I remember as a boy I was fascinated by the public toilets all over the city, they were always very well kept, smelled so clean and the carbolic soap would kill %110 of germs, what amazed me most was the craftsmanship of the tiling/plumbing and to think all these public toilets are concreted over and nothing has ever replaced them as if we all of a sudden just stopped peeing.
It's the same in Edinburgh: when they shut down most of their public toilets, they said you could use council buildings, such as sports & leisure facilities and libraries - then promptly started restricting their hours! In the City Centre, many people used them in Department Stores, but most of them have also since shut down. Many bus stations have shut down, and railway station facilities have long since been demolished. And those that do remain - well, why those ones? The really disgusting one in Bath Street, just across the road from Portobello Town Hall (plus two more on the seafront). The seafront ones are understandable, but why just Portobello Town Centre? Why not Corstorphine, Canonmills, Leith, Morningside, Gorgie, Granton, Newhaven, Silverknowes, Colinton, Juniper Green, Currie, Sighthill, Gimerton and many other suburbs that had them, but where they have now been closed and not replaced? Meanwhile, another disgusting example remains on the topmost corner of Bruntisfield Links - and again, with no obvious short-term parking spaces nearby, you have to ask why? Why there - when there were much better facilities elsewhere that got the chop? Meanwhile, the health pudits continue to advocate we drink lots of water - and the councils impose on-the-spot fines if you're caught doing it in the street...!
The public toilet in St Andrews is now a residence . No doubt many others will follow suit . We should organise a PE-ED AFF campaign. That toilet with the tiles is awesome . Some toilets have their practical uses and others are aesthetic temples.
Very interesting this one Eddie, I’m now approaching an age when the “never pass up the opportunity……” adage has never been more apt. Public toilets are few and far between and all new ones appear to lack materials that can cope with moisture and most importantly air flow. They ain’t welcoming, I could go on but you’ve covered it beautifully. I live in hope that one day when visiting my sons in Glasgow our paths will cross, but I’ve yet to see you in and around Partick👍😉
In Glasgow, ed, there's a toilet at the botanical gardens, and one in st Enoch,s centre, that you need to go up a few escalators to get to, don't know any others.
in the city centre theres some at the top of Buchanan Galleries, and in the basement of the art museum, in the stations and M&S, there were still council owend toilets near the band shell at Kelvingrove last i checked, admittedly a couple years ago now. Kelvingrove museum has toilets and across the road at Kelvinhall. Across the city, I depend on coffee shops and pubs.
Fantastic video Ed, never thought about woman’s toilets in Victorian times. Just thought they would have had them. I remember using the public toilets downstairs on Buchanan street probably mid 90s, always a daunting place but I could feel the oldness of the place with the dark glazed tiles. Anniesland cross had brilliant public toilets. I went to knightswood secondary and walked down to anniesland most days for lunch and those toilets were immaculate we would often get chased out for being too rowdy.
Hi Ed, a sad state of affairs back then and now. And yet even in the late eighties,the Ubiquitous Chip on Ashton Lane had needles in their toilet water tank. Billy Connolly being a patron or not!
As a child I lived in a tenement with an "added on" toilet. Shared by two families, and kept very clean. But in winter we had to burn a candle under the pipe to stop it from freezing.
Great to meet you on the bridge last week at the science centre. Another great wee video, highlighting a real need . They want folks to get out and walk but council don't provide toilets anymore . Been in Govan 25 yrs and never knew there are loos in the govan mall. I will need to find them next time I'm in there.
We have no public toilets where we live either. To mirror a similar comment below, one set had to close due to some rather unsavoury behaviour and the other ones never seem to open. For unknown reasons. We have some in Tesco but definitely not on our so called high street. It is a very sorry state. Thanks for another insightful video, Ed. Really interesting. All the best.
What should happen is that tokens should be available and when you need a pee you should be able to give a token to a staff member is an establishment, who then give them to the council for cash incentive 🤷♂️
@@BigBoaby-sg1yo Brilliant idea. We had the discussion about toilets being manned and having to pay but honestly, should we have to pay for the "privilege"?
