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.

@TemporarilyCantDoMyself wrt the Charity Commission, I’ve just seen this reply that Sarah Pillimore received from them:

“The Charity Commission has recently published a statement about the requirement for charities to comply with the Equality Act 2010 and review the provisions of the Equality and Human Rights Commission's updated Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations which came into force on 5 August 2026. We intend to publish further guidance on the Equality Act 2010 to support charities in Autumn 2026.
The Charity Commission advises charities to take steps towards ensuring they can comply with the Equality Act and to review the provisions of the Code, notably the changes regarding the definition of sex under the Equality Act as relating to biological sex. We have clarified that our guidance will not alter the legal principle set out by the Supreme Court judgment that 'sex' for the purpose of the Equality Act means 'biological sex. Charities do not need to wait for the Commission's guidance to comply with the law. It is the responsibility of trustees to ensure their charity is compliant with the law and unreasonable delays in taking steps towards compliance may be considered a breach of those responsibilities.
You can read more at the following link: Charities urged to prepare for compliance with
EHRC Code of Practice - GOV.UK
(I’m assuming this is the link https://www.gov.uk/government/news/charities-urged-to-prepare-for-compliance-with-ehrc-code-of-practice )
Our decision
Taking the above into account, and having carefully reviewed all the information you sent us, we have decided that on this occasion the best way forward is to provide the trustees with regulatory advice and guidance about their duties and responsibilities to ensure that they are complying with UK law specifically in relation to matters under the Equality Act.”

https://x.com/svphillimore/status/2096949019901645276?

@Keeptoiletssafe the article is very strange. Who spends so much time studying toilets and human behaviour around toilets? The trans community seem obsessed with what people are up to.

There’s arts and humanities funded toilet ‘research’, based in universities, that are upsettingly wrong in their conclusions. There are some people that are very interested in toilets and their design all for very different reasons to my safeguarding. There’s a few names that pop up that will be familiar to others on this board.

This one discusses, ‘From inside each stall, users can observe their surroundings by looking through a blue, one-way mirror band located at seated eye-level’. Surely this could only be to watch others when you are excreting? The author was influential in ‘inclusive’ toilet designs in America and the U.K. such as ones at Watershed, that aren’t a regulated design in this country:
https://aaa.org.hk/en/like-a-fever/like-a-fever/on-stalling-and-turning-a-wayward-genealogy-for-a-binary-abolitionist-public-toilet-project

Pass the sick bucket, Alice.

I was thinking that too. There was someone on twitter talking about this thread saying that KTS was obsessed with toilets but that is a whole nother level and I haven’t even read it all yet. I don’t know if they are pieces from different people (because it keeps repeating things such as “I used to work at the Watershed”) put together or the experiences of just one person but if the latter, she seems to have experienced everything and all of it there.

Hello Twitter!

Yep I go on about toilets a lot. But I really am TERT - Tired of Explaining the Reality of Toilets. Because the only solution to mixed sex environments is to make toilets private, I was delighted that the FWS judgement confirmed single sex environments were that. It meant door gaps could stay or return. I thought I could shut up about toilets. But then toilet talk went stratospheric and I had to talk about my evidence more.

I want non domestic toilets to be as safe a design for everyone. Everyone. That is it.

I look at incidents that happen in toilets particularly when people die (more often than you think) but also other events like getting trapped etc. I look at what happens to every demographic.

This isn’t alarmist, such as when people say people are going to get killed on the toilet (like Victoria McCloud). It’s almost unheard of that people get killed on the toilet. This is about all the times people collapse on the toilet, and sometimes it leads to their death. People are more likely to be saved in time if someone can see/hear them. In your home this will be someone you know (like that Radio 1 DJ recently) or out of the home a stranger (like the actress in Games of Thrones). Both went to the toilet as they were feeling ill as it’s the place you rush to when feeling ill. These two examples I have mentioned as they have a happier ending and you probably didn’t know you will ‘know’ people saved by having someone notice they were in trouble on a toilet.

Take one medical event. One sign of a major heart incident is you have an urge to poo. Up to 11% of cardiac arrests happen on the toilet. ‘Pushing and holding your breath’ also puts pressure on the heart.
There are more than 40,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) in the UK each year.
• The estimated OHCA survival rate in the UK is less than one in ten.
• Every minute without cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillation
reduces the chance of OHCA survival by up to ten per cent.
• Early CPR and defibrillation can more than double the chances of OHCA survival.

