Bristol Watershed toilets situation.

[TemporarilyCantDoMyself]

Could do with some help. I attend the Bristol Watershed frequently, it's my favourite place to see a film and has been for many years. Until a couple of years ago the toilets were single sex, then they converted the main toilet block into mixed cubicles, open to all. BUT there's a corridor behind the bar, little used, which also had toilets and they remained separate sexes. Or so I thought.

The other day I went and used the corridor toilet while I was there, but they've got new 'trans inclusive' signs up. I used it anyway and came home and wrote them an email, to which I've just had a reply.

I sent this; Dear Watershed, Since my last visit signs have gone up outside the toilets in the back corridor that say ‘trans inclusive’. So you no longer provide women only facilities. Can you tell me why? I am a frequent user of the Watershed and very unhappy about this. As far as I understand it, it’s also against the law. I intend to look into this further. Thank you so much, yours, TemporarilyCantDoMyself

Just received this reply; Dear TemporarilyCantDoMyself,

The toilets in the Café & Bar corridor that you are referring to have always been used by Trans+ people - this was even written in our code of conduct. And whilst I expect most Trans+ people are using the inclusive loos, there are some Trans + people who (like some cis people) prefer not to use gender neutral toilets.
The only change we have made is signage - the updated EHRC code suggests we need to formally recognise these toilets as mixed sex and tell people we have done so. This is not illegal, in fact without new signs the EHRC code could have left us vulnerable to legal action.
For the small minority who don't want to use these toilets, or our gender neutral toilets, we have designated two fully enclosed toilets as single sex toilets.
^You can see all the information regarding our current toilet provision here - https://www.watershed.co.uk/info/everything-you-need-know-about-toilets-at-watershed^

Best wishes
Clare Reddington
CEO, Watershed

I'm just so upset. I'm 71 and I've been a feminist since I was 15, and I'm so bloody tired and frankly want to ignore it all and just try and live my life. The one single sex women's toilet referred to in the reply, by the way, is past the entrance to the cinemas so in order to use it I either have to be seeing a film or to ask permission to use it without seeing a film.

Fuck me I just don't want to.
Also there's so much to unpack in that reply and I just feel daunted. Trans+ for one thing - are the LGBs all just + to the Trans now, is that what that is? (I'm bisexual by the way). And the use of cis of course. And the sneering reference to the small minority who don't want to use the toilets. Etc.

Help me write something coherent in reply that isn't just ARGH I'M NEVER COMING BACK TO THE WATERSHED NOW AND I HATE YOU which is very much what I'd LIKE to say.
So as not to dripfeed, I have a trans relative and a family rift so I do feel extra sensitive and upset on the subject.
Thanks.

I don't know the answer but I'm v annoyed to hear this, I hate it when they change the womens toilets to let men in, they've done it in the Bristol Old Vic too, whenever I go in after a man they've invariably left the seat up and I have to touch the germy seat to flick it down. I used to avoid the gender neutral toilets at Watershed as a man accidentally opened the door on me in there once as the lock was loose or something. In a women's toilet block that would have been mildly irritating but when a man did it I got a visceral shock. So I'm fed up to hear the ones behind the bar have been changed.

What's the Colston Hall Bristol Beacon like these days?

Perhaps we have to wait for the inevitable hidden cameras/ phone under partition voyeurism cases to make the Watershed rethink. 😕😕

Its more hidden cameras nowadays bit like (allegedly) the bloke in the Scottish Parliament. More footage, less risk. Doctors and teachers (all male) are particularly afflicted.

It’s always difficult when talking about safety on social media to discuss why things should/shouldn’t be done in design, but making the cubicle as plain and boring as possible has advantages. It you see a suspicious ceiling camera, a vent with a light in it, a strange hook with a lens, a strange air freshener, a pen on the floor just be aware.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/27/secret-spy-cameras-voyeurism-uk

Glad to find this thread. I visited the Watershed about 2 weeks ago and was disgusted to see that the remaining single sex toilets had been converted to gender neutral/mixed sex/trans+inclusive - whatever.

The signage very much suggested that the women's toilets were for women plus TW (and the men's for men plus TM). It is completely unclear who they are expecting to use them, - it is disingenuous of Reddington to pretend they are mixed sex, when the doors had the universal signage for women & men on each. The suggestion is they are expecting each to continue to be used as single sex provision but with the inclusion of the opposite sex who ID as trans. I'm pretty sure that this is in breach of the law, but can't get my thoughts straight on it.

