Overflowing bins and discarded needles: Britain’s public toilets need urgent hygiene fix

According to a recent survey 24 per cent of Brits have avoided using washrooms due to poor cleanliness.

To understand where standards remain high (and where they don’t), sanitary waste experts at BusinessWaste.co.uk have ranked the UK cities with the dirtiest and cleanest public toilets, based on Google Review data.

Highlights from the research:

• York has the dirtiest public toilets in Britain, with 32 per cent of reviews mentioning “dirty” and an average Google Review rating of 2.8/5.

• Many reviews mention overflowing bins and finding drug paraphernalia.

• Paid toilets are often dirtier on average

The full dataset with all metrics analysed can be found here.

York has the dirtiest public toilets in Britain

York ranks in first place for having the dirtiest public toilets in the UK, with an overall hygiene score of -1.5/100. Despite having just 11 public toilets across the city, more than 32 per cent of reviews mention the word “dirty”, giving York an average Google rating of just 2.8 out of 5. To add insult to injury, five of these toilets require payment to use, and most of these received negative reviews, with many mentioning the bad smell, number of flies, lack of soap and broken hand dryers. 

Bath ranks second, scoring just 2.1/100 overall. Around 27 per cent of reviews mentioned the word “dirty”, despite most of its toilets being paid-for facilities (11 out of 14). Some of these reviews noted urine on the floor, excrement in the bowl and also drug needles in the cubicle. This is surprising for a city known for its historic charm and high visitor numbers.

Cambridge takes third place, with one of the lowest “clean” ratings in the UK, as only 2.8 per cent of reviews mentioned cleanliness. With an average rating of 3 out of 5, its toilets received a poor overall hygiene score of 8.5/100, with one reviewer quoting: “Broken toilet roll dispenser, missing toilet seat, bad graffiti, mess everywhere, hand dryer not working and people using drugs inside.” 

London, in fourth place, has the most public toilets of any UK city with 118 in total, but also a high number of complaints. While only 12.4 per cent of reviews mentioned “dirty”, the fact that there are over 400 such reviews highlights the scale of the challenge that London has in maintaining hygiene across its network.

Other complaints referenced public health hazards such as:

• “Toilet walls smeared with stains” in Brighton

• “Poo on the seats” in Lincoln

• “A dirty baby changing area” in Sheffield

• “Used condoms and tampons” in Salisbury

• Pictures of overflowing sanitary bins in Bath

Mark Hall, Sanitary Waste Expert and Co-owner at Business Waste, said: “Public toilets are an essential service, yet many people are finding them in a poor state of cleanliness. Dirty toilet facilities not only present a public health concern, but also an accessibility issue for those with disabilities who rely on these spaces every day.

“Review data shows that in some cases, toilets are in an outright unusable state. Overflowing sanitary bins increase the risk of bacterial spread, discarded drug needles can result in sharps injuries and exposure to bloodborne pathogens, and human excrement can aid viral and bacterial transmission, all of which raise serious public-safety concerns.

“It’s essential that we invest more into maintaining existing public services like toilets so that they are clean, safe and accessible enough for us all to use. Facilities managers need to ensure cleaning schedules are fit for purpose, bin collections and capacity is suitable, and that specialised containers such as sharps bins are provided wherever there is a risk of needle disposal.”

“Paid 40p to enter and was immediately greeted with a horrible stench and hundreds of flies.”

You might expect that paying more for a toilet would mean cleaner facilities, but the BusinessWaste.co.uk data shows that free or low-cost public toilets tend to have higher hygiene ratings, while paid toilets are often dirtier on average. These include:

• Cutty Sark (London): 50p charge, 46 per cent of reviews mention “dirty,” average rating 1.8/5.

• York Castle: 40p charge, 52.8 per cent mention “dirty,” average rating 1.7/5.

• Plymouth, Perth, and Derby charge around 50p per visit but still rank among the worst for hygiene.

Despite higher costs, users are paying far more than a penny for disappointing standards.

To find out more one the UK’s dirtiest and cleanest public toilets click here.