🚽 Van Life Toilets UK: The Great British Toilet Map for Van lifers

The Eternal Van life Question

If you’ve ever spent a night in a van on the British coast, camped in a national park, or parked up at a windswept lay-by, you’ve probably asked yourself the most important van life question of all: 👉 “Where’s the nearest loo?”

Forget solar panels, roof racks and fancy camper conversions, the single biggest factor in a van trip’s success might just be your toilet strategy. And in the UK, with its unpredictable weather and disappearing public facilities, the quest for a decent loo can be an adventure all of its own.

At VanLife.uk, we’ve taken this essential issue seriously, perhaps too seriously. We’ve dug into the Great British Toilet Map, the country’s most comprehensive database of public loos, to discover where facilities thrive, where they’ve vanished, and what it means for anyone living the van life dream.

Van Life Toilets UK: What Is the Great British Toilet Map?

The Great British Toilet Map (GBTM) is exactly what it sounds like: a dataset and interactive map of public toilets across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. With over 14,000 toilets listed, it’s the biggest resource of its kind.

It began life as a research project at the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, led by designers Gail Ramster and Jo-Anne Bichard. The idea? To map accessible toilets for people with health conditions, disabilities, or simply anyone who’s ever been caught short.

Today it’s maintained by Public Convenience Ltd and includes toilets run by:

• Local councils

• Train stations and transport hubs

• Shops, cafés, and pubs in community toilet schemes

• National Trust and heritage sites

• Even the odd quirky one (yes, we found a compost loo in a sculpture park)

The best part? It’s open data, meaning anyone, including van lifers can use it.

Britain’s Toilet Crisis

Before we dive into the data, let’s talk about the elephant in the (public convenience) room: the UK has a toilet problem.

• Since 2000, around 50% of public toilets have closed.

• Cash-strapped councils save money by shutting loos, especially in rural and coastal areas.

• Many seaside towns now rely on cafés and pubs to fill the gap, which isn’t much help at 2am when you’re parked up in your van.

This isn’t just inconvenient; it’s a genuine issue of public health, accessibility, and tourism. For van lifers, it’s also a practical headache.

Crunching the Numbers: Toilets by Region

So what does the Toilet Map tell us about the state of Britain’s loos? We ran the dataset through a data-crunching tool to get the highlights.

🏆 The Loo-Rich Legends

Some areas are well-stocked for van lifers:

• London has the highest absolute number of toilets, though many are clustered in busy zones.

• Devon and Cornwall punch above their weight, with plenty of coastal loos to serve tourists and surfers.

• Highland Council, Scotland, offers surprisingly strong coverage for such a remote region, a blessing if you’re road-tripping the NC500.

🏜️ The Toilet Deserts

Other counties are not so kind:

• Lincolnshire has large rural swathes with very few facilities.

• North Yorkshire Moors look beautiful, but toilet provision is patchy.

• Parts of rural Wales have miles of coastline with no public loos in sight.

🚼 Family-Friendly (Baby-Change Facilities)

• Greater London has the highest % of toilets with baby-changing.

• Rural councils often lag far behind, not great if you’re travelling with kids.

♿ Accessibility

• Scotland scores better than average for wheelchair-accessible loos.

• Some English shires barely register, a real problem for inclusivity.

🌙 Night-Owl Friendly (24/7 Loos)

• Few public loos are open around the clock.

• Manchester city centre and some Scottish service hubs are rare bright spots.

Van life Meets the Toilet Map

So how does all this translate into the van life experience?

🚐 National Parks

• Lake District: decent facilities, but many shut at 6pm.

• Peak District: scattered loos, often linked to car parks with height barriers (watch out!).

• Snowdonia/Eryri: patchy provision, especially in quieter valleys.

🏖️ Coastlines

• Cornwall & Devon: better than expected, though busy in summer.

• Northumberland: gorgeous beaches, but loo coverage thin.

• Pembrokeshire: seasonal toilets that close outside summer.

🛣️ Roads & Motorways

• Motorway service stations: reliable but unromantic.

• A-roads: some brilliant hidden gems, lay-bys with loos, picnic tables, and views.

The History of Britain’s Loos (A Van life-Sized Detour)

Public toilets aren’t new. In fact:

• The Victorians pioneered ornate public conveniences, many of which still exist in cities.

• Councils once competed to provide the cleanest loos, complete with attendants and even floral displays.

• Since the late 20th century, closures have reversed that trend, leaving van lifers with fewer options.

Quirky fact: some historic loos are now listed buildings. Yes, you can visit Grade II listed toilets in places like Rothesay, Isle of Bute. A van life pilgrimage, perhaps?

The Van life Loo Awards 🏆

Every dataset deserves a set of awards. Based on our analysis, here are the winners and losers:

• Most Loo-Rich County: London

• Best Coastal Coverage: Devon

• Accessibility Champ: Highland Council

• Family Hero (Baby Change): Greater London

• Worst Toilet Desert: Lincolnshire

• Night-Owl Friendly: Manchester City Centre

How to Survive Toilet Deserts (Van life Hacks)

🔑 Community Toilet Schemes

Many towns now run “community toilet” schemes where shops, pubs, or even libraries let the public use their loos for free. Look for stickers in windows.

🏋️ Gym Memberships

Clever van lifers often join a budget gym chain (PureGym, The Gym Group) for access to nationwide showers and toilets. Think of it as your mobile bathroom pass.

⛺ Portable Solutions

Composting toilets and chemical porta-loos are increasingly common in vans. They’re not glamorous, but they mean you’re never stranded.

📱 Best Apps

• The Great British Toilet Map (official)

• Park4Night (van life favourite, sometimes lists loos)

• Toilet Finder (community-driven app)

🌳 Emergency Etiquette

If all else fails:

• Always be discreet.

• Dig a small hole away from water sources.

• Pack out paper and waste.

• Leave no trace.

Methodology (How We Did This)

• Source: Toilet Map dataset (downloaded August 2025).

• Metrics: toilets per county, toilets per 100 km², % wheelchair accessible, % with baby change, % 24/7.

• Tools: Python analysis of open dataset.

• Caveats: Data varies by council; some facilities may have changed since publication.

👉 Contains data from the Toilet Map © 2025 – CC BY 4.0.

Final Thoughts: The Loo Legacy of Van life

Van life in the UK is about freedom, adventure, and waking up to stunning views. But freedom still comes with biology.

By studying van life toilets UK and the Great British Toilet Map, we’ve seen a nation where some regions embrace public conveniences, and others leave you, quite literally, in the lurch.

The takeaway? Pack a loo strategy as carefully as you pack your bedding. Because while van life is about chasing sunsets, sometimes it’s also about chasing the nearest toilet roll.