The history of toilet provision at the Watershed is a total disgrace. They had perfectly good single sex toilets in the main foyer, plus a gender neutral toilet at the end of the screen corridor. This was clearly marked with the trans logo. It was an act of sheer spite to change the main cinema toilets to mixed sex, and I have always opted to use the bar toilets instead. Now that option has been removed.

I can't see it improving until Reddington goes - but no idea how to bring that about! I certainly won't be going back to the Watershed until they sort it out.

I've written an email for Lewisham Council ( London Green Council) about safeguarding for children because parents/carers should be able to send children (both boys and girls under 8) to the women's toilets for safety. They should be able to use these toilets without men being around, even if it is men waiting outside a single cubicle. Also, we should be able to send children to the toilets to a degree unsupervised as independence is a really important thing for a child. Mum or Dad is buying popcorn and the kids go to the toilet. Jonathan Haidt says that the great mental health decline in young people is partly due to lack of confidence and freedom due to being over-coddled by parents. Women's Spaces are children's spaces. You can't just say 'Trans Women are Women' to a child because you are lying to a child because it is a man. Lying to children like this makes them less safe. You are diminishing the Safeguarding of children. Have the cinema considered whether by making things more inclusive for one vulnerable group they have not made another vulnerable group (children) less safe?

Realised I mistyped: Letter of complaint 'to Lewisham Council' not 'for Lewisham Council'.
I think there is a massive need for letter writing generally. It makes a difference when there are lots and lots of letters/ emails.
Good on you for writing to the cinema.

They are at least demonstrating that the only possible options are mixed sex, single sex or single occupancy uni-sex.

For the small minority who don't want to use these toilets, or our gender neutral toilets, we have designated two fully enclosed toilets as single sex toilets.

The question is whether this is really a small minority, and whether by failing to make adequate single sex provision they are discriminating against women. But unfortunately I think there will need to be some court cases to decide that.

Also, are the fully enclosed toilets accessible toilets and does that limit disabled access?

In relation to the rise of the hidden camera. There is a safeguarding principle of prevention, making the environment the least likely to case harm that is possible within reason. By allowing men to have access to women's and children's spaces the cinema is making it much easier for voyeuristic men to set up spying devices. Have the cinema taken any advice about what they are possibly facilitating by unnecessarily making every toilet unisex?

Absolutely disgusted with The Watershed. I won’t be returning.

You make a good point, FanOfGailDines - doing away with women-only spaces also deprives children of safe spaces.

I noticed [but did not read] a thread over on Chat about men bringing their daughters into women's toilets.

The fact is that children are safer in all-women environments - I know there is a stat that women are responsible for more child abuse than men, but if you look closely at the stats, it is to do with physical not sexual abuse [both deplorable of course], includes neglect, and is mostly concentrated on babies and infants - again, deplorable, but facts matter: adults responsible for abuse of children over the infant stage are much more likely to be men not women. [I think I saw those stats on the NSPCC website, sorry I don't have the link].

Children are more than likely to be perfectly safe on their own in a women's toilet.

When I was a little girl, my father used to let me go into the women's toilet on my own. If there was a woman going in at the same time, he'd ask her to keep an eye on me please, and she'd deliver me safely back outside to my hovering dad.

If he was worried that I was a long time, he would have asked a woman to check on me, or maybe as a very last resort opened the door and called my name to ask if I was OK - with many embarrassed apologies to any women there for doing so!

He would never have even considered going in to a women's toilet with me.
Call me cynical, but I suspect the fathers accompanying their daughters into the women's toilets are doing so to make a point against women-only spaces, rather than because of genuine concern.
But if they are proper biological women-only spaces, there is no basis for concern.

How did you get on @TemporarilyCantDoMyself ? From their website it doesn’t sound like they would be complaint from their toilet descriptions unless signage has changed again
“Café & Bar corridor

• A block of six cubicle toilets with baby changing facilities. These are designated as mixed sex. Signage on the door indicates they are suitable for women and they are Trans+Inclusive.
• A block of three cubicle toilets and urinals with baby changing facilities. These are designated as mixed sex. Signage on the door indicates they are for men and they are Trans+ Inclusive.

Cinema Corridor (near top foyer)

• One self-contained accessible toilet with baby changing facilities. For disabled people of all genders. You do not need a cinema ticket to use this toilet.

End of Cinema Corridor (back of cinema 2 and 3)

• One self-contained toilet designated as single sex female
• One self-contained toilet designated as single sex male
• You do not need a cinema ticket to use these toilets.

