclay (British Standards Society, Chairman of the Building Standards Group and Technical Director at the Architects Chapman Taylor). The changing composition reflects the greater extent to which women are nowadays active in society and in the built environment professions and thus possess the required technical expertise. As a result a much wider range of interest groups, user organisations and international sources is being contacted in the process of developing the standards. Because of the obscurity and ‘invisibility’ of the regulation setting committees to the general public, many such committees remain unchallenged and unchanged. In contrast, there is a considerable amount of public participation and accountability on many town planning policy matters. It is often argued in defence that toilet matters are ‘too technical’ for the public to understand. Yet these are the very issues that affect users so much. Such decision-making bodies need to be opened up to be more accountable and to include a wider range of ‘types’ of people in terms of age, gender, professional expertise and community involvement.

Professional bodies The influence of the built environment professions and the wider construction industry (CISC, 1994) on the nature of our towns and cities cannot be underestimated. The influence of construction professionals goes way beyond individual building projects, they are among the ‘great and the good’ being called up to shape the built environment, in a variety of capacities, posts and committees. There is a strong technological bias, a ‘peopleless’ ethos with little emphasis upon the differing social needs of the people who will be using the cities, structures and buildings for which they are responsible. This lacuna is noticeable at all levels, not least in the composition of the regulatory and policy-making bodies which control the design standards for public lavatories. There are relatively few women in the built environment professional areas that might reshape policy, or within the construction industry as a whole (Greed, 1999b). Of the 2 million people in the construction industry (at all levels), less than 5% are women (most of whom are at non-decision making levels) (Greed, 269

THE SOLUTIONS 270

1999b, 2000c). The technology-based worlds of civil engineering, services engineering, plumbing, and building technology are particularly male dominated. In Britain only 18% of members of the Royal Town Planning Institute (the main professional body for planners) are women (Greed, 1994b: 194) and within local government (where 70% of all planners work) less than 5% of senior planning posts are held by women. Women are even scarcer in the skilled manual trades, but initiatives are underway such as ‘Tapping Potential’ which has been concerned with attracting and retaining more women into plumbing (BPEC, 1996). Currently the Institute of Plumbing’s Women Plumbers group are developing a programme on ‘Women’s Needs in Plumbing and Toilet Provision’ (www.plumbers.org.uk). But more women does not necessarily mean better. There is many a building designed by women that lacks adequate toilet provision, presumably because they too are constrained by cost factors and achieving minimum compliance with the regulations. Professional socialisation pressures to conform and not stand out are also huge. The social class and background of an individual woman and/or ethnic minority professional cannot be underestimated. Within the wider society, people’s awareness of the toilet problem depends on their own state of health, their age, whether they have a car, or family commitments. Levels of public toilet provision vary greatly between regions, and there are still some ‘good’ authorities where people are relatively sheltered from the problems encountered. Certain key individual male professionals who are aware of the problems from personal experience or through family life experiences are invaluable in helping to shift the discourse. Some younger men working in the built environment professions take an active part in childcare, shopping and housework, and are more aware of the issues which concern women, but it is unlikely that they will be in senior posts and thus in a position to influence policy-making. Some will remember their experiences when they reach senior positions. In order to change the nature of the built environment, and especially the provision and design of public toilets, it is essential to change the composition of those who are the making the decisions. If it is argued that members must be professionally qualified, then at least let’s start with inviting more women, people with disabilities and people from minority groups who are qualified in the fields of architecture, medicine, health care, engineering and town planning in order to get a more representative range of viewpoints on toilet issues. The Equal Opportunities Taskforce in Construction has demonstrated that there are growing numbers of women and other minorities who are keen to take on such decision-making roles, but still one hears the curious excuse, ‘we can’t find any women’. A cartoon that says it all regarding the exclusionary role of the maleness of planning is the one in the planning journal. See Figure 13.5.

While there are national standards on toilet design, but not on toilet provision, it is at the local government level that key decisions are made about distribution and location. This is arguably the most important operational level because central government has not stipulated mandatory provision but has delegated discretionary powers as to whether to provide public toilets or not to this level. Some members of BTA are representatives of local authorities’ ‘toilets departments’, and many are the ‘good’ ones who do take toilet provision seriously. Without compulsory powers, clear strategies, budgets and timescales, little can be achieved. Many looked to New Labour’s promises of a more socially inclusive approach to policy-making and the creation of more sustainable cities as the chance they had been waiting for, but toilets have not yet featured in this agenda.

Water boards Some Regional Water Authorities have been supportive of the toilets campaign such as Welsh Water, where Dr Norman Lowe, Chief Scientific Officer, has pro^ moted the National ‘Bag it and bin it’ Campaign (Dwr Cymru, 1995a,b,c, 1996) as part of a holistic sustainability strategy. The campaign has its own newsletter and committee structure. It is important to make constructive linkages with such environmental groups, as this prevents the public toilets campaign from being seen as ‘only’ an isolated eccentric ‘single issue’ campaign for ‘just women’, but can help to promote it as a serious environmental issue.

The Audit Commission A range of government initiatives have been introduced; these were apparently intended to identify problems, find out ‘what people want’, right wrongs, and increase sustainability and social inclusion, and they appeared to offer opportunities for change. Although BTA has been involved with such government initiatives, change has not resulted as yet. For example, the Audit Commission included the provision of public toilets within its ambit and has undertaken a national survey, using Best Value ‘performance indicators’, into the level and quality of public toilets (Audit Commission, 1996; Greed et al, 2002b). AMC and subsequently BTA have actively lobbied the Audit Commission from the start in order to make sure they were including valid performance indicators. BTA was subsequently officially consulted by the Commission as to standards setting. Many have been disappointed with the Commission’s activities, not least because of its apparent greater concern with ‘efficiency’ rather than ‘equality’ in producing generic surveys which do not include the number of male as against female facilities, the opening hours and the overall quality of provision. There


Local government

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Figure 13.5 Cartoon of men having meeting in the gents toilet. (From Planning Week)

seems to be a huge gap between the public’s perception and experience of certain toilets and the ‘official’ high score they might have achieved under such auditing processes.

Conceptualising change Chances of change, at first sight, seem fairly limited. There is much ‘talk’ and ‘sympathy’ from government but little action. The main problem is that there is no mandatory requirement for government to enforce better toilet provision, nor to invest in its provision, nor to maintain and manage it satisfactorily. The situation appears bleak but one must have faith. In order to change policy, it is first necessary to change the mind-set of policy makers to prioritise toilet policy. In parallel, change is needed within society to encourage people to take toilet issues seriously. In previous research it was helpful to see the wider construction industry as ‘Planet Construction’, a hostile world existing in splendid isolation immune and deaf to the demands of society for a more equal and better designed built environment. In this research one can identify with Planet Construction’s ‘Toilet Tribe’ whose members march to a drumbeat that is out of step with the needs of user groups, and apparently deaf to the demands of equality, access and sustainability. In previous ESRC-funded research on the construction industry, the 272

author has concluded that the greatest chances of change would occur when official ‘top down’ governmental bodies (over and above Planet Construction) and grass roots community and minority groups worked together to implement change and thus made their influence effectively felt on the planet below (Greed, 1999b). That is, there is a need for men and women of good intentions to get together to change things. Clearly this is beginning to happen under the auspices of the BTA, but not, it would seem, as a result of the many governmental initiatives that have been spun across the country in recent years. There are various theories as to how change is transmitted and achieved. Concepts which inform the investigation of ‘creating change’ include critical mass theory as to ‘how many people are needed to change an organisational culture’ (cf. Morley, 1994: 195, who refers to Bagilhole’s work [Bagilhole et al. 1996]). The American management guru Kanter (1977, 1983) suggests 15–20% (minority composition) is needed to change the culture of an organisation, while Gale (1994) suggests 35% of like-minded people is necessary to change things. Others suggest that in contrast numbers do not matter but charismatic individuals are the key. The numbers of people campaigning for better toilets is relatively small, but whenever the issue is aired in the newspapers, television or in conversation a huge supportive response is encountered. A small well-organised group, or one or two totally dedicated charismatic individuals, may prove more


Figure 13.6 Planets Diagram. Forces of change impinging on the toilet world.

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Figure 13.7 Top: Singapore World Toilet Summit – a diverse group of delegates. Bottom: Inaugural ceremony with Jack Sim (on right), President of World Toilet Association, with heads of Japanese, Korean and Indian Toilet Associations (from left to right).

effective than hundreds of new minority individuals, who appear confused and unsure of their role at a personal level, and who have such low expectations and high tolerance levels that they are easily imposed upon not to say anything that might make them appear at odds with mainstream attitudes. Clearly every individual and every group campaigning for better toilets needs to be valued highly to achieve critical mass and their potential to hasten change. 274

➥

Linking users and providers

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Arguing the business case

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Involving industry champions

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Raising media profile of toilets

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Strengthening case by international comparisons

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Global networking

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Engaging in central government level

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Policy mainstreaming

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Political involvement


Points to increase influence

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Routeways to change

Promising alternatives Change seems near impossible to implement within the current legislative and urban policy contexts in spite of the energies of committed toilet groups. With reference to particular issues raised in different sections of the book, this chapter outlines initiatives deriving from the global, European and British levels that might provide a means of ameliorating the toilet situation. It considers the future of toilets, and the need for toilet revolution as well as toilet evolution.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN • ROUTEWAYS TO CHANGE

chapter fourteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Global perspectives Environmental agreements Chapters 1–5 set out the historical and cultural problems that restrict adequate provision, while Chapters 6 and 7 identified environmental and medical perspectives which, although problematic, might still provide avenues for better provision. As discussed in Chapter 7, nation states that are signatories to the global agreement arising from the Rio Conference (UNCED, 1992) have been required to put Agenda 21 policies into practice through their local authority systems to achieve a sustainable world. Sustainability contains within it the principles of social equality and economic sustainability as well as environmental balance, of which arguably toilets are an important ingredient. Organisations such as the World Water Council (WWC) are also influential allies. The activities of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and, in Britain, the Healthy Cities Initiative have toilet potential. Nowadays we live in a global village, and people travel more and compare the standards in each other’s countries – in other words, globalisation of toilet provision is taking place. The example of other nations, especially the Restroom Revolution in the Far East, should inspire the British into improving the situation if only to avoid being ashamed when foreign tourists 277

THE SOLUTIONS

criticise our toilets. In a highly competitive global market we cannot afford to put tourists off. The World Toilet Organisation (WTO) was created at the Singapore World Toilet Summit under the chairmanship of Jack Sim, Director of the Singapore Toilet Association, as a means of bringing pressure to improve toilets across the globe.

India and Third World inspiration In Third World countries provision of sewerage and drainage systems and public toilets is more likely to be an integral component of town planning at a strategic policy level, in the same way that British nineteenth-century town planning emerged as a companion to the public health movement fighting disease and unsanitary conditions. In India less than 20% of the urban population has flush toilets. Public toilets are likely to be the only modern toilets found in many villages. There are 120 million dalets (untouchables) whose main role is to clear away other people’s excreta and to undertake other ‘unclean’ but necessary tasks in society. Ghandi broke the taboos by cleaning the latrines himself in his Ashram. There is an active Indian toilet movement, thanks to the work of Bineshwar Pathak and others (1994, 1996). Bineshwar Pathak is a high caste Brahmin and engineer, who established the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation near New Dehli in order to provide toilets and baths for the poor and rescue the dalets from a life of carrying away other people’s excreta. His organisation has constructed over 700,000 twin-pit pour-flush toilets and thus has made 240 towns free from manual scavenging of human excreta. But he has also created over 3000 pay-to-use community toilets-cum-baths used by 10 million people each day, where incidentally men pay but the toilets and baths are free for women and children. Flushing toilets are known as ‘glamour rooms’ in order to encourage their popularity. Sulabh International Museum of Toilets has also been established. As one approaches the toilet of a particular country the national anthem of that country plays. The example of India shows the power of charismatic individual campaigners in altering the toilet culture, and it also shows the importance of integrating toilet provision into high-level strategic policy-making for both urban and rural areas. The next WTO Toilet Summit will be held in Sulabh, India in 2003 as it is now world famous. Ironically, meanwhile in Britain our public toilets are being turned into Indian restaurants (You Magazine, 1994).

Japan and Far East Chapters 8–11 sought to put forward alternative approaches to planning and designing toilets. Reference was made to the example of Japan and emerging Tiger economy nations of the Pacific Rim, where good toilet provision is seen as 278


a sign of modernity and progress, like computers and airports, and people are proud to work for public toilet departments. Culturally, an item in the Independent newspaper in 1996 says it all: it showed a photograph of a couple getting married inside the Gents in front of the urinal which was conveniently being used as a decorated altar for the wedding ceremony; it was encaptioned, ‘Lavatory love-in: Taiwanese couple tie the knot at their own convenience’, photograph by Simon Kwong. The article read: ‘At the font (the urinal actually) eight Taiwanese couples married in a luxurious million-dollar public convenience that one of the couple had designed and built, it was chosen as a wedding site because ‘’it is the place most people visit most often’’ ’ (Independent, 1996). Designing toilets is not seen as a low status profession, while working in them is seen as a respectable career move. Chapter 9 particularly drew attention to disabled toilet provision, while trying (hard) to integrate the issue within mainstream urban policy considerations. Designing toilets for disabled people is also part of this Far East Toilet Revolution. For example, in China the personal experience of one of its recent leaders played a part in making sure that disabled toilets were a component of ‘the revolutionary toilet movement’. Premier Deng Xiao Ping, who died in 1997, had a concern for toilet issues because his son was incontinent and disabled, and because of his continuing links with his peasant roots in Sichuan province where modernisation is now underway. While in the East toilets are venerated and valued, like holy temples, in the West toilets are a target for disrespect. As is the case in Japan, it is recommended that architectural competitions for recent graduates and final-year students in architecture are introduced with sponsorship support (JTA, 1992). A range of magnificent new public toilets has been built, many under the architectural competition programme, with each facility consisting of a bijou, architect-designed cameo building, in a range of styles including Gothic, Greek, Shinto and Modern, each conceived as a prominent townscape feature, and containing both Western and Eastern style toilet facilities. At night such buildings are ‘lit up like temples’, thus reducing vandalism and adding townscape interest.

European Union initiatives Spatial strategy Throughout the book the problem of British town planning – namely its obsession with controlling land uses and buildings rather than thinking about the activities and needs of people – was highlighted. A rather different approach to ‘planning’ emanating from the EU may help overcome this obstacle. All member states are now required to produce a ‘spatial development strategy’ for each local authority area, which, unlike the old land-use zoning maps and plans, is required to show the spatial distribution of social and economic initatives and 279

THE SOLUTIONS

Figure 14.1 Japan. The restroom revolution in Japan is manifest in all sorts of external architectural designs which reveal sophisticated solutions and advanced standards inside, including ratios of 2:1 and even 3:1 in favour of women, and a range of facilities for babychanging and disability needs. Japan is trying to make toilets an integral component of urban design and public art. 280

Standards harmonisation Harmonisation of plumbing standards and introduction of controlled low-waterusage flushing systems will all require substantial alterations to British public toilets. Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) is the body responsible for harmonising standards across the EU. At present, the BSI standards, and likewise those of other member states, take precedence, but CEN standards are a key consideration in the revision of national standards. But CEN standards are purely ‘voluntary’ – ‘no one is forced to use the standards’, although CEN does issue its own kite mark for approved products. Compliance with EU standards offers just the opportunity to refurbish, rebuild and redesign to more equitable and accessible standards. The range of CEN toilet standards mirrors those of UK standards and, for example, they have not issued any guidance as to the distribution, location or numbers of toilets. Conforming to EU standards is nowadays a major factor in refurbishing any municipal public toilet block and is an ongoing management consideration. As discussed earlier, the ongoing management and maintenance of public toilets far exceeds the initial capital expenditure of building them in the first place. Clearly toilet ‘rearmament’ to the most exacting modern standards would be a major national investment; it cannot be done on the cheap.


facilities. The Greater London Authority (GLA) is currently producing such a spatial strategy and in view of its previous commitment to social issues this may provide a routeway for better toilet provision. The Mayor’s Walking Plan for London and the effect of Local Transport Plans for London will all help towards creating an integrated approach towards achieving the Mayor’s Vision for London for 2015 which incorporates policies on cleansing. I have been assured by GLA planners at a recent conference on streets and public space that public toilets are to be seen as a necessary component in this strategy (TFL, 2002). But such is the division of local government powers that it will be up to the individual London boroughs to take the policy through to implementation. At national level the DTLR (2001) published a Green Paper signalling fundamental change to the national planning system and, in spite of many mentions of the word ‘community’ and ‘local planning’, no mention of specific practical issues such as toilets was given.

Human rights This book has sought to stress a strong user-based perspective. As discussed earlier, cultural and religious differences are extremely important in toilet use and design. The Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), whose provisions were introduced in October 2000 arising from the European Commission on Protection of Human Rights, has come into force within the UK. Article 14 deals with prohibition of discrimination, and creates a much more open-ended, broader definition than found 281

THE SOLUTIONS

previously under English law. The legislation upholds the right of family life and the right to privacy, both of which according to EU lawyers might be interpreted to include the right to equal toilet facilities for women, and to ‘away from home’ baby feeding and changing facilities. It might also be helpful in restricting the introduction of unisex toilets, particularly on the grounds of ethnicity and religious requirements for modesty and privacy, especially for women users.

