Lack of public toilets. (not Trans/GC related)

Big, long, hefty skirts making a comeback for women with the next 30 years then, so we can pee discreetly in the verges without being clocked like our foremothers did in days of yore.
Funny, innit, 30 years ago we thought the next hundred years would be all shiny progress, swooshy doors and flying cars. Now we're realizing it's going to 17th century Mk2.

Obviously if she’d have been a five year old boy she could have peed standing up in a hedge but biological girls aren’t built that way and I can’t hold her up for that.

It seems to be the way things are going. I took a bus journey to Tavistock a few weeks ago and after about an hour and a half on a hot bus, and having guzzled much water, arrived to find the loos closed at the bus station. Not good

I took my DD into the toilet of a large restaurant off a motorway on a long journey home not long ago.

I always, always ask at the bar if it is ok first but this time it was busy, there was no one to ask and my five year old who has been on antibiotics since age 3 for recurrent urine infections could not wait.

In fact she’d wet her trousers (leaked but not full on accident) on the way in and as I walked her out of the toilet humiliated and dressed in nothing from the waist down but with my hoodie tied around her legs a barman accosted us and tapped a sign stating that a donation was required to use the toilets.

I had the hand of a distressed five year old in one hand and a pile of soiled clothes in the other and my purse was in the car as we were dashing for an emergency wee.

Clearly they have become entirely used to being used as a public convenience and I don’t blame them for charging but if there is such a need that they are placing signs up and accosting humiliated children without trousers then I wonder if there isn’t more the state could do to help address the lack of facilities.

It's depressingly predictable that when budgets are tight it's services which disproportionately affect women, the disabled and the poor that suffer.

I do appreciate that public toilets are likely expensive to run and vulnerable to anti-social behaviour.

I have also used loos in very grand hotels without being a guest or buying anything but that requires a bit of confidence.

My DH does that.

I live in the northwest, we have them in shopping centres, also some in parks which I assume are council run. In smaller places there are quite often ones which cost 20p - I think some are described as being 'community' funded rather than council, not sure exactly what that entails.

The one hotel we have is also a pub

It has 3 entrances so its dead easy to go for a wee

But I agree with the OP....shouldn’t need to be sneaking into loos...even though i am very good at it 😀

I think dd at 17 would struggle

Hotels are good, just march in like you own the place and the loos are usually somewhere between reception and the lifts.

Wetherspoons always have good, clean loos and the pubs are so vast that the bar staff won't even notice you going to them, never mind say anything.

But yes, it is an utter scandal that public toilets are being (well, have been almost completely) taken away.

Everyone needs to pee ffs, why do people act like toilets are optional or nice-to-have?

Women in the Highlands got sick of exactly this shit.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-44898116

But shopping centres and large department stores are the only places i can think of thats always have toilets

I don't think this is a recent thing. I can't think of when I last used a council owned loo in the UK (the last public loo I used was in June in a tiny mountain village in Switzerland) I can't even think of any in Edinburgh except the ones in west Princes Street Gardens which look pretty unappealing. (Come to think of it, I can't think of any in London either) On Princes' Street, Debenhams, Jenner's, M&S, Waterstones and the National Gallery have loos which can be used without the need to buy anything. Obviously there are Costas, Starbucks and Café Neros but they are likely to require you buy something. I appreciate not everyone can spend a couple of pounds to spend a penny but chain pubs like All Bar One and Wetherspoons have good loos which are fine for women on their own and will have disabled facilities.

My go to loo when my son was small was Macdonald's. Buy the cheapest item and use their loo.

I have also used loos in very grand hotels without being a guest or buying anything but that requires a bit of confidence.

This thread has made me think, I haven't used a 'Public Convenience' in years. In my town both sets of public (council owned) toilets closed years ago. One set is now a cab office and the other a car wash. Only toilets are the shopping centre, cafes or pubs.

As someone with ulcerative colitis, I find it terrible that public facilities are vanishing. When I am sick, I am constantly afraid of going out and not being able to find a toilet in time. I end up staying home. But sometimes you can't. I have experienced some really stressful times when I have been turned away and told to go to such and such place blocks away.

I will say that in a large Boots store this past spring, a very kind staff member escorted me through to the employee washroom as there were no public facilities and I couldn't wait.

Sorry kidding I should have said that its hard to find toilets outside of shopping centres

There are rumours that our centre is being closed down...gradually. With those gone there will be just one set of toilets at one end of town

But shopping centres and large department stores are the only places i can think of thats always have toilets

How are they not legally obliged to provide loos...thats one of the stupidest things ive heard

No i agree completely with you

There are usually some in shopping centres

But no outdoor public ones if that makes sense...the odd ones you find are disgusting or locked for unknown reasons