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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

I just found out about this???

188 replies

PonyPals · 04/03/2025 09:21

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

OP posts:
Tigergirl80 · 04/03/2025 15:03

Lovelysummerdays · 04/03/2025 13:52

I think everyone needs the loo though. I have a key, I’m not disabled but my pelvic floor is weak and I have a prolapse so if I can’t make it to the loo it’ll just start dribbling out and there’s only so much you can do with pads. There’s no public loos after 4/5. I don’t mind paying when open but out of hours a key is a godsend.

Different if you have bladder or bowel issues. My sister has one for bowel issues. I opened one once not realising there was someone in there. She was doing her diabetic meds.

Maddy70 · 04/03/2025 16:02

If you can find one .... Sometimes you do sometimes you don't.

Springchicken25 · 04/03/2025 22:29

The ones in Covent Garden cost about £2 to use. I remember being outraged and holding it in till we got to the big bookshop on Charing Cross Rd.

Negroany · 04/03/2025 23:05

Bumcake · 04/03/2025 10:51

Conversation, presumably.

She means she was recently told. Blimey.

I hadn't realised that all the stations had stopped charging, that’s good.

She "just found out" about something that isn't even true? Weird.

mathanxiety · 04/03/2025 23:49

Here I sit, broken hearted
Paid my penny and only...

mathanxiety · 04/03/2025 23:55

AlwaysCoffee25 · 04/03/2025 10:05

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.

You have to have toilets for staff and patrons in any establishment serving food, including supermarkets with cafe areas, in all the states I know of in the US.

Shops and restaurants can refuse to let people come in just to use the loo though, iyswim. But a supermarket would never be able to keep track of your intentions. Gas stations also have loos that are pretty much open to the public even if you just stop for the loo, especially along interstates.

JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn · 05/03/2025 00:39

You've never heard of needing to 'spend a penny'?

Or this little classic? Here I sit broken hearted, paid a penny and only farted.

Floatlikeafeather2 · 05/03/2025 09:33

Cakeandusername · 04/03/2025 12:48

Yes it was card only this weekend. I saw a male teen weeing in car park to presumably avoid the charge so that is risk of charging.

Sadly the risk of not charging is having to close them all together. The visitors make no other contribution towards their upkeep (e.g. via council tax) so though I believe 60p is too much, I do think some charge is justified. Nobody used to baulk at paying a penny when I was young. You just made sure you always had a penny on you when you were out and about. Our main complaint was that we were subsidising the men, who didn't have to pay at all.

Lovesabadboy · 05/03/2025 15:38

caringcarer · 04/03/2025 09:50

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.

Unfortunately, our Sainsbury's has just shut their public loos, permanently.
I have never had cause to use them, but everyone said that they were always filthy , which is purely down to the general public behaving in a foul and disgusting manner.
They have spoiled it for everyone who might have urgent need of access to a loo.
Many people are now no longer shopping in Sainsbury's.

Needmorelego · 05/03/2025 15:44

@Lovesabadboy if that's the Banbury branch there's a petition to re open the loos 😁
(I have family that live there)
Edit : in Banbury.....not in the loos 😂

Lovesabadboy · 05/03/2025 15:51

Needmorelego · 05/03/2025 15:44

@Lovesabadboy if that's the Banbury branch there's a petition to re open the loos 😁
(I have family that live there)
Edit : in Banbury.....not in the loos 😂

Edited

😂Haha! It is indeed!
Small world!
Good to hear that there is a petition...fingers crossed.
And if they come back, then I hope that people treat them properly!

Needmorelego · 05/03/2025 16:05

@Lovesabadboy hopefully the petition will be a success.

eqpi4t2hbsnktd · 05/03/2025 16:37

In London lots of public loos have been turned into bars, hairdressers... it's annoying.
And lots of pubs and cafes won't let you use the loos unless you buy something.
It's the only reason to love a 'spoons. They always let you!

Mere1 · 05/03/2025 18:06

NicolaCasanova · 04/03/2025 09:42

At St. Pancras station the toilets are free.

I live in a European city where there are very very few public toilets and most of those have a fee (90 centimes or a Euro). When I was having radiotherapy which gave me urgency for the toilet, I could barely leave the house, and going to the supermarket usually resulted in an accident; I had a disabled pass but there are no disabled toilets!