Gender mainstreaming Another fundamental problem highlighted throughout the book is the gender bias still found in so much public policy-making and toilet standards setting, thus inconveniencing over half the population so that women still comment ‘why is there always a queue for the Ladies?’. A range of European Union derived initiatives may force local authorities to give greater attention to righting the male/female toilet inequalities. Policies supported by EU structural funding, such as Objective 1 and 2 programmes aimed at economically depressed regions, must now be the subject of gender mainstreaming. For example, if new hightech industrial development is to be built on the edge of town, a gender audit would need to consider how women as well as men might travel there, what childcare facilities would be provided and what other backup facilities might be needed in terms of social infrastructure, including toilets. Likewise, if a new visitor centre is built in a national park in an Objective 1 area and if the policy is ‘gender-proofed’, equal toilet provision would be included. The Amsterdam Treaty (Chapter 2) now requires that all public services are to be provided with full regard to equal opportunities by local authorities within each member state (Greed, 2002e,f). If a successful legal case were brought under this Treaty it would make it a requirement for the total number of women’s conveniences to equal that of men, and it would make charging women only illegal.

European women’s initiatives Throughout the book it has been argued that is important to see public toilets as key components within the living fabric of the city, as mainstream considerations in urban strategic policy-making – and not as just something nasty dealt with by the technical services department along with dustcarts, allotments and blocked drains. At a landmark conference on ‘Women in the City’ (OECD, 1994), a number of the principles were voiced – namely, the need for the city of short journeys and walking distances; de-zoning, creating the city of mixed land uses; and the city of everyday life where local facilities, employment opportunities and shops are liberally sprinkled throughout urban space. These principles have been developed by Eurofem, the European women planners’ network. In this vision for the New Europe, providing public toilets would be an integral and central policy component affecting the design and shaping of cities at all levels. 282


These issues were raised in the Habitat II conference on human settlements held in Istanbul, Turkey in 1996, at which the author and her colleagues were able to present an account of research on making shopping centres more ‘user-friendly’ and accessible for women with small children in relation to examples from the London Borough of Haringey (Nisancioglu and Greed, 1996). This project inevitably included raising the problem of lack of public toilets, as well as problems of public transport, access problems, narrow doorways and steps, safety and security issues. There has also been a growth in groups of elderly people campaigning for more recognition of their needs, with an increasingly ageing population in Western Europe. With the ongoing modernisation, harmonisation and expansion of the European Union, public toilet issues are bound to become more topical, both for manufacturers looking for new markets and for users looking for better standards. One of the most promising avenues is the application of legal requirements deriving from European Union Directives and related policy. In particular, Article 2 and 3, section E, Clause 2, of the Amsterdam Treaty 1998 requires that all public services are to be provided with full regard to equal opportunities by local authorities within each member state. In other words, all local authority policy and investment decisions should be ‘gender-proofed’ to ensure that women’s and men’s needs are equally taken into account in the decision-making process and in the allocation of policies and resources (Greed et al, 2002). This requirement has revolutionary implications that could change everything, especially since its provisions, unlike the British Building Regulations, are retrospective in scope. Few local authorities realise the implications – yet …

American lessons One of the biggest problems in seeking to increase provision at city-wide level has been the fact that ‘toilets’ have not been seen to be a strategic town planning policy issue, with the exception of where ‘toilets’ have been included in the leisure and tourism strategy. Yet an integrated land use–transportation planning strategy for truly sustainable cities would surely incorporate toilet policy, particularly if the government is serious about reducing dependence on the motorcar. One of the problems of the British planning system has been its obsession with physical land use issues to the exclusion of social considerations. But, in comparison, ‘social policies’ can be more readily incorporated within the zoningbased planning systems found in North America (Cullingworth, 1993: 11). Zoning may give the impression of being a ‘narrow’ physical, land-use based activity, which may be defined as the ‘division of a local government area into districts which are subject to different regulations regarding the use of land, and the height and bulk of buildings which are allowable’ (ibid). Thus the landowner has less control over internal, as well as external, layout than in Britain, and developers may be required to provide high quality public conveniences, day-care, 283

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environmental conditions, and a wider range of qualitative provision factors to meet zoning regulations (Cullingworth and Nadin, 1994: 251, 272, n.17). In Britain planning control does not generally extend to the insides as well as outsides of buildings, which makes planning conditions for the inclusion of offstreet toilet provision ultra vires. With shopping malls, transport termini concourses and covered all-weather sports and leisure facilities being built, the insides/outsides divisions of urban space seem inappropriate, particularly when the interior of such building structures may comprise a large component of a town’s public space. There is clearly a need for unification of the building regulations and the planning regulations, possibly along the lines of American zoning controls. There is a discretionary element at work in North American planning. According to the location, provision may be made mandatory, or be bonused (Caplan, 1989). ‘Zoning bonusing’ is rather like ‘planning gain’ in that social provision is provided in exchange for a better planning permission, although it is likely there will be fixed bonusing standards, rather than individual agreements based on ad hoc negotiation as is often the case within the British system. American planning systems have to take on board a strong Civil Rights agenda, which is tougher than the British ‘equal opportunities’ requirements in terms of disability, race and gender requirements. As a result, one is likely to find a higher level of social provision such as daycare centres, and both abled and disabled toilet provision, but most such provision is off-street within shopping malls and other types of private development such as banks, department stores and the hot-food takeaways. But there is limited public sector provision. In a continent criss-crossed by a highly mobile, motorised public, this causes problems (‘Why don’t travel guides list the best restrooms?’ [Toronto Star, Supplement, 30.7.93]). There is no national public toilet system in the USA, so the toilet situation is patchy and determined by local priorities: ‘where they are good they are very good, where they are bad they are nonexistent’. As in Britain, the American cities and states that do have regulations for public toilet provision generally operate on a permissive, rather than mandatory, system. As in Britain, with cutbacks the public washrooms are the first to close, leaving entire transit systems in New York with no remaining public toilets. North America has provided many good ideas on social planning, women and planning, accessible environments and urban design – all of which have toilet implications. For example, as stated earlier, Dolores Hayden in her book Redesigning the American Dream (Hayden, 1984) includes plans for converting existing housing estates in such a way that community buildings combining a range of facilities such as childcare, elder care, concierge services, parcel collection, laundry and security could all be included within each neighbourhood block. Public toilets might be an ideal addition to such useful multi-purpose community buildings. The spirit of civil rights and a more proactive approach continues to live on within the various toilet groups campaigning for better facilities in the US.

Accountability and best value While the rest of the world offers a wonderful range of toilet possibilities, creative thinking and generous initiatives, a more regulatory and restrictive policy approach is to be found in the UK where toilets and other public facilities are sparingly provided and rationed, yet rigorously counted and audited. A plethora of Audit Commission, Best Value, New Deal for Communities and Home Office Social Exclusion initiatives, which ostensibly promote government accountability towards citizens’ needs, have had marginal effect upon toilet provision. A vast amount of investment has been put into urban regeneration without any reference to toilet provision. While the result of all this activity has generally been disappointing (Chapter 13), such initiatives still offer potential, provided there is also funding and it is directed to toilet provision specifically. Currently national audit functions are being decentralised to local authority level with reference to established performance indicators. Thus Local Performance Indicators (LPIs) are being created (LIB01/SS30). Encouragingly, the BTA was involved in the consultation process in setting LPIs in respect of advice on cleaning standards, giving some official recognition. But the LPIs still lack a gender dimension, any measurement of distribution and location, or a realistic user calculation formula, which should be based not just on numbers of local residents, but all users, including tourists, commuters, workers, shoppers etc. (email: [email protected] for local performance indicators). One of the problems has been the unaccountability and ‘separation’ of toilet policies both from ordinary people and from the public participation procedures normally associated with plan-making. Increased chances of consultation before the closure of public toilets under the Local Government Finance Bill were promised but little improvement has subsequently been observed. Clearly citizen rights need to be improved. Edwards (1998b) discusses the potential of Citizens’ Juries where ordinary people can ‘judge’ particular policies in respect of the likely effects on their lives, while focus groups encourage people to concentrate on key areas.


British opportunities

Best value Critical panels set up in relation to Best Value programmes may act as a lever but the needs of the general public are not well represented on such panels and discussion of toilets is not necessarily on the agenda. A number of Best Value Planning Indicators (BVPI) have been established by the government. BVPI 112, called ‘The Planning Quality Checklist Best Value Indicator’, includes the concept of Fair Access. Some progressive local authorities have also produced EU Benchmarking Standards as part of the BV exercise. But few seem to have realised that they should apply these to public toilets departments, as against the 285

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more woman-friendly territories of Social Services, Education and Housing. However some brave London boroughs have being piloting their EU BV standards within such male territory as their Technical Services and Building Control departments, which is very encouraging.

Race relations While there is no written constitution in Britain, there has been a gradual move towards integrating human rights and equality legislation into the UK system. It is illegal to discriminate against people in the provision of public services on the basis of race (S.20 of the Race Relations Act 1976). Apart from the issue of Turkish toilets and Moslem washing laws, ethnicity may not seem to be relevant to getting ‘toilets’ higher on the agenda. But race is crucial in inner city areas, and adds to the critical mass in campaigning for ‘equal treatment’ of all minorities. The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 has major implications for the rarities of local authorities, as a much more proactive rather than defensive attitude is needed to avoid institutional racism in policy-making.

Disability The DDA is improving facilities for disabled people, along with the revisions to Part M of the Building Regulations (T in Scotland and R in Northern Ireland) (September 2001). As explained earlier, it has been illegal from December 1996 to treat disabled people less favourably, and from October 1999 service providers have been required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. By October 2004, under a Code of Practice for Part III of the Act, all buildings, existing and new, will have to be accessible to people with disabilities. In parallel, BS 8300 sets much higher standards for disabled toilet provision. The onus is on the building owner to comply. But there remain problems about ‘who pays’ and over the actual implementation of these provisions. Overall ‘what’s good for the disabled is good for everyone’ and better disabled toilets have raised expectations for everyone, making the abled less willing to accept such poor provision. As stated in previous chapters, access and toilet dimensions should be improved for everyone, especially women with pushchairs, through a more universalist strategy. Therefore real government money needs to be put into making buildings, including toilets, more accessible, rather than expecting somewhat resentful owners to comply individually with minimum acceptable standards.

Gender There are no comparable ‘rights’ in respect of women’s needs: equality or access legislation does not exist that makes it illegal to discriminate against a woman by preventing her going to the toilet by making cubicles too narrow, or allows her 286


personally to bring a case against architects and designers who prevent her taking her pushchair, infant and self to the Ladies toilets because the only access provided is down steps. One of the main barriers has been the lack of legislative requirements for adequate and equal toilet provision. Women are angry too that they may be charged to use public toilets and men are not, and that there are far fewer women’s toilets. A famous large London department store started charging women to use the toilet, while not charging male customers (who were fewer and unlikely to be accompanied by small children or babies). Legal advice was sought from the EC in relation to UK equalities legislation and on the application of EC (European Commission) requirements. By law, in theory at least, a local authority or other relevant statutory authority is required to take gender issues into account in the provision of public facilities under the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act. It is illegal to refuse or deliberately omit to provide goods and services because of the recipient’s sex. But unlike the DDA, this sentiment does not appear to apply to building design or the creation of intentional barriers such as pay-to-pee turnstiles. One would imagine that the 1936 Public Health Act obviously contravenes modern anti-sex discrimination legislation, and therefore should be repealed. But, it was determined that, if the services are voluntary (discretionary) rather than mandatory, and if an existing statute already governs the nature of provision, then apparently there is no legal case of ‘discrimination’ to answer. Nevertheless, the litigation routeway shows potential for the future. But litigation is expensive, there is no ‘class action’ procedure as exists in the US, although there are proposals to introduce MPL (multiparty litigation). As stated earlier, there is no Circular or White Paper which specifically gives guidance on gender issues in town planning, and those which give indirect support are outdated. Circular 22/84 (updated by PPG 12) stated that the unitary development plan system will ‘provide authorities with positive opportunities to reassess the needs of their areas, resolve conflicting demands, and consider new ideas and bring forward appropriate solutions’. The Royal Town Planning Institute’s Code of Professional Conduct, 1986, makes it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, creed or religion; this alone should govern an individual planner’s conduct, and it should be ‘his’ duty to enlighten his local authority on these matters. Whatever the nature of toilet law, the planning system and the ‘official’ regulatory requirements, the likely implementation of better toilet policies depends upon the level of political commitment to social change within a local authority, and the attitudes and values of the policy-makers themselves. Unlike with wheelchairs there is no legal requirement that accessible toilets must be designed that can accommodate people with pushchairs. It is hoped that future revisions to BS6560 Part II (currently under consideration) might actually include standards on childcare and baby provision, and that in this process perhaps someone will, at last, realise that wider doorways, bigger cubicles and no steps are basic essentials.

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Parliamentary change Greater political pressure and new legislation is another way forward, especially in respect of women’s demands. But women still only comprise less than 25% of elected councillors. Only a quarter of women under 30 apparently vote at general elections. Also much depends upon the personal perspective, ideological base (if any), self-interest, background and education of women politicians (Stark, 1997). An increase in women in Parliament (around 15% of total) does not necessarily mean anything. While greater numbers may mean more critical mass, as indicated in the last chapter (13), a small well-organised group, or one or two totally dedicated charismatic individuals, male or female, may prove more effective than hundreds of new minority individuals, who appear confused and unsure of their role. In fact many people feel betrayed by New Labour which is clearly not Loo Labour. Likewise the fact that over 45% in the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament are women does not mean toilets and other women’s issues will come to the fore, such are the organisational and cultural constraints and protocols at work. John Major at the Tory Conference in 1992 stressed the importance of committing the government to increased provision of public toilets on motorways, giving a pledge to provide a motorway service station every 15 miles. This commitment was met with derision by the media but rang a chord with ordinary motorists; however, a Tory toilet policy has not been visible since. There is a need for a ‘proper’ Act of Parliament (as against bits and pieces of ‘standards’, regulations and local bye-laws), which would ‘compel’ full and mandatory provision such as was first drafted in the early 1990s in conjunction with Jon Owen Jones, the Member of Parliament for Cardiff, by Susan Cunningham. With the election of the New Labour government, he acquired new duties and the mantle passed to Julie Morgan, MP for North Cardiff, who incidentally is the wife of Rhodri Morgan, current head of the new Welsh Assembly. Several attempts were made to present a private member’s bill on compulsory public toilet provision. A cross-party group was established to press for change and in retrospect the list of supporters makes interesting reading. The bill was first put forward on 19 April 1994 and supported by an interesting range of MPs including Nicholas Winterton, Peter Viggers, Ann Winterton, Ian McCarthy, Jean Corston, Mildred Gordon, Andrew Smith, Majorie Mowlam, Simon Hughes, Liz Lynne and Harry Greenway. The bill failed to receive enough support in spite of three attempts to get it accepted. Subsequently, and in spite of promising reassurances, the bill did not receive prioritisation and support from the New Labour administration. Strong support was still given by Barbara Follett (founder of Emily’s list to get more women into parliament). Politicians are not particularly interested. A classic comment made by Jon Owen Jones says it all, ‘I’ve come to the conclusion that unless women’s organisations, and women councillors in particular, take a leading role, it won’t happen.

1.

2. 3. 4.

Local authorities to be required to provide a minimum number of public toilets, including equal provision for women with men. Jones’s original bill proposed 2:1 provision in favour of women which would have made the situation truly equal in terms of women’s ‘slower’ and greater use of public toilets relative to men. The provision of baby and childcare facilities in toilets. Repeal of 1936 Act, subsection 3, Part C which allows local authorities to charge women and not men. Turnstiles to be abolished in ALL toilets including at railway stations and shopping centres.


It seems to be one of those issues which men do not seem to see as their business’ (interview 28.9.94 and similar sentiments reiterated in 1999). Toilets are hardly a priority in Parliament in that in the House of Commons there are 79 urinals and 51 loos for men, and 59 loos for women but these serve both women MPs and female support and office staff. In spite of the Labour government’s emphasis on reducing social exclusion this has not led to more public toilets. But interestingly Lord Irvine the Lord Chancellor spent £3000 on the toilet in his renovated apartments, using a Pugin toilet throne design. Subsequently, in New Labour’s second term, Alan Meale MP took over the role of supporting the BTA’s objective of getting a private member’s bill through Parliament. To summarise, the John Owen Jones bill called for:

The lottery of new possibilities Outside and above the world of toilets, top-down organisations such as, for example, the Lottery, Millennium Commission, Sports Council and Arts Council exist outside and separate from the construction and built environment world. They have higher powers to require higher accessibility and design standards in buildings than are found under ‘normal’ legislation (Arts Council, 1996) in respect of ‘what is built’ and ‘who ‘ is building it. Thus a new form of social town planning initiative has developed within the world of arts and media funding. Voluntary bodies representing minority groups are likely to be among the beneficiaries of their grants, thus enabling them to produce exemplary schemes in terms of both design and employment practice. This creates fusion between topdown and bottom-up groups which should, in theory, generate change. Surely groups such as BTA should qualify for funding. Some campaign groups are suspicious of the ad hoc lottery approach to funding which is based upon competition, rather than comprehensive long-term policy, and which may yet prove temporary. I have found many examples of inadequate toilet provision even in prestigious schemes, such as the Millenniumfunded, Bristol Exploratory dockside redevelopment. Here the aim was to attract families, children and tourists, yet toilet provision is inadequate with queues for 289

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Figure 14.2 People walking across Millennium Square, Bristol (invisible toilets marked by arrow).

Figure 14.3 Remedial signs in the Tea Room by Millennium Square. But there are very few public toilets in the centre and the emphasis is upon public art, such as fountains and giant glass balls rather than practical facilities to meet tourist demands.