@@queenwitcher6661 no ! We should not have to pay , my idea was the tokens were free and the owners of the establishment get a cash incentive (when they cash them in ) to perhaps pay a part time cleaner for the toilet.
I used an outside toilet up until the age of 7 , it was down 2 flights of stairs, out into the back gardens, shared by four different households and a small shop , newspaper, luminous painted walls for more light off the candle at night time, and plenty of big spiders .
Thanks Ed for bringing to our attention the gradual reduction in public facilities and even public space. The facilities must be revamped. The alleged use of these facilities for the drug related activates, may been a problem. The short to medium term solution to that problem is decriminalization and provision of safe use facilities. The long term real solution is to create a society in which young people have hope and purpose in life, a useful meaningful role in society. The Westminster ruling oligarchy will block this at every turn. We need to get out of the UK!!
i passed by the one in teh city centre for years before realising what it was, and that it was open. Id only noticed the old ones underground beside it were not.
Sadly so many places today, either you need 50p to use council loos, or u have to be a customer in a shop to use their toilets, It’s absolutely crazy, Even in 1980’s the school amd public toilet paper, wow, it was like wiping with a Brillo, it was rough But living in Edinburgh as a wee lassie, I still remember my granny having a outside loo, when I think back, looks and even smells of it, I can still remember I know live in wales, amd it’s even worse here, with public toilets, most now closed down, shops charge you unless u buy a drink, yes a drink and you need to pee 😂 😮 and if the y refuse you, they direct you to certain places, which are if ur walking, feels miles away, May aswell just wear tenas when u need to go out ladies, not sure what gents can use, but, 😂😂
Ed, Thanks again for yet another stimulating video. A bit off the subject, but I was intrigued by that "column" behind you in the introductory section. It looked like a stack of cards stuck together with Roman Numerals on it. What exactly is it?
Hi Byron. It's an arty high-rise building made from paper and sellotape. I found it in the street a few years ago; whoever made it decided to throw it and a few others out. I remember clutching it under my arm and entering a pub with the words, 'Is it okay if I bring my scyscraper in?' Whoever made it - maybe for some college project - must have had hours of fun cutting out all those windows.
The issue is one of expectations. There used to be many jobs of low status and absolute necessity, that made society function and added to the joy of nations. The public park resident groundsman. The railway porter. The lavatory attendant. Spending the first 20 years of life in a house with an outside bog, some public toilets seemed palatial. Varied marble in wraparound urinals, polished brass door handles on stately cubicle doors. Presumably they continue their subterranean existence, as sealed as a tomb.
Hi Ed, great video, it will have wrung a bell with so many people of a certain age. As a lorry driver I have peed in many strange places, and not only peed. When I was undergoing my prostate radiotherapy a nurse gave me a wee card. I haven't used it yet but it's got a toilet on it and says, I Have a medical condition and need to use a toilet quickly, please help. I keep imagining people's faces if I go in somewhere and flash my card.
@@EdExploresScotland you just need to get prostate cancer and they give you one for free. I used to wonder if the law still exists where a driver can pee against the wheel just like the horse and cart drivers did because they couldn't leave the horse unattended.
If I recall, in Carry On Screaming (1966), Charles Hawtrey played Dan Dann the Lavatory Man. Im fairly sure that I remember similarly employed men back in the mists of time when I was a nipper. Maybe they were just blokes who liked hanging around toilets! But more Public Toilet Attendants would make sure that the service wasn't abused.
Nothing worse than being caught short 🤣 Most of the public loos in Edinburgh have gone the same way. Either permanently closed, converted or demolished. 😕
Sorry to hear that Jim. I was talking to an on-train member of staff and he said the issue is the size of the water tanks feeding the train toilets. I suppose trains are on such a tight schedule and operators don't want to be fined for lateness, so they don't top-up those water tanks at each terminus. Surely, it'd be a two-minute job? Complete lack of empathy and consideration for train travellers. Disgraceful, really.