Men here tend to just wee wherever in the street.

How awful…

TaterTots68 · 05/03/2025 18:42

Nothing worse than being desperate for a wee and it's a pay toilet and I've got no change. But thankfully most public toilets are free. I can remember having to pay (2p I think) at most public toilets as a child in the 70s though

madaffodil · 05/03/2025 18:44

PonyPals · 04/03/2025 10:28

Never thought I would be so fascinated by toilet practices in other countries Grin

Never dreamed that anyone would ever ask.😂

StokieDad · 05/03/2025 18:46

Best public toilet graffiti ever:

HERE I SIT, BROKEN HEARTED.
PAID 10p - AND ONLY FARTED.

cardboardvillage · 05/03/2025 19:09

Are you American?

We tend to bathe at home so there's no such thing as a public bathroom

Lavatories are largely free to use

Moveoverdarlin · 05/03/2025 19:11

Rarely. I can think of the ones in Paddington station and some public toilets in Padstow in Cornwall. Apart from those two I don’t know of any.

ShowOfHands · 05/03/2025 19:20

Out local public toilet plays Greensleeves to you and chats while you wee.

StuckHurtDone · 05/03/2025 19:23

Go to the Cotswolds and it’s pretty common place! However, it means you get to use completely clean toilets rather than your bog standard smelly ‘public tablets!’

Letstheriveranswer · 05/03/2025 19:31

Public toilets? Not many of those left around where I live!

There are none in town, have to use a supermarket loo and not have a drink in town before walking home!

Goinggonegone · 05/03/2025 19:35

You have to pay 40 p in the public toilets in my county.

AlmostAJillSandwich · 05/03/2025 19:37

Has anyone else noticed the toilets in big supermarkets like Asda and Tesco are so filthy they're practically unuseable? This despite supposedly being checked hourly!
I am disabled and have a radar key, but occasionally the one measly disabled loo is occupied and when i need it, i can't wait, so on a few occasions have had to struggle into a regular ladies cubicle.
Of the 4 or 5 cubicles at least one will be blocked, one will stink and be covered in (usually) liquid shit all round the bowl above the water line, some will have obvious stinking piss puddles on the floor, dribbled on the seat and/or the toilet back (thanks for nothing, hovering women who create the piss/germs on the seats that you're so desperately trying to avoid sitting in yourself!) and some will have great piles of toilet paper all over the floor and none in the holder. Broken or dangerously loose wobbling seats are common too thanks to those using them like squat toilets and standing on the seats instead of sitting as western toilets are meant to be used. If you make it as far as successfully relieving yourself, you get to the sinks and find little to no soap left.

Whilst i'm on a state of the public toilets rant, I have to make a weekly trip that despite only being a 40-45 minute drive i have to stop at the half way services for a wee there and back,(bloody defective bladder!) and its clear able bodied people (men!) from certain cultures are using the disabled loos to take a shit. Atleast half of the times i go in they stink, have badly aimed shit all over the bowl (they never use the provided loo brush to clean up after themselves) the seats are broken and loose from the stand and squatting, and the floor all around the toilet is drenched with what i hope is just clean water. They leave an empty self service drinks cup on the sink too. I thought people were being weird finishing their drinks in the loo and being lazy not taking the empty with them to bin, til last week when i got there as a guy was just finishing up, and i went in after him to all of the above, and it dawned on me the empty drinks cups are where they're using them after a shit to wash instead of wipe. Nice they don't take their arse rinsing cup out to the foyer to put in the bin, they leave them in the way of other users and for the cleaners to dispose of. Its really made me uncomfortable as i've always believed disabled toilets should be solely for the use of those with illness or disability that either completely prevents, or creates great physical obstacles to using regular cubicled toilets. I've never considered if a cultural belief/preference to wash instead of wipe after a shit, is a reason thats valid to use the disabled toilets, so they have the access to the sink in the cubicle.

LaughingCat · 05/03/2025 19:40

Used to back in the Seventies and Eighties - it’s where the phrase ‘spend a penny’ came from.

Mostly not now - vast majority of public loos have been closed down and the remaining are paid for by the organisation responsible for the facilities. Very glad, used to hate rummaging around for a 20p when I was dying for a wee!