Wicked Good Guide to Public Restrooms

Boston has many wonderful things going for it. Readily visible public restrooms are not among them.

Other cities (Paris and New York leap to mind) put their restrooms right on the street and in the subway, where visitors and residents can actually see and use them. Not Boston. We hide most of our facilities away, taunting you, daring you to see if you've got real bladder control. Town Meeting in Concord, one of the most popular tourist sites in America, once rejected plans for a new visitor center because it would have had restrooms - residents were afraid people from the neighboring town of Maynard would drive into Concord just to use the facilities.

We've tried to flush out the location of restrooms available to the public at no charge. Do you have a favorite restroom in Boston (or one you particularly despise?). You'll find a Comment link next to every listed restroom. Or let us know about an unlisted facility via the Add a restroom link you'll find at the top of every page.

Our exclusive Roll Rating system:

	Top of the heap: Restrooms that are so incredibly nice you'd want to visit them even if you didn't have to go.
	Good: Almost like using the bathroom in somebody's house in, oh, Concord, only you don't feel self-conscious about using the towels.
	Acceptable: Sometimes the stalls don't have toilet paper, and the sinks could stand to be wiped down.
	P.U. The kind of place your mother warned you about; you use them only because you're desperate - and you pray that that one open stall, the one where you'll have to prop the door shut with your hand because the latch is missing, has enough toilet paper to wipe down the seat with first.