Everyone wants to be the master. Never the servant. But, I always held Toilet Attendants to be masters of a trade. Kings of their own domaine. Do you know, Versailles was built without toilets! They did it behind curtains and in the flower pots. We all do it, but, not so some architects. I'm thinking Aliens. Oh and, last time I was in Paris Nord, the toilet cleaners are all French African women. It is a contract like Chinese Laundry men in the RN. The office window looks straight down the urinals. Clochemerle anyone? 😂.
Visiting a public toilet in what was then Yugoslavia, I was surprised to find a female attendant in the gentleman's lavatory. She gazed on her clients unashamedly, though her singular dimensions and homely appearance meant the look was not returned, which may have been the point. Everyone seemed to tip her, perhaps because she was brandishing a mop, menacingly.
Last December, I was in Perth getting my winter jabs. I went into a busy cafe and walked to the toilets at the back for a Jimmy Riddle. Nobody seemed to notice, but they may have if it was quieter. If caught short, head for a busy place, and dont look too trampish. 👍👍👍
Interesting video thanks Ed. You certainly have a reason to be pee'd off. Wouldn't it be nice if one of the council decision makers got caught short while out strolling the streets of Glasgow. I suspect that some of these decision makers don't really care about people and to supply a public convenience is too much of an inconvenience.
Hi Bryce. These days I suspect it's now the norm to use toilets in pubs and in shopping centres. With shopping centres the council no longer has the responsibility of running the toilet. You could say they've washed their hands of the whole thing.
Instead of you saying you were "sprinting up the stairs", I thought you said you were "sprinkling" up the stairs, Ed ☺. You're right, never pass up an opportunity to use a toilet. Mx
If we're not going to provide toilets, and with an aging population, we need to require all eating and drinking premises to allow non-customers to use their facilities. £1/pee, might encourage folk to buy a cup of tea, business might even increase.
The public toilets in saltcoats are an absolute disgrace. Honestly you have to wipe your feet on the way out. What visitors to this town think, I would Hazard to guess.
Know what you mean about whether to have a second cup before going out for a walk. Bit if toilet humour. I think this was from a Christmas Cracker....... Why does Mr Spock keep going to the loo...to iook at he Captain's Log
Ed, your latest video is a Lot of Auld P*sh 🚽 😂 But very interesting and showing that our society is rolling backwards towards the conditions our ancestors had to endure. If I were you, I’d get a sponsorship deal for advertising adult pee Pants 🩲 for walking around our Cities. 🫡
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I remember as a boy I was fascinated by the public toilets all over the city, they were always very well kept, smelled so clean and the carbolic soap would kill %110 of germs, what amazed me most was the craftsmanship of the tiling/plumbing and to think all these public toilets are concreted over and nothing has ever replaced them as if we all of a sudden just stopped peeing.
It's the same in Edinburgh: when they shut down most of their public toilets, they said you could use council buildings, such as sports & leisure facilities and libraries - then promptly started restricting their hours! In the City Centre, many people used them in Department Stores, but most of them have also since shut down. Many bus stations have shut down, and railway station facilities have long since been demolished. And those that do remain - well, why those ones? The really disgusting one in Bath Street, just across the road from Portobello Town Hall (plus two more on the seafront). The seafront ones are understandable, but why just Portobello Town Centre? Why not Corstorphine, Canonmills, Leith, Morningside, Gorgie, Granton, Newhaven, Silverknowes, Colinton, Juniper Green, Currie, Sighthill, Gimerton and many other suburbs that had them, but where they have now been closed and not replaced? Meanwhile, another disgusting example remains on the topmost corner of Bruntisfield Links - and again, with no obvious short-term parking spaces nearby, you have to ask why? Why there - when there were much better facilities elsewhere that got the chop? Meanwhile, the health pudits continue to advocate we drink lots of water - and the councils impose on-the-spot fines if you're caught doing it in the street...!
Thanks all the best from Auld Reekie
Many thanks Peter.
The public toilets at the beach in Aberdeen are lovely too. They're still open.
The public toilet in St Andrews is now a residence . No doubt many others will follow suit . We should organise a PE-ED AFF campaign. That toilet with the tiles is awesome . Some toilets have their practical uses and others are aesthetic temples.
