Shrewsbury’s Darwin centre toilets named best shopping centre toilets in the UK
Inside the toilets
The toilets in Shrewsbury’s Darwin shopping centre have been named the best shop/shopping centre toilets in the UK and Ireland, after scooping the Market Sector Award for Retail at the Loo of the Year Awards 2021.
The centre – owned by Shropshire Council – also received the Platinum Status Award for male, female, accessible and baby change facilities, as well as an additional overall diamond grade award for the centre – the highest possible award available.
The awards were presented at the annual Loo of the Year Awards event in February 2022.
The Loo of the Year Awards invite submissions from across the country throughout the year, with nominated facilities being awarded bronze, silver, gold, platinum and diamond grade certificates according to the standards upheld in their facilities. The Darwin centre’s toilets received the highest grade of diamond due to the exceptionally high standards achieved by the centre’s cleaning team, Incentive FM.
Brand new toilets and a Changing Places facility were opened at the centre in October 2020 to meet the needs of all the town’s shoppers. The Changing Places facility allows accessible toilet and changing facilities for adults and carers and were the most modern and up-to-date facilities of their kind in Shrewsbury at launch.
The Changing Places facility
Kevin Lockwood, The Darwin centre manager, said:
“Our shoppers expect and deserve clean, well-managed toilet facilities at all times – this is imperative to the successful running of our centre. I am therefore over the moon that we’ve won these awards – and achieved such an incredibly high standard – just a year after opening our new facilities.
“These awards provide customers with a huge level of reassurance that the facilities at the centre are of the highest possible standard and I want to thank our exceptional Incentive FM cleaning staff who really go above and beyond every day.”
The Loo of the Year Awards are owned and run independently, and since their introduction in 1987 the annual awards competition has strived to focus the spotlight on recognising and rewarding the very best washrooms throughout the UK and Ireland. It is considered the ‘washroom standard’ and a Loo of the Year Award is an established benchmark of quality.
Other winners of Market Sector Award include JD Wetherspoon (hospitality sector), Edinburgh Airport (transport sector) and Media City Salford (workplace sector).
The breast feeding area