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women’s toilets, limited space for all, and the fact that the toilets are tucked away out of sight. Apparently the architect did not want the toilets to detract from his design of the square… Initiatives from large quasi-public sector bodies such as television companies and supermarket chains offer possibilities. The ITV Year of Promise campaign enabled BTA to approach every local authority in the UK to upgrade one toilet, but stipulated that they must be ones where they would employ attendants. But some spontaneous well-intentioned media projects remain deeply flawed in terms of sexism and in promoting bad design solutions. The new Lifeboat House at Burnham-on-Sea, notorious for being built as one of ‘Challenge Anneka’s’ escapades, provides 24-hour toilets, but makes twice the provision for men as women, the toilet section having three doors, one for men, one for women and one labelled ‘urinal’! (1996). When I rechecked in 2002 there were still three doors now painted red instead of green, but now the Ladies toilet had acquired a disabled sign as well, while the males had a Gents to themselves and the third door was mysteriously unmarked. So inequality is maintained, with the women and disabled people sharing now.

Conclusion Adoption of better public toilet policy would have major implications for the design of urban form, the creation of sustainable and healthy cities, and have an impact upon the layout, urban design, appearance and functionality of our cities. It would benefit all local citizens including men and women, abled and disabled, and all age groups, as well as benefiting tourists, travellers and commuters. While the ‘male’ toilet fraternity seems obsessed with the problems of vandalism and cottaging and thus with creating fortress-like toilets, women and disability groups are concerned with developing more open, accessible, user-friendly toilets for all. Investing in public toilets is good business sense as it increases the numbers and range of people visiting city centres, tourist resorts and struggling shopping centres. But, in shaping future toilet policy, we must ensure that the views of users as well as providers are taken into account, and that a balance is achieved between the fortress mentality of those concerned with reducing crime ‘in the Gents’, and the accessibility agenda of women and people with disabilities who want freely open, friendly and capacious toilets. In the final analysis there is a need for cultural change, to move from an attitude of begrudging provision and seeing it as a waste of money, to moving towards a sense of civic pride and human rights in which public toilet provision is seen as a normal and natural requirement to create accessible, sustainable cities. When people stop seeing public lavatories as a joke and toilet humour perishes, and better toilet provision is seen as natural and valid, then cultural change will have taken place. At present in Britain there is an attitude of 291

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Figure 14.4a Burnham toilets, consisting of a Ladies, Gents and Male Urinal (Challenge Anneka, 1997).

Figure 14.4b Burnham a few years later, now has a Gents, a combined Ladies/Disabled toilet and a store cupboard. The doors have been repainted but the facilities remain unequal (photographed 2002).

arrogance and complacency towards public toilet provision, and thus tourists are put off and horrified and locals feel short-changed. In contrast, a culture of provision, as found in Singapore and Japan, needs to be created, in which such public provision is valued as a means of building up the ‘power of civic society’ and 292


Figure 14.5 Dark turnstiles, forebodings for the future.

the quality of life. Urban design has an important role to play in this process by offering a holistic framework for provision. In the final analysis ‘toilets are for people’ and people’s toilet preferences are governed by all sorts of intangible factors, over and above the purely functional or technological considerations. Toilets should be designed to fit people’s need rather than people having to change their behaviour and habits in order to fit in with new alien toilet technology (Cummings, 2002). The worst future toilet scenario is towards even more technological solutions, even more impregnable, unisex fortress-like ‘Tardis’ APCs plonked down on the pavement by a lorry and plumbed in with little public consultation, local survey or involvement. Such contraptions are not welcomed by the public but are shunned by them. They represent misplaced public investment, and are a waste of taxpayers’ money. There is a need for a toilet revolution, for a total toilet rearmament, but it needs to be done in a sympathetic manner, more like a toilet evolution, in which ordinary people – that is, the users – are consulted about what they want. This would not only create better design but would give local communities a greater sense of ownership of ‘their toilets’ and this in turn may cut down on vandalism, crime and toilet-disrespect. The best future toilet scenario is to see the creation of truly comfortable friendly toilets, ones that are designed with the needs of real people in mind, with ample provision for all, separate male and female facilities, unrestricted access, attendants, and level clear access. Such buildings would not be dull, mundane and uniform. They would be designed to complement the surrounding architecture, and comprise well-designed, visually enriching, interesting and valuable components within the diverse surroundings of our towns, cities and countryside. 293

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Key points ➥

Toilet provision to be legally mandatory

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Toilet building, maintenance and management to be fully funded

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Toilet policy to be mainstreamed into strategic policy

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Change of culture leading to toilet rearmament

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Greater design consultation of all user groups, including women and disabled

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2:1 ratio in favour of women

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Fully accessible toilets for all, both abled and disabled

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Great toilet architecture

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Inclusive urban toilet design

Existing policies and objectives of toilet groups Why public toilet provision must improve

APPENDIX: TOILET STANDARDS AND GUIDANCE

Appendix: Toilet standards and guidance

1 Everyone needs to go to the toilet several times in the course of the day, not only the disabled or incontinent, but everyone from all age groups needs them when away from home. 2 Those who do suffer incontinence and other urinary problems need toilets of necessity. Women need toilets with decent clean seats which they can sit on to prevent retention of urine and the development of incontinence. 3 If local authorities provide toilets for the groups in 1 and 2 above, there will be fewer people developing continence problems and requiring NHS treatment. Spending a relatively small amount on public toilets will save far more money in the long run from the health budget. 4 The disabled need accessible public toilets, as does everyone else as a basic human right. Everyone temporarily dis-enabled by childcare, pregnancy, baby buggies, injury, accidents, shopping and luggage is entitled to accessible public toilets. 5 Women, as the majority of the population, the elderly and disabled people need adequate free public toilet provision as a basic equal right. Women constitute 80% of shoppers so the provision of good toilet facilities in retail areas and town centres will increase the revenue and profitability of that area and contribute to national prosperity. 6 Providing public toilets will encourage more people to travel by public transport, to walk and to cycle without fear of being caught short. This will contribute towards reducing pollution, creating a greener environment and sustainable cities.

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7 Culturally, providing adequate toilets at all hours will facilitate the development of the 24-hour city, help clean up the streets and alleyways and contribute to citizen choice, freedom and the quality of life. 8 Good toilet design will contribute to improving the urban design and architectural quality of our towns and cities, thus making our cities more attractive and raising their profile with huge beneficial social and economic spin-offs. 9 A nation’s image is judged by its toilets as they are often the first thing that tourists see when travelling to a country. Adequate public toilets will increase tourism and benefit the whole economy. 10 The state of public toilets is an indication of the state of the government and nation as a whole. Neglected slovenly conditions generate more crime and vandalism. As one of the few ‘public’ facilities located out in the community, they act as an emblem that is an outward and visible sign of the state of society and the government itself. Closing them because of damage condones vandalism. 11 It is legally indefensible to provide such discriminatory levels of services for women. 12 It is politically important to improve public toilets because the majority of the electorate (60% are women) worry about them. It would be a sign that politicians were concerned about social inclusion and accountability, and were operating joined-up thinking. One of the conclusions is that in order to facilitate the ‘coming through’ of alternative people and values, so as to alter the nature of the policies and the professions that shape the built environment, great changes are still needed within the structures of higher education and professional practice.

Loo of the year awards (LOYAs) public toilet charter (criteria) LOYA criteria provide a good basis for design and management guidance as follows: 1 Adequate directions to the toilets for foot and car users. 2 Proper signage both outside and inside the toilets, including name of location, facilities available, authority responsible and whom to contact if required. 3 Hot and cold running water to wash basins in all facilities provided including those for baby-changing and disabled people. 4 Soap dispensers rather than tablet soap. 5 Alternative types of hand drying to ensure continuity of supply – i.e. paper towels and/or warm air dryers and/or cotton/paper towel rolls in appropriate dispensers. 296

BTA recommendations 1 The signposting of public toilets needs to be improved qualitatively and quantitatively: more signs are needed with precise information about distances and facilities provided. 2 Local authority public toilets to be located in central, open and well-lit areas. 3 External and internal lighting needs to be improved to make visiting a public toilet a safer, more inviting and pleasant experience. 4 Access to public toilets needs to be improved and should be on ground level or on every floor of any public building. 5 Adequate heating and ventilation are essential features of any public toilet. 6 All public toilets should be supervised permanently or checked at very regular intervals to maintain the highest levels of hygiene and cleanliness. 7 A range of cubicle sizes should be available in public toilets in accordance with BS 6465 Part 1 and 2, see No. 29 based on the location and use of the toilets in question. 8 All cubicles should contain hooks, shelves or racks, so that articles do not have to be placed on the floor, easily operated toilet paper dispensers and, in women’s toilets, there should be disposal facilities for sanitary products. 9 Cubicle doors should have easily operated locks. 10 Adequate washing and drying facilities should be provided. 11 More public toilets should be provided for women. 12 More public toilets should be provided for people with disabilities. 13 More unisex toilets for parents and children are needed. 14 Information should be available on a range of different aspects of toilet provision. 15 Opening times should be displayed clearly externally. 16 Alternative toilet locations should be listed externally. 17 The range of facilities available should be displayed externally, including where to obtain the keys for toilets for disabled people. 18 Fire instructions should be displayed clearly internally.


6 Lockable toilet tissue disappears with spare or multi-roll capacity. 7 Sanitary towel disposal units inside all Ladies cubicles. 8 Fully accessible and properly designed and equipped toilets for wheelchair users, to include adequate disposal facilities. 9 Dedicated and properly equipped baby-changing facilities in both male and female toilets – or as a unisex facility. 10 Effective cleaning management and supervision to ensure all facilities are fit for use at all times.

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19 Names, telephone numbers and addresses for making complaints or reporting damage should be displayed internally. 20 Information about all the available facilities should be displayed clearly in the appropriate places. 21 Any tourist information, including maps, should have accurate and up-todate information about public toilet locations, opening times and facilities. 22 Information about public toilet facilities in tourist areas should be displayed clearly in appropriate world languages. 23 More public toilets are needed in tourist areas. 24 Planners in tourist resorts need to accommodate the needs of tourists, both day visitors and long-stay visitors, when providing toilet facilities. Toilets should be designed to meet a wide range of personal hygiene needs including, showers, drinking water and extensive washing and drying facilities. 25 Improved systems of information exchange are needed by all providers of public toilets to improve standards and combat problems such as vandalism, graffiti and other illicit activities. 26 Architects, planners, designers and builders need to work closely together to provide better designed toilets. Public toilet provision should be based on the needs of consumers and not service providers. 27 Building Regulations need to have wider and more detailed scope. 28 BS 6465 Parts 1 and 2 need to be applied comprehensively as a minimum standard and not as an aspiration.

Best practice guide for visitor lavatories National Trust standards (National Trust, 2000) Explanation These guidelines are intended to cover both the visitor care and environmental considerations for visitor lavatories. They should be cross-referenced with the ‘Guidance note on the Provision of Visitor Facilities at National Trust Properties (1999)’ and ‘Visitors with Disabilities – a Manual for Staff’ (1998). These notes were compiled by Catherine Roper, Visitor Services Officer, Queen Anne’s Gate, and Tarnzin Phillips, Assistant Environmental Practices Adviser, Cirencester, and are used with the kind permission of Catherine Roper.

Baby-changing/facilities for children • Baby-changing units should never be placed in adapted lavatories assigned to people with disabilities. This is because attending to a baby can be a lengthy business and disabled people often need rapid access to a lavatory. 298


• If there is not a separate parent and baby room, then changing tables should be placed within both the men’s and women’s lavatories. • Changing tables should be mounted at adult height – usually at the same height as wash basins. Restraining straps are desirable to prevent babies rolling off the table. • A wall mounted toddler seat with restraints should be placed near the changing table. • A clearly labelled nappy bin with lid should be provided. • Nappy dispensing machines should be considered by properties with large numbers of families visiting – together with information from the Real Nappy Campaign. • The provision of a low sink and small lavatory should be considered by those properties that receive large numbers of families. If there isn’t a urinal at an appropriate height for boys and one cannot be fitted, then a block step should be provided. • Feeding babies should not be associated with lavatories. Ideally there should be somewhere quiet, private and comfortable where babies can be fed.

Brassware • Auto off/press taps should be used with either an aerated or spray flow set at the correct pressure to help reduce water consumption. • Flow regulators to each outlet can help balance pressure problems and can reduce water consumption. A low flow is needed for taps and a higher flow for lavatories. • Auto sensor electronic taps are not recommended at present as problems have been experienced with sunlight reflecting off the bowl, and an inability to detect dark skin. Basic visitor facilities do not require both hot and cold taps. • Consideration should be given to providing an external auto off tap to allow visitors to rinse walking boots and to provide drinking water for dogs.

Cleaning and maintenance • Lavatory facilities with a high usage should be checked every hour, those with a low usage should be cleaned 4 times a day. It is recognised that this requirement will be impractical in some remote locations; in these instances, facilities should be checked and cleaned at least once or twice a day where possible. • Lavatory facilities should be designed so that they are easy to clean and maintain. Particular attention will need to be paid to the choice of flooring, to the design of partitioning and to any fixtures. Places where dirt can collect should be designed out at the initial stages. Sheet flooring with 299


•

• • •

•

• •

impervious welded joints is preferable to tiled and grouted flooring as bacteria can multiply in grout and cause unpleasant smells. Drains and waste pipe runs should be easily accessible so that they can be unblocked with drain rods if necessary. Likewise, sink traps should be easily accessible. Designated storage space for cleaning equipment should be well organised so that it does not become cluttered. A low-level cleaning sink is recommended so that mop buckets can be filled and emptied easily. A good cleaning regime and adequate natural ventilation are better than masking smells. The National Trust does not recommend using `Bloo’ or other proprietary in-cistern blocks. All cleaning materials should be sympathetic to the sewage treatment system in place. Sediment traps may be required, particularly for lavatory blocks on sandy beaches where visitors wash out swimming costumes etc. It may be appropriate for these facilities to have an external cold shower. Regular maintenance is essential for all lavatory blocks. Any dripping taps and overflowing lavatory cisterns should be repaired as quickly as possible. In hard water areas, taps and other plumbing fixtures will need to be descaled regularly.

Cubicle provision • There are British Standards which specify the numbers of lavatories for different types of public buildings. Unfortunately, none of these building classifications are directly comparable with the types of buildings provided by the Trust. This note does not therefore give guidance on the specific numbers of lavatories required for any given situation. • There should be twice as many lavatory facilities for women as for men as women sit to urinate and take longer to do so (cubicles provided for men × 2 = minimum number of cubicles needed for women). When a refit or refurbishment is being carried out, consideration should be given to the possibility of reducing men’s facilities. • Toilet facilities should be increased so that provision for women relative to men can be increased to satisfy the 2:1 ratio. • Cubicles should have the following minimum sizes: length – 183 cm, width – 91 cm, distance between the opening door edge and lavatory bowl – 25 cm.

Decoration • Visitors to lavatories are a captive audience. Properties should take the opportunity to display framed leaflets and to advertise events, new features or nearby properties. All display frames should be easy to clean. 300

General • A notice with a contact name, contact point or telephone number in the event of complaints or problems should be clearly displayed. • Door locks should be large grip and easy sliding. They should be positioned 100 cm from the ground to allow children to use them. It should be possible for staff to be able to open these locks from the outside in case of emergencies. • Lavatory paper dispensers should be positioned within easy reach of the seated person and should be able to be operated using one hand only. Experience has shown that lavatories with roll dispensers are less likely to suffer from blockages than those with flat sheet dispensers, as the paper tends to come out in wads. • Large lavatory paper dispensers can impinge on the space inside a cubicle and this should be taken into account when choosing or positioning them. • There should be a coat/bag hook in every cubicle positioned 170 cm from the ground. • Lavatory flush handles need to be positioned 90 cm–105 cm above ground so that children can reach them. • Drinking fountains should be considered at properties without refreshment facilities. Where drinking fountains are installed, they should be regularly checked for leaks. • Any drinking water should be marked as such. • One refillable soap dispenser should be fitted between each pair of basins. Low foam soap should be used. • Internationally recognisable signs should always be used in preference to the wording Ladies and Gents or any abbreviations of these. Artwork is available from the Production and Design Standard signs which should be used to indicate lavatories, facilities for disabled people and for nursing mothers.


• Historic photographs, drawings and plans add interest to bare walls. Flowers and plants add a splash of colour. • A plan or explanation of the sewage system will be informative to visitors and will help explain the water saving measures in place.

Hand drying The Trust does not have a preferred hand drying method; each visitor lavatory block should be assessed on an individual basis taking the following issues into consideration: • Electronic dryers use electricity, which may rule them out for some locations. They don’t create any waste, but there has been some recent concern that 301


they spread airborne germs and bacteria. The air intake filters should be cleaned regularly. There should be sufficient hand dryers to avoid unnecessary queuing. • Paper towels do not require any electricity; however, storage space is required and the waste towels will need to be disposed of. Bins will need to be large enough so that they do not overflow. Paper towel waste can create a mess. • Roll towels do not create any waste, or use electricity. However they can jam, run out and they do of course need a reliable laundry service.

Lighting • Lighting should be bright and particular attention should be paid to the lavatory cubicles. Poor lighting makes even the cleanest convenience look shabby. • Maximum use should be made of natural daylight by utilising conservation skylights and “Sunpipes”, but only where these are appropriate to the historical setting. Light sensitive PIR detectors can be used in conjunction with these to allow artificial lighting and to supplement natural light. • In order to conserve energy, PIR sensors should be used to turn lights off when lavatories are unoccupied. The timers of these should allow sufficient time so that visitors are not left sitting in the dark! • Compact fluorescent lamps help to minimise the use of electricity. Halogen and spot lamps are not recommended as they use more electricity and cost more to run.

Miscellaneous • Frost protection heating will be required in many unheated lavatories to prevent frozen pipes in the winter. • Many lavatory blocks have a purpose built service corridor allowing access to concealed cisterns. These corridors should be wide enough to allow easy access, and should have a separate, lockable entrance. • All lavatory blocks needs adequate ventilation; natural and passive ventilation systems are the best options. Any electrical ventilation should be activated by a PIR system to ensure that it is not running continually. Refer to Building Regulations for minimum air changes per hour.