The public toilet by Rothesay Pier is astonishingly beautiful. Worth a trip on a ferry for that alone.
Very interesting this one Eddie, I’m now approaching an age when the “never pass up the opportunity……” adage has never been more apt. Public toilets are few and far between and all new ones appear to lack materials that can cope with moisture and most importantly air flow. They ain’t welcoming, I could go on but you’ve covered it beautifully. I live in hope that one day when visiting my sons in Glasgow our paths will cross, but I’ve yet to see you in and around Partick👍😉
Thanks Ed, I've lived in southeast England for 40+ years and I'm glad to say I don't have the same issues in my local village or town.
In Glasgow, ed, there's a toilet at the botanical gardens, and one in st Enoch,s centre, that you need to go up a few escalators to get to, don't know any others.
in the city centre theres some at the top of Buchanan Galleries, and in the basement of the art museum, in the stations and M&S, there were still council owend toilets near the band shell at Kelvingrove last i checked, admittedly a couple years ago now. Kelvingrove museum has toilets and across the road at Kelvinhall.
Across the city, I depend on coffee shops and pubs.
Fantastic video Ed, never thought about woman’s toilets in Victorian times. Just thought they would have had them.
I remember using the public toilets downstairs on Buchanan street probably mid 90s, always a daunting place but I could feel the oldness of the place with the dark glazed tiles.
Anniesland cross had brilliant public toilets. I went to knightswood secondary and walked down to anniesland most days for lunch and those toilets were immaculate we would often get chased out for being too rowdy.
There's that much traffic going through Anniesland Cross that getting to those toilets must have been difficult.
@@EdExploresScotland no not really, it’s all pedestrian crossings from anniesland road to the big island then on to anniesland.
Hi Ed, a sad state of affairs back then and now.
And yet even in the late eighties,the Ubiquitous Chip
on Ashton Lane had needles in their toilet water tank.
Billy Connolly being a patron or not!
Yes, I'm sure toilet water tanks hid, and probably still hide, a lot of undesirable items.
Talking of pee’d , I have to pause you for a min or 2 😂😂😂
As a child I lived in a tenement with an "added on" toilet. Shared by two families, and kept very clean. But in winter we had to burn a candle under the pipe to stop it from freezing.
Great to meet you on the bridge last week at the science centre. Another great wee video, highlighting a real need . They want folks to get out and walk but council don't provide toilets anymore . Been in Govan 25 yrs and never knew there are loos in the govan mall. I will need to find them next time I'm in there.
Hallo. Nice to have met you too. I completely forgot about the shopping centre loos.
We have no public toilets where we live either. To mirror a similar comment below, one set had to close due to some rather unsavoury behaviour and the other ones never seem to open. For unknown reasons. We have some in Tesco but definitely not on our so called high street. It is a very sorry state. Thanks for another insightful video, Ed. Really interesting. All the best.
What should happen is that tokens should be available and when you need a pee you should be able to give a token to a staff member is an establishment, who then give them to the council for cash incentive 🤷♂️
Supermarket toilets are in a world of their own, with UV lights intended to prevent drug misuse but adding a distinctly disco feel to the place.
@@BigBoaby-sg1yo Brilliant idea. We had the discussion about toilets being manned and having to pay but honestly, should we have to pay for the "privilege"?
@@EdExploresScotland Yes they do! I avoid using them where possible!
@@queenwitcher6661 no ! We should not have to pay , my idea was the tokens were free and the owners of the establishment get a cash incentive (when they cash them in ) to perhaps pay a part time cleaner for the toilet.
Hi Ed. Just for your information, there are public toilets in Govan Shopping Centre.
where abouts are they? I've never noticed them.
@@OldStag72 , as you go in from Farmfoods area they are just facing the Post Office, which is now a Morrisons Local.
@@rpw1013 thanks i'll have a look next time I am in! Might save me that 20 minute dash home from the subway.
I will have to have a look next time im in, never seen any in the govan mall.
