Oxford public toilets: Where to go when you need to go

We are all the Clarion – and, sometimes, we all need the loo. And especially if you're pregnant, have an unreliable postnatal pelvic floor, are looking after children, or just need to spend a penny without spending a penny, your choices are fewer than they used to be.

Sometimes this is simply because facilities have been taken away. The former public toilets in the middle of St Giles were recently converted to a posh micro hotel – from gents to gentrified.

But 'where to go' also means which toilet feels safe to use when you get there. The EHRC Code of Practice becomes statutory guidance today, Wednesday 5 August, and in particular offers no safe place for trans men. As a result, we expect organisations to start moving towards unisex toilets: the University of Oxford is preparing a significant update to their Access Guide, which will include detailed information on the provision of gender-neutral facilities across the estate. (Disabled accessible toilets are almost always unisex as well, but often need a RADAR key. Kemi Badenoch introduced requirements which prevent rebadging single-sex facilities as unisex.)

Fortunately, no toilets in Oxford require payment (unless you feel obliged to buy a coffee!). But any of us might get caught out when we're caught short, because the public toilets mostly close at 5pm. You can probably find a pub to use, depending on your needs: otherwise, try to make it to the 24-hour palace on top of the Westgate.

In the meantime, in the name of public service journalism for everyone, whoever you are and whatever your needs, we've rounded up Oxford's most convenient conveniences. This isn't intended to be an exhaustive list, but, in the best traditions of the web and the Clarion, we invite you to contribute. Email news@oxfordclarion.uk and we'll make this the best resource we can, together.

Key

M – male
F – female
U – unisex/gender-neutral/universal
D – disabled/accessible
B – baby change

City centre

The words to remember for loos in central Oxford are Weston and Westgate: smart, spacious, and clean. But if you find yourself in between these oases, you have options. We won't list every coffee shop, but here are a few recommendations:

• Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street
  1000-1700; M/F/D/B
  To find the two extensive suites of toilets in the basement, look for either the naked statue of Apollo or the phallic statue of the Egyptian god Min. Take a lift to the top floors for yet more loos (serving the restaurant and the special exhibition galleries).
• Oxford Town Hall
  0900-1730 (Mon-Fri), 1000-1700 (Sat); M/F/D/B
  Palatial entry to get there, look up the staircase to see spectacular architecture – the toilets are just around the corner to the right. Try the excellent museum (£) while you're there.
• St John's College, St Giles
  1300-1700
  Generally free to enter for the public. Great loos just beyond the front quad (may need a code from the porters' lodge).
• Public toilets, Market Street
  0830-1700; M/F/D
  Convenient for the Covered Market. With their plastic and metal build, they do feel like they're expecting something horrible to happen gastric-distress wise, but they're generally clean, and the sign on the wall has uplifting things to say about Oxford. The Covered Market masterplan promises improved toilets 'with additional female facilities' in 2027.
• Public toilets, Magdalen Street East
  0800-1700; U
  Not to be confused with the private Netty nearby, this clean underground facility offers 6 unisex cubicles.
• Westgate library
  0900-2000 (Mon-Thur), 090-1730 (Fri-Sat); U/D/B
  Expect a queue at busy times, but conveniently located just next to the public library. Two accessible toilets with baby change facilities, tucked away next to the children's library on the first floor near the lifts.
• Westgate Social Street Food
  1000-2200 (Mon-Sat), 1100-1900 (Sun); M/F/D/B
  Tucked away at the back of the ground-floor fast food area, but make your way past the neon lighting and you'll find clean and plentiful facilities.

• Westgate Roof Terrace
  24 hours; M/F/D/B
  Potentially a platonic ideal of public toilets: plentiful, clean, mirrors, places for people to wait. Top marks for a 'toilet for everyone' (although not gender-neutral?), three dedicated baby changing rooms plus a feeding room, a standard accessible toilet and a Changing Places facility, and a water refill station.
       The Westgate also say they have "taken guidance from Colostomy UK to provide stoma-friendly toilet facilities. Five of our accessible toilets have been updated to include the correct Stoma Facilities. These can be found in the main toilet area on the Roof Terrace, in Social Street food, on the Lower Ground Mall and on Level -2 of the Car Park. Each toilet now includes wall hooks, a colostomy bag shelf, a wall mirror and the correct disposal facilities". More on Westgate toilets.
• John Lewis, Westgate
  1000-1900 (Mon-Sat), 1030-1700 (Sun); M/F/D/B
  The top-floor suite gets extra marks because not only does it have a toilet with a very good baby change room, it also has a feeding room with an armchair. The disabled toilet was out of order when the Clarion visited but there are two more on the lower levels.

