Barbican London

[Singlesexstuff]

The Barbican are again trying to introduce ‘gender neutral’ loos by taking over the women’s loos on the third floor by sellotaping a ‘this toilet is gender neutral’ A4 sheet on the door. Men are in there urinating without locking cubicle doors. Gross. Anyone else had this happen recently. When reported I was told by a male employee ‘I am in favour of gender neutral toilets’. Plus ‘the barbican is not responsible for male behaviour when they are in (this) (gender neutral) toilet. The man in the women’s loo defended himself by shouting out ‘the lock doesn’t work’. Shame on you then for firstly using the women’s loos and for not changing to a lockable cubicle and also for not reporting the broken lock. Presumably. And the person who sellotaped the notice to the door couldn’t be bothered checking looks and could not be bothered sticking another note on the door to say don’t use as the lock doesn’t work. Shame on you Barbican. Where do I take my young granddaughters? Where does my friend deal with her ostomy. Are all the male toilets suddenly out of use? Why was it me had to go down 4 floors to evidently the only women’s toilet available Saturday. Come on folks help me here.

Which post?

You need to reply to particular posts or people won’t know which one you are referring to.

It’s a long time since we moved but I thought that the sex of the toilets was on alternate floors.

But there are less cubicles and I am pretty sure that women would be less like to use gender neutral toilets if guys were using the unrinals.

that said the whole thing is stupid and no toilet male not female should be gender neutral unless it’s the only one available.

The difference is they’re single use. You’re not sharing the space with anyone else as you’re using it.

They tend to be separate single cubicles/rooms for access so having the door open would mean peeing publicly rather than out of sight from anyone other than those in the larger toilets with multiple cubicles.

I must admit I couldn't find any ladies or gender neutral toilets when I was last there so ended up using the disabled toilet (which was clean and no queue) it's a badly designed space. Well designed gender neutral toilets are fine, preferable in some settings but the Barbican has a lack of loose issue

Not the Barbican, but I used toilets in Liverpool recently which were 'gender neutral'. There were only two stalls. I went in one and was followed in by a man (the toilets, not the stall!). The door of the stall I was in didn't lock so I came out, the man was pissing in the other with the door wide open. I kept my legs crossed and hurried out.

On another note, I live alone, bathroom is on the ground floor (Georgian terraced cottage). Whenever I have tradesmen in, they think it's okay to leave the door wide open when they piss. I've put a sign on the door, now, that says 'please shut the gate' in an attempt to appeal to their animal mentality!

Yes but I was in there alone. It’s a space of its own, isn’t it. I have no problem with men using it before or after me, just not at the same time. Not that difficult to comprehend.

I love the way we've all been trained to say 'gender neutral toilets' - sounds far safer and more dignified than 'mixed sex,' which is what the toilets actually are.

The barbican have lost their mind. The royal festival hall has made the at least one disabled loo the ‘’gender neutral’ not the main single sex loos. Granted lots of loos seem out of use there as of Sunday, however women don’t have men in women’s loos and are not forced to use men’s loos with urinals and maybe only 1 cubicle. The Barbican public-facing worker saying what he did to me makes me think the barbican is revisiting the loos debacle of 2017. Sadly the two women working the cloakroom beside the women’s loo I’m talking about laughed at me when I complained. They were the staff who told me to use the women’s loos in the basement as they were single sex that afternoon. The barbicans customer service towards me Saturday was nothing short of what can I say, disinterested, passive aggressive, up yours. If anyones a member please can you let us know if members have been consulted. I’d love to start some sort of campaign if this escalates.

Were you there for a ticketed event?
Complain and ASK FOR A REFUND.
I think this is the only way forward.
We have to get this madness stopped.

It's usually 1 large cubicle with a toilet and a sink with a lockable door so why is that hard to understand that it's far more private than the regular toilets with many cubicles and shared sinks?

Yes they are instigating mixed sex loos, correct. I use ‘gender neutral’ in parentheses because that’s why they wrote on the hand written sheet sellotaped to the door on the women’s loos, but you are right, we must not give credence to what is in fact a push for a mixed sex loos

As a PP said upthread - its always the women's loos that become gender neutral - due to the urinals in the mens. SO they are not making more loos available for women but are making more available for men - as there are now fewer women only loos and more gender neutral ones.

They even did this at Glyndebourne this summer (shock horror). To the one I preferred obviously and now you can't put your bag down on the worktop to touch up your makeup until you've wiped it down as the men don't tidy up after themselves. Ultimate first world problem I know....

There are plenty of non gender neutral toilets at the Barbican. Barbican offers the choice of both gender neutral and non gender neutral toilets. There is absolutely nothing wrong with offering choice.

The problem is that the choice is always one way - ie men now have more loos to exercise their choice in whilst women who choose to use single sex loos have less choice. There's also a potential safeguarding issue as Barbican have concerts where the performers are school aged children (LSSO and NYO etc etc) so you could end up with unaccompanied minor girls in the mixed loos with a load of random men.

You're right, most women would often choose not to use them. But biological men who are trans women could, if they wanted. And then us normies could continue to use the womans restrooms as we always have.

It doesn’t work just sticking a label on a door and expecting fit for purpose ‘all gender’ toilets.

Men end up using cubicles they don’t need in venues where the queues of women are already long. Women and girls end up having to walk past men pissing in urinals.

But hey… as long as the label on the door shows how ‘inclusive’ the venue is, who cares if the facilities are fit for purpose?

Do it properly. Invest in a row of self contained locked cubicles with basin, mirror etc, no gap under the door. If you don’t, you are just a virtue signalling hypocrite.

But they usually open out onto a corridor or hall or other communal space. They're designed for one; there's nobody else in there with you.

The gender neutral toilets on one floor of the Barbican (all the other floors with toilets have the gendered toilets just as before), consist of individual locking cubicles with a properly shutting door which does not have a gap at top or bottom, with a sink, a bin and a changing table inside each cubicle.

So no one using these toilets has to share any space with men or with anyone else.

I'm not sure what your problem is here, other than that you pushed open a door of a toilet which someone was using, because, as they explained, the lock did not work?

Hi everyone who responded. I’m surprised anyone on mumsnet thinks that mixed sex toilets are a good idea. However I’m thankful for everyone who offered serious and sometimes thoughtful and even funny replies. As has been said before ‘I’ll be back’