Accessible toilet dimensions
Every current figure for a wheelchair-accessible toilet, an ambulant cubicle, the four Part T types and a Changing Places, with the document each one comes from.
This page exists because I get asked for these numbers constantly, and because the answers are spread across three documents that disagree about what they are for.
Everything below is the current figure with the diagram or paragraph it comes from, so you can check every one of them against the published document rather than taking my word for it. Approved Document M and Approved Document T are both free.
I have taken the BS 8300-2 column off this page. Most of what sat in it is printed in Approved Document M anyway, and I would rather cite a document you can open than one you would have to buy in order to check me.
Last checked 6 October 2026, against the published diagrams rather than against my own notes.
If you want the argument rather than the numbers, I've written about what Part M asks for and where it stops, and about why a universal toilet is not an accessible one.
The one people get wrong
A wheelchair-accessible unisex toilet in England is 1500mm wide by 2200mm deep for the standard corner layout.
A lot of drawings and a lot of older guidance still say 2000mm deep. That is not the current figure, and a room built to it is 200mm short in the direction that matters most.
The other one is the transfer space. 1000mm of clear floor from the centre line of the WC to the wall opposite, and clear means nothing in it. Not the bin, not the sanitary unit, not the box of hand towels. That space is where somebody gets out of a wheelchair, and it is the single most commonly obstructed dimension in any building I walk into.
Wheelchair-accessible unisex toilet
| Measure | Approved Document M Volume 2 | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Room size, corner layout | 1500mm wide x 2200mm deep, minimum | Diagram 18 |
| Clear transfer space beside the WC | 1000mm minimum, from the centre line of the WC to the wall opposite | Diagram 18 |
| WC centre line to the transfer-side wall | 500mm | Diagram 18 |
| Turning space | 1500mm x 1500mm | Diagram 18 |
| WC seat height | 480mm to the top of the seat, subject to the pan’s manufacturing tolerance | Diagram 19 |
| Horizontal grab rail | 680mm to the top of the rail | Diagram 19 |
| Drop-down rail | 320mm from the centre line of the WC. Not needed where the horizontal rail centre line sits 400mm from it | Paragraphs 5.10(j) and 5.10(k) |
| Washbasin rim | 720 to 740mm | Diagram 19 |
| Shelf | 950mm above floor level | Diagram 19 |
| Door | Outward opening preferred, 800mm effective clear width on a straight-on approach, horizontal closing bar on the inside face. No height is given for the bar | Table 2 and paragraph 5.10(g) |
| Emergency alarm | Pull cord with two red bangles, one at 100mm above floor level and one at 800 to 1000mm, audible and visual indicator outside, reset inside | Diagram 19 |
The low bangle is not a detail. It sits at the height of somebody who is already on the floor, which is the only situation the alarm exists for. If the cord has been tied up out of the way, the alarm does not work.
The ambulant cubicle, which gets forgotten
Most disabled people do not use a wheelchair. Part M requires an ambulant accessible cubicle within the male and female provision as well as the wheelchair-accessible unisex toilet, and it is the one most often missing.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Minimum size | 920mm wide x 1465mm deep, Diagram 21. The 2024 amendments brought this into line with Part T Type C, so a drawing saying 800mm predates October 2024 |
| Grab rails | Horizontal and vertical rails to both side walls, with the closing bar at 900mm, Diagram 21 |
| Part T equivalents | Type A self-contained, 985 x 2125mm. Type C cubicle, 920 x 1465mm |
Part T types, for anything built since 1 October 2024
Part T applies to new buildings other than dwellings in England. All dimensions are minimums, and if you specify larger appliances the room has to grow to keep the clearances.
| Type A | Type B | Type C | Type D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Ambulant universal, self-contained | Universal, self-contained | Ambulant single-sex cubicle | Single-sex cubicle |
| Minimum overall | 985 x 2125mm | 1050 x 1685mm | 920 x 1465mm | 910 x 1740mm |
| Clear opening width | 750mm | 650mm | 750mm | 650mm |
| Grab rails | Both walls | No | Both walls | No |
| Closing bar | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Basin inside | Yes | Yes | No, communal | No, communal |
Dimensions that apply across all four types:
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Clearance column in front of the pan | 465mm minimum diameter, clear of the door swing and the bin |
| Activity space at the WC | 600mm deep x 800mm wide |
| Grab rails | Horizontal plus vertical in an L, 600mm long, 19 to 35mm diameter, 60mm minimum clear of the wall |
| Closing bar on the door | 500mm minimum, fixed at 900mm above finished floor |
| Hooks | High at 1685mm, low at 1050mm |
| Disposal bin space | At least 540 x 210mm |
| Door opening force at the leading edge | 30N maximum from 0 to 30 degrees, 22.5N from 30 to 60 degrees |
| Heat emitters | Screened, or surface temperature below 43 degrees C |
One thing worth saying plainly, because it is the error I find most often. A universal toilet is not a wheelchair-accessible toilet. Approved Document T says so at paragraph 1.10, and paragraph 1.14 confirms every building other than a dwelling should still have a wheelchair-accessible unisex toilet under Approved Document M. Installing universal toilets and removing the accessible one is a loss of provision, not an upgrade.
Changing Places
A Changing Places toilet is a different category of room, not a bigger accessible one. It is for people who cannot use a standard accessible WC: people who need hoist transfer, full assistance, or an adult-sized changing bench.
It has been a legal requirement in England since 1 January 2021, through the 2020 amendment to Approved Document M, for certain new and materially altered buildings. Assembly, recreation and entertainment buildings with capacity for 350 or more, or collections of smaller buildings on one site with capacity for 2,000 or more. Shopping centres and retail parks over 30,000 square metres, retail premises over 2,500, sport and leisure over 5,000, hospitals and primary care centres, and crematoria and cemetery buildings. That is paragraph 5.7(e), and there is no transport category in it. Below those thresholds it is an Equality Act reasonable-adjustment argument rather than a Building Regulations requirement.
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Floor area | About 12m2, roughly 3000mm wide x 4000mm deep |
| Ceiling height | 2400mm minimum, for the hoist track |
| Ceiling track hoist | Full-room XY coverage, powered |
| Adult changing bench | Height-adjustable, about 1800 x 800mm, padded with side rails |
| Peninsular WC | Space both sides for two assistants, drop-down rails both sides |
| Also required | Height-adjustable basin, privacy screen, disposal |
For comparison, a standard accessible WC is about 3m2. A Changing Places is four times the size, and the extra space is doing a job.
The three I measure first
If you only check three things in a toilet, check these.
The 1000mm transfer space. Move the bin and see whether it is actually there. It usually is, and the bin usually is too.
The alarm cord. Does it reach the floor, or has somebody looped it over the rail because it kept getting pulled by accident?
The door opening force. No more than 30N from closed to 30 degrees and 22.5N from 30 to 60, measured with a gauge rather than judged by somebody who can push. Most people test the first half and stop.
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these. The first two are free.
- Approved Document M, Volume 2, 2015 edition incorporating the 2020 and 2024 amendments. Free from GOV.UK.
- Approved Document T, 2024 edition, revised 16 June 2025. Free from GOV.UK.
- BS 8300-2:2018, Design of an accessible and inclusive built environment. Buildings. A purchasable British Standard, and nothing on this page is taken from it. It goes further than Approved Document M in places and is worth having if you specify buildings for a living, but every figure above comes from a document you can download for nothing.
- Equality Act 2010, for the anticipatory duty that makes any of this enforceable in an existing building.
If a figure here ever conflicts with the current published document, the document wins and I would like to know about it.