A Mighty Inconvenience: How Covid-19 Tested a Nation's Continence

This paper reviews and reflects on how the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns became a unique period in the United Kingdom's life and the management of its continence when away from home. The lack of forethought and planning for public toilet provision would make local and national headlines during both lockdown and lockdown easing and remind people how essential such a service is to aff ording movement and participation in our built environment. This work charts the public perception of public toilet provision and its decline both before and during to the pandemic. It discusses how the shift of a majority of provision into the private sector resulted in reliance on a once public service that would fail in general lockdown, provoking debate on public toilet provision and its essential role in our built environments.