Provision for women • There should be a sanitary bin in every cubicle (including any adapted lavatories). With new build, provision should be made to ensure that cubicles are large enough to accommodate bins without restricting access. 302

Sanitary ware • Low flush lavatories reduce water consumption. Ultra low flush models such as the Ifd Cera (used at Chartwell) only use 4 litres per flush in comparison to the 7 litres of a standard flushing lavatory. • Lavatory facilities with wall hung lavatory pans are easier to clean than those with pedestal lavatories as there are fewer places for dirt to collect on the floor. • Lavatory refill times may be critical where the facilities are busy and water pressure is low. Flow regulators on taps and other outlets, together with low flush cisterns, can reduce this problem. • Waterless urinals are acceptable and can contribute to reducing water consumption. They have been tried and tested at a number of Trust properties. The two models with which we have had the most success are the Whiff Away and the Now 2000. More detailed advice will follow in due course on design specifications for pipe falls etc. • All water flushing urinals must have a flush control system in order to comply with water regulations. • It is essential that a good cleaning regime is established for all urinals, whether waterless or not.


• The National Trust has a contract with Cannon Hygiene for servicing sanitary bins. Further information is available from the Procurement Section at Heywood House and in the Health and Safety Supplies catalogue. • Sanitary bins should be monitored regularly to make sure that they are not overflowing or dirty. • ‘Bag it and Bin it’ notices or similar should be placed on the back of lavatory doors to encourage visitors to use the bins and reduce blockages in the system. • Feminine hygiene dispensing machines should be provided in lavatories. Women visitors appreciate mirrors and shelves in the basin area.

Water • Instant hot water is most efficiently supplied using electric point of use heaters. This may prove more efficient than heating and storing water. Instant electric water heaters may not be appropriate in hard water areas as the scale build-up will reduce water flow to such an extent that the water temperature could scald the user. • Although combination boilers are efficient in energy terms and some do have a small storage capacity, they are not recommended for basins in visitor lavatories as a lot of water needs to be run through before hot water is delivered to the tap. 303


• Stored hot water is most efficiently supplied from gas rather than electricity. • The viability of solar water heating should be assessed according to orientation of the roof, vulnerability to vandalism and appropriateness in the context of historic settings. • Any stored water heating system needs appropriate time controls to take account of the normal open hours, days and seasons. • Hot water storage cylinders should be factory-insulated, with zero ozonedepleting insulation (usually green in colour). • All water pipes (hot and cold) should be insulated and long pipe runs should be avoided. • Thermostats on hot water storage tanks should be set at 60°C, no lower because of the risk of Legionella bacteria, and no higher as this will result in unnecessary heat loss from the cylinder and pipework. • Hot water from any source (whether point of use or stored) will need to be automatically blended at the tap to 43–45°C, which is an appropriate temperature for hand washing. • If for any reason water from the tap is hotter than 45°C, it should be labelled as such, as there is a risk of scalding. • Cold water storage tanks should be well insulated to ensure that the water temperature is kept well below 20°C to avoid the risk of Legionella bacteria. • Ideally cold water storage should be kept to a minimum, but where mains pressure is insufficient to cope with peak demands, there must be sufficient cold water storage to cope with those peaks. • It is advisaible that all water supplies are turned off at the stopcock and the system drained down for all lavatory blocks that are closed for the winter.

Outside • The entrances to the block should be front facing to make the best use of natural surveillance. Side, rear or screened/concealed entrances offer a risk to the user while giving anonymity to the misuser. • Pebble dashing the exterior of a lavatory block removes opportunities for graffiti. • Removing windows from the walls reduces the likelihood of damage and stops people trying to peer in. The use of roof/sky lights will result in natural light. Alternatively the use of low, dense shrubbery or prickly plants such as roses makes it difficult for people to get to the windows.

Inside • Walls should be white to reflect the maximum light. • A stippled paint surface helps to deter graffiti. A tiled surface makes it easier to remove graffiti. 304

Joint Mobility Unit (JMU) The JMU provides a series of design guidance sheets on toilets, and other related issues, see web address.


• Built-in steel hand washer/driers remove all visible piping and therefore help to prevent vandalism. • Any lighting should be flush with the ceiling to prevent vandalism. • Baby-changing facilities in both men’s and women’s lavatories promotes ‘familiy usage’ and should help to deter sexual activity.

305


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Richards, Jeffrey and Mackenzie, John (1986) The Railway Station: A Social History. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Richardson, B. (1876) Hygenia, A City of Health. London. Richardson, Paul (2001) Our Lady of the Sewers and other Adventures of Deep Spain. Abacus, London. Roberts, Liz (1995) ‘Two pints of lager and a bottle of pop’, the Guardian, p. 14, 17 January. Roberts, Marion (1991) Living in a Man-Made World: Gender Assumptions in Modern Housing Design. Routledge, London. Roberts, M. and C. Greed (2001) Approaching Urban Design. Pearson, Harlow. Robertson, Lester (1996) ‘Moves to make more toilets’ in Urban Street Environment (USE), Issue 25, pp. 10–15, March. Robinson, Steve (2001) Public Conveniences: Policy, Planning and Provision. IWM (Institute of Wastes Management), London. Rogers, Lord R. (2000) Towards an Urban Renaissance: The Urban Taskforce (Final Report). Routledge, in association with DETR, London. RTPI, (Royal Town Planning Institute) (1988) Access for Disabled People, PAN (Practice Advice Note) No. 3. RTPI, London. RTPI (1989) Planning for Choice and Opportunity. RTPI, London. RTPI (1995) Planning for Women, PAN No. 12. RTPI, London. RTPI (1999) Gender and Equality and the Role of Planning, National Symposium. RTPI, London. Ryn, Sim Van der (1995) The Toilet Papers: Recycling Waste and Conserving Water. Ecological Design Press, Sausalito, California. Sale, Charles (1930) The Specialist. Putnam and Co., New York and London. Salley, Nicola (1996) ‘A bacteriological investigation of the public’s perception of Public Toilets’ in Environmental Health Congress, Harrogate, 2–5 September. Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. Sapsford, Ann (1995) Issues Planning: Customer Toilets, Consultation Draft. London Underground. Saunders, Claire (1995) ‘Culture of convenience from where women sit’ in Times Higher, 14 April (reporting on BSA conference and work of Julia Edwards). Saunders, Peter (1979) Urban Politics: A Sociological Interpretation. Penguin, Harmondsworth. Saunders, P. (1989) ‘The Meaning of Home in Contemporary English Culture’ in Housing Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp.177–92. Scottish Office (1994) Planning for Crime Prevention, PAN No. 46. HMSO, Edinburgh. Scotland (2003) Part M of the Technical Standards for Compliance with the Building Standards (Scotland) Regulations 1990 as Amended, given in full at www.scotland.gov.uk/build_regs/standards/brm-03.asp. Building Regulations Office, Edinburgh, Scotland.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 326

Shaw, Hillary (2001) ‘Food deserts’, PhD thesis, School of Geography, University of Leeds. (Also see letter in Times Higher, 26 January, p. 15, and www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/research/projects/h.shaw.html, which provides summary.) Singapore (2001) Proceedings of the World Toilet Summit, Singapore. Singapore Toilet Association and World Toilet Organisation. Skjerven, Randi (1993) Manual for Alternative Municipal Planning. Ministry of the Environment, Oslo. Smedley, A. (1978) ‘What factors, aesthetic, social and utilitarian influenced the design, decoration and placing of public lavatories in Bristol before 1939?’, Open University dissertation, No. A0279139 (handwritten with illustrations) available from Open University and RIBA library, Milton Keynes, microfiche. Soifer, Steven (2001) Shy Bladder Syndrome. Harbinger, Oakland, Maryland. Southampton (1991) Women and the Planned Environment: Design Guide. Directorate of Strategy and Development, Southampton City Council, Southampton. Spallone, Patricia and Steinberg, Deborah (1987) Made to Order: The Myth of Reproductive and Genetic Progress. Pergamon Press, New York. Spock, B. (1969) Decent and Indecent: Our personal and political behaviour. Bodley Head (as well as Book of Childcare), London. Springett, Pauline (1996) ‘Puy leads Andrex fight back’, The Guardian, 9 September. Stanworth, Michelle (ed.) (1987) Reproductive Technologies: Gender, Motherhood and Medicine. Polity Press, Cambridge. Stark, Agneta (1997) ‘Combatting the backlash: how Swedish women won the war’, pp. 224–44, in Ann Oakley and Juliet Mitchell Who’s Afraid of Feminism?: Seeing Through the Backlash. Hamish Hamilton, London. Stimpson, Catherine (ed.) (1981) Women and the American City. University of Chicago, Chicago. Stodart (1981) Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Local Government in Scotland, Cmnd 8115 (known as the ‘Stodart Report’). The Scottish Office, Edinburgh. Stringer, B. (1994) ‘Public conveniences – search for a suitable role’ in The Urban Street Environment, September/October, pp. 27–9. Sutcliffe, Anthony (1970) The Autumn of Central Paris: the defeat of town planning 1850–1970. Edward Arnold, London. Swain, J., Finkelstein, V., French, S. and Oliver, M. (1993) (eds) Disabling Barriers: Enabling Environments. Sage in association with Open University, London. Tallantire, Joe and Carroll, Vicki (1996) Sanpro Teaching Pack. WEN (Women’s ^ Environmental Network), London, sponsored by Dwr Cymru, Welsh Water. Tallon, Andrew and Bromley, Rosemary (2002) ‘Living in the 24 hour city’, Town and Country Planning, November, 2002, pp 282–285. TFL (Transport for London) (2001) Access to the Underground. Access and Mobility Unit, Transport for London, London.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

TFL (2002) Street and Social Space Audits Conference. Transport for London at Institution of Civil Engineers, 3 May. Thekaekara, Mari, Marcel (2000) Endless Filth: The Saga of the Bhangis. BFC, 28 Castle Street, Bangalore 560 025. Tickner, Lisa (1987) The Spectacle of Women: Imagery of the Suffragette Campaign 1907–1914. Chatto and Windus, London. Turner, Tom (1996) City as Landscape: A Post-PostModern (sic) View of Design and Planning. Spon, London. UNCED (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development) (1992) Earth Summit – Press summary of Agenda 21. UNCED, Rio de Janeiro. Urinette, Inc. (1990) Reasons for the She-Inal. Urinette Inc., 7012 Pine Forest Road, Pensacola, Florida 32526 (leaflet). Vidal, John (2002) ‘Put thirst of poor communities first, demands Mandela.’ The Guardian, 29.08.02, p. 4. Vincent, M. (1983) Reflections on the Portishead Branch. Oxford Publishing Company (re WC&P), Oxford. Wallace, Gabrielle (1997) ‘Toilet research’ (PhD thesis on female toilets). RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology), Melbourne. Waltham Forest (2000) Access Guidelines: Public Toilets (produced by Wendy Davis, Access Officer). London Borough of Waltham Forest, Walthamstow. Warwick, Donald (1982) ‘Tearoom Trade: Means and Ends in Social Research’, pp. 38–58 in Martin Bulmer Social Research Methods. Macmillan, London. WCD (Welsh Council for the Disabled) (1987) The Implementation of Access Legislation in Local Authorities in Wales. Access Committee for Wales, Caerphilly. WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development) (1987) Our Common Future (The Brundtland Report). Oxford University Press, Oxford. WDS (Women’s Design Service) (1990) Guideline Specifications for the fitting out of new public conveniences for London Borough of Southwark, Specifications in relation to the Elephant and Castle toilet site (November). London: WDS. WDS (1993) Consultation Report on the Design of a New Sanitary Towel Disposal Bin for Southalls (Birmingham) Ltd. (July). WDS, London. WE (Women and Environments) (1992) Special Issue, Stop the Whitewash (Spring). WE,Toronto. Weber, Max (1964) The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation (originally 1922, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Tübingen). Free Press, New York. Wekerle, Gerda and Whitzman, Carolyn (1994) Safer Cities: Guidelines for Planning, Design and Management. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Welsh Consumer Council (1996) Toiletissues (sic): A Survey of the provision and adequacy of public toilets in 18 towns and cities (July). Welsh Consumer Council, Cardiff.

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WEN (Women’s Environmental Network) (1993) Sanitary Protection: Women’s Health and the Environment. WEN, London. WGSG (Women and Geography Study Group of the Institute of British Geographers) (1997a, originally 1984) Geography and Gender. Hutchinson, London. WGSG (1997b) Feminist Geographies: Explorations in Diversity and Difference. Longmans, Harlow. Which (1995) ‘Open all hours’ in Which Magazine, May. Which (2001) ‘Public toilets’ in Holiday Which, pp. 144–6, May. Whyte, W. (1981, originally 1964) Street Corner Society: The Social Structure of an Italian Slum. University Press of Chicago, Chicago. Wilson, Elizabeth (1980) Only Half Way to Paradise. Tavistock, London. Wilson, Elizabeth (2000) ‘The Future of Women’, p. 208 in J. Darke, S. Ledwith and R. Woods Women and the City: Visibility and Voice in Urban Space. Palgrove, London. Wilson, James and Kelling, George (1982) ‘The police and neighbourhood safety: broken windows’ in Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 7, pp. 29–38. Wilson, W. (2001) Wyoming Rest Area Facilities. Department of Transportation, Cheyenne, State of Wyoming (and see item on this in BTA, 2000c). Winblad, Uno (1996) ‘Towards an ecological approach to sanitation’ in International Toilet Symposium Proceedings, Toyama, Japan, 9–11 October. Wise, A and Swaffield, J (2002) Water, Sanitary and Waste Services for Buildings. Butterworth–Heinemann, Oxford. Wohl, A. (1983) Endangered Lives: public health in Victorian Britain. Dent, London. Woloch, Jennifer and Dean, Michael (1993) Malign Neglect: Homeless in the American City. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Woo, Junda (1994) ‘Potty parity lets women wash hands of long line queues’ in Wall Street Journal, Section A-1, 24 February. Wood, L. (1994) The Lady Lever Art Gallery: Catalogue of Commodes. National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Liverpool. Woolley, Leslie (1990) Sanitation Details. Thomson International, London. Wright, L. (1960) Clean and Dirty: The Fascinating History of the Bathroom and the W.C. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. WTO (2001) World Toilet summit: Our Toilets Past, Present and Future. World Toilet Organisation, Singapore: see www.worldrestroom.org WTO (2002) World Toilet Summit: New Beginnings for the 21st Century Toilet. Korea Clean Toilet Association, Seoul, Korea. Wylde, M. (1994) Building for a Lifetime: The Design and Construction of Fully Accessible Homes. Taunton Press, London, in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York. You Magazine (1994) ‘A most convenient curry house’, p. 94 with photographs, 28 August. Mail on Sunday, London.

TOILET TERMS AND ACRONYMS

Toilet terms and acronyms

Toilet terms American = English Restroom = public toilet Men’s Room = the Gents lavatory = wash basin water closet = toilet bowl stall = compartment = closet = cubicle faucet = tap stroller = baby buggy = pushchair = baby carriage

Acronyms ACE Access Committee of England AEE Assessment of Environmental Effects AFNOR Association Française de Normalisation AMC All Mod Cons APC Automatic Public Toilet ARU Les Annales de la Recherche Urbaine (Journal of Urban Research) (France) ASI Architecture and Surveying Institute BAA British Airways Association BCODP, British Council of Organisations of Disabled People (see BCODP, 1994) BPEC British Plumbing Employers Council BR Building Regulations BS British Standards BSE ‘Mad cow disease’, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSI British Standards Institution BTA British Tourist Authority BTA British Toilet Association 329


CAD Computer Aided Design CAE Centre for Accessible Environments CCI City Centres Institute CCT Compulsory Competitive Tendering CCTV Closed Circuit Television CEC Commission of European Communities CEN European Normalisation (Standardisation) Committee (like BSI but for whole of EU) CIBSE Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers CIOB Chartered Institute of Building CIOH Chartered Institute of Housing CISC Construction Industry Standing Conference CJD Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease COM European Commission COSLA Convention of Scottish Local Authorities CPD Continuing Professional Development CRE Commission for Racial Equality CSA Canadian Standards Association DCMS Department of Culture, Media and Sport DDA Disability Discrimination Act DEFRA Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs DETR Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions DG Directorate-General (EC body) DLO Direct Labour Organisation DLR Docklands Light Railway DoE Department of the Environment DoT Department of Transport DTLR Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions EA Environment Appraisal (according to context) EA Environment Agency (for England and Wales) EA Environmental Assessment EC European Community e-coli Escherichia coli EEA European Environment Agency EEC European Economic Community EIA Environmental Impact Assessment EIP Examination in Public EO Equal Opportunities EOC Equal Opportunities Commission ES Environmental Statement ESRC Economic and Social Research Council ETB English Tourist Board EU European Union FIFA Federation of International Football Associations FoE Friends of the Earth FSA Food Standards Agency FUN Frauen Umwelt Netz (Women’s Environmental Network)

TOILET TERMS AND ACRONYMS

GDO General Development Order GLA Greater London Authority GLC Greater London Council GLDP Greater London Development Plan GMF Genetically Modified Food GNP Gross National Product GWR Great Western Railway HBF House Builders’ Federation HMSO Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (now TSO, see below) IBG Institute of British Geographers ICE Institution of Civil Engineers ICLEI International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives ISE Institution of Structural Engineers ISVA Incorporated Society of Surveyors, Valuers and Auctioneers IT Information Technology IWM Institute of Wastes Management ITAAL Is There An Accessible Toilet? (pressure group) JMU Joint Mobility Unit JTA Japan Toilet Association LA Local Authority LA21 Local Agenda 21 LBC London Borough Council LBDRT (London Boroughs Disability Team) LCC London County Council LDA London Development Agency LDDC London Docklands Development Corporation LEC Local Enterprise Council (Scotland) LGMB Local Government Management Board LOYA Loo of the Year Award LPA Local Planning Authority LRN London Regeneration Network LWMT London Women and the Manual Trades LWPF London Women and Planning Forum MAFF Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food NEA National Environment Agency NFU National Farmers Union NGO Non Governmental Organisation NHS National Health Service NRA National Rivers Authority OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ONS Office of National Statistics (successor to CSO) OOPEC Ofice of Official Publications of European Communities ORWH Office of Research on Women’s Health OS Ordnance Survey PAL Planning Aid for London PAMIS Profound and Multiple Impairment Service PAN Planning Advice Note (RTPI)

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PCU Passenger Car Unit PFI Private Finance Initiative PPG Planning Policy Guidance (Note) (England and Wales) PPP Public Private Partnership QUANGO Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation QUANGO Quasi Autonomous National Governmental Organisation RADAR Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation RDA Regional Development Agency RGS Royal Geographical Society RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects RICS Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors RMIT Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology RPG Regional Planning Guidance Note (England) RSPCA Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals RTPI Royal Town Planning Institute SAP Survey Analysis Plan SEPA Scottish Environmental Protection Agency SIA Social Impact Assessment SOBA Society of Black Architects SoS Secretary of State SRB Single Regeneration Budget SRD Sewage Related Debris SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest TAB Temporarily Able Bodied TAN Technical Advice Note (Wales) TCM Town Centre Management/Managers TCP Town and Country Planning TCPA Town and Country Planning Association TSO The Stationery Office (successor to HMSO) UCO Use Classes Order UKIUD UK Institute for Universal Design UN United Nations UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNEP United Nations Environmental Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation WC Water Closet WCED World Commission on Environment and Development WDA Welsh Development Agency WDS Women’s Design Service WEN Women’s Environmental Network WGSG Women and Geography Study Group WHO World Health Organisation WTO World Toilet Organisation WTO World Trade Organisation WWC World Water Council

WEB LINKS

Web links

In view of the transient nature of web addresses, always recheck the topic page location using google.com or another search engine. Just about every manufacturer, user group, charity, toilet organisation, university, interest group, local authority, government department, professional body, has got a web page. So the following are just a small selection of what is available.

