In the Victorian era, going to the toilet was a very different experience than it is today. Modern flush toilets and indoor plumbing were not yet commonplace. Most Victorians still used outdoor privies and chamber pots to relieve themselves. Hygiene and sanitation standards were not what they are now, which led to health problems. However, toilet habits, products and technologies steadily improved throughout the 19th century.
What were Victorian toilets like?
Most Victorian households did not have indoor toilets. Even wealthy homes often lacked proper bathrooms in the early and middle parts of the era. The toilet was usually outside in an outdoor privy, commonly known as an outhouse or earth closet. These were small sheds situated away from the main house, often at the bottom of the garden.
The privy contained a bench with one or two holes cut into it, positioned over a shallow pit or cesspit dug into the ground. Users would sit over the hole,legs astride, to relieve themselves. Inside was often a container of quicklime, ash, or soil which would be spread over the excrement after each use to suppress smells. This became known as “night soil” and would need to be emptied by hand periodically.
Chamber pots, also known as jerrys, gee-gees or thunder mugs, served as portable toilets indoors. These were bowls made of china, pottery or tin which were stored under the bed or in the wardrobe. Users would squat over it, do their business, and then empty and clean it as needed. Chamber pots were also taken on journeys by coach or train.
Public toilets
Public toilet facilities in towns and cities were very basic. Men would commonly urinate against a wall or in a street gutter. Public urinals with no privacy began appearing on streets from around 1850. These were known as “pissoirs”.
Women had few options other than to hold on until they could find a private spot. Alleys, side streets and graveyards were frequented. Stables and outbuildings were also pressed into service if desperate. Department stores and hotels began providing toilets for female customers mid-century.
Hygiene and sanitation issues
By modern standards, Victorian toilets were unhygienic places. Disease and infection thrived in the unsanitary conditions.
The accumulating waste in cesspits and overflowing crypts underneath privies contained dangerous bacteria. Surface water supplies were easily contaminated by this, causing outbreaks of diseases like cholera, dysentery, typhoid and diarrhea.
Chamber pots were typically kept under the bed. They needed frequent emptying, a job done manually by servants or family members. The odor was unpleasant and leakage was a problem which could stain bedding and carpets.
Reusable wipes and sponges on sticks, known as “botty wipes”, offered another unhygienic solution. Dampened newspaper was also employed.
Toilet paper was invented in the late 1500s but did not become widely used until the late 1800s when cheap wood pulp paper became available. Often old catalogs, newspapers or other paper products would be cut up and used instead.
Health and medical issues
Doctors at the time linked health problems to bad toilet hygiene and vitiated air. They warned of the dangers of unclean chamber pots, overflowing cesspits and toilet odors wafting through the house.
Women wore many layers of heavy skirts and petticoats. Squatting while balancing these garments was unwieldy. Women would often simply urinate where they stood, drawing their skirts aside discretely. This meant urine soaked into their skirts and undergarments, causing chafing and skin conditions.
It was wrongly believed that bad odors themselves spread disease through “miasma”. Smells from human waste were thought of as poisonous. Households used scented products like carbolic acid, borax and gunpowder on their toilets to try and limit the smells.
Toilet etiquette and routines
Using the privy or chamber pot followed certain routines and customs. There were also rules of etiquette around procedure and politeness.
Chamber pots were often covered with a crocheted cloth for modesty. Women’s pots were sometimes painted with flowers, fitting decorum for the feminine space of the boudoir.
Servants were generally tasked with emptying chamber pots. The pots had to be kept extremely clean to discourage smells and leaks. Special chamber pot porcelain cleaner was sold.
Going to the outdoor privy involved carefulness, particularly at night. Lanterns or candles were used to light the way. In winter, some kept commodes or pots indoors to avoid chilly trips outside.
Multi-seat privies allowed groups to socialize. However, the etiquette was that you waited until your neighbor was done before seating yourself alongside.
Toilet paper was kept on the cistern or sometimes hung from a nail on the back of the door. Old catalogs or magazines served as reading material.
Children and the elderly
Potty training was done as early as possible, sometimes beginning at a few months old. Potties or breech pans (fitted chamber pots) were used by toddlers. Nappies were washable and reusable.
Older children continued using a pot or privy outdoors. Girls were given instruction in how to use the privy without soiling their many layers of skirts.
Elderly and disabled family members often kept a urine pot or commode chair beside the bed to save difficult trips outside.
Improvements in Victorian toilet technology
While outdoor earth closets and chamber pots remained the norm, improvements were made, especially from the 1840s and 1850s onward.
Flush toilets
Primitive flush toilets, linked to a cesspit or septic tank, began to appear in some middle and upper-class homes. However, the flushing systems were prone to leaks and bad smells until the end of the era.
Indoor bathrooms
A few pioneering Victorian homes had rooms dedicated to bathing and toilets. But it was not common, except among the very wealthy, to have flush toilets and fixed baths inside the home before the 1880s.
Water closets
Early plumbed water closet toilets emerged by the 1850s. A flushed system which did not require manual emptying. These were temperamental and smelly until the 1880s when improvements were made.
Joseph Bramah invented an effective sealed valve system in 1778 which was the basis for the first modern flush toilets in the 1880s. Thomas Crapper popularized these.
Public toilets
Cities began to provide public toilets for the poor and for women from mid-century. London opened its first in 1852. They were basic with bare earth floors and wooden seats.
Sewage systems
Cesspits and privy waste was usually collected by hand for use as fertilizer. After the 1858 “Great Stink” polluted the Thames, London created the first underground sewage system to divert waste away from drinking supplies.
Toilet paper
Modern toilet paper gradually became widely used and affordable. The British Perforated Paper Company first marketed loo roll in 1880.
In 1857 Joseph Gayetty had introduced medicated paper for treating hemorrhoids, sold as “Gayetty’s Medicated Paper”. It was marketed as a medical product rather than for hygiene.
Commercialization
By the late 1800s public toilets were being commercialized. Urinals for men proliferated from 1851 onward, with companies like J.G. Jennings making large profits from public conveniences.
The golden era of grand Victorian public toilets began with George Jennings’ luxurious “Retiring Rooms” at the Crystal Palace in 1851. Conceived as public conveniences for ladies and gentlemen, they caused a sensation, with plush waiting rooms and marble-stall urinals.
| Decade | Toilet Innovations |
|---|---|
| 1810s | First indoor flushing toilets emerge in Britain, linked to cesspits outdoors |
| 1820s | More widespread use of reusable toilet paper |
| 1830s | Improved earthenware squat pots appear |
| 1840s | Public urinals for men introduced in Britain |
| 1850s | London builds first public toilets for women |
| 1860s | Dry earth closets introduced, no liquid waste |
| 1870s | Thomas Crapper popularizes the flush toilet |
By the late Victorian era, public toilet design reached new elaborate heights, with luxurious bathrooms installed in hotels, restaurants and thriving seaside resorts.
Conclusion
Toilet habits and facilities improved dramatically over the course of the 19th century, but remained fairly primitive by modern standards until the very end of the Victorian era. While indoor flush toilets existed from the 1810s, it was not until the 1880s and 1890s that they became widespread in middle-class homes.
Outdoor earth closets and indoor chamber pots remained the norm for most, accompanied by problems of hygiene, health and etiquette. However, Victorian inventors and sanitary reformers brought innovations which paved the way for the modern bathroom. By the close of the Victorian age, flushing water closets, toilet paper, commercial public restrooms and underground sewage systems promised a cleaner, healthier future.
