Our 2024 (Toilet) Roll of Honour

By Gail, Ollie —

A picture of the author: Gail
A picture of the author: Ollie

Welcome to the Toilet Map blog! We’re kicking off with a wrap of the year, to thank our contributors for every edit and give you a little insight into how the Toilet Map keeps up-to-date.

First, some stats.

New toilets: 

We've had 854 toilets added to the Toilet Map this year, with another 800 updates of toilets we already show.

That’s amazing!

Website Visits:

396000 of you visited the Toilet Map in 2024.

That’s 40% more than 2023, we’re on a (toilet) roll!

Who’s really been winning in 2024?

2024 Council of the year (most updates to toilet data)

London Borough of Tower Hamlets

Kudos to London Borough of Tower Hamlets who are using the Toilet Map to support their new Community Toilet Scheme (CTS), pipping CTS veterans London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames to the crown.

Our toilet mapping activity has covered the British Isles, right up to the 15 newly mapped loos on the Shetland Islands.

Special kudos to the person/s who added and updated 39 toilets on Guernsey & Sark back in April - one of our biggest updates and outside of our local area boundaries so missing from our Top Ten - it nearly snuck through! Locals and holidaymakers alike will be very grateful.

Edits may have been made by a member of the public, a council officer, another professional, or occasionally by us on the council’s behalf (current rate: flattery)

Here are the ten council areas with the most updates (new loo, edit or removal) in 2024 (new toilets in brackets)

  1. London Borough of Tower Hamlets: 88 (46)
  2. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames: 81 (47)
  3. Dumfries and Galloway Council: 73 (24)
  4. Argyll and Bute Council: 64 (15)
  5. Birmingham City Council: 50 (15)
  6. Westminster City Council: 46 (21)
  7. London Borough of Southwark: 35 (21)
  8. Wiltshire Council: 31 (15)
  9. Allerdale Borough Council: 30 (15)
  10. Shetland Islands: 29 (15)

2024 Loo of the year (most visited page) 

Trafalgar Square Public Toilets (4.1K hits)

A landscape photograph of Trafalgar Square with the Fourth Plinth in the foreground and St Martins Church in the distance. The entrance to the toilets is between them with a black totem sign reading 'Toilets' and symbols for male, female and accessible toilets. The National Gallery is behind, on a raised level.

No surprises here as the map defaults to Trafalgar Square, London if it doesn’t know your location. That's why it has twice the hits of the next most popular toilet on our website. But why did we choose Trafalgar Square?

Well, London is instantly recognisable due to our familiarity with the place names, helping visitors to orientate themselves. And Trafalgar Square is special in both mapping and toilets.

Why? Here are some fun facts:

  • Distances to/from London are measured from Trafalgar Square - specifically, the traffic island to the south of Nelson’s Column, a 6-way junction known as ‘Charing Cross’.
  • This used to be the location of the final Eleanor Cross, a series of monuments positioned down the East of England. The monument still exists, and is now located outside Charing Cross Station.
  • The loos at Trafalgar Square are a huge set of public toilets, and the only ones managed by the Mayor of London (not personally), if we ignore for a moment TfL loos and those at City Hall. They were built as part of the Square’s redevelopment and pedestrianisation in 2003.

The other toilets in our Top 10 are more likely due to massive tourist numbers from Big Ben to Piccadilly Circus. But watch out - Westminster Underground Station toilets on Parliament Street are currently closed for much needed redevelopment by Westminster City Council.

Most visited toilet page (number of hits in brackets)

  1. Trafalgar Square (4.1K)
  2. Charing Cross Station (2.6K)
  3. Cafe in the Crypt (2.5K)
  4. Westminster Underground Station (in subway) (2.2K)
  5. Horse Guards toilets (2.1K)
  6. Craven Street Temporary Urinal (2.1K)
  7. Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) (2K)
  8. Westminster Bridge (2K)
  9. The National Gallery, (1.8K)
  10. Piccadilly Circus - inside Underground Station (1.8K)

How did the year start?

2024 First edit of the year 

Friockheim Public Toilet Block, Scotland

A brick church with red door, cream window surrounds and a clock tower. It sits at the corner of a road junction, twice the height on the village buildings behind. The sky is blue with stormy clouds.

We had one toilet updated last New Year’s Day, and what a loo it was!

Friockheim Public Toilet Block on the East Coast of Scotland. A locally-run toilet, managed by volunteers, and refurbished following a fire in 2021.

Friockheim also boasts a 24h Changing Places toilet at The Hub @ Friockheim, impressive stuff for a village of 1130 people.

Details read: Owned By Angus Council & Maintained Friockheim Park Community Volunteers Community Group. Male & Female Toilet Facilities, Award Winning, Community Maintained, Clean & Safe. We are pleased to be able to provide Free Period Products in the ladies toilets in partnership with HeyGirls & Free Period Angus. Farnell Road, Friockheim, Arbroath, DD11 4XB

Will yours be the last?

Thank you so much for every edit made to the map, whether you have added, edited or removed a toilet online, or sent us details of changes to make, by email or the feedback box. We’re grateful for every input, to help us help you find the loo!

Here’s to more and better toilet mapping in 2025 x