American toilets www.thebathroomdiaries.com (international toilets) www.restrooms.org with forum Denise’s Mailbox, lots of toilet issues Architectural Barriers Act, 1968 amended, found at www.access-board.gov/ufas/ ufashtml/ufas.htm (UFAS = Uniform Accessibility Standards) www.shy.bladder.org (International Paruresis Association with growing role like that of BTA)

British toilets www.britloos.co.uk British Toilet Association e-mail [email protected] www.bsi.gov.uk and www.bsi.org.uk = British Standards Institution and see www.bsonline.techindex.co.uk and www.bsi-global.com/group.xalter for online standards GLA (Greater London Authority) is at www.london.gov.uk Corporation of London toilets at www.cityoflondon.gov.uk London Also, most local authorities have their own web site in which lists of their public toilets feature (‘insert name of town’@gov.uk) and see the Local Government Association at www.lga.gov.uk Stationery Office for government information and documents is at www.tso.co.uk/site.asp 333

WEB LINKS

Crime www.crimeconcern.org.uk, and try the various police authorities

Departments of Government ODPM (Environment Department) www.open.gov.uk www.planning.odpm.gov.uk/consult/ www.highways.gov.uk (Highways Agency) www.bre.co.uk for Building Research Establishment

Disability www.disability.gov.uk www.drc-gb.org.uk www.cae.org.uk and e-mail at [email protected] for the Centre for Accessible Environments (and see Guidance Sources in Bright, 2002) Joint Mobility Unit, see on-line information on latest designs of disabled toilets conforming to BS 8300 at [email protected] Incontact at www.incontact.org for incontinence

Electronic toilets www.cybertoilets.com, a spoof site enabling people to go to the loo electronically including a bladder pressure meter, and number of lav rolls used. There are literally millions of sites that feature the word ‘toilet’, many of which are pornographic, so always narrow enquiries to specific topics to avoid this

Environment www.foe.co.uk = Friends of the Earth www.wen.org.uk = Women’s Environmental Network www.wwf.org.uk = World Wildlife Fund www.agenda21.se = Agenda 21 www.crossness.org.uk the web page of the famous Crossness sewage pumping engines in Woolwich, London see http://crossness.org.uk and http://www.tanton.ndirect.co.uk/crossness/

Equality www.eoc.org.uk for the Equal Opportunities Commission

European Union www.europa.eu.int www.inforegio.cec.eu.int European Environmental Agency, www.eea.eu.int

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www.parisnet.com/english/city/unusual/toilet/poesie.htm www.afnor.fr for AFNOR French toilet standards (like BSI)

WEB LINKS

French toilets

Local Performance Indicators [email protected]

RTPI Royal Town Planning Institute, www.rtpi.co.uk Look for the forthcoming rtpi web site page on mainstreaming gender equality (Greed at al, 2002) which contains many other relevant web links.

Statistics Office of National Statistics (ONS) data may be downloaded from the web page at www.statistics.gov.uk The Stationery Office, www.tso-online.gov.uk

Tourist toilets www.tidybritain.org.uk, Keep Britain Tidy campaign www.blueflag.org.uk, Blue Flag scheme Also try the various tourist board web pages

Urban design issues www.towns.org.uk

Women’s toilet issues Women’s Design Service, www.wds.org.uk

World Toilets Check World Toilet Organisation for its websites, which are available in several languages. www.worldtoilet.org www.worldrestroom.org

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TOILET LEGISLATION

Toilet legislation

Relevant legislation and regulatory standards on toilets 1835 Municipal Corporations Act (gave powers to local authorities) 1847 Sanitary Act (connection of houses to sewers) 1848 Public Health Act was the first act to give general discretionary powers to local authorities 1875 Public Health Act (bye-law housing, against back-to-backs) 1875 Artisans Dwellings Act, slum clearance of streets 1879 Public Health Act 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act (council houses) 1892 Burgh Police (Scotland) Act introduced discretionary powers to provide public toilets at ‘markets’ in Scotland 1894 London Building Act (London building regulations) 1897 Public Health (Scotland) Act increased discretionary powers to provide toilets 1906 Open Spaces Act 1909 Housing and Town Planning Act 1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 Housing and Town Planning Act 1932 Town and Country Planning Act 1936 Public Health Act, Section 87, sub-section 3 gives local authorities the right to build and run on-street ‘public conveniences’ and to charge such fees as they thought fit ‘other than for urinals’ 1944 Disabled Persons (Employment) Act (‘quota system’ and ‘invalid carriages’) 1947 Town and Country Planning Act 1948 National Assistance Act (gave first definitions of ‘disabled’) 1956 Sexual Offences Act including ‘importuning’ 1961 Highways Act enables local authorities to site public conveniences on the highway (compare Planning, 16 January 2001, item about ‘toilet 337

TOILET LEGISLATION 338

block extension at motorway services regarded as only slightly harmful to the setting’ in terms of urban sprawl 1963 Public Lavatories (Turnstiles) Act outlawed turnstiles but never did apply to ‘private’ conveniences 1963 Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act required employee toilets (now replaced, but not necessarily improved upon, by the provisions of the Work Place Directive) 1968 Countryside Act (local authority has powers to provide toilets in national parks) 1970 Equal Pay Act 1970 Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act, Section 4 first required disabled toilets in buildings 1971 Town and Country Planning Act 1972 Local Government Act 1974 Town and Country Amenities Act 1975 Sex Discrimination Act gives exemption to employing same cleaners of same sex as their toilets, but did not affect inequality of actual toilet provison 1976 Race Relations Act 1976 Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, Section 20 requires toilets to be provided in betting shops, licenced premises and eat-in food outlets (licensing laws) 1980 Local Government, Planning and Land Act, Section 29a first placed duty on local planning authorities to draw attention of developers to disability requirements. 1981 Disabled Persons Act 1982 Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 Local Government and Planning (Scotland) Act, Section 26, sub-sections 1 and 2 states that local authorities ‘may’ make reasonable charges for use of both urinals and closets and reiterates general discretionary powers to provide public toilets, interestingly within a planning act 1984 Building Act, Section 28, enabling powers regarding Building Regulations 1986 Local Government (Access to Information) Act (affected access to public meetings) 1988 Local Government Act introduced CCT (Compulsory Competitive Tendering) 1989 Local Government and Housing Act 1989 Water Act 1990 Town and Country Planning Act 1990 Environmental Protection Act, Section 34, duty of care to ensure that ‘keep waste safe’ applies to the sanpro bins 1990 Planning (Hazardous Substances) Act 1991 Water Industry Act

TOILET LEGISLATION

1991 Water Resources Act 1991 New Roads and Street Works Act 1992 Local Government Act established toilet audit 1993 Building Act, Section 188, enabling powers for updating building regulations 1994 Local Government (Wales) Act 1995 Disability Discrimination Act 1995 Environment Act 1996 Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1998 Human Rights Act 1999 Crime and Disorder Act, Section 17 1999 Disability Rights Commission Act 2001 Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (regarding universal school access)

Relevant Planning Policy Guidance Notes (PPGs) 1. 3. 6. 7. 10. 12. 13. 15. 21. 23.

General Policy and Principles Housing (redone in 2001) Town Centres and Retail Development Countryside and Rural Economy Waste Development Plans and Regional Planning Guidance Transport Planning and the Historic Environment Tourism Planning and Pollution Control

Of all the PPGs in existence the ones listed above some may be construed to have some relevance to the public toilet issue, but none mention toilets at all, and only 1, 12 and 15 mention or allude to disability. There are separate Welsh Technical Advice Notes (TANs) but these are equally unhelpful in terms of toilets. Northern Ireland Development Control Advice Notes are generally much more people-related, with several having toilet implications

Northern Ireland Development Control Advice Notes The following are of relevance: 3. Bookmaking Offices 4. Hot Food Bars 6. Restaurants and Cafes 7. Public Houses 9. Residential and Nursing Homes 13. Creches, Day Nurseries and Pre-school Playgroups 339

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Regarding Bookmaking Offices (3) it should be noted that these are the only non-food retail outlets where it is required throughout Britain, including England, that customers’ toilets are provided under licensing laws

Scottish National Policy Guidelines (SNPGs) The following are of relevance: 9. Roadside Facilities on Motorways 10. Retailing 12. Sport and Physical Recreation

European Union CEN European Committee for Standardisation Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome 1957 established the principle of equal opportunities and the Equal Treatment Directive 76/207 codified this. The 1998 Amsterdam Treaty, Article 2 and 3, Section E, Clause 2, which was retrospective, unlike British Building Regulation controls, required equal provision of facilities for women and men and this may yet be our saviour in terms of applying it to toilets British Standards Institution BSI (1996) BS 6465 Sanitary Installations, Part I. BSI, London BSI (1992) BS 5810: Access for Disabled People. BSI, London, in association with the DoE BSI (2001) BS 8300: Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people – Code of Practice. BSI, London

Other official guidance Document M of the Building Regulations links to BS 5810 (now 8300) BS 5810 Access for Disabled People (BSI) Development Control Policy Note 16, Access for Disabled People (DETR) Access for Disabled People (Access Committee for England) See Disability: Making Buildings Accessible (Bright, 2002) PAN 3 Access for Disabled People (RTPI) PAN12 Planning for Women (RTPI) Circular 10/82 (DoE, now DETR) first established the need to designate an ‘access officer’ stating that ‘public amenity can be material to a planning application’ (toilets?)

Licensing laws The licensing laws governing places of entertainment, dancing and where alcohol is consumed affect toilet availability. Under the 1933 Children and Young Persons Act it was made illegal for children under 14 to be in a bar, this restriction being later incorporated into S.168 of the 1964 Licensing Act. This effectively barred women with babies and young children from using a pub’s toilets in 340

Other countries

TOILET LEGISLATION

an emergency. Since 1995 a new system of ‘children’s certificates’ was introduced to allow children into selected ‘family pubs’, but this has not ensured free access to toilets. There are 60,000 pubs in the UK and each may be seen as a potential Gents toilet but not necessarily one for Ladies or children. Current liberalisation of the licensing laws seems to be more concerned about changes in opening hours than exactly who can use pubs.

Canada: www.csa-intl.org and www.codes.nrc.ca for Canadian codes France: AFNOR 1992, Mobilier urbain d’ambiance et de propriété – Sanitaires publics – NF 99–611 (Association Française de Normalisation), www.afnor.fr Germany: Public lavatories and restrooms – VDI 3818, published 2000, German Association of Engineers (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, Düsseldorf) New Zealand: see G1/ASI Personal Hygiene, New Zealand Building Code Scotland: see Part M of the Technical Standards (Scotland) Regulations given in full at www.scotland.gov.uk/build_regs/standards/brm-0.3.asp US: The main acts are 1967 Architectural Barriers Act (as amended), 1973 Rehabilitation Act, and 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (as amended); see: www.access-board.gov/ufas-html/ufas.htm for current version of Architectural Barriers Act and Uniform Federal Access Standards. Other standards bodies consulted: • China Standards Information Centre • Dansk Standard, Denmark • Japanese Standards Association • Moscow Toilet Association • Northern Ireland Standards • Norwegian Standards Association (NSF) • Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation • Singapore Productivity and Standards Board (PBS) • South African Standards Association • Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia • Sweden: Making its toilet codes fully compliant to EU disability requirements by 2010

Other Guidance Look in the Bibliography and on the Web for guidance on: • Airports (BAA, 2002) • Cleaning standards (BICS, 2003; NVQs) • Football stadia (Football Association, 2003; Sports Council; Inglis, 1993, FIFA) • Offices and other commercial development (Chapman Taylor, 2001) (see chapter 4) • Schools (Dfee) The Education (Schools Premises Regulations) 1999 341

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• Shopping centres (BCSC, 2003) (and see chapter 4) • Theatres and places of entertainment (BTTTPC, 2003; LSDA, 1999) Finally, it is intended that the revised BS 6465 will contain in the Appendix a full list of relevant regulations and standards (work currently being undertaken.

AUTHOR INDEX

Author index Abercrombie, P 103, 139 ACE 161 Adams, E 137, 157 Adburgham, A 47 Adler, D 66, 107,159, 209, 221, 258 Adshell 260 AFNOR 208 Aglionby, J 17 Albrecht, G 162 Aleksander, T, 52 Ambrose, P 20 AMC 31,50,257,264 Angresano, J 186 Armstrong, L 74, 115 ARU 251 Asano, Y 8 Ashworth, W 34, 37-39, 50 Atkinson, J 28 Attfield, J 143 Audit Commission 55, 56, 239, 271, 285 BAA 148, 195 Bagilhole, B 273 Ball, S 115, 142, 145 Barclay, M 268–9 Barritt, C 57 Bartlett, J 55, 137 Barton, H 96 Bath City Council 31, 33, 44, 46, 66, 84, 122 Bazalgette, J 39, 41 BCSC 59 Beck, U 23, 24 Beckett, S 101 Bell, C and R Bell 38, 39, 115 Bellamy, D 120 Belloni, C 251

Bernstein, R 68 Bianchini, F 91, 251 Bickley, M 268-9 BICS, 203,251 Binding, H 31 Birmingham City Council, 37, 80, 152, 178 Blair, M 40 Blowers, A 111 Bonneville, de, F 49, 122, 216 Booth, C 22 Boulding, E 71 BPEC 270 Brand, J 96, 106, 119, 121, 221, 251 Brent, R 89 Bright, K 79, Bristol 16, 44, 45, 48, 50-53, 59, 66, 77, 79, 85, 88, 126, 139, 142, 146, 150, 158, 160, 188, 192, 211, 230, 243, 244, 247, 249, 251, 289, 290 Bristol City Council 150 Broady, M 190 Bromley, R 239 Brownill, S 144 Brundsdon, C 104 Brundtland Commission 111–12 see WCED BSI 57, 58, 64, 70, 159-60, 178, 195, 205, 206, 209, 215, 226, 242, 268, 281 BTA 4, 5, 13, 25, 27, 43, 50, 55, 56, 66, 75, 104, 125, 178, 226, 227, 240–242, 257–264, 271, 273, 285, 289, 291 BTTTPC 61 CAE 66, 155, 169, 195, 215, 263 Cai, D 107 Califia, P 86 343

AUTHOR INDEX

Candlin, F 40 Cannon Hygiene 260 Caplan, E 284 Carroll, N 16, 55, 266 Cavanagh, S 6, 32, 43, 47, 55, 76, 161, 205, 251, 258, 265, 267 CCI 61 CEC 111 Chadwick, H 38, 86 Chapman Taylor 59, 269 Cherry, G 34, 39, 50 Cheshire County Council 27 Chevalier, G 80 Chisnell, R 160, 259, 267 Church, C 102, 183, 265 Church, C 265 CISC 269 Clayton, A 39, 40 Cleaning Matters 118 Cloacina 33 Cockfield, C 255 Coleman, A 143 Couch, G 27 Cowan, R 173 Crapper, T 40 Cullingworth, JB 152, 283, 284 Cullis, A 86 Culpeper, N 101 Cumming, A 293 Cummings, A 40 Cunningham, S 58, 106, 178, 196, 257, 264, 267, 268, 288 Curtis, V 81, 85 Cuthbertson, A 270 Danfo 91, 214, 235, 244, 260 Daniels, I 16, 27, 28, 32, 140, 150, 157, 193 Darke, J 22, 138 Darmawan, S 127 Davies, W, 195 Davies, L 165, 282 Davis, W 195 Dawson, D 98

