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Where e'er ye be, a piss should be free
Today, dear readers, I would like to talk to you about a pressing need which is affecting millions of people all over the UK right now – the need to use the toilet.
When we’re at home – and usually when we’re at work – using the toilet is a relatively uncomplicated process. When we’re out and about, not so much. Public toilets are few and far between, and often have extremely limited opening hours. In Manchester, public toilets are being closed pernamently as a result of cuts to council budgets. Although the increasing lack of public toilet provision is hardly as worrying as the changes being made to the NHS and the education system, it still causes problems for the general public.
What’s more, this same problem has plagued generations throughout the last century. Major poet Iain Crichton Smith recalls an incident which occured on a night out with his fellow poet Robert Garioch, a pillar of the renowned Scottish Renaissance movement who carried stickers with the word WHY on them for purposes such as this one:
“Garioch decided that he needed a pee and in a waste land a toilet was found. However the toilet was locked and the genial poet posted a WHY sticker on it. He then peed against the wall of the toilet. However into this deserted area there were projected a male policemen and a female policeman, the latter of whom proceeded to charge Garioch with exposing himself in public. The silly thing about the whole incident is that there was no one around to see him peeing. At that time he was in his seventies or eighties and probably had to go to the toilet quite often.” (from ‘Life of Murdo’, p. 243)
I post this anecdote firstly because it’s relatively amusing; secondly because it demonstrates that from poets to paupers, the lack of basic facilities in public places has affected us all for decades. From the lowest echleons of society to the artistic embodiments of the ages, the perrenial need to piss transcends the divisions of class and race. In the great quest to find the porcelain grail we are united.
United, I say, but only to be thwarted by a sign reading ‘TOILETS ARE FOR CUSTOMER USE ONLY’, or some variation thereof (this one is a particular favourite – note the extreme agression of tone!). Because of the growing lack of public loos available, we now have to purchase something in return for the privilege to pee. The implications of this are multifarious. Firstly, the elderly, people with dodgy bladders, people with conditions like colitis, diverticulitis and Crohn’s disease, don’t have time to purchase stuff before they use the bathroom. When they need to go, they need to GO. The problem is exacerbated by the practice of locking toilets in cafes, train stations and other public places. Further signs are installed reading ‘Keys are available from staff’. Secondly, the toilet becomes used as more effective way than advertising for blackmailing people into buying stuff. Even in places which don’t put up signs barring non-customers from the toilet, we still often feel obliged to purchase something before we leave. Where the need to pee is a universal need, the barring of non-customers from bathrooms is ostensibly classist – people with enough expendable income to buy stuff that they neither require nor want are able to use the bathroom, but if you want to hang onto that last fraction of your overdraft which is all you’ve got to live off until payday, you can forget it.
The message is clear: if you want to pee you must pay for the privilege. Never mind if you don’t have enough money on you to buy something (an increasing likelihood today when we use plastic to pay for most things), or if you simply don’t have time to buy something. The depleting availability of public toilets is enabling the retail and catering industries to capitalise on our bladders – is nothing sacred anymore?
A handy sign, ready to mount on your local MPs house (for example).
First of all good post – the issue of the continued privatization and the division of the so-called ‘public space’ is ever important and will likely take on a greater importance as our services are slashed, such as you point out Manchester closing its public toilets.
Secondly, and I know you said you were being ironic in the use of the phrase, I feel compelled to comment on the phrase “the homeless that pee in the street”. To make clear to others reading this I know what I am about to say on the phrase does not represent what Meghan believes or intended. Rather I am focusing more on the vernacular understanding people can take from the phrase. Apologies for this diversion from the point of the post, housing and homelessness is the area I work within so it’s become almost second nature to rant on this issue. Additionally as the cuts take effect, primarily through the restriction of housing benefit but also the increased conditionality being applied to jobseekers’ allowance (which deserve a post of their own), there is a massive risk of an increased number of people experiencing homelessness and the assumptions of what this is and how it comes about need to be challenged.
The assumption behind saying “the homeless that pee in the street” is to bring up the image of the urban rough sleeper – the person who has to find shelter in the crevices of the urban landscape. In fact the majority of people who experience homelessness will either never spend time sleeping rough or will only do so rarely and infrequently. Even of those who do sleep rough they tend to avoid city centres and other busy places. Much of the depictions of homelessness are based upon the urban rough sleeper primarily because they are the most visible representation of homelessness to the public and re-enforced by media representation. Through such stereotyping of this as what homelessness is the label “homeless” becomes a means of distancing seen in such dualisms as clean / dirty & inside / outside. Homelessness, however, is not defined as a lack of a roof over a person’s head but rather the lack of permanent, safe, secure and decent housing. At any one time the majority of those who can be said to be homeless will be in insecure or overcrowded housing, temporary accommodation or couch surfing (‘hidden homelessness’).
