Public Restrooms in Philly: 25 Spots for When You've Gotta Go

The best place to start a journey through Independence National Historical Park and the city at large is at the Independence Visitor Center, which offers maps, brochures, tickets, tour information, a welcome film, a gift shop and, of course, restrooms. The facility’s large, clean restrooms (including a family restroom) are located opposite the gift shop, just inside the main entrance on Market Street by 6th Street.

Hidden away at the north end of Independence Mall is a secluded outdoor-access public restroom few may be aware of. Embedded into the eastern exterior wall of the National Constitution Center is a public restroom by the Independence Transportation Center bus depot. Look for the parked buses to confirm you’re in the right place.

One of William Penn’s five original city squares, Franklin Square features Philly Mini Golf, the Parx Liberty Carousel, a playground, open space for lounging and picnicking, and a useful public restroom. The restroom facilities are housed in a brick building on the eastern side of the park (closest to 6th Street) near the SquareBurger food stand.

Philadelphia’s Bourse Building — just across 5th Street from Independence Mall — was the nation’s first commodities exchange (dating back to 1895) and has existed in many forms of business and commerce ever since. Today, it houses The Bourse Food Hall, an artisan food and shopping market featuring nearly two-dozen food and drink vendors. Like any food hall, The Bourse offers public restrooms. Find them on the north (Ludlow Street) side of the first-floor food court.

The cheekily named Philly Phlush public restrooms are Portland Loo-style automated facilities to make going when you gotta go more convenient. The project’s first Center City location (out of a six total) is located on North 15th Street at the intersection with Arch Street. Situated just across from LOVE Park at Thomas Paine Plaza, the Philly Phlush stall also includes a diaper-changing station, a free sanitary product machine, hand sanitizer dispensers and a sink with running water.

The Comcast Center Campus in Logan Square houses the Comcast Center, the Comcast Technology Center, the Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia and several dining options. Among those is The Concourse at Comcast Center, a food court that offers a number of eateries and vendors — plus an accessible restroom. To get there, head inside the Comcast Center (not the Comcast Technology Center) from the main entrance on Arch Street and down the stairs to the concourse level, then around to the base of the staircase. (Follow the signs.) But be aware: The restrooms are often closed around lunchtime.

In Philadelphia, like most cities, restrooms are available at the public library. But convenience is the best seller at the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Parkway Central Library, which is located close to the city’s top museums along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. At this main branch, visitors can head inside the entrance on Vine Street and find restrooms on the ground floor and the first floor on either side of the Grand Staircase, as well as on the fourth floor by the Skyline Room. Public restrooms are available at the system’s other 53 branches as well, including Independence Library at the intersection of 7th and Market streets.

Located under and between One and Two Liberty Place (Philly’s O.G. skyscrapers), The Shops at Liberty Place feature more than 50 retail stores and eateries — and, like any good mall, there are restrooms, located on the second level by the food court. To find the facilities, enter One Liberty at 17th at Ludlow or Two Liberty at 16th and Chestnut (or through any of the other half-dozen street-level entrances), head to the central rotunda, take the escalator up to the second level, turn towards the food court and find the hallway to the restroom about halfway down the concourse on your right.

At over 1 million square feet, Fashion District Philadelphia is the largest mall in Center City — which also means plenty of restrooms. Located in Market East over SEPTA’s Jefferson Station, the mall offers two restrooms at street level (near the Filbert Street entrance by Kate Spade, and by Burlington Coat Factory at the 9th Street entrance), two on the concourse level (by T-Mobile and City Winery) and two on the second level (by Wonderspaces and behind Levi’s Outlet). Family restrooms are located on the concourse and second levels, and five specific wheelchair-accessible restrooms are also available.

As massive and historic as Reading Terminal Market in Center City is, it’s still a food hall. And where you find a food court, you will also find restrooms. The facilities (including a family restroom) sit at the back of the building in the northwest corner — nearest access is the tucked-away back entrance on Arch between 11th and 12th — between the Pennsylvania General Store and the security/housekeeping station. Just follow the small but helpful green signs (or the scent of the adjacent Herbiary aromatherapy shop).

Even many lifelong Philadelphians aren’t aware that standalone permanent restrooms exist along the lower Penn’s Landing riverfront. Indeed, a public restroom is available between Spruce Street Harbor Park and the Moshulu restaurant along the Delaware River Trail (right across the path from the USS Becuna) on the exterior of the Penn’s Landing Operations Center. Further up the trail, find more restrooms just west of the Great Plaza stage below the Chestnut Mall.

Located a bit north of Penn’s Landing, Cherry Street Pier features artist studios (in shipping containers), craft vendors, event spaces, the Garden at Cherry Street Pier café at the far end of the market and public restrooms. Find the pier’s restrooms just inside the main entrance off Columbus Boulevard on the right. Bonus: Cherry Street Pier’s restrooms are sanitized hourly.

Table games, slot machines and a massive sportsbook are among the offerings at Rivers Casino Philadelphia on the Fishtown riverfront. But even if you don’t drop a single quarter, the casino is a great spot to find clean, ample restrooms, located just inside the main entrance. As soon as you enter, walk to your immediate right to find the facilities along the wall among the slot machines. Be aware: All visitors must be over 21 and are required to show identification to enter.

