The Rolling Stones “powder their noses” in the Victoria Station lavatory, 1964. London saw many firsts: a one-way street, a commercially produced jigsaw puzzle, Britain’s first banana stall, and the first public water closets. Their creation was once a matter not only of physiological necessity, but also of gender equality. Women had to fight long and hard for the right to relieve themselves in a civilized manner outside the home. Nowadays, the number of these useful facilities is decreasing every year. Some of the toilets, located in old buildings, are falling into disrepair, while others are being bought and converted into cafes and exhibition halls for temporary exhibitions.
Let us sing the praises of the public urinal and tell a few related stories that may prove unexpectedly instructive. Until the beginning of the 19th century, the system of public toilets in the city was primitive. Men, like everywhere else in the world at that time, relieved themselves in the corners of the city, while women had to find even more secluded corners or go to some establishment.
In the tale of Dick Whittington, it is said that the streets of London are paved with pure gold. But since there were no public toilets on the pavements of London in his time, you could often see something else entirely. The exception was the 128-seat toilet on the banks of the Thames at the Walbrook confluence, built in 1423 on the initiative of the first mayor of London, Richard Whittington, a supplier of velvet and silk to the courts of three English kings and a philanthropist. A legend was created about him, which became the basis for a popular burlesque play. The story goes that a poor boy was working as a cook for a merchant who treated him badly. He decided to run away, taking his cat with him, and the cat said in a human voice, “Come back, Dick, three times mayor of London!” (According to another version, Whittington heard the ominous words in the tolling of bells, and the first money he earned was by selling the cat on a merchant ship that was supposed to catch rats). The young man followed the prediction, married the landlord’s daughter, and made a dizzying career. In reality, however, he was born into a wealthy family – and if he had a cat in his childhood, it certainly couldn’t talk. In general, Whittington had a special concern for poor women. Under his leadership, a charitable maternity clinic for single mothers was opened in London.
Richard Whittington was known for his charity – and, judging from this picture, for having a very small cat. The Whittington toilet, known as the “House of Relief,” had 64 seats for men – and the same number for women. It is believed to be the world’s first facility with separate men’s and women’s sections. Dirt was flushed into the Thames twice a day with the tide. Women workers used a public outhouse. As for noble ladies, they either had to carry a chamber pot in a covered wagon or live within walking distance of a house: their own or those of good acquaintances. In 1851, the Great Exhibition was held in the south of London and the famous Crystal Palace was built. George Jennings, a renowned plumber from Brighton, installed flushing toilets in the Palace, which he called “monkey closets” because of the distinctive design of the fixtures. For a penny, visitors could not only use the toilet, but also have access to a personalized towel, comb, and boot brush with cream. Over the course of the exhibition, these toilets were used by 827,280 people of both sexes.
This is one of the toilets designed by George Jennings for the Great Exhibition of 1851. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what will happen next. The number of offers should remain: episodes. End of story Advertising Podcasts Jennings convinced the organizers of the exhibition to make his toilets permanent, and they went on to generate thousands of pounds a year (over $100,000 in today’s money). Since then, London’s public toilet system has had its ups and downs. The first modern urban men’s room opened on February 2, 1852, at 95 Fleet Street; the women’s room opened nearby at 51 Bedford Street nine days later. These facilities, delicately called “waiting rooms,” were considered a fashionable novelty and advertised in The Times. Their number began to grow rapidly, especially after Thomas Crapper invented the float valve, which guaranteed that water would flow when the handle was pulled. The creators of public toilets in the 19th century were concerned with aesthetics. The facilities were located underground, with staircases adorned with intricate metal railings. Marble, copper, and colored tiles were used to decorate the facilities. By 1895, Jennings’ company had opened public toilets in 36 towns and cities in Britain, as well as in Paris, Florence, Berlin, Madrid, and Sydney. Jennings was joined in the business by Sir Samuel Peto, the builder of Nelson’s Column and London’s Lyceum Theatre, and Sir Henry Cole, the entrepreneur who popularized colored Christmas cards. At the end of the last century, the vast majority of public toilets in London remained male because urinals were cheaper to build and maintain than toilets and took up less space. Some men’s toilets were free, but women could only satisfy their natural need for money, and by then the charge had risen to two pence.
