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London Loos Campaign

Published on 27 June 2022 10:23 AM

At Age UK Hillingdon, Harrow and Brent, we believe only dogs should be on leashes. 

Please join Age UK London in calling for better public toilet provision in London. 

Social isolation – the ‘loo leash’

Everyone benefits from good and available public toilets but tackling social isolation is the key reason why Age UK London have launched the London Loos campaign. 

One in five of us experience ‘the loo leash’ where we don’t leave our homes as much as we might like because we are anxious that we won’t be able to find a toilet when we need to. The same concern can mean we drink less than we should, which can lead to dehydration. Dehydration is associated with a higher risk of ill health in older people, from having an infection, a fall or being admitted to hospital. For those that can’t walk or wheel far or fast the lack of toilets can be more acute. Three quarters of the population say that there are not enough toilets in their area.

There are around 1,500 public toilets in London but that’s not enough for a city of more than eight million people. In some parts of London you can walk for 20 minutes or more to reach a toilet and often the provision is poorly maintained or made inaccessible through design or opening times. Increasing public toilet provision would reduce social isolation for thousands of older Londoners and is fundamental to London becoming an age-friendlier and therefore people-friendlier city.

Two quick ways you can help

  •

    Sign Age UK London's toilet map campaign

    Transport for London have created a map of toilets in their Underground and rail network. This is fantastic. At the moment this is primarily only available online and many people who would benefit the most don’t know the map exists.

    Support Age UK Londons call for more paper copies of the map to be made available and for promotion of the map to reach more older Londoners.

    Sign it here

  •

    Become a Great British Public Toilets Volunteer

    Wherever you are in the UK, you can find your nearest toilet using the Great British Public Toilets Map. This is a great online resource with detailed information about public toilets, their location and what they are like, across London and the UK.

    The information is added by volunteers. It takes minutes to add a toilet to the map however makes a huge difference to peoples lives. 

    Click here to start adding loos. 

Find out more about Age UK London's London Loos campaign

This page shows a small amount of the information from Age UK London's website. For further details on this campaign see Age UKs website.

Age UK London's website