Display omitted •Optical fibre was modified to enable side emission of light.•Immersible LED is suitable as light sources for underwater photocatalysis.•Au-TiO2 catalyst degraded EE2 and E3 under UVA and visible light.•EE2 t1/2 was 1.26 h and 0.78 h for P25 and 4 wt.% Au-TiO2 under UVA.•Optical fibre reactor showed good reusability with 94 % efficiency after 3 cycles. This research aims to promote photocatalysis of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in water. Two reactor setups with (i) modified air-clad optical fibres and (ii) waterproof LED strips were utilised to transmit light to photocatalysts P25 TiO2 and gold-modified TiO2 (Au-TiO2). The performances to photodegrade 17α-ethynylestradiol (EE2) and estriol (E3) under Cool White and UVA high efficacy LEDs were examined. Au-TiO2 showed superior photocatalytic activity for EE2 removal over P25 TiO2. The pseudo first-order rate constants for EE2 photocatalysis under UVA were 0.55 h−1 and 0.89 h−1 for TiO2 and Au-TiO2, respectively. E3 was effectively degraded by Au-TiO2 in the immersible LED strip reactor (0.13 h−1).