344

De Graft-Johnson, A 22 Decaux 80–83, 186, 244, 260 Deng Xiao Deng 279 Derhy, J 80 DFEE 64, 66, 211, 223 Dodin, Professor 262 DoE 57, 111, 143, 160, 165, 167, 170 Don, G 54 Douglas, M 72, 74 Doyal, L 97 DTLR 152, 168, 178 Duchamp, M 85 Durkheim, E 74, 138 Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water) 118, 271 Dyos, H 42 Edwards, B 163 Edwards, J 23, 24, 39, 47, 102, 175, 258, 268, 285 Eglon 123 Ehud 123, 124 Elizabeth, Queen 34, 86 Emin, T 85 EOC 287 EPSRC 16, 73 ESRC 273 Essex County Council 174, 186 EU 8, 127, 218, 251, 279, 281, 282 EUROFEM 13, 22, 282 Fleck, J 165, 169, 195 Flowers, P 86 FOE 109 Foley, D 17 Foster, N 81, 82, 186 Foucalt, M 223 Fowler, R 100, 145, 259, 267 Friedman, M 54, 186 Gaffin, J 61 Gale, A 273 Gay, J 33 Geddes, P 139 344

Habip, I 122 Hall, P 38, 39, 61, 183 Halliday, S 39 Ham, C 23 Hamilton, Lady 163 Hamzah, H 77, 122, 209 Hanson, J 16 (see EPSRC) Harrington, J 40 Harris, M 31 Hart-Davis, A 32, 49, 124 Harvey, D 5 Hayden, D 138, 201, 284 Haywood, W 43 Healey, P 25, 175 Heaton, K 98, 107 Hill, M 23, 257 Hillier, J 20 Holmes-Siedle, J 159 Hooi, Y 77, 122, 209 Howard, E, 135, fig 8.2 Huang, S 64,90 Imperial College 119 Imrie, R 165 Independent, The 186, 279

Ingham, S 137, 157 Inglis, S 60, 79, 205–207 Irving, Lord 50 ITAAL 27, 264 IWM 55

AUTHOR INDEX

Gilroy, R 118, 141 GLA 54 165, 281 GLC 54 58, 138, 151 Glover, G 60 God 122 Goldsmith, S 5, 19, 98, 157, 162, 197, 198, 215, 225 Gough, Piers 186, 187 Greed, C 6, 16–18, 20, 22, 26, 28, 31, 34, 37, 38, 42, 47, 52, 61, 64, 71, 72, 77, 89, 109, 114, 122, 138, 139, 141, 144, 146, 150–152, 157, 165, 173–175, 184, 265, 269–271, 273, 282, 283 Green, H 38 Greene, J 254 Griggs, J 268–9 Guardian The, 17, 39, 61, 113, 267

Jeffries, S 86 Jennings, G 42 JMU 91, 164, 167, 195, 209, 213–215, 239 Jones, G 38,72 Jones, G 72 Jones, JO 55, 68, 87, 157, 258, 288–9 JTA 6, 36, 73, 124, 125, 251, 262, 279 Kanter, R 273 Kean, D 147 Kenvyn, I 237 Kilmartin, A 98, 101 Kilroy, R 36 Kira, A 8, 38, 49, 238, 267 Kirk, G 20 Kitchin, R 69, 125, 161 Klein, R 101 Kobayashi, J 68, 128, 267 Koo Ue 267, 274 Kunstler, J 182 Kursch, E 97 Kursh, E 97,100 Lambton, L 44, 72 Lamplugh, D 137 Lane, P 43, 115 Lane-Jones, J 59, 145 Laporte, D 36, 71 Law, R 68-9,125,161 LBDRT 174 LCC 51, 54 LDSA 59, 61 Le Vay, B 31 Leach, P 89 Lever, Lord 49, 220, 224, 285 Linder, M 63 Little, J 22,138 345

AUTHOR INDEX

Llewelyn, C 26 Lockwood, J 153, 64, 240, 241 Lowe, N 271 Lucas, S 85 LWPF 117 Lynch, K 188 Manley, S 159 Manufacturers (sanitaryware) 260 Massey, D 17 Mathilda, Queen 33 Matrix 138 Matsukawa, J Matthews, M 134, 157 Matthews, R 76, Mc.Dowell, L 138 McKie, L 23, 39, 47, 102 McVaugh, M 102 Meale, A 289 Meyer, K 125 Midwinter, E 27, 148 Millard, R 101 Miller, S 253 Minton 42 Miyanishi, Y 178 Montgomery, J 251 Moore 104, 106 Morgan, J 288 Morley, L 273 Morris, A 163 Mort, F 103 Moule, H 49 Mumford, L 192 Muro, M 85 National Trust 31, 32, 40, 79, 195, 207, 264 New, C 157 Newman, O 190, 195 Nisancioglu, S 283 Norton, C 58, 106, 178, 264 Nuffield 16, 27, 64, 90, 134, 157, 237 Nugent, T 162 Nygaard 1, 63

346

NZBC 69 Oakley, A 97 ODPM 167 OECD 282 Oliver, M 161 On, T 178, 235 ONS 5, 57, 134, 141 ORWH 97 Osborn, S 255 Ostler, T 38,49 Pain, R 80, 167, 253 Palfreyman, T 155 PAMIS 195, 226, 264 Parkin, F 21 Pathak, Bindeshwar 32, 126, 267, 278 PCS Pearce, L 138 Pennington Report 104 Pinch, S 17 Pitman, R 27 Pollock, D 258 Poole, R 31, 253 Prince Charles 84, 101 Pudney, J 32 Punter, J 255 RADAR 27, 56, 66, 159, 160, 168, 176, 221, 250, 263, 264 Ravetz, A 37, 46, 50 Readers Digest 120 Reeves 68 Reyburn 40 Reynolds 72 Richards 47, 48 Richardson, P 33 Richardson, R, 38, 138 Roberts, M 61, 173-175, 184 Robertson, L 244 Robins, J 523 Robinson, S 43, 47, 54, 96, 251 Rogers, Lord 3, 173

Twyfords 45

Sale, C 49, 243 Salley, N 106 Sapsford, A 149 Saunders, P 47, 249 Scotland 67,174, 202–3, 253 Scott, A 115 Shaftoe, H 255 Shaw, H 6, 55, 144, 242 Sim, J 263, 274, 278 Smedley, A 44 Snow, Dr. 39, 86, 121 Soifer, S 8, 99, 100, 208 Southampton City Council 152 Spallone, P 97 Spock, B 72, 89 Springett, P 121 Stanworth, M 97 Stark, A 288 Stimpson, C 138 Stodart Report 67 Stringer, B 44 Swaffield, J 254 Swain, J 155

Vidal, J 111 Vincent, M 48

Tabei, J 125 Tallantire, J 16, 266 Tallon, A 239 TFL 281 Thekaekara, M 112 Thomas, H 40, 47 Tickner, L 34 TOTO 232-3 Turner, T 119

UNCED 111, 277

AUTHOR INDEX

RTPI 77, 138, 139, 141, 165, 167, 270, 272 Russell, M 33, 81 Rymill, M 269

Wang, H, 64, 90 Wang, S, 64, 90 Ware, V 6, 32, 43, 47, 55, 76, 161, 205, 251, 258, 265, 267 Warwick, D 86 WCED 111 WDS 6, 27, 55, 115, 138, 184, 195, 198, 201, 205–207, 211, 225, 265 Weber, M 21 Wekerle, G 138 Welsh Consumer Council 26 WEN 78, 266 WGSG 22, 76, 138 Which Magazine 78, 104, 268 Whittington 33 WHO 96, 111, 277 Whyte, W 88 Wilson, E 86, 87, 138, Wilson, J 253 Wilson, W 147, 248, Winblad, U 114 Wise, A 64, 80, 196, 254 Wohl, A 42 Woo 68 Wood, L 49, 53 Wright, L 38, 72 WTO 6, 124, 263, 274, 278 WWC 277 You Magazine 278

347


SUBJECT INDEX

Subject index Please note that the words toilets, lavatory, bathrooms are not directly indexed as they occur throughout the book

24 hour city 3, 34, 91, 144, 197, 201, 239, 243 (see evening economy) access issues 5, 7, 9, 13–6, 21, 27, 28, 44, 56, 57, 60–65, 87, 113, 114, 121–2, 129, 133, 134, 137, 139, 144, 148, chapters 9, 10, and 11, 236, 238, 241, 242, 249, 250, 258–9, 263, 264, 273, 283, 285–289, 291–3; access and:- turnstiles: 85, steps: 122, schools: 64; Access and cars 137,190 adult: changing 19, 63, 98, 172, 199, 227, 204, 264, compared with children: 28, 137, 157, 211, 216, 225–6 (see parent, children) accountability 24 adjustable pan, 211 (see automatic gizmos) advertisements 79, 241, 245 Africa 77, 112 air: quality 65, 91, 111, 231–233, dryers: 224, open air toilets: 228 airlines 148, 195 All Mod Cons (AMC) 27, 31, 42, 50, 58, 195, 257–259 (objectives), 264, 271 Aluminium 78, 230 (see bowls, pans and seats) America (see USA) Amsterdam, urinals: 239, Treaty: 282 anatomy 81, 97 (see body and chapter 6) Andrex 121 (see toilet paper) APC (Automatic Public Toilets) 7, 54, 74, 80, 81, 88, 106, 113, 182, 189, 190, 196, 197, 200, 201, 204, 218, 222,

233, 242–250, 252, 260 (and see automatic) Approved document 57 (see building control) architects 3, 4, 20, 39, 50, 61, 65, 81, 91, 127–8, 161, 165, 169, 263, 265, 287 army 4, 84 (see latrines) art 42, 44, 67, 81, 85, 86, 90, 102, 107, 173, 184, 243, 280, Arts Council: 289 aspect 47, 66, 196, 213 (see siting) attendants 43, 51, 86, 142, 191, 200, 204, 224, 237, 248, 251, 255 Audit 26, 55, 56, 239, 271, 282, 285 (see Best Value) Australia 36, 68, 84, 124, 127, 223 Automatic gizmos: 7, 113, 118, 160, 208, 218, 224, 226, 231, 245, 248 (see infrared) Aviemore 202–3 ‘away from home toilets’ 5, 13, 282 (see on street and off street toilets) BABAR 159 babies, considerations: 6, 19, 101, 137, 149, 157, 159, 192, 223, 262, 287, 289, Baby changing: 51, 56, 88, 89, 97, 100, 128, 172, 187, 198–9, 204, 225–227, 236, Baby feeding: 199, 227, 282 bags: disposal: 115 (see sanpro), shopping: 219 (see luggage) Banbury 190, 260, 261 349

SUBJECT INDEX 350

banks 8, 142, 144, 180, 284 (see shops); bottle bank 188 barriers 129, 159, 198–9 (see disability) bars 60, 79, 214, 242, 247 (see pubs, licensing) basins 199, 217, 219, 224, 227 (see washbasins) ‘bathrooms mean business’ 241 (see restrooms) bowls (toilet) 7, 48, 79, 85, 102, 128, 201, 207–222, 255; gap between bowl and door 18, 207–9 (see pans) benchmarking 285 (see Best Value) Best Value 26, 150, 248, 271, 285 bidets 216 bins: 115, 116, 126, 209–211, 234, 247, 251, 271, biggest bin: 160, litter bins: 174, sanpro bins: 97,106, 116, 118–9, 125, 128 (see refuse, rubbish, sanpro) Bible 122 black: 28, 29, 57, 74, 77–79, 159, 162, 221, 266, black taxi cabs: 57, segregated toilets: 77–9; ethnicity: 221, 266 bladder 76, 98, 99, 107, 112, 208, 221 blocks (toilet) 5, 12, 32, 53, 56, 117, 181, 183, 184, chapter 11, 242–244, 250, 253, 255, toilet block module: 62, office blocks: 64 blood 72, 78, 85, 102, 126, 157, 231 Blue Water Mall 54 (see shopping, retail, malls) body, the 18, 28, 72, 80 (chapter 6) bookmakers 60 [betting offices] bourdelieu 49 bowels 51, 76, 84, 98, 107, 211 bowl (see pan) braille 191 (see signage) breastfeeding 8, 89, 97, 141 (see babies) Brent 89 Brighton 55, 85 Bristol 16, 44, 45, 48, 50–53, 59, 66, 77, 79, 85, 88, 126, 139, 142, 146, 150, 158,

160, 188, 192, 211, 230, 243–4, 247, 249, 251, 289, 290 British Standards: 4, 57–8, 64, 70,159 162, 163, 178, 180, 206, 281; BS6465: 59, 67, 69, 207, 209 (see chapter 4); BS8300: 66, 195, 205–7, 214, 219, 224, 226, 231, 268, 286 (see building control) broken window theory 253 brown gold 73 (faeces) BTA see author list buggies, see pushchairs, babies, children building control 155, 168, 170, 171, 285 (see regulation and British Standards) bullying 47, 63, 89 Burnham 291, 292 buses 4, 22, 51, 56, 80–83, 141–144, 147, 150, 175, 178, 180–182, 186, 188, 193, 197, 201, 204, 237, 248–250, (see transport, cars, railways, stations) bus shelters 80, 81, 143, 147, 182, 245; bus stations 57, 66, 160, 252 butterfly 91 (see urinals) CAD 61 cafes 8, 28, 57, 81, 135, 144, 180, 182–3, 239, 242 campaigners 47, 152, 260, 268, 278 (see users and providers) Canada 86 cars 3, 13, 22, 25, 61, 79, 117, chapter 8, 157, 165, 175–84, 188, 193, 197, 236, 245, 250, 255, 270; car park 176–8, 184 caravans 57 Cardiff 257, 258, 288 cartoon 272 catheter 159 cats 97, 119 CCT 244 CCTV 189, 199, 200, 255

215, 226, 227, 238, 248, 250–252, 255, 262: cleaners 62, 142, 200, 201, 221, 235–6, 250–1, 255–6 cleaning activities 67, 74, 108, 118, 126, 129, 141, 147, 201, 221, 227, 231, 232, 240, 244, 245, 250–252, 255, 259, 260, 278, 281, 285 clearance 18, 207–209, 211 Clochemerle 80 closed toilets 8, 12, 24, 26, 34, 39, 40, 44, 48–5, 59, 60, 66–7, 79, 84,86, 87, 113, 134, 142, 144, 145, 147, 148, 176, 180–88, 191, 205, 218, 235, 240, 249, 258, 266, 284 (see opening hours) (see cutbacks); social closure 21 closets 5, 29, 32, 36, 49, 50, 67, 84, 205, 211, 216, 223 (see cubicles) clothing 8, 107, 108, 189 (see skirts) clubs 60, 86, 90, 159, 240, 242 (see pubs, nightclubs,bars) colours 78, 79, 122, 220–1, 224, 227 (see black, white) community 14, 25, 34, 139, 142, 153, 161, 163, 173–176, 182, 186, 191, 201, 204, 227, 252, 255, 256, 259, 263–6, 269, 273, 278, 284 commuters 48, 87, 141, 176, 178, 193, 239, 285, 291 (see bus, railways, termini) computers 39, 47, 122, 220, 279 conferences (on toilets) 33, 66, 73, 124–126, 162, 216, 240, 241, 251, 252, 260, 261, 277, 282, 283, 288 conservation area 44 consumption (as against production) 122 Continence Foundation 116, 195, 258, 264 continua (parameters of toilet debate) 10 cordon sanitaire 72, 210 Cornwall 266 corridors 115, 198, 209, 222, 223 (see circulation) cost 21, 61, 67, 134, 143, 147, 180, 197, 216, 230, 233, 235, 248, 249, 260, 270

SUBJECT INDEX

ceiling 65, 213, 230 (see drugs) cemeteries 4 CEN 268, 281 (see BSI) centres, city and town: 5, 16, 44, 51, 57, 58, 63, 77, 81, 88, 123, 139, 145, 153, 176, 180, 181, 188, 189, 192, 220, 235–242, 256, 263–265, 282 charging 42, 52, 6–8, 186, 237, 241, 282, 287, 289; pay to pee 248 charity model 161 (see disability) chemicals 78–9, 118, 127 children and childcare 6, 8, 22, 28, 29, 39, 46, 52, 54, 60, 61, 63, 73, 76, 88–9, 97, 98, 100–1, 128, 143, 146, 149, 151–2, 157–59, 162, 170, 178, 191, 197, 206–7, 219–225, 227, 238–9, 241, 244, 249, 252, 257, 258, 262, 264, 267, 270, 278, 282–3, 287, 289 (see babies) China, country of: 9, 64, 112, 124, 212, 262, 279, Material: 42, 245 cholera 37–39, 103 Christian 28: church toilets 102, 183, 265 (see religion) circulation 189, 197, 206, 221–223 (see corridors) cistern 21, 114, 115, 206, 210, 211, 213, 218, 245 (see flushing) Citizen’s Charter 55 city planning issues, 3, 4, 11–13, 18, 22, 23, 33, 38, 39, 43, 44, 47, 49, 50, 60, 71, 72, 80, 87, 91, 97, 102, 103, 113, 120, chapter 8, 165, 173, 178, 180, 184, 192, 197, 230, 238, 239, 250, 266, 282, 283, 286, 291 City of London 34, 136, 169 Civic Trust 56 civil rights 125, 161–2, 167, 284 classes, social 20, 21, 25, 28, 36, 38, 39, 43, 48–50, 52, 68, 77, 78, 81, 103, 138, 148, 180, 252, 270 cleanliness (of toilets) 18, 28, 34, 38, 43, 72, 73, 85, 86, 95, 96, 119, 125, 201, 212,

