facilities to introduce sex-separation to the activity. the next year, london's first public toilet facility was opened. underground public toilets were introduced in the united kingdom in the victorian era, in built-up urban areas where no space was available to provide them above ground. the facilities were accessible by stairs, and lit by glass brick on the pavement. local health boards often built underground public toilets to a high standard, although provisions were higher for men than women. most have been closed as they did not have disabled access, and were more prone to vandalism and sexual encounters, especially in the absence of an attendant. a few remain in london, but others have been converted into alternative uses such as cafes, bars and even dwellings. hong kong in the early days of the colony of hong kong, people would go to the toilet in sewers, barrels or in alleys. once hong kong opened up for trade (1856-1880), the british hong kong government determined that the appalling hygiene situation in hong kong was becoming critical. thus, the government set up public toilets (squat toilets) for people in 1867. but these toilets needed to cleaned and emptied manually every day and were not popular. in 1894, plague broke out in hong kong and 2,500 people died, especially public toilet cleaners. the government decided to act, setting up underground toilet facilities to improve this situation, though these toilets also had to be cleaned and emptied manually. early in 1940, the colonial government built the first public flush toilet. in 1953, a fire broke out in shek kip mei. after that, the government embarked on a major public housing project in hong kong including public toilets for residents. more than ten people shared each toilet and they used them for bathing, doing their laundry as well as going to the toilet. finally, in the 1970s, the government decided that one toilet for four or five families was insufficient and renovated all public housing providing separate flush pedestal toilets for all residents. united states in the united states, concerns over public health and sanitation spurred the sanitarian movement during the late 1800s. reforms to standardize plumbing codes and household plumbing were advocated for; the intersection of advancements in technology and desire for cleanliness and disease-free spaces spurred the development of public toilets. facilities for women sometimes had a wider emphasis, providing a safe and comfortable private space in the public sphere. the ladies rest room is one example of the non-euphemistic use of the term: literally, a place to rest. historically such rooms pre-dated the washroom and washrooms were added afterwards. subsequent integrated designs resulted in the "women's restroom lounge". a notable early example of a public toilet in the united states is the old school privy. the american architect frank lloyd wright claimed to have "invented the hung wall for the w.c. (easier to clean under)" when he designed the larkin administration building in buffalo, new york in 1904. according to a 2021 study by qs supplies, the united states has just 8 public toilets for every 100,000 people, a rate that ties the country with botswana in terms of access to toilet facilities. in the 1970s there were 50,000 coin-operated public restrooms in the u.s. but have been eliminated by 1980 and public facilities did not replace them. south africa during the apartheid years in south africa, public toilets were usually segregated by race. legislation united states massachusetts passed the first law requiring sex separation of public toilets in 1887. by 1920, this was mandated in 43 states. in jurisdictions using the uniform plumbing code in the u.s., sex separation is a legal mandate via the building code. toilets for employees and customers further information: workers' right to access the toilet various countries have legislation stipulating how many public toilets are required in a given area for employees or for customers. united states the restroom access act is legislation several u.s. states passed that requires retail establishments with toilet facilities for employees to also allow customers to use the facilities if the customer suffers from an inflammatory bowel disease or other medical condition requiring immediate access to a toilet. united kingdom in the united kingdom, the workplace (health, safety and welfare) regulations 1992 requires businesses to provide toilets for their employees, along with washing facilities including soap or other suitable means of cleaning. the workplace (health, safety and welfare) approved code of practice and guidance l24, available from health and safety executive books, outlines guidance on the number of toilets to provide and the type of washing facilities associated with them. local authorities are not legally required to provide public toilets, and while in 2008 the house of commons communities and local government committee called for a duty on local authorities to develop a public toilet strategy, the government rejected the proposal. in 2022 the uk government equality minister kemi badenoch announced plans to make provision of single-sex toilets compulsory in new public buildings above a certain size. the technical review consultation on increasing accessibility and provision of toilets for men and women in municipal and private sector locations outlined the context in a call for evidence to be submitted: there needs to be proper provision of gender-specific toilets for both men and women, with a clear steer in building standards guidance. in recent years, there has been a trend towards the removal of well-established male-only/female-only spaces when premises are built or refurbished, and they have often been replaced with gender-neutral toilets. this places women at a significant disadvantage. while men can then use both cubicles and urinals, women can only use the former, and women also need safe spaces given their particular health and sanitary needs (for example, women who are menstruating, pregnant or at menopause, may need to use the toilet more often). women are also likely to feel less comfortable using mixed sex facilities, and require more space. equality of access the presence or absence of public toilets has also long been a reflection of a society's class inequalities and social hierarchies. in the uk the