• Oxpens Road
  0800-1700; M/F/D/B
  It’s a Portakabin, in Oxpens car park. But surprisingly clean!
• Weston Library, Broad Street
  0900-1700 (Mon-Fri), 1000-1700 (Sat), 1100-1600 (Sun); M/F/D/B
  By far the best toilets in this quarter of town, but only accessible when Blackwell Hall is open – so not after 5pm (4pm on Sundays). Clean and numerous enough to largely prevent queueing (entire groups of language school students can create exceptions). The baby change facilities are inside the accessible unit.
• Bus station toilets, Gloucester Green
  0830-1700; M/F/D/B
  Surprisingly clean, actually. Handy for the bus station and Gloucester Green market: don't be scared of them.

• Railway station, Frideswide Square
  Closed overnight (0135-0400)
  Main concourse M/F; over the bridge M/F/D/B
  Similar vibe wise to Market Street toilets (speckled plastic and metal), long queues (there just aren't enough toilets, especially in the ladies), and guaranteed to be busy just when you have a train leaving in the next 5 minutes. Consider taking the footbridge to the opposite platform for a much more chilled experience in the toilets there (although a ticket is required for this option). And there is a book swap just outside.

North central

• Natural History Museum
  1000-1700; M/F/U/D
  The University Museum has several toilets on the ground floor, including one explicitly marked as gender-neutral – and there is another in the Pitt Rivers.
• University Parks
  0745-sunset; M/F/D/B
  If you're caught short on a stroll through the Parks, aim for the cricket pavilion in the middle, which stands next to the toilet block recently refurbished in 2026.
• Schwarzman Centre
  Accessible toilet on every floor plus Changing Places toilet in the basement; baby changing facilities (plus nursing room).

North Oxford

• Summertown, Diamond Place
  0800-1700; U
  Our Summertown toilet correspondent reports these to be frequently closed/out of order. So try your luck or head to a cafe, or all the way to the other end of the shopping parade at...
• Summertown, South Parade
  0800-1700; U/D/B
• Cutteslowe Park, near the splash park
  1000-1730; U/D/B
  Frequently sandy, definitely family-friendly.
• Cutteslowe Park, near the miniature railway
  1000-1730; U/D/B
  Also handy for the start of Parkrun. And often, an ice cream van.
• Wolvercote
  1000-1700; U/D/B
  Near Godstow Car Park, and a memorial to pioneer pilots Bettington and Hotchkiss, of the Royal Flying Corps, who died in flying accidents while using the aerodrome at Port Meadow. These toilets are handy for the river, and are frequented by water-sporty types getting in and out of wetsuits, so may be muddy sometimes.
• Wolvercote Cemetery
  1000-1700; U/D/B

East Oxford

• Cowley Road, Manzil Way Gardens
  0800-1700; M/F/U/B/D
  Only use if desperate. Actively scary, frequently dirty, and out of order. 4 unisex standard (2 out of order at the time of our visit), 1 unisex disabled/baby change.
• East Oxford Community Centre
  A little further into town, this has a new Changing Places toilet. It may be open into the evenings (Tue-Fri) when it's in use for a booked event.
• Florence Park
  1000-1700; U/D/B
  Handily located near the children's playground and the sandpit, these are at the Cricket Road end. There's usually one out of order but enough to be functional. Heavily used by children.
• St Clements
  0800-1700; U
  Next to a car park. If you're walking, it's tucked away down Penson's Gardens.
• Rose Hill Cemetery
  1000-1700; M/F/D

• Sainsbury's, Heyford Hill
  0700-2300 (Mon-Fri), 0600-2200 (Sat), 1100-1700 (Sun); M/F/D/B
  If you're doing your shop and you need to go they're okay. At least one is usually out of order though; just pray it's not the one you need to use.
• Knights Road, Blackbird Leys
  0800-1700; U/D
• Littlemore, Cowley Road
  0800-1700; U/D

Headington

• Bury Knowle
  0830-1700; U/D
  If you're visiting Bury Knowle Park, or Headington shops, this is what you need. Just off London Road.
• Headington Cemetery
  0830-1700; M/F/D
  For a grave emergency.
• Thornhill Park & Ride
  0800-2000; M/F/D/B

South Oxford

• Oxpens
  1000-1700; M/F/D/B
• Hinksey Park
  0830-1700; U/D/B
  Tucked away in a corner, just off the Abingdon Road next to the children's playground.
• Redbridge Park & Ride
  0800-2000; U/D/B
  Extremely handy for the bus stop and bike parking. Surprisingly clean.

West Oxford

• Botley shops
  0700-1800; M/F/D/B
  Across from the Missing Bean, and at street level (easy access). The door is heavy, though, so push the button for entry.
• Botley Cemetery
  1000-1700; U
  For a grave emergency (we've done this one already, we know).
• Seacourt Park & Ride
  0800-2000; U/D/B

Further reading

• https://www.maptools.uk/tools/toilet-finder/oxford/