351

SUBJECT INDEX

cots 197, 227 (see babies) cottaging 8, 16, 21, 53, 68, 74, 86–89, 97, 125, 138, 197, 200, 208, 238, 255, 291 (see sex) councils 26, 31, 34, 44, 51, 54, 59, 60, 65, 77, 87, 91, 117, 125, 138, 142, 143, 145, 150, 168, 176, 181, 186, 230, 237, 255, 265, 277, 289 (see local authorities) Covent Garden 61 Countryside 23, 31–2, 37, 48, 61, 142, 150, 183, 248, 278, 293: Countryside Act: 150 (see countryside) crime and design 173, 267; crime and disorder 254, 255 criminal activity 53, 79, 87, 97, 146, 176, 189, 197, 231, 239, 248, 252 critical panels 285 (see Best Value, Audit) Crossness 39 cubicles 7, 13, 18, 19, 62, 106, 115, 116, 122, 137, 156, 164, 178, 200, 206–216 (main section), 219, 220, 222, 227, 234 (see closet) culture 8, 28, 48, 61, 76, 81, 84, 86–91, 95, 101, 107, 118, 197, 221, 233, 238, 239, 244, 246, 249, 253, 255, 273, 278, 293, 294 cutbacks 53, 216, 237, 264, 284 (see closures) cyclists 147, 165, 184 (see transport) cystitis 97 Danfo 91, 214, 235, 244, 260 dark 49, 51, 189, 231, 255, 294 (see lighting) Dartford 54, 145 DDA 66, 77, 155, 160, 180, 215, 263, 286, 287 (see disability, access) Debenhams 59 (see department stores) Decaux 80–83, 186, 244, 260 defecation 29, 102, 116, 119, 125 density 103, 139, 142 department stores 8, 59, 89, 145, 146, 284 (see shopping)

352

deserts, food, 144 development control 150, 165 (see local planning authorities), process: 21 diapers (see nappies) directives 61, 114, 149 dirtiness 9, 18, 28–9, 36, 43, 71–2, 78, 80, 84, 86, 90, 95, 106–8, 120, 147, 251, 255, 266 (see clean) disability 4, 6, 7, 8, 13, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 27, 28, 43, 54, 56–58, 61, 65, 66, 74, 75, 77, 79, 88, 89, 91, 95, 97, 99, 103, 108, 134, 138, 141, 144, 149, 150, chapter 9, 180, 188, 191, 192, 195–199, 204–207, 209, 211, 213–221, 223–225, 227, 230–232, 234, 236, 239, 242, 248–250, 263, 264, 279, 284, 286, 291, 292, 294 discretionary provision 24, 67, 69, 271, 284, 287 discrimination 66, 70, 91, 159, 167, 281, 287 disease 34, 37–39, 48, 72, 78, 95, 96, 98, 108, 113, 127, 278 disgust 72, 85 disposal 4, 7, 8, 12, 31, 34, 37, 48, 49, 88, 96, 97, 99, 106, 111–2, 114–119, 126, 127, 129, 143, 211, 226, 227, 252, 266 (see sanpro, bags, incontinence) distribution of facilities, 6, 13, 27, 51, 64, 133, 139, 142, 151, 153, 169, 175, 176, 178, 180, 181, 183, 184, 271, 279, 281, 285 (especially chapter 10) district provision 13, 18, 39, 46, 67, 125, 127, 133, 134, 153, 173, 176, 177, 181, 193, 266, 284 diversity 12, 25, 174, 196, 224, 274 (see gender, race, disability) diuretics 99 DLO 244 docklands 77, 148 dogs 9, 48, 51, 79, 97, 103, 120, 121, 147, 189, 192; dog dirt 9, 120, 147, 192, 207; dog toilet 121

earthbox 189 economy 3, 91, 93, 114, 118, 148, 265, 278 edges 142, 143, 183, 186 education 64, 84, 235, 244, 251, 262, 285, 288 Edwardian toilets 8, 44, 50, 54, 103, 142 elderly 6, 14, 19, 21–23, 54, 75, 76, 85, 88, 89, 91, 97, 99, 107, 117, 118, 134, 138, 141, 149, 157, 165, 167, 169, 200, 215, 244, 246, 262, 283 electricity 29, 50, 122, 237 Ely 66, 236, 240 embarrassment 71, 115, 211 emergency needs 38, 74, 124, 126, 144, 167, 209, 212, 220, 221, 234, 24 engineers 20, 47, 96, 102, 127, 191, 265 environment 3, 5, 8, 11, 12, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 40, 44, 55, 57, 61, 86, 96, 99, 102, 109, chapter 7, 138, 139, 141, 155, 157, 161, 162, 165, 169, 170, 174, 181, 207, 209, 227, 233, 241, 263, 266, 269, 270, 273, 289 Ephesus 33 equality 3, 8, 9, 14, 16, 67, 68, 93, 111, 159, 236, 249, 273, 277, 286 (see unequal provision) EIA 114

EPSRC 16, 73 ERIC 55 EU 280, 288 ESRC 273 Essex 174, 186 ethnicity 6, 20, 22, 68, 134, 138, 169, 176, 212, 258, 266, 270, 282, 286 Europe 8, 15, 62, 76, 82, 84, 101, 112, 218, 242, 252, 263, 264, 282, 283 Euston 65 (see railways, stations, termini)

SUBJECT INDEX

doors 7, 18, 66, 74, 76, 77, 79, 84, 88, 96, 112, 117, 122, 160, 206–211, 213, 215, 216, 218–222, 225, 226, 233, 234, 237,291 drainage 8, 32, 34, 37–40, 42, 66, 96, 103, 113, 278 dress 74, see skirts, clothing drivers 6, 34, 142, 147, 148, 181, 201, 237 droppings 119, 120 drugs 8, 68, 97, 100, 101, 108, 137, 230, 237, 238, 255 (see crime) dualisms 18, 28, 96 dung 119, 120 Dunster 179 Durham 36

economy 114, 118, 148, 265, 278 evening economy 3, 28, 87, 91, 93, 239, 240 (see 24 hour city) Evening Standard 83,187 Everest 125 everyday life 173, 282 excretion 18, 36, 73, 86, 95, 98, 108, 112 faeces 9, 33, 72, 120, 122, 125, 126, 143, 178, 252 family 39, 51, 59, 61, 74, 85, 137, 147, 193, 196–198, 225, 239, 242, 243, 265, 270, 282 Far East 6, 64, 111, 112, 121, 124, 126–128, 189, 208, 215, 230, 262, 264, 277–279 feminism 12, 23, 79, 96, 102, 125, 138, 265, 268 fertilizer 31, 73 (see brown gold) finance 13, 15, 235, 285 Finland 65 first aid 201 fittings and fixtures 39, 50, 104, 206, 233, 260 flaneur 72 floors 58, 79, 84, 89, 99, 100, 108, 212, 215, 218, 220, 221, 230, 237, 242 floorspace 56–60, 69, 178, 180, 199 (see retail, shopping) flowers 86 flushing 28, 40, 48, 81, 85, 98, 102, 108, 114 (‘flush and forget’), 126–129, 212, 216, 218, 232, 233, 278 (see cisterns) 353

SUBJECT INDEX

flying fox 74 food outlets 5, 8 football 51, 60, 69, 79, 89, 124, 127, 205, 206, 222, 239 footpaths 143,174,183, 188 (see pedestrian) fountains 51, 67, 77, 180 France 36, 49, 80–82, 108, 183, 208, 242, 244, 262 gaps 7, 9, 32, 84, 186, 207, 209, 213, 220, 272 (see doors) garden city 49 Gateshead 58, 195 gay 28, 74, 87–89 (see cottaging) gender 17, 20, 21, 25, 29, 51, 56, 68, 70, 78, 97, 102, 124, 128, 174, 238, 246, 269, 282, 284–287 genome 97 Germany 38, 264 germs 38, 72, 78, 79, 89, 95, 96, 106, 108, 124, 218, 224, 227, 231 glass 53, 126, 221, 231, 244, glass bricks: 253 Glyndebourne 61, 62 Golden Triangle 235, 236, 256 goldfish 61, 119 grab rails 108, 213–215, 221, 227 Great Exhibition 42 green issues 28, 29, 38, 53, 79, 102, 125, 141, 142, 178, 220, 281, 291 groups 6, 7, 14, 19–27, 47, 55, 58, 65, 68, 79, 87, 133, 134, 138, 144, 148, 149, 157, 161, 167, 169, 173–176, 196, 197, 200, 214, 226, 234, 238, 252, chapter 13, 283–285, 289, 291, 294 (see users and providers) gypsies 77 Habitat 283 hackney carriage 34 handles 214, 216, 218 (see levers, locks) handrails 166 (see disabled)

354

Hadrian’s Wall, 32 Haringay 192, 283 hatch 36, 115 health 3, 8, 9, 12, 14, 20, 23, 24, 29, 34, 35, 37–40, 42–44, 49, 52, 54, 58, 61, 67, 72, 73, 77, 78, 80, chapter 6, 114, 118, 120, 124, 129, 143, 149, 150, 237, 239, 242, 246, 252, 262, 264, 268, 270, 277, 278, 287: healthy cities 12, 96, 155, 277, 291 height 22, 52, 211–213, 221, 224, 226, 232, 283 hierarchy 133, 143, 153, 180, 184, 193, 196, 234 (chapter 8) high rise 49, 77, 117, 143, 149 highways 43, 181, 248 (see transport) hinges 220 (see doors) homosexual 8, 88 (see sex, cottaging) hose 122 (see water, Singapore) hospitals 64, 74, 76, 78, 96, 108, 115, 143, 161 hotels 5, 184, 238 housing 38, 40, 42, 46, 49, 50, 66, 138, 142, 143, 167, 169, 180–182, 189, 191, 200, 201, 284, 285 hover 29, 104, 106, 109, 209, 212 (see seats) hrt 101 human rights 160, 161, 281, 286, 292 human waste 12, 49, 249 (see faeces) hygiene 4, 8, 35, 38, 48, 54, 72, 73, 77, 81, 85, 89, 95, 104, 108, 115, 138, 149, 189, 195, 213, 216, 218, 230–232, 238, 242, 252, 258, 260 incinerator 117 incontinence 19, 23, 24, 63, 88, chapter 6, 116, 118, 119, 129, 141, 155, 159, 226, 227, 264 indecency, 91 India 32, 112, 114, 267, 278 industrial revolution 38, 39, 46 infrared 207, 218, 224, 234

Japan 6, 28, 36, 57, 68, 73, 104, 108, 124–127, 149, 178, 211, 215, 227, 232, 251, 261, 262, 267, 278–280, 293 Jewish 122 (see Bible, religion) Jeyes fluid 97 JMU, 167 joined up thinking 3, 16, 144, 236 Kensington and Chelsea 186 kick plate 209 (see doors) Killerton House, 31 King’s Cross 65 (see railways) Korea 6, 69, 124, 262 knickers, 48, 97, 101, Kyoto 112 latrines 4, 32, 33 law courts 62, 181 layout considerations 4, 12, 40, 50, 170, 175, 188, 204, 250, 268, 283, 291 (ch 11) left luggage 184 Leicester Square 43 leisure 8, 56, 59, 60, 139, 142, 145, 146, 153, 180, 249, 250, 262, 283, 284 levels of provision 4–6, 11, 12, 18, 21–23, 29, 46, 55, 56, 70, 127, 133, 134, 146, 160, 170, 173, 181, 182, 196, 231, 237, 251, 258, 265, 269, 270, 274, 277, 282 levers 49, 219–20, 224, 285 (see handles, locks) licensing 60, 61 (see evening economy) lids (no lids on public loos) 213, on sanpro bins, 126 (see bins) lighting 43, 66, 143, 147, 167, 189, 195, 218, 231, 259, 267 lobby 65, 223

Local Agenda 21 265 local authorities, 4,11–14, 23–7, 37–40, chapter 4, 96,102,117, 134, 147–153, 160, 167, 191, 215, 238–50, 265, 271 (see providers) location 4, 6, 13, 18, 27, 31, 43, 44, 51, 77, 78, 89, chapter 8, 169, 174, 176–178, 181, 184, 186, 190, 192, 209, 215, 216, 219, 225, 235, 253, 271, 281, 284, 285 locks 42, 66, 160, 186, 220 logos 77, 159, 260 London 7, 9, 22, 27, 33–35, 39–44, 46, 47, 51, 52, 54–59, 62, 65, 77, 81, 82, 85, 91, 113, 122, 136, 138, 141, 145, 146, 148–150, 155, 166, 169, 182, 187, 192, 195, 200, 201, 242, 250, 251, 265, 281, 283, 285, 287 Loo of the Year Award 27,40, 202 (photo), 237, 241, 251, 259 Lottery 40, 289 luggage 19, 78, 150, 157, 184, 192, 199, 201, 234

SUBJECT INDEX

Islam (see moslem) Italy 242 Izal 119, 216 (see toilet paper)

MacClean 243 McDonalds, 44, 81,146, 244 mainstreaming 174 male domination of plumbing professions, 20–1, 42, 57, 97, 237, 269–70, 272 (cartoon), 291 manufacturers, see providers and author list maintenance 6, 11, 13, 18, 44, 53, 72, 87, 108, 153, 175, 212, 216, 218, 224, 227, 231, 233, 235, 237, 244, 248, 250, 251, 255–258, 281, 294 malls 43, 54, 57, 128, 145, 197, 241, 249 (see shopping and retail) management 5, 6, 11, 13, 23, 55, 68, 115, 117, 118, 129, 153, 167, 189, 191, 211, 215, 224, 226, chapter 12, 259, 265, 273, 281, 294 Manchester 37, 60, 225, 251, 267 355

SUBJECT INDEX

mandatory controls 28, 67, 70, 149, 267, 271, 272, 284, 287, 288, 294 Massachusetts 68 medical models 161 medicine 8, 54, 81, 95–97, 102, 108, 109, 270 (chapter 6) Melbourne 36, 68 menstruation 29, 97, 116, 119, 122, 126, 211 (see sanpro) Metro, Gateshead: 58, Tube: 148 Mexico 113, 262 Millennium 15, 34, 114, 146, 289, 290 Milton Keynes 54, 100, 145, 230 minorities 6, 8, 18, 21, 22, 25, 103, 114, 126, 134, 137, 138, 168, 197, 212, 266, 270, 273, 288, 289 mirrors 195, 198, 224, 230, 231, 281 mixed use 22, 60, 73, 71, 74, 77, 80, 93, 122, 213, 223, 282 (see unisex) mobility 3, 19, 60, 155, 165, 167, 239, 250, 263 models of disability 155, 161 moslem 76–7, 107, 123, 189, 209, 212, 228, 229, 286, Mosque: 122 Moscow 113 motorways 44, 56, 87, 136, 147, 235, 242, 288 moveable partitions 206 multi user facilities 80, 99, 145, 150, 176, 181, 193, 201, 227, 243, 244, 284, 287 museums 40, 42, 48, 81, 104 music, 76 nappies (diapers),118 (see baby changing), adult: 63 narrowness 7, 106, 137, 157, 162, 169, 172, 174, 186, 188, 207, 209, 215, 218, 283, 286 National Trust 31, 32, 40, 79, 195, 207, 264 neighbourhoods 13, 18, 133, 142, 143, 145, 173, 181, 233, 253, 254, 284 New Deal for Communities 285

356

new urbanism 3, 173 (chapter 10) New York 52, 68, 90, 238, 241, 242, 284 New Zealand 69, 125 NHS 24, 101, 109 (chapter 6) NVQs 201 (see cleaning activities) nightclub 90–1, 125, 144, 159, 251 (see clubs,pubs,bars) nightsoil 36 noise from toilet 76, 96 Notting Hill 81, 186, 187 Nuffield 16, 27, 64, 90, 134, 157, 237 number of loos nationally 56–7 Objective 1 282 occupancy 220 (see cubicles, ratios) offices 5, 22, 60, 64, 77, 141, 152, 153, 182, 188, 201, 206, 227, 242, 248, 285, 289 off–street 8, 28, 54, 57, 65, 128, 144, 167, 175, 178, 206, 213, 216, 241, 242, 250, 284 on–street 5, 8, 28, 54, 57, 65, 78, 139, 178, 211, 241, 242 opening times 6, 7, 18, 39, 145, 183, 186, 191, 207–209, 216, 220, 223, 238, 242, 243, 258, 262, 271 (see closing, closures, evening economy) organised irresponsibility 24, 29 Oy Shippax 120, 204, 244 Paddington 65, 135 (see termini) pads 63, 88, 99, 116, 118, 129, 226 (see sanpro, incontinence) paint 237 (see colour, vandalism) Pall Mall 43 pan 7, 40, 48, 79, 102, 108, 163, 167, 207–222, 233, 234, 255, 268, gap between bowl and door: 18, 207–9 parents, with children: 137, see children, mixed use, sharing Paris 42, 80, 148 Park Row 44, 45 parking 143, 145, 152, 176, 183, 184, 188, 191, 240, 241, 245

Port Sunlight 49 portaloo 48, 77 portable urinal 147 post office 182, 248 postal workers 6, 142, 181 potty parity 68 PPGs 150 169, 170, 287 pregnancy 97, 167 privacy 64, 88, 108, 122, 123, 189, 208, 220–222, 234, 282 privies 31, 49, 73 professions 18, 20, 23, 42, 61, 86, 109, 160, 269, 270 property 20, 144, 176, 186 prostitution 87, 254 providers 6, 10, 14, 20, 25, 29, 66, 86, 87, 97, 107, 128, 133, 149, 160, 163, 167, 175, 176, 192, 206, 231, 232, 238, 244, 249–251, 255, chapter 13, 286, 291 (compare users) (see manufacturers in author list) pubs (public houses) 6, 44, 54, 61, 180 (see bars, clubs) public health 24, 38, 40, 52, 58, 287 public transport 3, 6, 8, 21, 22, 25, 65, 137, 139, 141–145, 147, 153, 165, 178, 181, 201, 240, 249, 267, 283 public works 4, 39, 47, 239, 240 pushchairs 19, 43, 52, 78, 137, 150, 157, 159 (compared to wheelchair), 167, 186, 189, 192, 197, 199, 201, 207, 225–6, 234,

