People are sharing online the codes that will give acess to toilets across London!

[stumbledin]

We started the @LDNLooCodes account thinking of it as the simplest kind of direct action: distributing codes on social media (and eventually in print for those without smartphones) to help people in the capital access locked toilets. Our first tweet explained that we would be sharing the codes for loos in various cafes around London as we got them. But the idea – an evolution from personal lists of bathroom codes we kept in our notebooks during our studies – quickly spread further than we could have hoped.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/06/london-loo-codes-public-toilets

London loo codes collected to date: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NZc0IPV9SV_Wy9xoDckHbVDgJyeW2Str231Uz_e0Mg4/edit#gid=0

And location on hidden free loos also being shared twitter.com/ldnloocodes

(And cant see me walking round with a printout of the spreadsheet but I think it shows the level of unmet need judging by the response!)

Fast food restaurants here have always welcomed people to use their toilets without requiring a purchase.
I wonder if the shops will start charging a fee for people who look around and do not make a purchase.

Why not focus on campaigning for more public toilets rather than abusing the facilities offered by private businesses?

“Welcomed”? Why? Looking round a shop and using their toilets are two totally unrelated things

It's a really sad world where a cafe won't let you use it's loo, private business or not.

What an absolute charmer

Fast food restaurants here have always welcomed people to use their toilets without requiring a purchase.

Not where I live or work. As PPs mention the McDs or similar all have a code which you can only request with a purchase.

There must be substantial variation throughout the UK.

I'd far rather that that were adequate, sufficient, and decent public facilities - both Rose George and Clara Greed are excellent on this topic.

@74NewStreet why don't you try a day in my shoes. I don't fucking enjoy it but it happens regularly

My best friend has a condition that means she often needs access to a loo. There's a card that you can apply for (through your doctor I believe), that when shown means that any shops/cafes etc will let you use facilities. No need to sneakily share codes, the provision has been made.

I can't access one, because I don't need it. If I had a condition that meant I needed it, I could access one. If I need a wee, I have to buy something in the bloody cafe. That's how life works.

This whole thing is ridiculous.

When I was in Paris, I tried to use the McD loo but it was 50c.

As I posted on my Facebook page at the time - I tried to have a McWee, but ended up having to have a rapper-pee.

First of all its not my idea, if you read what I wrote as an introduciont you will see it is an online campaign.

Also, although it maybe that no everyone in London remembers this but when Ken Livingstone (I think) was mayor most pubs, cafes and shops were asked to sign up to making their facilities open to anyone who neeeded them. You used to see signs on the door.

As for a toilet tax, I think paying customers should put up much more of a fuss if they pay the eat in price and then cant get a seat because all the people who lied about taking out their foor are sitting with all their bits of carboard all over the tables.

Sometimes mumsnetters can get very sanctimonious.

I posted it because there have been a number of threads about not having access to a toilet.

and I posted the twitter thread because people are sharing not very well known public toilets. For instance I have used Baker Street tube station for decades. I never knew it has a well maintained ladies toilet and it isn't behing the ticket barrier to basically open to anyone.

Maybe shops etc., could sign up to making their facilities available to the public if they get a rate rebate. So many shops complain about how business rates.

As someone who doesn't go to pubs I have always found Weatherspoon ladies very open to non customers, and quite honestly some of them are so huge I reckon a local women's group could hold a meeting in one. They usually have a sort of lobby area with cushioned seats and little tables.

There are codes?

For toilets?

Since when?

Also, although it maybe that no everyone in London remembers this but when Ken Livingstone (I think) was mayor most pubs, cafes and shops were asked to sign up to making their facilities open to anyone who neeeded them. You used to see signs on the door

There's a bit of a difference between a business voluntarily signing up and being targeted by this campaign.

As for a toilet tax, I think paying customers should put up much more of a fuss if they pay the eat in price and then cant get a seat because all the people who lied about taking out their foor are sitting with all their bits of carboard all over the tables

It is not a toilet tax. I can't say I've ever seen this problem.

In the 1950s pay toilets instead of attendants were the latest thing in department stores. They only lasted about 15 years before they were decommissioned.
Now the homelessness problem has been unaddressed for so long that many businesses not only lock the toilets but hire security.

Is this a London thing? It’s not an issue we have in the Northern wilderness. In my town centre there’s public loos a plenty or you can discretely use the loos at one of the big chains.
As a business owner I’d be pretty miffed if Joe Public was just using my loos. It’s one thing letting a parent with small children, pregnant women or people with disabilities use it as a non-customer in an emergency, that’s just basic good manners but having everyone else come in whilst I pay for the cleaning and restocking of loo roll etc is not on.

Excellent initiative. Yes we need to campaign for more public looks, but in this hyper orivatised city where public space has been chipped away and stolen, I say, more power to you. I resent the 3 quid for shitty coffee at Star-Costa-Nero, and think each time I do it they owe me at least 5 loo visits.

Now the homelessness problem has been unaddressed for so long that many businesses not only lock the toilets but hire security.

Agreed.

When I travel for business, in cities with a very obvious homelessness problem, there's now a yellow-gileted security guard who asks you for your name and other details to run against the 'checked-in' list before allowing you further into the hotel. (I wouldn't fancy being checked in by them but suppose that that is what must happen after 18:00.)

We went to a mickey d’s and you needed a code for the bogs

Oh man, that was THE safety net for emergency toileting.

If councils don't want to spend the cash on maintaining public loos, why not consider outsourcing them like how WH Smith partnered up with the PO office? Businesses get money and footfall, and the council gets a service at a discount.

I just wanted to say that in my experience the reason toilet became customers only or introduced codes on the door is because people regularly (obviously not all) take the piss and leave it in a horrible state.

When I worked in KFC years ago some of the most disgusting states it was left in! There was the bog standard extreme mess but also Addicts and sometimes even sex workers using it leaving behind condoms (or worse if they didn't use one the body fluids from the encounter everywhere!) or drug kit like needles etc

All I'm saying is while I feel everyone should have access to a toilet (I say that as someone with a bowel issue) it's not that simple for the establishment who owns said toilet or the poor staff who at the end of a long shift then have to tackle it!

I resent the 3 quid for shitty coffee at Star-Costa-Nero, and think each time I do it they owe me at least 5 loo visits

What a silly comment- no one is forcing you to use them.

just wanted to say that in my experience the reason toilet became customers only or introduced codes on the door is because people regularly (obviously not all) take the piss and leave it in a horrible state

I get the impression from some of the posts on here that that may well be the attitude of some of the free users- "I'm not paying- I'll do what I want"

We went to a mickey d’s and you needed a code for the bogs

Oh man, that was THE safety net for emergency toileting.

It still is- just buy a coffee and a donut. It never occurred to me to use McDs as a free toilet.

We need to have more public loos? Where are homeless people supposed to go to the toilet? They need them more than anyone as they can’t just go home for a wee.
Maybe these businesses who are fed up should put more pressure on councils. They have more clout after all.

Didn’t mean to type that first question mark.

It never occurred to me to use McDs as a free toilet

You can’t actually go in to mcdonalds with children and not buy something...it blows their little minds

We need more public toilets but they need to be clean, safe and well managed.

People (ab)using facilities in restaurants isn't the answer.

I know I am not forced to use Starbucks etc but I have no choice as I have to wait for my DC while they are at clubs across town and the chains have squeezed out all the independent coffee bars - so yes, I have no choice, unless I go to the pub. Plus they have hoovered up all the concessions at my college.