Which UK City Has The Dirtiest Public Toilets?
Public toilets are disappearing across Great Britain. The British Toilet Association estimates only around 3,300 remain, a 25% drop since 2008.
Access to clean and safe toilets is vital, especially for elderly people, parents, and those with disabilities or medical conditions. But not every city maintains high hygiene standards.
Our sanitary waste experts analysed 8,255 Google Reviews across 742 public toilets in 76 UK cities to find which places have the dirtiest and cleanest facilities.
Key findings
- York has the dirtiest public toilets in the UK – 32% of reviews mention “dirty.”
- Sunderland has the cleanest public toilets – 47.8% of reviews mention “clean.”
- Cambridge ranks poorly for cleanliness – only 2.8% of reviews mention “clean.”
- The higher the price, the dirtier the toilets on average.
- Plymouth, Perth and Derby charge the most to use their public toilets (50p on average)
The UK’s dirtiest
public toilets
York tops the list of the dirtiest public toilets in Britain:
- 32% of reviews include “dirty.”
- An average rating of 2.8/5.
- A -1.5 hygiene score overall.
London may have the most toilets (118), but York’s are over twice as likely to be called “dirty.”
Cambridge also performs badly, with just 2.8% of reviews mentioning cleanliness. In an ironic twist that differs from its name, Bath ranks second dirtiest.
The top 10 dirtiest UK cities include: York, Bath, Cambridge, London, Bristol, Oxford, Nottingham, Salisbury, Cardiff, and Brighton & Hove.
The UK’s cleanest
public toilets
Sunderland has the cleanest public toilets in the UK, with nearly half of all reviews mentioning cleanliness and a 34.5 hygiene score.
Inverness and Carlisle follow closely, while Dunfermline, Preston, Leeds, Aberdeen, Derry/Londonderry, Wrexham, and St Asaph complete the top ten.
Northern cities dominate this list. No southern English cities made it into the top ten for clean public washrooms.
Price vs cleanliness of
public toilets
You might expect that paying more for a toilet means cleaner facilities, but shockingly it’s the opposite.
Our research shows that free toilets or low-cost ones tend to have higher hygiene ratings, while paid toilets are dirtier on average.
Some of the worst-rated paid toilets include:
- Cutty Sark (London): 50p charge, 46% mention “dirty,” 1.8/5 rating.
- York Castle: 40p charge, 52.8% mention “dirty,” 1.7/5 rating.
Cities such as Plymouth, Perth, and Derby charge around 50p per use, so you’ll be paying far more than a penny for what many consider disappointing standards.
Mark Hall, Sanitary Waste Expert and Co-Owner at Business Waste commented:
Why clean public toilets matter
Everyone deserves a hygienic, accessible place to use the toilet. For some, it’s more than convenience, it’s a necessity.
With fewer than 3,300 public toilets left in the UK, this creates a serious accessibility issue for:
- People with disabilities or medical conditions.
- Elderly individuals and those with young children.
- Taxi drivers, delivery workers, and others on the move all day.
Dirty or closed toilets can cause distress, discomfort, and health risks for those who rely on public facilities daily.
Methodology
- Data was scraped from Google Maps to gather public toilet listings for all UK cities. 742 toilets and 8,255 reviews were analysed. Any duplicate listings or listings for toilets within businesses were removed.
- Data was then manually collected for each Google map listing to gather the number of toilets, the average rating, the number of reviews, the number of reviews mentioning toilets that are dirty, and the number of reviews mentioning toilets that are clean.
- We calculated a hygiene rating that considers each city’s net cleanliness score (% of clean mentions − % of dirty mentions). To make rankings fair, we adjusted (smoothed) the scores so cities with very few reviews weren’t unfairly ranked as extremely clean or dirty. Small-sample cities are pulled slightly toward the average net cleanliness across all cities, while cities with many reviews mostly retain their own score. The same smoothing was applied to each individual toilet.
- The results were ranked from highest to lowest. Highest scores = cleanest cities, lowest (including negatives) = dirtiest cities. If a city has more reviews mentioning dirtiness than cleanliness, the net score becomes negative. This flags cities where toilets are reported as dirtier than cleaner, even after smoothing.
- Any reviews deemed not to be serious were omitted.
- Some cities/towns were combined due to overlap. Manchester and Salford, Newcastle and Gateshead, and Wells and Bath. Westminster was omitted as it’s covered within the London data.
- Newry was omitted from the data as there were no reviews.
In summary
York’s public toilets rank as the dirtiest in the UK, while Sunderland leads the way for clean, hygienic facilities. With fewer public washrooms available, and many charging more for lower standards, there’s a clear need for better maintenance and accessibility nationwide
Mark Hall concurred:
Have your waste collected
Get a fast FREE quote for your waste collection 0800 211 83 90
- Free quote within 1 hr
- Any type of waste
- FREE bins and delivery
- We cover all of the UK