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A pay toilet is a public toilet that requires the user to pay. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a shopping mall, department store, or railway station. The reason for charging money is usually for the maintenance of the equipment. Paying to use a toilet can be traced back almost 2000 years, to the first century BCE. The charge is often collected by an attendant or by inserting coins into an automatic turnstile; in some freestanding toilets in the street, the fee is inserted into a slot by the door. Mechanical coin operated locks are also used. Some more high tech toilets accept card or contactless payments. Sometimes, a token can be used to enter a pay toilet without paying the charge. Some municipalities offer these tokens to residents with disabilities so these groups aren't discriminated against by the pay toilet. Some establishments such as cafés and restaurants offer tokens to their customers so they can use the toilets for free but other users must pay the relevant charge.
In Germany, many lavatories at Rest area on the Autobahn have pay toilets with turnstiles, though as in France, customers typically receive a voucher equal to the toilet fee. Elsewhere, while public toilets may not have a set fee, it is customary to provide change to restroom attendants for their services. Some service stations offer a voucher equal in value to the amount paid for use of a toilet, redeemable for other goods at that station or others in the same chain store.
In Eastern Europe, particularly in the former USSR, pay toilets are usually non-automatic and are like usual public toilets except that they have an attendant at the entrance to collect the money from visitors.
In the United Kingdom, pay toilets tend to be common at bus and railway stations, but most public toilets are free to use. Technically, any toilets provided by local government may be subject to a charge by the provider.Section 87(3)(c) of the Public Health Act 1936 Pay toilets on the streets may provide men's urinals free of charge to prevent public urination. For example, in London, a few public conveniences are appearing in the form of pop-up toilets. During the daytime, these toilets are hidden beneath the streets, and only appear in the evening. The British English euphemism "to spend a penny" for "to urinate" derives from the use of a pre-decimal penny coin for pay toilet locks.
In Mexico, the majority of pay toilets have and an attendant at the entrance. The attendant gives out toilet paper and sometimes a paper towel.
In Singapore, pay toilets are still common in "Hawker Centers"; the use of the toilet usually costs 10-20 cents. The fee is usually paid to an attendant behind a counter; however, certain hawker centres have a turnstile into which the coin is inserted. Sometimes toilet paper is also charged for, and given out at the entrance usually by the attendant, though most of the time there is a toilet paper holder in the cubicle (stall) itself.
In some areas of Taiwan, mostly in subways, one must pay for the toilet paper, but the toilet itself is free.
In Turkey pay toilets are common at bus stations and underground cities (but not single-building shopping malls), where a charge of between 5 lira and 10 lira is levied at a turnstile for entrance to the bathroom.
The Greco-Roman city of Ephesus was important in ancient times, becoming the trade centre and commercial hub of the ancient world. The Scholastica Baths were built in the 1st century AD, and contained all of the modern amenities for hygiene, including advanced public toilets with marble seats. One had to pay to enter these luxury conveniences, where one could enjoy the use of a pool, use the toilet or socialize.
John Nevil Maskelyne, an English stage magician, invented the first modern pay toilet in the late 19th century. His door lock for London toilets required the insertion of a penny coin to operate it, hence the euphemism to "spend a penny".
The first pay toilet in the United States was installed in 1910 in Terre Haute, Indiana.Gruenstein, Peter (4 Sept 1975) Pay toilet movement attacks capitalism, The Beaver County Times, Retrieved October 19, 2010 (with sarcastic subtitle for 1975, "How about charging air for tires?")
Pay toilets are key to the 2001 American musical Urinetown.
In the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit Frog says "I have to go 10-100, could I have a dime? To which he replies, "crawl under"
In a 1979 episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, "Fish Story", Herb (dressed as a carp) tries to use a pay toilet at the University of Cincinnati without paying and is caught by a rival station's mascot.
The 1983 Stephen King novel Pet Sematary involves a scene with a pay toilet. Written in grease pencil on the stall is a quote that reads, "JOHN CRAPPER WAS A SEXIST PIG!".
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