A busy Soho street that “smells like piss in the summer” because so many people urinate on the streets could lose another public toilet.
Lift Coffee has submitted a planning application to turn the underground loos on Broadwick Street in Soho, which have been shut since 2021 after becoming a popular hangout for public sex, into a café and events space.
The operator secured a 25-year lease two years’ ago and could pour as much as £2mn into replacing the basement toilets with a coffee-themed workspace and a takeaway kiosk at ground level, according to council documents. But businesses at nearby Berwick Street Market said Soho can’t afford to lose another public toilet.
A map provided by Westminster City Council shows there are public toilets available at ground level in Broadwick Street operating 24 hours a day and a number of facilities nearby. There are also temporarily toilets between Thursday and Monday.
But Mohammed Mtour, 36, said the stench of urine on Berwick Street haunts him most mornings that he opens his fast-food stand. He believes drunken late-night revellers are to blame and says they use an alley behind his stall to relieve themselves. He also claims people urinate “every 30 minutes” on nearby Peter Street.
He said: “It’s terrible and it’s clearly a problem. When I come here in the morning, it’s disgusting.” He’s worried the stench is starting to affect his business.
Mohammed said: “If you’re a customer and standing there and smell bad smells, you think it’s coming from the business. But we have to keep our space clean. Customers don’t think it’s coming from behind them.”
Mohamed, 24, from Jerusalem Falafel, said he finds urine and faeces in the same spot every day while Jim from Quality Fruits, a small fruit stand at the end of Berwick Markets, said the problem is worse on weekends. Westminster City Council said Berwick Street is washed down daily by its street cleaners.
James Hughes, 47, who lives with his family at Trenchard House on Broadwick Street, says it’s mostly drunk people doing the urinating. He said: “When people have to go, they just go anywhere.” His daughter Mia said she can hear people peeing from her first floor bedroom.
According to data from a Soho neighbourhood forum research project, to be published later this year, 64 percent of weekly visitors to the area have witnessed public urination or defecation. It’s no surprise then that London ranks 24th in the world for the number of public toilets per square kilometre, according to a global study.
Analysis shows the UK capital had 0.39 public toilets per square kilometre in 2023 — slightly fewer than Jerusalem. Paris, which topped the rank, had 6.72 per square kilometre.
It’s this lack of a vital public service which is turning Berwick Street into an “open sewer”, according to Robin Smith, 63, who runs Soho Dairy — a coffee and cheese market stall. He blames the night economy, which he said is bringing people into Soho at the wrong time.
Robin said these drunken revellers are choosing between paying to use the loo at a pub or restaurant or doing it al fresco — something he said is unlikely to occur in the morning because people aren’t drinking and have access to toilets in their workplace. But Robin and his co-founder Keith Bickel, 65, say people aren’t to blame.
They said public toilets have been disappearing from Soho for a while. Robin said: “We aren’t against [the night time economy]. People are having a good time but there should be toilets.”
He said the problem became unbearable when al-fresco dining was introduced, which he said turned Berwick Street, where the markets are based, into an open-air toilet. Robin said: “What you’ve got is people rushing out after a drink and that’s a problem. People have moved out because people were pissing through their letter boxes.”
The business owner is at the end of his tether. He said: “Cleaning someone’s piss and shit every morning is time-consuming and unpleasant.” Keith said the stench of urine has come to symbolise the area. He said: “Come walking into Soho with your eyes closed and you immediately know where you are because of the smell.”
He said the lack of public toilets was a disgrace and said people constantly ask him where the nearest public toilets are. Keith said: “For a global city like London, it’s shocking how few toilets there are.”
The men agree addressing London’s public toilet problem will take long-term planning. They acknowledged public toilets have become popular spots for drug taking and sex but feel shutting them down isn’t the right idea.
Instead, they want to see a number of store fronts turned into “community shops” offering local amenities, including public toilets. He said: “We need toilets, we don’t need more cafés. There are cafés up and down the street.”
Tim Lord, chair of the Soho Society, agrees more public toilets are needed in Soho. He said the partying hotspot has the highest concentration of licensed premises in London, a figure he said has grown every year since he moved to the area three decades ago. He said Soho has significantly fewer public toilets than it did in 1990.
He said: “The council accepts that public urination is a health hazard and spends £15,000 every weekend on ugly temporary toilets. In 2022 the council decided to close the underground public toilets in Broadwick Street and to make them unavailable for public use for the next 25 years by granting a lease to a coffee shop chain. No one at the council can explain why.”
He said Broadwick Street smells of urine in the summer. Westminster City’s Paul Dimoldenberg, cabinet manager for city management, said street urination was completely unacceptable and that residents and businesses should not have to put up with it.
He said: “Making sure Westminster’s streets are clean and safe at all times is the council’s top priority. Our City Inspectors and street cleaning teams run a 24/7 service to deal with problems like street urination and defecation as quickly as possible.
“The council is spending £6 million this year on upgrading our public toilets in the West End. Currently, we have 12 public toilet facilities across Soho, Mayfair, and Covent Garden, and we provide an additional 25 temporary toilets in the West End at weekends and during special events.”
Dimoldenberg said the temporary toilets cost £6,125 not £15,000 as claimed.
Lift Coffee has been contacted for comment. Broadwick toilets were closed after they became a public sex hotspot at the height of lockdown when social distancing was strictly enforced. In 2022, Westminster City Council put the underground toilets on the market.
The Soho Society has been calling for more public toilets in the area for the past 15 years and in 2022, Westminster City Council spent £950,000 cleaning up after peeing party-goers. Special anti-pee paint has now been put all around Soho which will splash back anyone who sprays on it. The “Don’t Pee Off Soho” campaign is set to clear up the streets of the famous area after residents complained.