English Heritage, 'unisex' toilets with main door removed.

[OneOfThoseOldFashionedWomen]

mobile.twitter.com/EnglishHeritage/status/1531548633744670721

This is not a unisex toilet, despite the weird sign.

Why have they taken the main door off?

These are not enclosed toilets, these breach the equality act.

Well technically they can provide mixed sex toilets but the EA gives them the legal right to provide single sex toilets so they have chosen to
de-prioritise the safety and dignity of women.

What is very heartening is the number of women on that thread highlighting the EA and asking questions about how this decision was made, who they consulted with and threatening to withdraw from membership if their legal right to single sex toilets isn't respected.

I would guess the main door has been removed because it's fairly obvious this mixed sex arrangement is a huge risk to women and girls so they've made the interior of the toilets open to public view.

So that's worse, they understand the risk to women and do it anyway.

At a recent visit to an EH property I was asked to complete a questionnaire about my visit. First ? - are you male, female or other - explained very clearly that I would not complete it and why. Really hoped they had evaded the madness but obviously not and just when I hoped common sense was winning.

Those replies are great. Now is the time to get more vocal about rejecting the withdrawal of our single sex spaces. Companies need to understand that people are not happy with this brave new world and they are losing custom. I know we’ve all emailed M&S etc in the past and got short shrift but the general public is waking up to this mess and they are not happy at all.

I used to work for English Heritage (and am GC). Pickering Castle is one of the smaller sites and it is likely that this has been done as a way of increasing the number of toilets for use by all visitors rather than de-prioritising women’s safety and access to toilets (which of course it has done). I suspect this is site-specific rather than a policy shift. I certainly hope so.

It shouldn’t be necessary, of course, but it is heartening to see the responses, especially those reminding EH of the history of public toilets and the impact access to them had on women’s freedom and public access. I hope they listen and act.

i have developed sudden onset explosive shits which are uncomfortable, loud and stinky.
If the main door really has been taken off i would have to use this if it was the nearest toilet, but it would be disgusting and i would die of shame.
WTF? (gender/sex considerations aside - human dignity is at stake here)

Love those Twitter responses. I hope that EH (and the NT who muscled in on the thread) learn from that

Oh dear, not going well for them on twitter, is it? As one twit said (paraphrase): this is a paracrisis and EH's response to Betty will determine whether it becomes a full-blown crisis.

A "twitterstorm", if you will

I think they need to check legislation on this and the government/HSE need to give clear guidance. Most of what I read (from installers) says that there should be single sex provision and where it is unisex it should be in a separate, lockable room. They are suggesting that a cubicle with gaps at the top and bottom is a separate room which I don’t believe these are.

Even if the toilet doors are solid from top to bottom, I still wouldn't want to use them, unless they were for single sex use only
Bad move EH

These kind of arrangements make me worry for people with disabilities. I visited a National Trust property with a disabled relative a couple of years ago where there was a queue of parents with babies outside the one disabled loo snaking out into the courtyard. My disabled relative has some mobility and for medical reasons cannot hold on, so left her mobility scooter outside and joined the shorter ladies’ queue, helped by me. There was a frail elderly woman with walking sticks in front of us in the queue, also struggling. Why? No changing tables in the single sex loos. When all the women and children who need dedicated single sex facilities decamp to the secure, enclosed disabled loo(s), people with disabilities who need them most will suffer. There’s so much wrong with this set-up and so little consideration of other groups affected.

Is there a photo of the loo available? Am I right in thinking that it's enclosed, hence taking the main door off? Seems to highlight safeguarding issue.

Do they know their core customers are of a generation that would not find this dignified?

.

Terrible.

Well done, Betty, for contacting EH. The responses on the tweet are really heartening.

How many women did you ask if they consented to share toilet space with men before you made this change, English Heritage?

Or are you yet another taxpayer funded organisation that violates the boundaries of women and girls against our consent.

it is likely that this has been done as a way of increasing the number of toilets for use by all visitors

It doesn't though does it - because they'll likely have left the urinals in the mens, and women will self-exclude from that (unless very grumpy or desperate) - so it actually tends to work out that men get twice the loos, and women get to share what little provision they had.

Yes Well done to Betty.

I can't see anyone wanting these toilets. There is no dignity.

Admittedly this was a while ago but I have been in ladies loos where wheelchair users have been unable to close the door while using the toilet. Not great in single sex loos obviously, but I would imagine a whole world of worse in unisex.

That aside,what English Heritage have done here is just plain nasty.

Fuck me. I would not be ok with this.

[email protected]

Email address to complain to. Phone number on the website.

Why toilets need to be single sex:
Warning, you will need a strong stomach for this:

grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/misogynist-abusive-men-openly-mocking?s=r

Unisex toilets are fucking disgusting.

There’s a venue in Brighton seafront called Shelter Hall which opened last year and is a popular place to go and eat for locals and visitors.

toilets are unisex: there is a wall separating urinals from the cubicles. The last time I went in w 9yo DD a young man glanced round the wall at the urinals, opted for a stall and proceeded to have a piss with the door open in front of the women and children queuing. I gave him a huge bollocking for his lack of respect and I hope he was thoroughly shamed for this.

the second time I went to the loo and elderly woman complained to me about the unisex facilities and how it had been “forced on us”. Her words.

Most of the older men who were waiting in line also looked very uncomfortable with the situation, so it’s not just women who hate it.

I think English Heritage needs to look at the Equality Act 2010 and study the Public Sector Equality Duty and the requirement to "foster good relations".

It should also publish on its web site the required Equality Impact Assessment it carried out prior to making this change.

As an organisation dependent on public [taxpayer] funds English Heritage is a public sector organisation.

The toilets at Shelter Hall are absolutely atrocious. On a busy day there was piss all over the loo seats and floor because men are using the cubicles. Maybe they don’t notice that there are also urinals. It’s a brand new venue and they’re the worst toilets I’ve been to in a long time. Degrading to use.

Pickering Castle is one of the smaller sites and it is likely that this has been done as a way of increasing the number of toilets for use by all visitors rather than de-prioritising women’s safety and access to toilets (which of course it has done).

Could you elaborate on this @Throwaway5588

Which visitors have had the number of toilets increased by taking away the womens?