In the century before last, it was necessary to explain that women should also get rid of their waste products. In addition, there was a belief that there were many women’s toilets and that they were not necessary because women should primarily stay at home, and that it was indecent to place a women’s toilet next to a men’s toilet, even if they were separated by a solid wall. The Women’s Sanitary Association has been campaigning for equality on this important issue since the 1850s, calling for “the establishment of suitable facilities in places of public resort. The association’s secretary, Rose Adams, vividly described the “grievous suffering” of women who, for understandable reasons, found it difficult to draw public attention to the problem. It was publicly supported by a well-known and authoritative physician, the head of the medical service in the Paddington district, Dr. Stevenson, who declared that “women are built the same way as men” and that women’s toilets were “not the whim of any one person caused by excessive sensitivity”. The important fact here was that Stevenson was not only a well-known specialist, but also a man. In 1898, the Union of Women’s Liberal and Radical Associations was founded, and one of its first demands was the opening of a women’s toilet in the Camden area of London. Such facilities already existed for men. The initiative was met with opposition. Opponents claimed that such proximity would devalue nearby real estate and that lines would cause traffic jams. In addition, some men did not want a women’s restroom next to theirs. The case received a great deal of attention. It was not until December 1905, after Bernard Shaw, then a member of the local parish council, became involved in the fight for the lavatory, that the council agreed.
Sometimes it is still much easier for men to find a toilet. This is a street urinal installed in London’s Soho. However, gender inequality did not end there. While men could use a public urinal free of charge, women always had to pay to use a toilet stall, which took up more space and required constant maintenance. They tried to overcome technical difficulties by creating “urinets” – simplified female mini-toilets with automatic flushing and curtains instead of doors. They quickly abandoned them due to numerous complaints that they were being used in an “unclean” manner. Similar facilities for men, of course, were known only for their fine scent. The First World War led to an explosion in female employment and the number of women traveling alone as men fought on the front lines. Due to the decrease in the number of men, many company restrooms were converted into women’s restrooms.
During the war, an unprecedented number of women went into production. There was a belief that women should return home after the war and not “steal” men’s jobs. But this did not happen. In addition, the 1919 law prohibited gender discrimination in employment. However, the legal standard requiring employers to provide toilets for employees of both sexes did not appear until 1992. Prior to that, according to the Museum of London, women were regularly denied employment in certain industries precisely because of the lack of “facilities.
During the Victorian era and beyond, men’s toilets were not only used for their intended purpose. In the English language, a special term, “cottaging,” even emerged to describe this phenomenon (some of these facilities resembled rural cottages). It refers to men going to restrooms to meet other men in situations where some exposure is unavoidable.
Toilet in Hampstead, made famous by Joe Orson and George Michael. In 1937, the writer Thomas Berk, best known as the author of the collection of stories about life in London’s underworld, “Nights of Limehouse,” published a book under the pseudonym Paul Prie with the ambiguous title “For Your Convenience” – a frivolous guide to men’s toilets. “Look for someone rough in the cottages of Covent Garden, a class up at Waterloo Station, and if you are interested in the world of the theater, go to the corners near Jermyn Street,” he wrote.
The translation of the given Russian text into English is “The Lord is leaving the bathroom at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.” In 1878, the author of an article in The Lancet complained: “In order to obtain the necessary service, some ladies have to go to restaurants and order unnecessary snacks, while others go to confectioners and haberdasheries. It is safe to assume that the money thus spent, even if it is only a few pence, is not always put to the best use”. This situation is well known to our contemporaries, who sometimes have to buy a cup of coffee in order to get the code for the toilet lock with the sign “for our customers only”. Activists fight them as best they can. The London Loo Codes website publishes such codes. The British Toilet Association urges authorities to build new “facilities”. The Royal Society for Public Health argues that “public toilets are no less important than street lighting and waste disposal” and calls for legislation.