Pervasive Media Studio

• One block of two cubicle toilets. These are designated as mixed sex. Signage on the door indicates they are suitable for women and they are Trans+Inclusive.
• One cubicle toilet and urinals. These are designated as mixed sex. Signage on the door indicates they are for men and they are Trans+ Inclusive.
• One self-contained accessible toilet with baby changing facilities. For disabled people of all genders

Code of conduct No one will be asked to evidence their sex in order to use our facilities. If you have witnessed an incident of harm taking place in Watershed toilets, you should report it to the Watershed Duty Manager. Harassment by visitors and audience members directed at others will be treated in line with our code of conduct and may result in warnings, banning or reporting to the police, depending on level of severity. Policy An updated EHRC’s statutory Code of Practice came into effect on 5 August 2026. We have made a few temporary updates to our signage and provision which centre clarity and inclusion. Watershed's full policy and equality impact assessment will be reviewed by our Board of Trustees at their next meeting in the Autumn. We welcome ongoing legal challenge to the code and will continue to raise our voices with others against the discrimination and confusion it creates. “”

I’ve underlined and bolded the ones that don’t sound compliant in terms of non floor to ceiling design as they are saying they are for women or men but also are mixed sex at the same time.

This is a photo of their mixed sex toilet cubicles, during their development, from their website. These do not meet building regs standards.

What risk assessments did they do to decide on private, mixed sex toilet cubicle designs, with doors that rest in the closed position?What about equality impact assessments on private toilets and mixed sex use handbasins?

Watershed have lots of articles about their loos. Read what they spied goes on in them (probably not best to click the link if you are eating). If you’re reading, keep in mind that there’s no longer gaps underneath partitions and doors, and space above partitions and doors for ventilation, cleaning, supervision in emergencies and prevention of misuse:

https://www.watershed.co.uk/inconvenience-zine

Do the cubicles all have extractor fans? Floor-to-ceiling doors a really bad idea. if the hinges are on the inside, is there any way of removing the door from the outside in an emergency?

I know. So many questions. So many ways to break regulations.

And yet, they're so proud of them!

They are so inordinately proud! If they would ,at least once ,stop and consider why there are thoughtful design processes that go into public toilet and changing facilities, as @Keeptoiletssafe has demonstrated for a very long time. I always remember the case of a man who died in a toilet at the hospital I trained in ( he was volunteering as a patient at a learning event for medical students ) and wasn’t found until many hours later . Subsequently I am also rather too aware of cases of people who have collapsed, overdosed or self harmed in toilets on healthcare premises. I went to a leisure complex on a holiday recently, very smart but hugely claustrophobic “upgraded “changing cubicles with floor to ceiling walls and inward opening doors - but I was musing on the number of elderly people I’d met or seen there and what it would be like to first notice, then try and extract someone who’d collapsed behind the door due to eg. a cardiac event or hypo.

I would add I think they are being fairly deliberate in their actions and are going to continue to push boundaries as regards their compliance , going by this part of their statement “” Harassment by visitors and audience members directed at others will be treated in line with our code of conduct and may result in warnings, banning or reporting to the police, depending on level of severity. Policy An updated EHRC’s statutory Code of Practice came into effect on 5 August 2026. We have made a few temporary updates to our signage and provision which centre clarity and inclusion. Watershed's full policy and equality impact assessment will be reviewed by our Board of Trustees at their next meeting in the Autumn. We welcome ongoing legal challenge to the code and will continue to raise our voices with others against the discrimination and confusion it creates. “” ….they are all for inclusion as long as it’s their type of inclusion!

Thank you @user91817161.
As I often say, these new unregulated ‘inclusive’ designs (full height private cubicles and then shared sinks, all mixed sex) can be demonstrated to be least bad for healthy men.

Boasting about their toilets being 'a good place to cruise' while also supposedly family friendly is a bit weird.

I used to love going to the Watershed. 😡Not that I'm near it now. But I remember those loos down the corridor to Cinemas 2 & 3. People queue down the corridor to get it. Or they did, maybe it's different now. So now women have to walk past the queue, "Don't mind me, I'm just going to the loo"?

I haven’t clicked to read yet but is that a window to the outside?! Just what you want, people outside peering in too!

So @TemporarilyCantDoMyself if these are now all officially mixed-sex, maybe a whole gaggle of women should get together and conspicuously invade the men's? Done up as gaudily and feminine as at all possible. Perhaps even make it a recurrent event?

To add: it's disappointing. You'd think the least they could have done is create sitting and standing toilets, with splashback paint for enforcement.

I am not sure if that got obscured on not. There was something about adding glass to doors which was confusing. A glass sign possibly? I don’t think glass and toilet doors are a great combination.