number of public toilets fell by nearly 20% from 3,154 in 2015/16 to 2,556 in 2020/21 this loss leads to health and mobility inequality issues for a range of people, including the homeless, disabled, outdoor workers and those whose illnesses mean that they frequently need to access a toilet. the decline of the great british public toilet is described by the royal society for public health as creating a “urinary leash” which restricts how far people can travel out from their homes. access for women section and plan of public toilets in charing cross road, london, 1904. the men's facilities (left) comprise 12 cubicles and 13 urinals; whereas the women's facilities (right) comprise just 5 cubicles. the lack of public toilets for women reflects their exclusion from the public sphere in the victorian era. during this period, after leaving their parent's home, women were expected to maintain a career as homemaker and wife. thus, safe and private public toilets were rarely available for women. the result was that they were often restricted in how far they could travel away from home without returning. alternatively, they had to make do in the public streets as best they could. they often experienced sexual harassment as men tried to "sneak a peek" or otherwise bothered them.: 253–54, 290 some women experienced even worse if they could not secure safety and privacy even at home or in their workplaces. there problems continue for women in all parts of the world. the practice of pay toilets emerged in the us in the late 19th century. in these spaces, public toilets could only be accessed by paying a fee. sex-separated pay toilets were available at the chicago world's fair (us) in 1893.: 253 women complained that these were practically unavailable to them, authorities allowed them to be free, but on fridays only.: 253 in the twentieth century, activist groups in the u.s., including the committee to end pay toilets in america claimed that such practices disadvantaged women/girls because men/boys did not have to pay for urinals. as an act of protest against this phenomenon, in 1969 california assemblywoman march fong eu destroyed a toilet on the steps of the california state capitol. although by the 1990s most us jurisdictions had migrated away from pay toilets, until 1992, u.s. female senators had to use toilets located on different floor levels than the ones they were working on, a reflection of their intrusion in an all-male profession. while some public facilities were available to women in london by 1890, there were much fewer than those available to men.: 69 toilets also were assigned strong moral overtones. while public water closets were considered necessary for sanitation reasons, they were viewed as offending public sensibilities. it has been said that because public facilities were associated with access to public spaces, extending these rights to women was viewed as "immoral" and an "abomination". as a result of victorian era codes, women were delegated to the private sphere, away from the public, fulfilling their roles as dutiful wives and mothers where any association with sexuality or private body parts was taboo. for women, the female lavatory in a public space was associated with danger and immoral sexual conduct. according to world bank data from 2017, over 500 million women lacked access to sanitation facilities to go to the bathroom or manage menstrual hygiene. risk of sexual assault is high, in india as high as 50%. amnesty international includes sex-separated toilets among its list of suggested measures to ensure the safety of women and girls in schools. in many places the queues for the women's toilets are longer than those for the men's; efforts to deal with this are known as potty parity. it has been estimated that women take up to 50% longer in the toilet. the reasons given include pregnancy, managing menstruation, health conditions (such as cystitis), clothing design, and helping others. women are more likely to be accompanied by children, disabled, or older people. access for african-american people (racial segregation) after slavery ended in the united states, southern states attempted to replicate its social economic oppression by passing laws requiring that blacks and whites be separated in all public and private venues. racial segregation included public toilets, mandated by jim crow laws prior to the civil rights act of 1964. 'justifications' provided for segregated facilities included "protection of a certain group, privacy, cleanliness, and morality.” this segregation imposed significant restrictions on the lives of african-americans. strategies to keep african-americans out of sight included the "basement solution," which involved locating public toilets for black people in the basement next to janitor supply rooms. black workers often had to walk long distances to get to the toilets they were assigned. those who were able to afford cars could avoid the indignities of segregated trains and buses, but they faced the difficulty of finding a public toilet they were allowed to use. courtland milloy of the washington post recalled that on cross-country road trips in the 1950s his parents were reluctant to stop the car to allow the children to relieve themselves – it just wasn't safe. one solution to this was to carry a portable toilet (a sort of bucket-like arrangement) in the trunk of the car. this treatment led to the creation of the negro motorist green book, an annually updated guidebook. once the traveler found the correct "colored restroom", it could serve "as a respite from the insults of the white world", akin to what is now called safe space. following the 1941 executive order which prohibited “discrimination in the employment of workers in defence industries or government,” white women refused to share bathrooms with black women throughout the south. engaging in numerous labor strikes and walkouts against fair employment practice committee politics, they erroneously claimed that racial integration would cause them to catch syphilis from toilet seats. similar arguments equating equal access to restrooms with contracting venereal diseases were made by white women after the 1954 court ruling against segregated public schools which led to the desegregation of little rock central high school. samuel younge jr., then a student at tuskegee institute, was murdered in 1966 after trying to use a