Even the idea of the urban rough sleeper peeing in the street is not wholly accurate. Again I’ll stress I am not saying this represents Meghan’s view, conversely how “the homeless that pee in the street” may be taken. Part of the distancing of homeless people as ‘other’ includes seeing them as desperate therefore not sharing the same standards which “we” have. When I was working at a club providing food, clothing and leisure space to big issue sellers, the majority of who are not actually rough sleepers either, this became very apparent. People would donate clothing of their recent deceased elderly relatives including their suits and formal shoes and expect the big issue sellers to be “grateful” ignoring that they still have aesthetic preferences and subject to the same pressures and anxiety everyone has of how they are perceived by what they wear. The same dismissing of them as “ungrateful” would happen if they were not keen on any of the food available. Similarly for those who cannot find any alternative, though the Big Issue Sellers would normally be aware of places near their spot where the staff were understanding, being forced to do a private act such as peeing in a public space is not something normally done without the same sort of anxiety and discomfort anyone else would have.
Dear Meghan
Public toilets have been closing for as long as I can remember and they’ve always closed
well before the pub shuts – and why not – lavy attendants have got conditions of service as well .
It doesn’t make it right however that councils are closing said facilities and those who keep them clean out of
a job,but sadly your rant doesn’t mention those workers. Nor does it mention the Community Toilet Scheme
which exists nationwide in conjunction with Local Authorities, which means you can have a piss in your caring
sharing Tesco, trendy Starbucks and many others including local pubs and public buildings where the
signage is displayed. Where I live they’ve even got portaloos for the late night clubin’ binge drinking crew. I believe in
London there’s such a thing as ‘Sat Lav’ whereby your mobile phone will direct you to the nearest loo.
So whilst I appreciate that like me you might wish to wee all over some of the organisations I’ve mentioned it’s not
as constipated a situation as you describe.
Yours
Willie
(no joke!)
Ally Stewart (or 12tone, ye pretentious fucker, ye), I wasn’t trying to point out that homeless people pee in the street because they’re dirty. If anything I was breaking down the sort of dualism of this by pointing out that peeing in the street can be a necessity for ANYONE, exposing the redundancy of the stereotyped idea that anyone who pees in the street must be either a hooligan or a hobo.
And aye Willie, you’re dead right that the closure of public toilets does result in the loss of jobs of those that maintain them – you say I didn’t mention that in the post, however, I did link to an article that covers it – here it is again: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-12389726 – about how cuts to local services is resulting in huge job losses including those of public toilet maintainence staff. Jobs are being lost across the board because of the cuts, and this is something the SSY is frequently drawing attention to (as is the mainstream press). It’s not that this wasn’t important to me as far as the public toilet issue was concerned, more that I wanted to take issue with shops refusing to let people use the toilet, and that people increasingly have no alternative but to pay to use the bathroom when they’re out.
I’ve never heard of this Community Toilet Scheme, as welcome as it is, apart from it also making it easier for the local authority to despense with public toilets, nor had an idea of what the sign even looked like til I googled it and now having done so I remain unaware of having ever seen one. This becomes a much heightened issue for people who as Meghan mentioned really do HAVE TO GO if they remain unaware of such schemes / where participating stores are and the fact there are normally signposts for public toilets (which admittedly could be brought in for this scheme). Additionally, the removal of ‘public toilets’, and the staff, to be replaced with the toilets “kindly” provided to us by loving companies does not diminish the fact such services provide a means of bringing you into the store and / or making you feel as if you half to then buy something, an interesting form of self-survilance, which is still part of the point Meghan was making. Furthermore, the portaloos, and the people who are paid to maintain them, which again would be welcome developments especially to a couple of people I know who have been charged with indecent exposure after the pub, are likely to also be at risk from the cuts. Finally, I think there is also the issue of where the local authority starts charging for the use of the toilet or hands it over to a private company to run – especially with the latter’s desire to maximise profit and the effect this will undoubtedly have on staff working conditions.
At home a few years ago, somebody put stickers all around Temple Bar in the alleyways and crevices saying “Designated Puke and Piss Zone.”