The Quiet Stall

What is in here

Everything every public restroom on the street has, and how this one does it.

• For everybody

  Every stall is for everybody, of every gender and none, and for anybody helping somebody else. No sign on the door says who may come in.

  Every felt-lined stall here is for whoever comes in, and for anybody who comes in with them to help.

• Toilets and urinals

  Toilets, and urinals too, each behind its own door.

  The toilets flush with a hush rather than a roar, and the urinals stand behind doors of their own, just as quiet.

• Wheelchair accessible

  Step-free from the street, with a door that opens without a fight, room to turn a wheelchair right round, and grab bars beside and behind every toilet.

  The floor is level cork from the street door to every stall, the doors swing on closers that need no shoulder, and every stall has room to turn right round.

• A step at the sink

  A Step ’n Wash under the basins: a step that folds out from under the sink for children, and for anybody else the basin is too high for, and folds itself away again.

  The Step ’n Wash folds out from under the basins on a felt-padded hinge, so it opens and folds away without a clang.

• Changing tables

  A changing table for a baby, and a height-adjustable one big enough for an adult, with a hoist, because a grown body needs changing too and almost nowhere has room for it.

  The baby’s table folds down from the wall slowly under a hand, and the adult table rises and lowers on a motor quieter than the street outside, with the hoist parked on a cork mat beside it.

• Menstrual products

  Pads and tampons, free, in every stall, so nobody has to ask or carry anything.

  Pads and tampons wait in a felt pocket on the inside of every stall door, in wrappers that do not crackle.

• Condoms

  Condoms, free, in a bowl you can take from without being seen.

  The condoms are in a deep cork bowl by the basins, so taking one makes no sound at all.

• Sharps disposal

  A sharps box for needles, fixed to the wall in every stall, so nobody has to find somewhere else to put one.

  The sharps box in every stall is fixed at a height you can reach sitting down, under a lid that closes softly.

• Naloxone

  Naloxone, free, in a cabinet by the door with how to use it written on the inside, because it reverses an opioid overdose and somebody may need it before help comes.

  The naloxone cabinet by the door opens on a magnet rather than a latch, with how to use it printed large on the inside of its door.

• Somewhere to sit

  Comfortable seats outside the stalls, for waiting, for whoever is helping somebody, and for a minute to yourself.

  Outside the stalls a long upholstered bench runs along the felt wall, with a heavy blanket folded on it for anybody who wants the weight of one.

• Soap and paper towels

  Soap, warm water and paper towels.

  The soap is fragrance-free, the water comes warm at the first touch, and the paper towels come one at a time out of a dispenser that does not click.

• No air dryers

  No air dryers. They are loud enough to hurt, and some of us cannot go in a room that has one.

  There is no air dryer here, and nothing else that hums: the extractor runs behind felt baffles and the lights have no buzz in them.

• Private stalls

  Every stall a small room of its own, its door down to the floor and up to the ceiling, with a light over it that says free or in use in words as well as colour.

  Every stall door is faced in felt and closes softly on its own, and over it a small lamp says FREE or IN USE in words, round when it is free and square when it is not, so the colour is never the only way to tell.

• Shelves and hooks

  A shelf and a hook in every stall, for a bag, a coat, a cane or a phone, so nothing goes on the floor.

  A cork shelf and two soft hooks in every stall, low enough to reach from a chair, so a bag, a coat, a cane or a pair of headphones never touches the floor.

• Clear signs

  Signs in words and pictures, big, at a height you can read sitting down, with raised letters and braille.

  The signs are matt felt with raised letters and braille, lit by the same cove light as everything else, so nothing on them glares.

• Free, and nobody asks

  Free to use, at any hour, with nothing to buy first and nobody asking why you are there.

  The street door opens at a touch at any hour, and there is no counter and nobody behind one.

Why it is quiet

Public restrooms are some of the loudest rooms most of us ever stand in: hard tile, hard doors, the roar of hot air, every sound coming back twice. For a lot of our community that noise is the barrier itself, the reason a restroom is one we cannot use at all, and it is the first thing this room took out.

Everything here is built the other way round, so that nothing in the room is louder than you are. The walls are felt and the floor is cork, the corners are rounded so nothing rings in them, and the light never flickers, because it is not a tube.

Everyone uses the bathroom and gender is a construct.

Who it is for

Everybody, and whoever is with them: a carer of any gender, a parent, a friend, somebody holding your bag. Nobody has to choose between two doors here or explain the one they chose, because every stall is the same kind of stall.

The right to safe and accessible public restrooms is also important for adults and older children who need accommodation, assistance, or supervision.

A young Stimpunk, a baseball fan, coined the term “stallbatting”. Stallbatting is interfering with someone going to the bathroom of their choosing.

What is free on the shelf

Everything on the shelf by the basins is free, with nothing to ask for and nobody to ask: pads and tampons, condoms, naloxone, and a box for a needle so it never has to go anywhere else.

Offer condoms and tampons, with signage in the bathrooms to let people know where or from whom to get them.

Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is a medication used to prevent overdoses by blocking the effects of opioids.

What is not in here

• Nothing moves in here, at any setting. MAX GLITTER included. The cove light lies where it lies and nothing on the page is drawn moving.
• Nothing here promises anything to your body. The room says what is in it and what is not. What a quiet room does for you is yours to say.
• No sign says who may come in. Every stall is for everybody, and the signs only say where things are.
• Nobody is counted. Not who came in, not how long they stayed, not how many stalls were in use.
• Nobody asks. Not why you are here, not what you need, not who you are with.

Whose this is

• Every public restroom on the street was built from Ryan Boren’s brief after Norway’s scenic-route rest stops, which Visit Norway showed off in October 2026; after Step ’n Wash’s own writing on restroom design (Step ’n Wash is its maker’s trade mark, and the step at the basins is theirs); and after our own Bathroom Access page, where a young Stimpunk coined “stallbatting”.
• The room is ours, and so is every word in it but the quotations, which are credited where they stand. The drawing was made as code by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, to Ryan’s brief, and nothing on this page calls an AI while you read it. No real restroom is pictured.
• The type is Nunito, by Vernon Adams, Cyreal, Jacques Le Bailly, for the room’s name and its headings, under the SIL Open Font License, and Atkinson Hyperlegible, by Braille Institute, Applied Design Works, Elliott Scott, Megan Eiswerth, Linus Boman, Theodore Petrosky, for everything you read, under the SIL Open Font License, both read off their own records.