London’s tube and rail stations to get public toilets, with first seven stations announced
More London railway stations are to get public toilets, as Transport for London (TfL) announces the first seven stations to get them as part of a larger rollout of toilets on the tube.
The Mayor of London announced a review into toilets on the TfL estate last year. It was due to be published last August, but following delays, it was promised to be released by the end of this summer. Now, TfL has announced the first six stations to get toilets and some stations already have toilets that will get upgrades to improve accessibility.
In selecting which stations will get the new toilets, TfL says that it is aiming to eventually be able to provide a service where customers shouldn’t be more than 20 minutes from a toilet without needing to change trains.
To decide which stations to prioritise for the new toilets, TfL also applied a number of considerations to come up with a weighted scoring to determine the best locations to investigate the feasibility of adding new facilities. Stations were then chosen according to a number of factors, including whether the location is a terminus station, operates night services, has step-free access, high passenger footfall, proximity to other toilets on the network, and onward connections.
The first stations to get toilets will be:
London Overground
- Camden Road
- Clapton
- New Cross Gate
- South Tottenham
- White Hart Lane
London Underground
- Morden
- Hammersmith
TfL is also looking to convert existing non-accessible toilets at Amersham, Green Park, Seven Sisters, and Sudbury Hill stations during the first phase of the project to make them fully accessible.
Construction work to deliver new and accessible toilets at these stations is expected to start at several locations within the next year, following detailed assessments to determine viability.
TfL said that where space is limited, accessible toilets will be prioritised over other types of public toilet provision.
TfL has also made improvements to more than one-third of London Underground stations with toilet provision in recent years, including repairing faults and re-painting areas.
Andy Lord, London Transport Commissioner, said: “Access to toilets is important for all customers when using public transport, but is a vital enabler for some, especially older customers, people with disabilities and those with young children.
“We have developed a plan for a holistic multi-year programme to improve toilet facilities across the TfL network. This includes new facilities at stations currently without toilets, more accessible toilets, enhancing existing facilities and increasing the availability and accessibility of toilets. Our programme delivery team is now hard at work to turn this plan into improvements for our customers across the network.”
There are currently toilets available at 145 TfL sites, with an additional 40 toilets within stations on the network that TfL does not manage.
Staff are on hand in stations to advise customers of the nearest public and accessible toilet where toilets are not available to customers at the station, and to grant access to accessible toilets that may require a RADAR key. Disabled people can request a universal key called a RADAR key from Disability Rights UK which they can keep with them when they travel.
The new toilets are being funded by a five-year commitment of £3 million per year from the Mayor of London.
The stations getting new loos
Community Toilets
Away from the tube and train stations, there are far more public loos around than many people realise, as quite a few London boroughs operate community toilet schemes.
These are where shops and restaurants make their toilets available to the public, regardless of whether they are shopping or eating there. In fact, some years back, I worked out that there were nearly 800 toilets across Greater London.
It’s just that they’re not obvious unless you know about the Community Toilet scheme – and know to look for the sticker in the shop window.
The following boroughs provide toilet facility information on their websites:
Therr is not much pointin putting toilets in stations where the nearest toilet is usually fairly mearby when the real problem is people trapped in between stations in trains often for very long periods even up to and over an hour because of a stalled train.
Either you put toilets on trains or you do not run trains into sections of track unless access to the next station is clear.
The multitude of toilets yards away was of no use to those using the train as a toilet by trapped on the Elizabeth Line train outside Paddington Station.
Having toilets “fairly nearby” isn’t always much help if you don’t know the area, and also, in many cases, if you are concerned about safety.
This is a massive improvement. Amazing how having toilets at stations can improve the experience of London. Well done TFl, I hope this leads to meaningful improvements.
The Hammersmith map loo sign seems to cover two stations. I wonder, have they decided to put one in the shopping centre, or on the District/Piccadilly upper concourse, or in the Hammersmith& City?
Toilets already exist in the shopping arcade (District/Piccadilly)
Hammersmith station the Piccadilly line and District line already has a toilet inside shopping centre but do you have to pay for them the disabled toilets are using the radar key but they close at 10 p.m to the general public
Cleaning will probably still be optional, if the state of TfL’s existing toilets are anything to go by…
How about some improvements to plaistow station which is way overdue for toilets and lifts for disabled or escalators.
Yet the ones at Finchley Road tube and Canada Water Bus Station seems to be always closed without justification. Why can’t they sort out their existing ones as well as improve provision?
Exactly what I was going to say about Canada Water!
Those toilets have for a long time effectively been non-public, maintained only for bus driver requirements. But no doubt they will have been counted as already existing when they did this review of the estate.
Many tube stations have toilets which are permanently closed due to vandalism and anti social behaviour! A bigger conversation is needed including staffing stations and provision of vandal proof facilities instead of going for the cheapest tender!
The TfL map is very out of date. Most of the toilets up the East end of the Central line have been closed.
I noticed that the toilets at Barkingside station, previously closed due to vandalism, were open again yesterday.
