Theatre creates ‘gender neutral’ toilets with urinals after pledging more female loos

Waterloo's the Old Vic raised £100,000 to expand female facilities but critics say the new loos exclude women's needs.

Iconic London theatre the Old Vic has made its toilets ‘gender neutral’ just months after promising to double the number of women’s facilities.

Last year, the Old Vic ran a £100,000 fund-raising campaign with the backing of celebrities like Joanna Lumley, pledging to add more women’s toilets to tackle notoriously long waiting queues outside female loos.

But instead, all toilets at the Waterloo-based theatre have been replaced with cubicles, urinals and one gender neutral facility, meaning there are no toilets specifically for women.

The Waterloo-based theatre made the announcement on Twitter and shared pictures of the sleek new toilets, adding that the facilities are ‘self-selection rather than being labelled male or female’.

But the announcement was met with a flurry of complaints, with critics saying that women would only have access to 24 toilets, while men will have access to 42.

The theatre Tweeted: ‘After nine months we’re very proud to share our newly accessible building with you, complete with a brand new entrance, a revamped Penny, up to 10 wheelchair spaces and twice the number of loos.

So @oldvictheatre has refurbished their toilets, and ended up giving men 18 facilities practically speaking just for them, plus 24 they share with women. So that’s 42 men have access to. Meanwhile women have access to 24, that they share with men. This is an improvement how?

— Caroline Criado Perez (@CCriadoPerez) October 2, 2019

‘When you come to visit us you might notice something a little different about our new loos. First, there are double the number – 44 loos within the building.

‘Our loos now offer ‘self-selection’ rather than being labelled male or female. This takes a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, approach following advice from surveys conducted with focus groups.

‘When you arrive in the theatre, you will see labels signposting which blocks contain cubicles and which contain urinals. We also have one specifically designed gender neutral loo.

‘You can choose which one you want to use, rather than responding to a label placed on you which you may not identify with.’

But the Tweets led the theatre into an explosive Twitter row, with many criticising the theatre for not sticking to its promises of more female facilities.

The fundraiser, which was launched in November, quickly raised £28,000 – although it is not clear if the money was used for the gender-neutral refurbishment.

Feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez called out the theatre on Twitter.

She wrote: ‘Just scanned back through my pics because I remember approvingly Tweeting about @oldvictheatre crowdfunder for specifically more ‘ladies loos’. And yep. They did not specify that there would in fact be no ladies loos at all.’

She added that they had ‘ended up giving men 18 facilities practically speaking just for them, plus 24 they share with women’.

Ms Criado-Perez continued: ‘So that’s 42 men have access to. Meanwhile women have access to 24 that they share with men. This is an improvement how?’

The admission sparked a raft of complaints from theatre-goers on social media.

One Twitter user said: ‘You are wrong to remove women-only toilets. I am happy to share public toilet facilities with transwomen but I would not feel comfortable sharing with men.

Just scanned back thru my pics because I remember approvingly tweeting about @oldvictheatre crowdfunder for specifically more “ladies loos”. And…yep. They did not specify that there wd in fact be no ladies loos at all. pic.twitter.com/DQEiVgeRV7

— Caroline Criado Perez (@CCriadoPerez) October 2, 2019

‘You can accommodate people who do not want toilet segregation by having separate male, female & gender neutral facilities.

‘It is possible to introduce gender-neutral facilities without removing women-only spaces.’

Another Tweeted: ‘Looks nice, but to be clear – you’ve got a ton of urinals just for men, and the women also share what’s left of the facilities with men? Sounds as though women got the short straw here. Again.’

The Old Vic added that it had given the issue a ‘lot of thought’ before going ahead with the restoration and was ‘open to hearing everyone’s views’.

It tweeted: ‘This is a complex topic that we gave a lot of thought to prior to and during the restoration. What we have done is double the provision of cubicled loos, and given people the option to self-select.

‘In practice, the cubicled loos are patronised predominantly by female patrons and the urinals by male; queue lengths have significantly reduced since before the refurbishment; and those others who want to choose where they go to the loo now can. Including carers and parents.’

The Old Vic is a charity and has to raise £3.9 million a year on top of ticket sales to keep it going.