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Sunil Peck investigates the chequered history of the accessible toilet

A homeless man once lived in one and a passionate couple had it away in one – at the away end – during a football match at Wigan Athletic. Polish builders in Hackney fight over the right to kip in one – and one enterprising criminal even used one as a base to intercept a supermarket’s takings en route from the till to a back office as they passed through tubes above the ceiling. And sometimes disabled people have even – shock horror – used disabled toilets to relieve themselves.

But 40 years ago things were a lot different. There was no disability movement and disability rights were way down the political agenda. There were no homeless people, amorous couples or criminals to contend with because there were hardly any accessible loos – apart from some in larger hotels. Any disabled person who needed to go while out and about had a choice between being lugged up and down stairs to the toilet by sympathetic passers-by or taking a bottle with them to pee in.

Nobody seems to know exactly where or when the first accessible public loo appeared, but veteran disability rights campaigners say that it is thanks to the dogged efforts of one man, Denny Denly, that more of them appeared to grace Britain’s streets during the 1970s.

Denly was the access officer at the Central Council for the Disabled (which later became RADAR) in the mid-1960s. Sir Bert Massie recalls how, in the early days of Denly’s campaigning, he came up with a way of raising awareness of the importance of the issue among architects and developers.

Denly was speaking at a conference of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Suddenly, he broke off and vanished from the platform. He reappeared some ten minutes later – and explained to his bemused audience that he had nipped out to his car for a pee because there were no toilets he could use in the building.

Then, in 1970, the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act was passed in parliament.

The disabled architect David Bonnett describes the act as an important moment in disability history.

“It was the first bit of legislation that made a connection between buildings and the built environment and what we now call life chances for disabled people. It made reference to essential features that should appear in public buildings including toilet facilities which should be provided where it is reasonable and practical to do so.”

As it turned out, developers often disregarded the legislation on the grounds that it was neither practical nor reasonable. But local councils did begin to build accessible public toilets. However, the new, spacious amenities tended to attract drug-pushers, homeless people and prostitutes.

As the 1970s drew to a close, the cost of maintaining the public loos rose and local councils began to consider locking them up for good. But RADAR proposed a scheme whereby the use of some public toilets would be restricted to key-holders. The first loo in the scheme was in Stratford-Upon-Avon and today, there are more than 8,000 public toilets in the scheme.

John Stanford has just retired from RADAR, but was involved with the scheme from the outset. He says: “Local authorities were basically the only providers of toilets for disabled people away from the home. Some of them said that unless there is some system of controlled entry, we are not going to be able to afford to continue to provide toilets because they are being vandalised.”

But, 30 years after they appeared en masse, disabled people still grumble about disabled toilets.

The actor Julie Fernandez has been using them for years. Her frustrations are typical of other users.

“I have rarely come across a disabled toilet that has been well thought out in terms of design. I always find that the drying machines never dry my hands enough and there are no towels. When you are in a wheelchair it’s better to dry your hands on a towel or those sheets. Often there is no mirror, which is frustrating.”

But Sir Bert Massie, who was involved in drafting the regulations for disabled toilets that came into effect in the mid-1980s, explains that such gripes are unavoidable because there are so many impairments that need to be taken into account in the design of a disabled toilet.

“Most wheelchair-users want the height of the pan to be roughly the same height or slightly lower than their wheelchair. Some people who can’t stand up easily want it to be higher. But if it is too high, people who can’t use their legs have them dangling and therefore they are not stable on the loo. That can cause accidents.” There is also the positioning of the sink, the toilet paper, the height of the flush, the height of the clothing hooks on the door, and whether the taps and soap dispensers on the sink should be operated by buttons or levers.

Disabled toilets can be a nightmare to find, too. But one user, Chris Ryan, is hoping to change that. He found himself in a spot of bother on his way to a Labour conference and needed to empty his colostomy bag. The experience prompted him to compile a directory of accessible toilets in the UK. It took him three years to compile, but his online disabled toilet locator, Needaloo (http://needaloo.org/), is now available for everyone to browse.

So what is the future for disabled toilets? Mike Bone, director of the British Toilet Association, estimates that the number of public toilets has halved in the last ten years.

The evidence suggests that people will become more reliant on shops and businesses as public toilets decline in number.

Bone says that the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) has given local authorities an excuse to close their toilets.

“A lot of public toilets are not compliant with the current DDA regulations.

“But the regulations only apply to new buildings and refurbishments. So if there is an existing disabled toilet which does not comply, it does not need shutting down, it should be made to comply when it is refurbished.”

But there is some cheer for those seeking urgent relief. Bone says that the legislation has also led to more businesses providing accessible, well-maintained loos. These include toilets known as “changing places” loos, which have enough space to accommodate a couple of carers and hoists to transfer people to and from the toilet.

For its part, the government has acknowledged that it is critical to have clean and accessible public loos, particularly for groups such as disabled people. In March, Baroness Andrews launched a strategy aimed at improving access to public toilets. She spoke about how poor access to public toilets can make it difficult for disabled people to leave the house and reduce a person’s dignity and freedom. She is keen for more pubs and shops to open their toilets up to members of the public, which might then attract some grateful custom in exchange.