Toronto’s Worst Public Washrooms Revealed

Ever heard the expression, ‘it’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it?’

Nowhere does that apply more than when it comes to finding the most disgusting public washrooms in Toronto. We asked you for your submissions last week and we were flushed by your response. Hundreds of emails arrived, pinpointing the distressing, the disturbing and the downright disastrous.

Some mentioned restaurants. Others pointed us towards office towers. But there were three letters that kept coming up over and over in our unscientific probe: TTC. Apparently a lot of you take the subway and a lot of you get caught having to go while you’re on the go.

You’d like to use the facilities at the stops that are equipped with a rest stop but one look at some of them and many decide to simply say “Hold It” – and then hold it.

At the Kipling Station, there was toilet paper all over the floor and one stall in the women’s washroom didn’t lock.

Kennedy Station was even worse, after our spotters walked into the men’s room right after someone had been sick.

And both smelled terrible.

Many also drew our attention to a Coffee Time at Keele and Wilson. Calls to the company weren’t returned.

A KFC outlet at Gerrard and Broadview was next. The place was a mess but management promised to clean it up when we asked them about it. True to their word, they did and the place was spic and span when we went back.

All of our pictures were both a revelation and a revulsion to the folks who clean up the messes of others for a living. They weren’t surprised by the conditions and blamed the users as much as the owners.

“It’s an anonymous space,” suggests Melissa Maker of Clean My Space. “So people feel that they can be a little bit grosser, so that no one will really know who the culprit was. But even still, this is highly inappropriate.”

As for privately owned spots? “It shouldn’t really have to be the patron’s responsibility to tell the establishment,” argues her partner-in-‘grime,’ Jordan Exton. “They should be checking more often to make sure that each time someone uses the washroom, that it’s pristine.”

O.K., you’ve seen the worst, but what about the best?

Is there a place in the GTA that has the kind of priceless porcelain you don’t mind visiting? As the English used to say, ‘is there a place you’d like to spend a penny,’ that’s really worth more like a quarter? And do you know of a place to go that’s a great – well, place to go?

Let us know at news@citynews.ca and we’ll honour them with peons of praise.