Now I don’t know if Watershed has a defibrillator, but how tragic if it is needed for someone who is hidden from view in the place people go when they feel ill.

Watershed staff have already written drugs and sex have happened in their toilets in the past. Overdoses are one of the main reasons for toilet deaths. Sex, drugs and ‘rockin the bowl (vandalism) are the main reasons public toilets get shut down. One way to try and keep facilities open is to pass laws like it’s illegal for sexual activity in a toilet (2003). Another is to design crime out by creating an environment where crimes can be partially seen/heard. This prevents crime in the first place which surely is the very best scenario.

A young woman I did not know went to a nightclub toilet when she was drunk, threw up and choked on vomit and stopped breathing. My friends and I saw her and we lifted the smallest person over the cubicle, they opened the inwards opening door from the outside by pulling her body away (tricky), we pulled her out and turn her onto her side/front scooping out so much sick, then she made some awful noise and was a bit more sick and finally her skin colour went from blue to pink. She was semi conscious but got taken away by paramedics. I checked the news for a few days and there was no indication she had died so I am sure we saved her life. I don’t want toilet design to restrict lives being saved. I know it already does because of years of research.

It is incredibly difficult to collate info on incidents v design but I now have a books-worth. I have spoken to so many people, got so many verifiable incidents, read scientific articles, foi’s to police, coroner reports etc etc. Why would I stop now?

If you really wanted to prioritise safety, but wanted a mixed sex environment, you would need to change universal designs so they could have door gaps. I know this would not work because of voyeurism. They become no-go areas, especially for women and girls. There are also fire door safety implications in some cases.

The Good Law Project has no idea on toilet health and safety. Their ‘sophisticated’ design for toilets in schools is the universal (unisex) design. Fully enclosed. Where are their risk assessments for this? Where are Watersheds?

When there’s those trans die-ins on the streets it would be easy to demonstrate the difference between single sex toilet design and ‘inclusive’ toilet design. One design you can see a person at their most vulnerable on their cubicle floor. That’s the design I want there to be more of.

I am on the side of safety and safeguarding.

Unfortunately, KTS, the people you are dealing with here are not acting in good faith. Your stats about heart attacks etc will not sway them. But of course, this sort of of info should still be put under the noses of the Watershed bosses.

I don’t often talk about individual cases because I don’t think it’s right to discuss but this is very important in terms of design. If Watershed are reading, please note the following:

The design the Good Law Project endorse for schools is the same design that a transwoman was allegedly raped in. It was a unisex toilet with a sink inside. This was not in this country, and a decade ago, and as far as I know there was no trial to ascertain what happened. But it happened in a very famous inn from which Stonewall took its name.

This is what it comes down to. Looking at crime, looking at the design, and designing the crime out. People decades before me came to the same conclusions. It’s just I have compiled recent data of what’s going on in real life in the U.K. I research lots of aspects of health and safety in toilets. Single sex design is safer and healthier.

Watershed and others are prioritising individual privacy over collective health and safety.

edit to say: I don’t think they realise this, but this is the end result

For the record, Clare Reddington, the CEO of The Watershed has made this statement to Bristol City Council:

^”I am submitting this statement in full support and gratitude for the council’s response to the EHRC code and their updated Trans Inclusion and Gender Identity Policy. It is vital that councils like Bristol and cultural organisations like Watershed speak up for the Trans, Nonbinary, Intersex and gender diverse communities of Bristol – lest people are misled that a very tiny, well-funded group of gender critical campaign groups represent the majority of views. The Revised EHRC Code fails to present a complete analysis of lawful routes for
trans+ inclusion and is weighted towards the exclusion of trans+ people. Its adoption strikes fear into the hearts of both Trans+ communities and service providers. Amongst the jumbled advice and conflicting examples, there isn’t much clarity for service providers, but trans exclusion should not be anyone’s default position or first point of call. As the proud guardian of award winning inclusive public toilets, Watershed understands the necessity of ensuring that everyone is able to use facilities that preserve their identity and dignity.

