WASHROOM HYGIENE The increasingly publicwashroom
Gone are the days when visits to the washroom were an entirely private affair. Today’s society celebrates the washroom – as demonstrated in a recent fashion show. Lee Radzki, from Tork manufacturer Essity, considers the changing face of the toilet plus the implications of making this hitherto private space a great deal more public.
It was a bizarre moment in the world of fashion. Visitors to the Valentino show at this year’s Paris Fashion Week were confronted by a row of toilet cubicles bathed in red light. Then the show began with a loud flushing sound. One by one the models emerged from the toilet stalls and exhibited their outfits before retreating back into their respective lavatories.
The brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele claimed the set was intended to reflect people’s intimate relationship with their clothes. However, the use of toilets as a backdrop for such a glamorous event highlighted the fact that this once- private space has now become very much a public one.
Toilets used to be a taboo subject. They were only referred to via euphemisms if at all: men would ‘visit the little boys’ room’ while women would ‘powder their noses’.
When a toilet was shown on television for the first time in 1957 it was a major event. This occurred in an American sitcom called Leave it to Beaver and the episode involved two children attempting to hide an alligator from their parents in the family bathroom. Even then, only the cistern appeared on screen because network censors feared a backlash if they showed the whole toilet.
Public toilets have traditionally been housed in ugly, utilitarian blocks purpose-designed to blend into the background. Many have closed over the years as councils count the cost of operating these often-vandalised facilities.
Instead of being knocked down or quietly forgotten, toilet blocks are now being snapped up by entrepreneurs and turned into restaurants, bars, homes and museums, and rather than hiding their provenance, purchasers are using it as a selling point.
For example, the original porcelain urinals have become a quirky feature of the Attendant coffee bar in London’s Foley Street. The outlet occupies the site of a former Victorian toilet block and the urinals form part of the café’s tables. The WC in Clapham – whose name stands for Wine and Charcuterie – still retains its 19th century wall tiles, and the tables have been made out of lavatory doors.
This movement to repurpose old loos is gathering momentum in other parts of the country, too. Plans to convert a toilet block on Hove beach into a café and sports office were approved this spring, while a toilet block in Barmouth, Wales, was recently transformed into a seafront holiday home. A disused public toilet near London’s Monument may soon even be turned into a micro museum, charting the history of the Great Fire of London.
Washrooms are also being celebrated in other ways. For example, visitors to the Modern Toilet restaurant in Taiwan
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are expected to eat their meals out of miniature toilet bowls and drink from urinal-shaped containers while sitting on lavatory seats.
Toilet museums have also been cropping up in various parts of the world. The Museum of Historical Chamber Pots and Toilets in Prague has at least 2,000 loo-related items on display. Exhibits include a bedpan built for Napoleon; a chamber pot made out of a German World War II army helmet and portable urinals used by 17th-century women during long sermons.
Another toilet museum in Kitakyushu, Japan, charts the evolution of the Japanese lavatory from early 19th century. Founded by the Toto company – famed for its high-tech bidet toilets – museum exhibits include an extra-wide, extra load-bearing toilet designed for use by sumo wrestlers and a toilet that was apparently used by Douglas MacArthur, the US general who oversaw the occupation of Japan after World War II.
In 2023, the advent of the public toilet was celebrated closer to home in Newcastle’s city library. The Rise and Decline of Newcastle’s Public Toilets exhibition charted the history of local loos from the 1890s when there were 40 such facilities, to the 2020s when this figure had plummeted to zero.
Far from remaining an unmentionable subject, washrooms are now being seen as an integral part of our daily lives – and an increasing number of us are keen to ensure that we stay connected in the loo. Studies show that between 50 and 60% of us now take our phones with us into the toilet, where we use it to play games, read the news, send emails or even upload images.
When visiting a particularly impressive toilet in a bar or restaurant, many people now feel moved to take a photo of the facilities and share their experience online. However, the same occurs when a washroom visitor encounters a particularly poor or unhygienic facility. They may then decide to ‘name and shame’ the venue in question, creating bad publicity for the bar or restaurant concerned.
As lavatories become a talking point rather than a taboo, washroom providers are having to up their game. There is little tolerance today for dirty, unpleasant toilets in today’s more transparent world. Manufacturers are responding by launching more stylish, upmarket systems designed to ‘wow’ the customer. For example, Essity’s Tork Image Design Line of dispensers combines stainless steel with a black trim to provide a stylish look.
Some venues are offering extras such as fresh flowers and hand creams, while others are concentrating on providing a fresh fragrance to create an impression of cleanliness.
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