Women’s toilets in Parkway

• I HAVE received complaints that the former women’s toilets in Parkway are currently open to both sexes and these complaints were echoed in a letter to the CNJ, (Give women back their loo, April 7).

That letter correctly points out that it was Councillor George Bernard Shaw who successfully campaigned for the first women’s public toilets; but it is not correct to say that there is a functioning gents across the road because that facility has been closed for two years. Hence the problem.

I first raised this issue in May 2021 and was told that the reason for the women’s loos becoming unisex was because the gents had to be closed for essential repairs and its position, on a small traffic island, made it impossible for users to socially distance.

Since there is no longer a legal requirement to socially distance, I have raised the issue again and I have been informed the council hopes to identify sufficient funding to repair and reopen the gents, which would enable women to have their loo back in Parkway.

I hope so because public toilets for women was a first for our area and a tradition we should build on.

CLLR RICHARD COTTON
Labour, Camden Town with Primrose Hill ward