Having consulted with Trans+ people – I have heard multiple recollections of painful and
frightening incidents for Trans+ people entering toilets that staff or public felt didn’t align to their gender. These are not just tuts or looks – this is shouting, aggression and threats.

Translucent’s 2026 report found that there were only four official complaints about trans
woman entering a “single-sex” facility documented across 382 public bodies since 2022. The Trans+ community however face daily harassment, surveillance and questioning. On the other hand, we have faced repeated vandalism of our toilets and signage in the last weeks from gender critical activists - alongside personal and harmful trolling online. All the Trans+ people we consulted spoke of the safety they feel in living in Bristol = whilst the city isn’t
perfect, the city has visible and plentiful places which are proudly trans inclusive. The
number of businesses who rushed to be part of the Safe Space Bristol campaign is evidence of how important we believe this to be. This makes a real difference. I am delighted that Bristol City Council takes Trans+ inclusion seriously and hope as a city we can continue to send a clear message of inclusion to the Trans+ Community. As a steering group member of Third Sector against Transphobia, I invite members of the council to view our analysis of the
code and what it means for service providers and our forthcoming guidance on creating
Trans+ inclusive toilets^”

This statement of hers can be found online in the Full Council meeting papers for tonight’s meeting. PS09

This is a really important post. And this statement almost gives me shivers:

Watershed and others are prioritising individual privacy over collective health and safety.

It really only is a matter of time before someone is harmed, or worse, by these toilet designs.

I have never received any money for my research. I do this because I want to keep toilets safe.

Lots of toilets are vandalised - it is horrendous and a massive problem - and affects women and people with medical conditions the most. An award does not stop misuse happening in toilets - not being completely private has an effect though because perpetuators don’t like witnesses. CCTV is retrospective and of course can’t be inside the cubicle or room.

‘These are not just tuts or looks – this is shouting, aggression and threats’. This is horrible for everyone. My work focuses on verifiable research on deaths, injuries, sexual assaults, physical assaults, reducing pathogens, being trapped.

I talk to all people. I want toilets to be inclusive by being as safe as possible for everyone including women, children and those with medical conditions (eg epilepsy, diabetes, pots) and those having a medical emergency (cardiac arrest, self-harm inc overdose, brain injury, stroke).

I very much welcome toilets being a safer space. I would welcome being paid to help make toilets safer but I am ok with discussing how to make them safer for everyone too.

I have lots of research and evidence that informs what I say.

Clare Reddington needs official complaints to inform one point of view, but just chats to her friends for the other. What a nob

I will chat to anyone about toilet safety 😀

ps. I added an emoji but realise I am not uptodate with any hidden meanings - to me it’s a smiley friendly face!!

Weird Watershed CEP Clare Reddington has referred to concerns like this as Online Trolling and Hate in the Council Public Meeting this evening.
She haa brought a whole band of actual trolls to the meeting with her.

Keep Toilets Safe, you are amazing.

Agree!

Thank you. I know the difference good design can make.

Well, I for one am very glad you research this, thanks! I have learned so much about how to design in safety, and design out crime. It definitely helps in my discussions with others who have thought about these issues not at all.

I salute you and your expertise KTS!

A friend just told me about her uni housemate who was hospitalised with an ectopic pregnancy. She was founded collapsed in the women's loos. St Clare of the Waters wants to take away the 'findability' that saved that woman's life.

Apologies to be a bit morbid but last weekend I watched The Nine to Five film to reminisce about Dolly Parton. Lots of toilets scenes! Spoiler alert: one dead guy gets wheeled into an enclosed disabled hospital toilet and left there. The gag is the nurse enters and you expect her to scream but she just yells to her colleague that oh there’s another one ie it happens all the time. Deaths do happen in toilets all the time. Especially where illness and/or drugs is involved.

@Diversmattress hope your friend’s housemate is ok. I read it as though it happened a while ago but reading again it could be present day. Xx

Yes, it was a long time ago don't worry

This organisation and the woman in charge (assuming that Clare Reddington is?) seem particularly determined to ignore and exclude women and men who want single sex spaces and even ridicule us.

How do people get themselves to that point and feel like they are the righteous ones?

Absolutely. The Watershed had perfectly fine toilet arrangements. The management have fucked around with this to make a political point and show how right-on they are.