The Schuylkill Banks section of the Schuylkill River Trail is one of the most popular spots in Philadelphia for hikers, walkers, bikers and sightseers. But even trail veterans might overlook the cute standalone green-and-white restroom cottage just south of the Walnut Street Bridge. The private, wheelchair-accessible lavatories are also part of the city’s composting restroom project, featuring waterless toilets that turn waste into a granular product that can be used as a plant fertilizer.

Located along the Schuylkill River Trail between Boathouse Row and Fairmount Water Works is the Lloyd Hall Recreation Center, a Philadelphia Parks & Recreation information center that also includes a café, indoor basketball courts, a reception hall, bike rentals and public restrooms. The facilities at Lloyd Hall are located outside along the rear of the center, where Waterworks Drive meets Kelly Drive.

Further up the Schuylkill River Trail, Temple University’s East Park Canoe House — home to the Owls’ rowing teams — sits just south of the Strawberry Mansion Bridge. The facility, opened in 1914, was renovated in 2016 to become a more accessible public boathouse away from Boathouse Row. Included in the project: new restrooms located along the front exterior facing the river, through a dedicated door under the main portico. Be aware the restrooms (fully wheelchair accessible) are not clearly marked but are behind the only unlocked door.

Located along South 9th Street in East Passyunk, Philadelphia’s historic open-air Italian Market dates back to the late 19th century, making it America’s oldest outdoor food and wares market. Among the produce vendors, butcheries, bakeries, fishmongers, fromageries, old school cafés and modern restaurants is the Italian Market Visitor Center. At the intersection of 9th and Montrose streets, the welcome facility and gift shop offers visitors information, gift cards and a public restroom during business hours.

Dating back to 1801, South Philadelphia’s Navy Yard operated as the nation’s first naval shipyard and continued in that capacity until reclassification in the 1990s. Over the last two decades, the area has grown into a large mixed-use business campus, housing over 120 companies, restaurants, a hotel and riverfront green spaces, including the beautiful Central Green park. Central Green’s five acres offer a track, hammocks, outdoor table tennis, bocce courts, a fitness station and public restroom facilities built into the back of the park’s Sun Lawn building’s wood screen along the track.

Franklin’s Table Food Hall’s proximity to the University of Pennsylvania campus gives the food court a distinct college vibe with a local bent, plenty of Philly homegrown vendors and atypical food hall fare like veggie cheesesteaks, sushi and sashimi, and spurritos (burrito-sized spring rolls). The cafeteria-style market, just like other food halls on this list, has restrooms open to the public, located at the back of the refectory. Enter the building through the main entrance on Walnut Street or through the small rear patio off Moravian Court. The building, part of The Shops at Penn, opens early enough for breakfast most of the year.

If you find yourself on the University of Pennsylvania’s west campus and nature calls, round third and head for home. The Penn Park facility, located on the eastern edge of the Ivy League school’s campus, doubles as a peaceful park with pedestrian paths and Penn’s turf sport athletic complex used for a number of school programs, including softball. Just outside the Quaker softball team’s appropriately named Multipurpose Stadium in the middle of the park are public restrooms on the exterior of the grandstand along the pedestrian path by Hamlin Tennis Center.

Amtrak’s third-busiest station and one of the 10 busiest rail stations in the nation, 30th Street Station features 95-foot ceilings, art deco chandeliers, gilded columns, marble floors, cathedral windows and, of course, restrooms. The concourse’s primary restrooms are located on the north side by the escalators down to the track level behind Amtrak’s waiting area. A second set of restrooms can be found on the opposite side of the concourse and down the hallway toward Market Street and The Porch on your left by the U.S. Post Office.

Twelve floors and 95 feet up atop the Cira Centre South Garage, Cira Green — Philly’s “Park in the Sky” — is 31,000 square feet of greenspace overlooking the Schuylkill River and the Center City skyline. The elevated urban park is home to many attractions, including a summer beer garden, weekly programming (including outdoor movie nights) and a seasonal bar/café. Also included: public restrooms located along the western roof edge, built directly into the lawn-covered artificial hill by Sunset Social. Restrooms, as well as the entire park, are wheelchair accessible.

Deep in West Philly in the leafy Cobbs Creek neighborhood is quaint, tree-filled Malcolm X Memorial Park. Located across from the shops and cafés along South 52nd Street, the six-acre park features more than 100 towering oak trees, two playgrounds, scores of benches and picnic tables, a summer jazz festival and public restrooms by the park’s central building.

The nation’s oldest botanical garden, which is also a community farm, features the country’s oldest ginkgo tree, the original Franklin tree and the Bartram’s Mile segment of the Schuylkill River Trail. Also located here: two outdoor public restrooms open during regular park hours. The primary restrooms can be found in Bartram’s Courtyard next to the barn, while gender-neutral and family restrooms are located along the side of the Bartram House.

While the Center City location is getting all the attention, the 15th and Arch streets Philly Phlush lavatory (see above) was not the city’s first installation. That honor goes to North Philly’s Stephen E. Fotterall Square Park near Temple University. July of 2023 saw major renovations to the 130-year-old park, which included upgraded playgrounds, new athletic courts and fields, and the city’s first Philly Phlush, located on the north side of the five-acre park’s new mini-soccer grounds. Like its downtown counterpart, the Portland Loo privy includes a diaper-changing station, free sanitary products, hand sanitizer dispensers and a sink with running water.