I used an outside toilet up until the age of 7 , it was down 2 flights of stairs, out into the back gardens, shared by four different households and a small shop , newspaper, luminous painted walls for more light off the candle at night time, and plenty of big spiders .
Thanks Ed for bringing to our attention the gradual reduction in public facilities and even public space. The facilities must be revamped. The alleged use of these facilities for the drug related activates, may been a problem. The short to medium term solution to that problem is decriminalization and provision of safe use facilities. The long term real solution is to create a society in which young people have hope and purpose in life, a useful meaningful role in society. The Westminster ruling oligarchy will block this at every turn. We need to get out of the UK!!
Hi Ed unfortunately they have to keep toilets closed now because of drug taking. Iv worked in places where we'd find needles in toilets. Sorry state 😢
Not so much if they are staffed.
Great video as always Ed
Cheers Alan.
i passed by the one in teh city centre for years before realising what it was, and that it was open. Id only noticed the old ones underground beside it were not.
A really important video---thank you.
Cheers Janet.
Good video and music too
Thank you.
Sadly so many places today, either you need 50p to use council loos, or u have to be a customer in a shop to use their toilets,
It’s absolutely crazy,
Even in 1980’s the school amd public toilet paper, wow, it was like wiping with a Brillo, it was rough
But living in Edinburgh as a wee lassie, I still remember my granny having a outside loo, when I think back, looks and even smells of it, I can still remember
I know live in wales, amd it’s even worse here, with public toilets, most now closed down, shops charge you unless u buy a drink, yes a drink and you need to pee 😂 😮 and if the y refuse you, they direct you to certain places, which are if ur walking, feels miles away,
May aswell just wear tenas when u need to go out ladies, not sure what gents can use, but, 😂😂
Billy Connolly's incontinence trousers story may become a reality for many.
@@EdExploresScotland it may have to happen 🤣🤔
Loved the music.
Thank you.
Ed, Thanks again for yet another stimulating video. A bit off the subject, but I was intrigued by that "column" behind you in the introductory section. It looked like a stack of cards stuck together with Roman Numerals on it. What exactly is it?
Hi Byron. It's an arty high-rise building made from paper and sellotape. I found it in the street a few years ago; whoever made it decided to throw it and a few others out. I remember clutching it under my arm and entering a pub with the words, 'Is it okay if I bring my scyscraper in?' Whoever made it - maybe for some college project - must have had hours of fun cutting out all those windows.
thank you for the clarification. I now feel enlightened!@@EdExploresScotland
The issue is one of expectations. There used to be many jobs of low status and absolute necessity, that made society function and added to the joy of nations. The public park resident groundsman. The railway porter. The lavatory attendant. Spending the first 20 years of life in a house with an outside bog, some public toilets seemed palatial. Varied marble in wraparound urinals, polished brass door handles on stately cubicle doors. Presumably they continue their subterranean existence, as sealed as a tomb.
Hi Ed, great video, it will have wrung a bell with so many people of a certain age. As a lorry driver I have peed in many strange places, and not only peed. When I was undergoing my prostate radiotherapy a nurse gave me a wee card. I haven't used it yet but it's got a toilet on it and says, I Have a medical condition and need to use a toilet quickly, please help. I keep imagining people's faces if I go in somewhere and flash my card.
I'll need to get one of those cards!
@@EdExploresScotland you just need to get prostate cancer and they give you one for free. I used to wonder if the law still exists where a driver can pee against the wheel just like the horse and cart drivers did because they couldn't leave the horse unattended.
Well video Ed, very relevant, nice on you.
So true lack of PC. Great Vid Ed.!!
Cheers Larry.
If I recall, in Carry On Screaming (1966), Charles Hawtrey played Dan Dann the Lavatory Man. Im fairly sure that I remember similarly employed men back in the mists of time when I was a nipper. Maybe they were just blokes who liked hanging around toilets!
But more Public Toilet Attendants would make sure that the service wasn't abused.
Absolutely.
ALSO THERE WERE PUBLIC DRINKING WATER WELLS WITH A STEEL TUMBLER ON A CHAIN .
And always cool and fresh.
Caught short, eh? Of a penny, I presume. Great social history vide. Thankyou Ed
Cheers.
