Underground Toilets
 

I just got back from my first trip to the UK and Ireland. It was an awesome experience, probably the best trip I have ever taken. That said, while I was walking along the street in Edinburgh, I saw a sign for a Men's Toilet. It was underground.

Does everybody know to avoid these? As a tourist, it seemed like a reasonable place to use a toilet. Am I just clueless or do a lot of tourists end up stumbling into these?

How very cryptic. Did you have a strange experience?! Whilst there are a lot fewer of them than there used to be (since local councils hate paying for the upkeep, I used to go to a nightclub in Bath that was made from a converted underground loo!), the underground public toilet was a feature of every British town 100 years ago. Quite a few still exist, a lot now have an attendant overseeing them.

No attendant. Very filthy. But mainly men looking for other men. Google "Edinburgh Undergound Toilet" or "Cottaging". I don't want to post too much as gross details of what goes on down there must be a violation of the T&Cs here.

Indeed, there's still quite a few of them, although the quality does vary. Should they be avoided?

I have been to an Indian restaurant in a converted toilet in Whitechapel (now gone). And didn't the one at the end of Rosebery Ave used to be a hairdressers or something?

[edit] Ah, I see, a 'cottage'. Yes, let's leave it at that ;)

Ok, my question in a way is answered. If people living there aren't aware, I see it was an easy mistake I made wandering down.

Well, some are like that, some aren't. It tends not to be market on street maps, you know!

(Well, not on the ones I use, any road...)

If there is something you want to tell us then now is as good time as any....;)

Reminds me of the joke with the punch line "you're not here for the hunting are you?" .... :D

If my market research is correct, there is apparently an iPhone app for this sort of thing...

The underground toilets in the city centre of Glasgow all closed down years ago. Can't say I was a regular user of them but on the odd occasion I did I never got the impression they were used for anything other than doing a number 1 or 2.

Might just be an Edinburgh phenomena.

I can assure you, cottaging is not just an Edinburgh phenomenon. :)

It made for a good story at least. Which i still haven't really told here. One by one each man at a urinal slowly turned to stare at me. It was creepy, but I think they were waiting for me to leave. It was also the dirtiest toilet I have ever used. Feces smeared on the back of the toilet and urine on the floor. It was probably the worst part of my trip. But as I have told my friends since I have been back, if that was the worst thing then the trip was pretty good.^

Came across one in London last week - I may be mistaken but pretty sure it was on the Strand. Hadn't consciously noticed one for a while before that one. As it was a ladies loo, I am not sure it has the same connotations!

Hang on, you didn't go fishing for some heroin suppositories afterwards, did you?

This may be the ones located across from the Twinings shop near the Royal Courts of Justice... I remember them from when one of my sisters had a "need to go now" moment on one of her trips to LON. ;) They were not sketchy and there were signs stating that it was a free facility provided by Westminster and that tips were not to be given to attendants.

There's also some in St. Christopher's Place, just off Oxford Street. Never been down but given the location, it's hard to imagine they are used as anything but loos.