Public toilets at Great Portland Street to remain closed

Public toilets outside Great Portland Street station, which are owned by Westminster Council, are not part of a £12.7mn improvement programme and are to remain closed with their future use remaining uncertain.

This month Westminster Council announced plans to refurbish eight central London public toilets, ensuring that visitors to the borough have access to new and improved facilities.

“The project brings together architecture, engineering and art to deliver a holistic vision for equitable space in the heart of the capital. This project is part of a wider strategy to rethink the provision of toilets across Westminster,” stated the announcement.

However, the “holistic vision” does not extend to the men’s and women’s toilets located underground on the south side of Great Portland Street station in Fitzrovia West, which have been closed since 2012.

They have not been included in the refurbishment programme despite Labour stating in its 2022 election campaign, and restated in May this year, that they would “fully modernise our existing public toilets and explore options to expand availability”.

In response to a Freedom of Information request earlier this year, the council said: 

“These sites were closed due to major structural issues with the site. The site was not considered safe to be open to the public. Repairs to make it safe and re-open were not considered economical. There are no plans to re-open these toilets.”

Instead, toilets at Victoria Embankment, Parliament Street, Piccadilly Circus and Green Park will all be refurbished in 2024 and 2025; with Carnaby Street, Westminster Pier, Covent Garden and Leicester Square due to be upgraded the following year.

“In addition, the council has invested £285k this year to refresh its neighbourhood public toilets and is planning to upgrade its automatic public toilets at a cost of £1.8mn,” says the council.

The Fitzrovia News asked Westminster Council if it was breaking its manifesto promise by not re-opening the public toilets at Great Portland Street.

“We are keeping to our manifesto to ‘Fully modernise our existing public toilets and explore options to expand availability,'” said Cllr Paul Dimoldenberg, cabinet member for city management and air quality.

“All our existing public toilets are being refurbished and modernised as we speak. We are looking at options to expand toilet availability.

“We made no commitment to reopen the many toilets closed by the previous Conservative council,” he said.

The Fitzrovia News asked the council if the toilets will be sold off and perhaps become a cafe or wine bar? They declined to comment.

In June 2011 The Fitzrovia News reviewed public toilets in and around Fitzrovia, including the Great Portland Street toilets.

“These are attended loos and very clean. There is toilet paper, soap and a condom machine. And there’s some nice artwork.

“A full flight of twisting steps to the toilet and so it fails the accessibility test. While it is open seven days a week it is only open between 10am and 6pm. If this toilet was at street level and open longer hours it would be pretty much the gold standard,” stated the review.

When our photographer visited the loos this morning there were two people trying to unlock the women’s toilet. When asked what they were up to, they said they were surveyors working on behalf of Westminster Council and were carrying an inspection of the facility.

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