Should have went to the one in the Govan Shopping Centre.
Now what was that 1970s TV drama about the Victorian shipping line. named after ques for convinces? Ah the Onedin Line. ( Aw needin' line)
Nothing worse than being caught short 🤣 Most of the public loos in Edinburgh have gone the same way. Either permanently closed, converted or demolished. 😕
I’ve got prostate cancer and toilets in trains are a sore point. Literally.
Sorry to hear that Jim. I was talking to an on-train member of staff and he said the issue is the size of the water tanks feeding the train toilets. I suppose trains are on such a tight schedule and operators don't want to be fined for lateness, so they don't top-up those water tanks at each terminus. Surely, it'd be a two-minute job? Complete lack of empathy and consideration for train travellers. Disgraceful, really.
Everyone wants to be the master. Never the servant.
But, I always held Toilet Attendants to be masters of a trade.
Kings of their own domaine.
Do you know, Versailles was built without toilets!
They did it behind curtains and in the flower pots.
We all do it, but, not so some architects. I'm thinking Aliens.
Oh and, last time I was in Paris Nord, the toilet cleaners are all French African women. It is a contract like Chinese Laundry men in the RN.
The office window looks straight down the urinals.
Clochemerle anyone? 😂.
Visiting a public toilet in what was then Yugoslavia, I was surprised to find a female attendant in the gentleman's lavatory. She gazed on her clients unashamedly, though her singular dimensions and homely appearance meant the look was not returned, which may have been the point. Everyone seemed to tip her, perhaps because she was brandishing a mop, menacingly.
Last December, I was in Perth getting my winter jabs. I went into a busy cafe and walked to the toilets at the back for a Jimmy Riddle. Nobody seemed to notice, but they may have if it was quieter. If caught short, head for a busy place, and dont look too trampish. 👍👍👍
Yes, you develop a way of walking into pubs and cafes with a look of authority as you make a beeline for the loo.
Interesting video thanks Ed. You certainly have a reason to be pee'd off.
Wouldn't it be nice if one of the council decision makers got caught short while out strolling the streets of Glasgow. I suspect that some of these decision makers don't really care about people and to supply a public convenience is too much of an inconvenience.
Hi Bryce. These days I suspect it's now the norm to use toilets in pubs and in shopping centres. With shopping centres the council no longer has the responsibility of running the toilet. You could say they've washed their hands of the whole thing.
@EdExploresScotland it certainly sounds like it Ed.
Your tripod is bigger than mine 😂😂
Instead of you saying you were "sprinting up the stairs", I thought you said you were "sprinkling" up the stairs, Ed ☺. You're right, never pass up an opportunity to use a toilet. Mx
Yes, unfortunately sprinkling up the stairs was almost a reality.
If we're not going to provide toilets, and with an aging population, we need to require all eating and drinking premises to allow non-customers to use their facilities. £1/pee, might encourage folk to buy a cup of tea, business might even increase.
hear ,hear!....a fellow pe'ed aff walker...
IT IS WORSE WHEN YOU ARE ON WATER TABLETS .
Or 6 pints 🍺 😮
Sad situation overall. 😂 Lynn
However, the music was wonderful ❣️
Cheers Lynn.
The public toilets in saltcoats are an absolute disgrace.
Honestly you have to wipe your feet on the way out.
What visitors to this town think, I would Hazard to guess.
Know what you mean about whether to have a second cup before going out for a walk.
Bit if toilet humour. I think this was from a Christmas Cracker.......
Why does Mr Spock keep going to the loo...to iook at he Captain's Log
Dammit now I have to pee
cottages
🤣🚽👍
Same with banning alcohol on trains cant have a quiet drink on your journey because of the occational problem drinker
Ed, your latest video is a Lot of Auld P*sh 🚽 😂
But very interesting and showing that our society is rolling backwards towards the conditions our ancestors had to endure.
If I were you, I’d get a sponsorship deal for advertising adult pee Pants 🩲 for walking around our Cities. 🫡
Yes, that'll be the future - one gallon down each leg.