I just found out about this???

[PonyPals]

To all the UK Mners. Is it true you have to pay to use the public bathrooms??

99% of the time, no.

In other European countries it's quite common to have a (usually) woman man toilets in public and even in bars and cafes and (sometimes affectionately called Madam Pee Pee) who will clean the toilet ahead of you using it and give you loo roll, for a small fee of about 50 cents.

Sometimes. Usually train stations. You used to have to pay for the tour provided by our local councils, but they sold them all.

We had to pay everywhere in Austria and Germany last summer, including places like McDonalds. The Netherlands was more relaxed.

No, I’ve not encountered it in the UK. France are very strict on payment I’ve found, so is Italy.

Just travelled last week from my local town station (free toilets) to Liverpool Lime St station (free toilets).

I live in a small seaside town (not one of the busy ones), where there are 4 sets of public toilets - all free.

I remember having afternoon tea at Harrods and the shock that they gave us ONE token to use the loo. This was back in the dark ages though.
There used to be an attendant at some shops - I think Peter Jones had them. You would leave them some coins. Of course I don't carry any money now.

Where I live I can only think of 1 council run public toilet in the park and that's free. Most public toilets have closed. Supermarkets usually have a free public toilet as do library's if you can find one still open.

Occasionally in very touristy areas. You have to pay in some areas of the Lake District for example

There's a charge for most facilities in my local city and the nearest beaches (quite busy places), but not in the market towns.

The number of facilities that have been closed since 2010 is a big issue.

My town centre has some toilets that cost 50p or so, but they’re lovely and clean so I really don’t mind.

I hate it when you’re charged for loos and they’re absolutely disgusting

I used to live in Greece and this was/is definitely a feature. The worst were the disgusting women's toilets at the Athens bus station serving the |Peloponnese, where an absolute dragon of a woman insisted you pay at least a Euro, handed over two sheets of bog paper and then you entered one of those old-fashioned, 'squat' toilets. And the whole place was filthy. A friend of mine who speaks fluent Greek was conned into handing over TWO Euros (I told her she had no excuse for not arguing the case).

It varies, I recall living in Germany in the 70s/80s and one had to buy toilet tissue from a machine, hence the popularity of small packs of tissues!

I live in York and our public toilets you need to pay, i think 20p

In some places yes, I've paid to use the loo in European cities as well so it's not just a UK thing.

Traditionally it used to cost a penny which you put in a slot to unlock the door. Of course people held the door for each other so the pennies paid were depleted.

visited a voluntary pay one in Blue Anchor, Somerset. Run by local volunteers and it was immaculate. There’s a cast iron donation box outside, old post box maybe .

Once upon a time the majority of public toilets you had to pay a charge.
Not so much anymore.

The problem with this is that if they don’t make enough money to cover the cost of providing the loo it may well close.
It certainly happened in the seaside town in which I live.

I live between two seaside towns and public toilets in both towns are free to use.

Years ago you had to pay (a penny, which is where the phrase comes from) at station toilets but a poster above said that is no longer always the case.

It infuriated me, years and years ago, that the men's toilets were free but we had to find a penny for the door lock!

There are not many left now and you do have to pay for some.
I tend to find a MacDonalds or pub to nip into

Used to but I havent seen this for a long time. Nowhere in London now that I am aware of. 10/15y ago the toilets at large London trains stations were 20p.

The public toilets in my village are 20p. Everyone moans about this. The council.stopped funding them so now it's down to the Parish Council. Of course its ridiculous, there should be free public toilets everywhere.

We call them toilets in the UK rather than bathrooms.

The problem is not that we have to pay, it’s that there are very few public toilets around these days.

I once paid 50p to use a loo somewhere in London (and for the life of me,can't remember where)

It was the filthiest toliet I've ever seen-if a rat had ran past,I wouldn't have been shocked

It was like something from trainspotting

Did what I had to do,risked catching god knows what at the sinks and ran out

We walked round a few corners and found spotless and free loos not far away

I used to live in york and used the famous Splash Palace a few time (public loos)

They cost 20p (I think) for us ladies but free for fellas

The ladies where cleanish thanks to the attendants but the fellas stank (even in winter-summer was unbearable) as nobody cleaned them often enough

They have thankfully been knocked down now-the public loos are on Silver Street and not very nice but are clean

Nobody I know uses them,lots of shops have loos that are free (they may not be there anymore,I've not been to York for years)

There’s not actually many public toilets about now. But in the UK cafes and places that serve food HAVE to have toilets - which I don’t think is true in the US.

inner city public toilets and even those in supermarkets tend to be used by people taking drugs and stink, took my DC into a Morrisons to change them and it stunk and had drugs paraphernalia strewn around.

I’d rather there was a charge than free access for anti social behaviour.