Founder Story
The Spark
Where To Wee started with a frustration our founder knows all too well. As a WordPress developer and entrepreneur living in the UK, finding a public toilet when you're out shouldn't be this hard – but it is.
Picture this: you're out in the cold, miles from home, and you desperately need the loo. You look around. Nothing. You check your phone. The results are outdated, closed, or paid facilities you can't access. Our founder found himself asking a corner shop owner if he could use their toilet. He said yes, thankfully, but the whole experience felt unnecessarily stressful.
And it kept happening. Again and again.
"Is It Just Me?"
We started asking people – friends, colleagues, anyone who'd listen. "Do you find it hard to find toilets when you're out?" Without exception, everyone had stories. The panic at a train station. The "customers only" rejection at a café. The 50p they didn't have at a paid facility.
But we wanted data, not just anecdotes. So we went to where honest conversations happen: Reddit.
In subreddits like r/AskUK, r/london, and r/uktravels, we found thread after thread of people sharing the exact same frustrations:
- "We all know the UK severely lacks public toilets"
- "Why are public toilets so hard to find in the UK?"
- "I'm visiting London – where can I actually find a toilet?"
This wasn't a niche complaint. It was a universal frustration that people had simply accepted as "just how it is." Even the BBC covered it – reporting on calls for greater access to public toilets across the country.
The Data That Changed Everything
As developers, we think in systems and data. So we did what any curious problem-solver would do: we researched the market. What we found was eye-opening:
- "Toilet near me" – 500,000 average monthly searches in the UK
- "Public toilets close to me" – 500,000 average monthly searches
- "Public restroom near me" – 500,000 average monthly searches
That's over 1.5 million searches every single month from people who need a toilet and can't find one.
Building the Solution
That's when the idea crystallised. What if there was a single, reliable place to find every public toilet in the UK? Not just the council-run ones, but the ones in shopping centres, supermarkets, train stations, parks – everywhere.
And more importantly, what if it was community-powered? Users adding toilets, rating cleanliness, confirming accessibility features, flagging closures in real-time.
Where To Wee was born.
We're not just building an app – we're building a movement. Because access to a toilet isn't a luxury. It's a basic human need. And in 2025, no one should have to panic trying to find one.
