On the Throne: 125 years of the WC

Every month in StopPress we try to find places where you may not have visited; this month we look at somewhere you visit every day as we celebrate the 125th birthday of the standard WC.

To be honest, you probably haven’t given the WC a second thought. For most of us it’s an essential fitting for a very practical purpose, and the less said about it, the better. But think for a moment:  what would we do without the WC?

The earliest examples of WCs come from two great civilisations: the Minoans on the island of Crete; and the Romans, who installed plumbing and sanitation throughout their empire. After the Romans left Britain, it was over a thousand years before Sir John Harrington invented a self-contained WC. It impressed his godmother - who happened to be Queen Elizabeth - but otherwise failed to make a great splash. It was, as we say, a flash in the pan.

Most people made do with either no lavatory at all - throwing their human waste into the street with all their other rubbish - or made use of simple ‘privies’, wooden seats over deep pits of waste. Some men earned money as human lavatories: they carried a bucket and wore a huge cape or cloak to cover anyone who wanted to use their facility!

Primitive WCs began to appear in the 18th century, but they were crude and often useless. The first popular design came in 1775, when Alexander Cummings received a patent for a water closet. His complicated design was much improved by Joseph Bramah and in parts of Britain ‘a Bramah’ is still an expression meaning ‘something of high quality’. However, it was often said that the easiest way to find the WC in a house was by following the terrible smell.

That terrible smell soon became a much bigger problem. By the time that Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, cities like London were struggling to cope with human waste. Water closets were adding to the problem by sending thousands of gallons of sewage into a waste system designed to take only rainwater. The terrible disease of Cholera arrived in London in 1832, and killed thousands of people for decades, 14,000 in 1848 alone. People began to think that bad drains might be killing people, and it became law to have some sort of lavatory in every house in 1848. However, it was not until the ‘Great Stink’ of 1856 - when the River Thames in London smelled so bad that the Government almost abandoned the Houses of Parliament - that a plan was drawn up to install a good network of sewers.

Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, was one of the men who tried to improve sanitation for ordinary people, but in 1861 he contracted Typhoid Fever - another disease caused by bad drains - and died. The Queen was utterly devastated. Albert’s death finally prompted sudden interest in sanitation and the WC.

In 1879, a new device was put on sale, which hinted at the future. Until that time, all WCs had been made from a complicated mix of metal, wood and china parts. A pottery company called Twyfords had been producing the china parts of WCs for decades. The company had been started in 1680 by Joshua Twyford, who became the subject of legend: it is said that he stole the pottery secrets of two Dutch brothers by pretending to be deaf and unable to speak in order to get work at their incredibly secretive factory and to spy on the brothers! In 1879 Twyfords launched a WC made completely of china.

‘The National’ water closet was a revolutionary device. Its all-china construction was, for the first time, easy to clean and leak-proof. But it was not a success: Twyfords sold only 50 in the first year. However, following a prestigious award in 1881, Twyfords suddenly started to sell their WC: by 1889 100,000 were in use.

So if this was such an important WC, why do we claim 1884 as they birthday of the WC? Well, even the National was unlike the WC of today: it was still designed to be fitted in a wooden box, not standing on its own. In 1884 two WCs were launched which changed the world. Twyfords began to market the ‘Unitas’, which was a free-standing, all-china WC made in just one piece. It was supplied with a water tank, complete with chain and pull. It had - another revolution - a wooden seat which could be lifted by men wishing to urinate. In short, it was very nearly the WC we use today. In fact, if you come from Germany, it may well be exactly like the WC you use today - with a little shelf on which to view your ‘deposits’.

But another company, Humpherson & Co., also introduced their own WC that year. ‘The Beaufort’ was the world’s first one-piece, china, wash-down WC, with a funnel shape leading to a drain at the back of the bowl. It was, in form and function, the parent of almost every WC used in Europe today.

The Beaufort and Unitas opened up a new wave of WCs. Companies competed to produce the most ornate and powerful lavatories. One company created pans in the shape of dolphins, another made WCs shaped like lions. Raised ornaments competed with pictures of flowers, birds and animals on the bowl. Dramatic names like the ‘Tornado’ and ‘Deluge’ tried to show the power of the lavatories.

The WC has changed remarkably little since the Beaufort closet. Cisterns have come down from the ceiling and been fixed to the pan; the brilliant colours and amazing decoration have been replaced with plain white china; the seat has been changed to functional plastic; but in form and function the WC of 2009 is often identical to the WC of 1884. & TG

In many parts of the world people prefer to squat to use the WC, rather than sit down. It may well be more ‘natural’, but it certainly requires practice!
The squatting WC is known by the French as a ‘Turkish lavatory’ (top picture). They are quite common in many parts of Europe. This type of WC has never been widely adopted in England, although they can be installed in the UK for anyone who prefers to squat rather than sit.

There are many variations from country to country. For example, WCs in Singapore have the footplates either side of the WC (middle picture), not in the WC as in France, and Japanese WCs have a raised end and no footplates at all (bottom picture).

Many of these squatting WCs are supplied with water hoses rather than paper to allow the user to clean himself after defecating.
Whatever the variation, it’s certain that English travellers find them very strange indeed!