This is to be welcomed, funny thing is, Morden had public toilets years ago but for some reason they were removed.
With the opening of the Elizabeth Line Tottenham Court Road was predicted to be the busiest station in the UK (personally I thought it would more likely to be Farringdon). Staff there currently send passengers to the nearest McDonald’s, which is just bizarre. Elizabeth Line trains should have had toilets. The only reason is presumably the difficulty in emptying them.
Farringdon got toilets on the Northbound Thameslink platform, when the Elizabeth Line was built.
Incidentally, I have been known to use Thameslink for a few stops, when I want to use the toilet, but I am a Freedom Pass holder.
Another facility, that is needed at tube stations, is the ability to pick up National Rail tickets.
My two nearest tube stations are Moorgate and Angel and neither have this facility.
Recently, I went to Oxford. The cheapest way is to buy a ticket from Reading to Oxford online and use my Freedom Pass to Reading.
But there is no way to pick up a ticket at Moorgate or Angel and picking up a ticket at Reading means a long walk.
In Germany, a lot of stations have ticket machines on the platforms.
@James Miller
If you’re buying your ticket online surely you can buy an eTicket from Reading to Oxford and not need to pick it up anywhere?
I really don’t understand why they didn’t include them in the giant new Lizzy line stations. Tokyo has public loos both sides of the ticket barriers.
The lift I used in Tottenham Court Rd station last week stank of piss. Does that count as one of the public toilets? Can’t say I’ve come across a lav anywhere on the tube tourneys I’ve made for decades. I seem to remember one at TCR in the 1960s though.
Barons Court has toilets but the last three times I have tried to use them they have been closed.
Southfields is my local station and used to have toilets and a waiting room. The Ladies toilet was in the waiting room but that was converted into staff accommodation and a shop while they knocked down the Gent’s when they shortened the platform canopy.
Clean, safe and convenient Public Toilets are like many things, insofar as everyone wants them but no-one wants to pay for them.
An additional borough to link for a toilets page – Hammersmith and Fulham page can be found here: https://www.lbhf.gov.uk/culture-and-events/visiting-hf/community-toilet-scheme
I am curious what they will do at Hammersmith as well. There are toilets in the Broadway centre (Dist and Picc lines), but it is for pay and outside the gate line.
Are the new toilets meant to be inside the gate line so passengers can exit a train, use the facilities and get back on the tube?
Paul mentioned I should buy an eTicket.
I can buy one fine, but my left arm was broken by the school bully and the design of my current phone can’t show images without causing pain in my left hand. So I don’t provoke it by ever using images, QR codes or taking pictures.
Appalled that the Elizabeth line has no toilets at platform level. Technical issues in getting the waste away and anti-social behaviour are no excuses. Heard of an airport or petrol station without toilets?
How come Thameslink trains have onboard toilets but Lizzy doesn’t.? Crazy bad management .
It is disgusting and an utter embarrassment that in 2024 in a first world country there aren’t toilets on underground trains and at stations. It’s an indictment to the UK and makes it look more like a third world country by the day than the demographics who use the underground do already.
Really disgusting that this isn’t just required to allow trains to stop at the station with an availability of 95% plus in this day and age.
Would also like to see a tiered ticket system. Gold silver and bronze to minimise the teeming masses of people using the system which exacerbates the problem along with time slots for old people and families and tourists so that if your time slot isn’t available you have to pay extra to travel. The lunacy of a free for all in the 2024 morass of illegal and legal humanity choking the infrastructure including TfL needs to be corrected. This is a significant part of the problem.
Attention also needs to be concentrated on making sure that the toilets on all stations which do have them are *open*.
Example: *Leytonstone* has toilets, with a sign that says that if they are closed during the hours they should be open, you can ask at the ticket office for the key. But on four out of four occasions, in the middle of the day in four different weeks, I found they were closed.
Is it reasonable to expect somebody to climb the (high) stairs to get to the toilet, go back down to request the key, go back up to use the toilet, go back down to return the key and finally go back up to board their train 20 minutes late?
No, it is not. If, as has been proved to be the case, staff are often “forgetting” to open the toilets enough to print a sign saying to ask in the ticket office, maybe TFL needs to install a time switch — or, make sure a supervisor checks daily that the appointed person has done their job.
There are many stations with toilets which are permanently closed. I willing to pay some charge for using them but keep them open and clean. It’s shameful for rich country to force people to pee in bushes around station.
toilets desperately needed at West ham,no toilets in station or nearby
A step forward definitely. Better late than never. Well done.
Well done, but costs should not make the rail system not do the right thing which is to equip almost all stations with toilets.so many london toilets have been removed at the cost of london cleanliness and physical distress you cannot remove the natural need from people and those with medical needs. Go before leaving home sounds clever but not practical.
Sincerely yours David
How do you roll out toilets? I have never seen a spherical loo, but admittedly I have led a very protected life
Will there be toilets at West Ham Station where the overground, district line, metropolitan line and DLR converged?
Upminster Bridge Station District line have been CLOSED for over 6 months Waiting repairs ????