Resources

Find published information on toilet design. Our resource bank includes guidance, standards, regulation, toolkits, websites and research. Resources can be filtered by type or subject area, using the keywords shown.

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Image of Front page of Guide, orange background, toilet roll with 'Don't Panic' written on the last piece

Publicly Accessible Toilets after COVID-19

Author/s:: Imran Nazerali, Gail Ramster, Jo-Anne Bichard
Summary:: In this update to Publicly Accessible Toilets: An Inclusive Design Guide, we show how future toilets can be designed to be more hygienic, and also more accessible and inclusive, as a critical part of public health infrastructure.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2021
Keywods:: Covid-19 Design Inclusion Public Toilets
Type:: Design Guide

Providing safer toilets for public use: coronavirus

Author/s:: Welsh Government
Summary:: Guidance for the safe management of toilets used by the public during the coronavirus pandemic. It is intended to help the owners and operators of toilets for public use to plan for the safer management of toilets as the restrictions in Wales are lifted and to plan for the re-opening of toilets where they have been closed.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2020
Keywods:: Covid-19 Public Health Public Toilets
Type:: Standards and Guidance

Improving Public Access to Better Quality Toilets: A Strategic Guide

Author/s:: Department for Communities and Local Government
Summary:: This strategic guide reviews the evidence and sets out ways in which local authorities and their partners can secure improvements to public toilets. By arguing the case for public toilets, removing barriers to provision, and sharing good approaches and practice, it aims to encourage local authorities and the business community to review the importance of provision.DCLG
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2008
Keywods:: Design Public Toilets
Type:: Standards and Guidance

Public Toilets in London: update report

Author/s:: London Assembly
Summary:: In this report the Health and Public Services Committee of the London Assembly reviews whether the provision of public toilets in London has improved since the previous report by the Committee on this topic in 2006, and identifies what more the Mayor could do to improve provision.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2011
Keywods:: Public Toilets
Type:: Report

Twelfth Report: The Provision of Public Toilets

Author/s:: Communities and Local Government Select Committee
Summary:: This report seeks to consider the evidence and to produce simple and practical recommendations to improve this important social amenity. Our over-riding recommendation is that the Government imposes a duty on local authorities to develop a public toilet strategy, which should involve consultation with the local community, for their own area.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2008
Keywods:: Public Toilets
Type:: Report

Public In-Conveniences

Author/s:: Susan Cunningham
Summary:: Public In-Conveniences is a brief and easy-to-use guide for organisations which have a special interest in the provision of “away from home” toilets.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2015
Keywods:: Design Public Toilets
Type:: Design Guide

Global Guidance for Practical Public Toilet Design

Author/s:: International Code Council
Summary:: The purpose of the guideline is to assist in providing clean, convenient, hygienic, and safe public toilet facilities of appropriate design and quality, and to give guidance on the basic care and maintenance of such facilities. It is targeted to those responsible for providing public toilets throughout the global community.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2011
Keywods:: Design Public Toilets
Type:: Standards and Guidance

A world of unmentionable suffering: Women’s public conveniences in Victorian London

Author/s:: Barbara Penner
Summary:: This paper, published in Journal of Design History, considers the following two points: first, how the design and siting of a women's lavatory is not a neutral act but one that is shaped by historically and culturally specific notions; and second, how an everyday space such as a public lavatory actively positions (and re-positions) its users in relation to the existing power structure, providing an opportunity for small resistances to the status quo to occur.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2001
Keywods:: Gender History Public Toilets
Type:: Academic Paper

Inclusive urban design: Public toilets

Author/s:: Clara Greed
Summary:: This book provides both design guidance and policy direction for the provision and design of public toilets and covering city-wide, district-level and site-specific principles. It highlights the role of urban design in reversing the trend of inadequate toilet provision, and sets out guidelines for design which meets both user need and provider requirements.
Web link:: Go to resource
Publication date:: 2003
Keywods:: Built Environment Design Public Toilets
Type:: Book