Lucy Hooker and Charlotte Edwards
Economic journalists
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The Lovefit Café, near the highly frequented station in the city center of Brighton, used to say that its toilets were accessible to all passers-by, even if they were not customers.
But it was a disaster, explains the owner Jason Bright, because the homeless were locked up there for long periods.
“They would fall asleep in it or drugs. You would be the victim of abuse,” said Bright.
“This is the worst thing I have ever done to have public toilets.”
He now applies a policy reserved for customers, even if he has exceptions for the elderly or young children.
We are all sometimes caught, and for pregnant women, parents with children and people suffering from certain medical conditions, it can be quite often. Desperate times call desperate measures, so you find yourself in a cafe.
More and more, you are having a new problem: a small digital metal pavement that locks any person without receipt or access code. In small establishments, it can be a key suspended from a string and a piece of wood, but that comes to the same.
Many places have a rule “no toilets for non-clients”, and some find more strict means to apply it.
Recently, Starbucks has made the headlines when he canceled his open door policy in the United States, encouraging a new look at how our shopping streets full of cafes are welcoming, when it comes to people Who want to spend a penny, without spending a lot of money. latted and rolls.
In the United Kingdom, Starbucks will always let the non-clients enter, but many competitors, including Costa Coffee, Dining, Waterstones and a large number of independent stores, limit the number of users authorized to use their toilets.
Some even say not to people suffering from health problems, explains Ellen, 27 years old.
“My father had a kidney transplant and we went somewhere to explain this to him, and they always said no.”
But it is too expensive to always buy something, she said. “Cafes cost about £ 4, I don’t really want to pay this to go to the bathroom.”
Alice says most of the staff are nice if you ask if you can use the installations.
Alice, 25, sometimes intervenes without buying anything, but still asks first.
“If you are kindly asking, more people will probably let you use the toilet,” she said.
Gemma Wardle thinks it should be a general practice. She created the popular Tiktok London Tiktok account, highlighting the places you are caught.
“If (places) have toilets reserved for customers, they should be open to everyone,” she said. She would like to see more public toilets, but does not see why companies could not help.
“Stores and cafes should do their best to improve the toilet experience for all users, without trying to make it more difficult.”
Many other social media accounts and applications exist to help you find a bathroom when you are on the go, including accessible toilets that disabled people can unlock with a radar key.
200 degrees, a chain based in Nottingham and belonging to Caffe Nero, which has 22 stores in the midlands and northern England, is a coffee that allows anyone to use its toilets.
The commercial director Will Kenney believes that, on the whole, it is probably good for business to let in the non-client.
“People may feel forced to take a cup of coffee or a cake when leaving,” he said. And it’s more pleasant for staff. “No one wants to be the toilet police,” he said.
But providing toilets is not free. In addition to the increase in cleaning, there is an increase in the costs of redecoration, as well as an obvious excess of toilet paper, soap and wipers, he says.
“We invite people to come, but we don’t want our cafes to become public places.”
200 degrees
The 200 -degree coffee channel invites people to use their toilets, but their stores are not public places, says Will Kenney
None of this would be a problem if there were more public toilets.
But according to the British Toilet Association (BTA), their number decreased by half after 2010. The local authorities, short of money, closed the facilities to focus on the services they were legally required to provide.
Since 2018, the figures have increased again, but Raymond Martin, director general of the BTA, says that with less than 4,000 people, we have even less than a third of the number of which he estimates that an increasing and aging population needs.
Some local authorities have opted for what seems to be the perfect solution: subsidize local cafes and stores to share their facilities. In many regions of the country, you can see stickers announcing that non-clients are invited to come to the toilet.
Unfortunately, these programs often fail, explains Mr. Martin, because local authorities see it as an opportunity to save money.
“As soon as about 10 to 15 cafes participate, the council says to close (public services). What is happening then is that the toilets (cafes) are flooded,” he said. “They can’t get by.”
Private providers then often withdraw and lock the door of their toilet.
Mr. Martin does not think that the care is to fill the lack of offer, especially since they will not cover the same opening hours as the public toilets, addressing walkers of Dogs early in the morning, to the drivers and evening joggers.
“It is a question of public decency, of public dignity. We cannot let people defecate behind hedges,” he said. He hopes that the government imposes on local councils a legal obligation to provide enough amenities.
The organization representing the local authorities, the local Government Association (LGA), says that its members are trying to solve the problem through partnerships with local businesses.
“However, the advice is perfectly aware that shortcomings have been created despite these efforts, for example when companies have closed their doors in our main streets,” said a LGA spokesperson.
He demands promises of longer -term financing from the central government, which would allow the authorities to “plan the transformation, rather than the closure, of the facilities” and even to restore the lost amenities.
Additional reports of Lucy Acheson and Faarea Masud
