What Happened to London’s Public Toilets?

London once had a large network of public toilets - many of them underground, tiled, staffed, and built into the fabric of the city. Today, some survive in stations, parks and shopping centres, but many have closed, vanished, or been quietly repurposed. In this episode of The London Machine, we explore the history of London’s public toilets: from Victorian conveniences and the Great Exhibition, to underground loos, “spending a penny”, the long fight for women’s facilities, and the legal and financial reasons so many public toilets disappeared. Along the way, we look at what remains of this lost public toilet network, why finding a toilet in London can still be surprisingly difficult, and what these overlooked pieces of infrastructure reveal about how the city works — and who it works for. MAIN SOURCES: Barbara Penner: Bathroom, 2013. Barbara Penner: A World of Unmentionable Suffering: Women’s Public Conveniences in Victorian London, 2001. Clara Greed: Inclusive Urban Design: Public Toilets, 2003. Lucinda Lambton: Temples of Convenience and Chambers of Delight, 1997. IMAGE CREDITS: Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge map 1872 - David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries Great Exhibition: William Telbin - Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Anne Stern Gift, 1976 - via Wikimedia Dickinson Brothers: Watercolours - Royal Collection via Wikimedia Printing Press - Illustrated London News 1851 via Wikimedia George Jennings - via Wikimedia Jennings flushing toilet design - National Archives ref C54/14636 J. McNeven: Crystal palace interior - via Wikimedia 1851 photographs - Rijksmuseum and Library of Congress, via Wikimedia David Roberts: The Inauguration of the Great Exhibition - Royal Collection via Wikimedia George Cruikshank: The Opening of the Great Industrial Exhibition of All Nations - © The Trustees of the British Museum, Asset:1484603001 The new plan of London - Bibliothèque nationale de France, via Wikimedia Underground Convenience, Charing Cross etching - The Surveyor and municipal engineer (1892), via Wikimedia Victorian plumbing, public toilets, Rothesay - Jim Barton via Wikimedia Camden High Street 1910 - Camden Local Studies and Archives Centre