SUBJECT INDEX

Parliamentary change, 288 and see JO Jones, Morgan, Meale in author list Part M 66, 160, 163, 213, 286 (see building control) paruresis 99 (shy bladder) participation/consultation 174 pay to pee (see penny, and charging) pavement (sidewalk) 9, 10, 174, 189, 197, 239, 250, 293 pedestal 108, 126, 212 (see pan) pedestrians 44,143, 144, 147, 174, 176, 180, 184, 191,250 (see footpaths) penny 52, 65, 101, 219, 248 (see charging) periods 50, 53, 60, 97, 142, 235 (see menstruation, sanpro) permissive laws 24, 28, 284 (compare mandatory) personal safety 137, 191, 226 (see crime) planning 4, 5, 8, 12–15, 18, 20–26, 29, 34, 37, 38, 40, 42, 46, 47, 49, 50, 54, 55, 59, 60–71, 77, 96,102–3, 114, chapter 8, 165, 168–170, 173, 175, 176, 182–186, 196, 200, 235, 238–240, 250, 269, 270, 278, 279, 281–9: planning gain 152, 153, 185, 235, 240 plastic 49, 118, 126, 211, 213, 216, 227, 230, 245 play area 77 Pleasantville 84 plumbing 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 32, 48–50, 79, 86, 87, 99, 113, 122, 127, 218, 233, 259, 268, 270, 281 policing 42, 67, 80, 87, 182, 240, 252, 255 policy makers 3, 17, 21, 22, 24–26, 257, 267, 272, 287 pollution 23, 78, 89, 96, 102, 113, 115, 118, 124, 125, 266 population 5, 6, 12, 15, 22, 26, 34–37, 96, 99, 100, 106, 107, 114, 118, 119, 121, 122, 129, 134, 141, 153, 155, 169, 178, 181, 183, 184, 212, 213, 239, 250, 278, 282, 283

queues 9, 42, 49, 57, 61, 68, 74, 76, 77, 107, 147, 220, 223, 250, 282, 289 race 21, 25, 29, 127, 284, 286, 287 (see gender, disability) RADAR keys, 27,56, 66, 159, 160, 168, 176, 221, 250, 263 rails, 79, grab 108, 160,166, 169, 188, 191, 195 (chapter 11), 213, 214 (special section) 221, 227, 234 357

SUBJECT INDEX

railways 24, 44, 46–48, 52, 55, 56, 61, 65, 77, 135, 141–143, 147–150, 160, 178, 180, 211, 247–250, 289: main railway stations 64 ramps 188 (and see chapter 9) ratios of provision 55, 57, 60, 63, 68, 178, 181, 184, 205, 206, 212, 239, 294 (see unequal provision) rearmament [toilet] 262, 293 recreation 60, 142, 146, 250 recycling 117, 118, 127, 188, 218 refuge 165, 223 (see lobby) rubbish 117, 126,143,188,251; ‘its a rubbish industry’ 251 regulation 60, 66, 70, 145, 170, 269 religion 8, 12, 29, 122, 208, 287 restaurants 8, 44, 58, 78, 81, 180, 186, 239, 241, 242, 278 restrooms 84, 89, 100, 159, 263, 277, 280, 284 (see America, USA) retail (see shopping) revolution (toilet) 6, 9, 17, 38, 39, 42, 46, 81, 102, 124, 128, 129, 257, 262, 277, 279, 280, 293 Rio 111, 113, 265, 277 (see sustainability, environment, chapter 7) roll (toilet paper) 65, 106, 119, 121, 195, 212, 213, 215, 216, 245 Romans 32, 33, 71 roofs 31, 114, 237, 252, 253 rural (see countryside) Russians 49, 83 safety 4, 6, 24, 61, 137, 149, 150, 170, 191, 193, 198, 201, 225, 226, 258, 267, 268, 283 San Francisco 7 sanitary towels (see sanpro) sanitation 37, 39, 42, 44, 47, 72, 86, 103, 114, 126, 127 sanpro 7, 8, 16, 49, 78, 97–8, 106, 111, 114–118, 122–8, 129, 160, 209–211, 215, 226, 234, 247, 250, 251, 259, 266

358

SAP 174, 193 Saudi Arabia 74, 112 schools 22, 46, 54, 64, 81, 86, 89, 90 (school girl drawing), 100, 107, 127, 137–9, 141, 142, 175, 181, 223, 252, 260 Scotland 56, 67, 104, 174, 202, 203, 286, 288 seaside 14, 39, 55, 129, 134, 237, 266, 291 seat 43, 45, 81, 95, 96, 101, 106–108, 115, 116, 124, 147, 160, 201, 209, 211–213, 229, 245 (see pan, bowl) security 64, 66, 87, 160, 168, 223, 225, 240, 245, 248, 252, 259, 283, 284 segregated 13, 198 (see black, white, ratio, race) Seoul 124 service stations 87, 136, 235, 236, 242, 288 sewerage 8, 12, 32–34, 36–42, 67, 96, 102, 103, 113, 114, 118, 119, 122, 125, 127, 139, 249, 266, 278 sex 12, 20, 71–73, 85–89, 97, 136, 159, 198, 231, 255, 287 sharing 73, 74, 77, 124, 174, 291 (see unisex and mixed use) shelf 218–9; transfer shelf 211 Shinto 73, 279 shopping and retail issues 5, 19, 21, 34, 51, 54, 56–60 (retail floorspace), 65, 66, 79, 87, 88, 100, 128, 137, 142, 145, 153, 157, 176, 178, 180, 181, 184, 188, 189, 193, 197, 206, 207, 219, 225, 226, 235, 237, 241, 244, 249, 250, 265, 270, 283, 284, 289, 291; shoplifting 87 shy bladder 99, 208, 221 signage 45, 136, 142, 149, 184, 191, 235, 242, 290 Singapore 6, 64, 122–124, 126–128, 178, 227–229, 236, 252, 263, 265, 274, 278, 293 sink 49, 226 (see basin, washbasin, bowl) sit (as against squat) 29, 39, 43, 48, 89, 104, 106–109, 115, 128, 159, 163, 207, 209, 212, 237, 239

storage 62, 117, 147, 199 Strand, The 44, 62 strategy for toilets 13, 54, 111, 119, 134, 140, 143, 149, 153, 165, 175, 178, 181, 183, 189, 191, 193, 250, 267, 271, 279, 281, 283, 286 street urination 3, 21, 34, 38, 79, 80, 85, 91, 93, 98, 188, 189, 238, 239 streetscape 50, 143, 240 superloos 186 (see APCs) supermarkets 58, 59, 121, 291 surfers 266 surveillance 53, 87, 184, 188, 189, 191, 193, 197, 198, 234 (see crime and design) surveyors 20, 265 sustainability 3, 8, 9, 12, 111, 118, 127, 134, 258, 265, 271, 273, 277 Suwon 69, 124 (see football, korea) Suzy Lamplugh Trust 267 Swansea 77

SUBJECT INDEX

siting 12, 13, 143, 184, 188, 189 skirts 48, 106 (76 dress) 189 caught in wind sliding door: 208, latch: 220 slippery 7, 79, 230 slot 52, 65, 186, 206, 219, 241, 248 (see locks, charging) smells 47, 83, 85, 89 snow 39, 86, 121 soap 49, 216, 218, 223, 224, 260 social inclusion 9, 29, 144, 236, 239, 271: social exclusion, 19; social models 161: social needs 3, 138, 169, 269 Soho 90 Somerset 16, 27, 120, 134, 178, 185, 237, 253 South Ockendon 186 Spain 33, 101, 242 spatial factors 13, 15, 17, 27, 47, 54, 71, chapter 8, 155, 162, 173, 175, 180, 181, 183, 267, 279, 281 sport 6, 8, 60, 146, 206: Sports Council 60, 289 spyhole 189 squares 43, 58, 66, 69, 71, 81, 91, 144, 167, 180, 185, 240, 291 squat (as against sit) 10, 29, 34, 48, 104, 107, 108, 122, 128, 207, 212, 215, 230 stadia 60, 146, 206, 222, 239, 260 (see football, sport) stainless steel, 230 stakeholders 25, 26 standards (see BSI, chapters 8–11 for design standards throughout) Star Trek 72 stations 27, 48, 57, 60, 65, 66, 77, 84, 87, 135, 136, 141, 148, 149, 160, 211, 235, 236, 242, 247, 249, 251, 252, 288 (see railway, termini, transport, bus) STD 96, 97 steps 7, 50, 53, 65–6, 122, 136, 137, 157, 158, 160, 166–7, 172, 180, 188, 223, 226, 234, 243, 283, 287 Stoke on Trent 40, 104, 211

taboos 8, 18, 28, 74 Taiwan 147, 279 taps 122, 216–218, 224, 234 tax 116, 175, 183, 249, 251, 254 taxis 34, 184, 201, 204 TCM 153, 240, 242 technical issues 4, 5, 20, 26, 127, 208, 268, 282, 285 telephones 182, 192, 201, 247, 248, 258 tenements 37, 38, 49 termini 4, 27, 51, 52, 133, 135, 141, 142, 145, 147, 153, 176, 180, 181, 184, 193, 201, 249, 284 Thames 34, 39 ‘the problem’ 3, 10–14, 17, 18, 23, 24, 31, 57, 59, 61, 68, 71, 79, 100, 104, 111, 116, 118, 119, 127, 133, 138, 143, 149, 168, 211, 236, 255, 268, 279, 283 theory 25, 34, 61, 76, 81, 139, 252, 253, 256, 273, 287, 289 Third World 12, 38, 113, 129, 220, 262, 278 359

SUBJECT INDEX

time 4, 9, 13, 23, 26, 34, 37–40, 42, 46, 48, 53, 54, 63 (time to pee), 66, 85, 89, 98–101, 103, 107, 116, 118, 119, 126, 134, 139, 141, 142, 161, 165, 167, 170, 189, 212, 215, 216, 218, 225, 242–244, 250, 255, 258, 259, 267, 268 (see opening, closing, 24 hour city, evening economy) toddlers 169, 189, 234 (see children, babies) toilet paper 81, 106, 111, 118, 119, 121, 122, 125, 129, 162, 212, 215, 216, 250, 259 toileteers 50, 267 (see BTA in author index) Torrens Act 39 TOTO 127, 211, 232, 233 tourism 8, 61, 124, 129, 144, 237, 249, 264, 265, 283 tourists needs 6, 19, 21, 24, 31, 57, 60, 83, 125, 137, 147, 176, 178, 191, 193, 239, 265, 277, 278, 285, 289, 291, 293 TCM 5, 153, 189, 235, 240, 256 town planning 4, 8, 12, 24–26, 29, 34, 37, 38, 40, 42, 46, 47, 49, 50, 68, 71, 77, 103, 138, 151, 152, 165, 170, 173, 184, 186, 238, 240, 269, 270, 278, 279, 283, 287, 289 townscape 3, 13, 31, 50, 178, 186, 188, 190, 279 Toyama 73, 124, 125, 178, 261 Triangle, Danfo: 214, Management: 236 trickle down effect 186 (see economy) tropical toilets 54, 81, 262 Tube (London Underground) 52, 65, 149, 193, 201 Turkey 33, 262, 283 turning circle 213 turnstiles 7, 52, 65, 66, 139, 147, 157, 248, 287, 289, 293, 294 (see barriers, access) underground 7, 29, 34, 35, 40, 43, 44, 55, 67, 81, 103, 250 underpasses 44, 53, 174

360

unequal provision 57, 62–3, 91, chapter 4, 159, 199, 249–50 uniblock 181, 183 unisex 28, 58, 76, 77, 90, 93, 108, 124, 149, 163, 172, 178, 180, 181, 198, 199, 206, 222, 223, 227, 234, 250, 258, 282, 293 (see mixed use) universal design 160, 161 universalist approach 5, 19, 155, 196, 286 urban design 3–6, 8, 12, 13, 16, 17, 26, 29, 39, 46, 50, 143, 144, 155, 162, 173–175, 184, 188, 234, 239, 250, 265, 280, 284, 291, 293, Urban Design group 174 urban governance 23–5 urban regeneration 18, 29, 34, 54, 144, 173, 241, 285 urbanisation 34, 36, 48 urilift 92, 239, 260 urinals 5, 15, 29, 43, 47, 48, 54, 67, 68, 79, 88, 91, 100, 106–108, 124, 144, 181, 205, 206, 212, 215, 218, 221–223, 229–231, 234, 237–239, 243, 260, 289 urination 3, 21, 29, 34, 38, 76, 79–81, 85, 91, 93, 97, 98, 102, 106, 119, 122, 163, 174, 188, 189, 238, 239 urinette 104, 106 uroscopy 102, 19, 23, 38, 43, 49, 57, 62, 64, 82, 84, 112, 119, 162, 182, 252, 265, 283, 284 Amsterdam Treaty 282, 283 (see equality) USA 8, 19, 38, 57, 62, 64, 82, 84, 77, 100, 101, 112, 114, 147, 162, 163, 182, 198, 215, 283–4, 287 users 3, 5, 6, 10, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 29, 31, 32, 34, 86, 114, 115, 124, 128, 133, 137, 138, 149, 157–161, 165, 167, 169, 174, 175, 181, 184, 186, 189, 191, 192, 195–198, 205, 208, 209, 212, 213, 215, 216, 219, 221–223, 230–232, 235, 239–241, 244, 248, 251, 255,

Wales 51, 56, 60, 67, 77, 257 walking 25, 79, 112, 126, 137, 143, 149, 281, 282 (see pedestrians) walls 32, 44, 79, 98, 115, 184, 191, 199, 207–209, 211, 212, 215, 216, 219–221, 223, 225–227, 231, 234, 237, 251 Waltham Forest 195 wardrobe 124 washbasins 79, 195, 199, 215, 216, 219, 220, 222–224 waste disposal 4, 12, 31, 96, 111, 114, 126, 266 water 8, 12, 21, 29, 34, 39, 40, 42, 46–51, 54, 63, 77, 78, 84, 96, 104, 106, 111–114, 118, 119, 121, 122, 124–127, 129, 192, 216, 218, 223, 224, 237, 239, 249, 266, 268, 271, 277, 281 Waterloo 48 (see railways) WC&P 48 weight 98, 161, 212, 226 Welsh 26, 55, 67, 118, 271, 288 Westbourne Park 186

Westminster 34, 44, 55, 91, 239 Weston 16, 48, 139, 237, 238 wheelchair 156, 157, 159, 162, 165, 167, 169, 188, 197, 209, 211, 213, 215, 221, 226, 234, 262 white 28, 29, 53, 65, 74, 77–79, 101, 121, 162, 168, 227, 237, 287 width 143, 197, 207, 209, 223, 234 wilderness 124, 125, 218 wind 125, 189, 218, 241 windows 34, 53, 198, 231, 237, 252–255 women 19–24, 29, 34, 38, 40, 42–44, 47, 48, 50–52, 54–58, 60–63, 65, 68, 72, 74, 76–78, 80, 85–91, 96–104, 106–109, 112, 115–119, 121, 122, 124, 126–128, 134, 137–139, 141, 143, 146, 149, 151, 163, 167, 170, 173, 174, 176, 178, 180–183, 186, 189, 191, 196–199, 205–207, 209, 211, 212, 216, 218–220, 223–225, 231, 234, 238, 239, 241, 242, 244, 248–250, 258–260, 262, 265–270, 273, 278, 282–284, 286–289, 291, 294 world toilet situation 4–6, 12, 20, 22–8, 32, 36, 38, 43, 49, 59, 64, 65, 72, 78, 79, 83, 86, 89, 96, 97, 101, 108, 111–117, 121, 122, 124–9, 139, 157, 162, 178, 205, 220, 232, 237, 241, 246, 249, 253, 262, 263, 267, 273, 274–8, 285, 289

SUBJECT INDEX

258, 259, 262, 264, 266, 269, 275, 282, 283, 285, 291, 293 values 20, 21, 73, 176, 186, 255, 287 vandalism 6, 8, 13, 18, 71, 87, 97, 125, 137, 138, 160, 163, 175, 183, 188, 189, 191, 212, 213, 221, 222, 230, 231, 235, 237, 238, 248, 253, 255, 262, 267, 279, 291, 293 VAT 116 Victorian heritage 8, 35, 39, 42, 44, 47–49, 52, 54, 67, 81, 95, 98, 101, 108, 230 villages 35, 49, 80, 112, 183, 277 visibility 88, 189, 209, 221

York 52, 68, 90, 238, 240–242, 284 Zealand, New 69, 125 zoning 47, 71, 76–78, 88, 139, 242, 279, 283, 284 Zurich 243

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Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets

Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets

Urban Design

Urban Design: Method and Techniques (Urban Design)

Public Places - Urban Spaces

Urban Public Transport Today

Inclusive design guidelines for HCI

Consensus Design: Socially inclusive process

Eco-Urban Design

Urban Design Futures

Urban Design Reader

URBAN DESIGN TOOLKIT

Urban Design: Green Dimensions

Companion to Urban Design

Urban design and people

Eco-Urban Design

Urban Design: Ornament and Decoration, Second Edition (Urban Design)

Urban Transformations: Power, People and Urban Design

Urban Transformations: Power, People and Urban Design

Inclusive Design: Designing and Developing Accessible Environments

Public Places Urban Spaces, Second Edition: The Dimensions of Urban Design

Public Places Urban Spaces, 2nd Edition: The Dimensions of Urban Design

Urban design: Street and Square

Urban Sustainablity Through Environmental Design

Urban Design: Method and Techniques

Urban Design Compedium 1-Manual

Urban Design: Ornament and Decoration

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All-inclusive

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