Travel

Plan for ‘five-star’ bathroom block in central Dublin

Single use of toilet to cost €3.50, while showers likely to cost €10

U-Luu, a privately-owned public toilet and shower facility that has opened in Clifden, Co Galway, is planning to expand across the State. Photograph: Aoife Herriott

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Conor Pope
Mon Aug 23 2021 - 06:00

Flush with the success of his wee business in the west, a Connemara-based man has secured a location on Dublin’s Duke Street for a “five-star” bathroom block that he plans to open next year.

Anyone hoping to get away with spending just a penny in John Nagle’s porcelain palace will be left cross-legged, but in spite of a high price tag he reckons he will not be short of bums on seats.

Earlier this summer Nagle made headlines when he opened a bespoke bathroom and shower set-up in Clifden, Co Galway, with more than 1,000 people each week apparently happy to hand over €3.50 to use the facility.

The block will be fully attended by somewhere between 12 and 15 full-time employees and will be open seven days a week, 12 hours a day. There will be 24 toilets and six showers

He has now unveiled plans to pull his U-Loo chain into the capital while also introducing an annual bathroom subscription model, the first of its kind in the country.

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In addition to Duke Street, Nagle plans to open a network of wheelchair-accessible bathrooms in more than 25 towns and four cities across Ireland, all of which will come with baby-changing facilities, showers and vanity areas. “Opening in Dublin is a no-brainer,” he says. “We are aiming to have Duke Street ready to go by Easter, but we do have to go through the planning process first.”

A selling point of his very 21st-century pissoirs is that they will be cleaned after every use, so nobody, apart from his staff, will be exposed to unwelcome surprises.

A single use will cost €3.50, a day pass will cost €5, and a week of access will cost €20. The annual subscription, at €120, will, Nagle believes, appeal to delivery drivers, sales reps and people with particular medical conditions, who will be able to travel around the country knowing they are never too far from a clean bathroom.

The subscription model will not, however, cover the use of the showers; that will come as an extra, with the price likely set at €10, including the use of a towel.

Asked who might want to use a public shower in Dublin city centre or elsewhere, Nagle suggested they would cater for people who wish to get ready for a night out after a day’s work without having to go home first.

“The block will be fully attended by somewhere between 12 and 15 full-time employees and will be open seven days a week, 12 hours a day. There will be 24 toilets and six showers. It is a very new concept, but it has worked in Clifden.”

When asked if it was not a little on the pricey side, he points out that “we are not in the business of giving free access to toilets. We want to make it clear that you have to pay for the service”. He accepts that alternatives exist. “Of course people will be able to use toilets in shops or cafes, but they are not spotlessly clean; they are not cleaned every time. How many times do you go in and there is widdle all over the seat? Ours will be like a five-star hotel. There are going to be people who are going to pay, but to be honest the vast majority won’t.”

Dublin