A close flush with history
If you need to make a pit stop while touring the second floor of Dundurn Castle this weekend, here is an important piece of advice:
The newly refurbished Water closet — which you will find off Sir Allan MacNab’s former bedroom — is for show, not for go.
It’s something to see, not somewhere to pee.
The walnut/ceramic toilet called a Bramah Valve Flushing Water Closet is the latest addition to the iconic mansion on York Boulevard that will be unveiled this weekend to mark the 50th anniversary of the 182-year-old Dundurn Castle being refurbished in 1967. It’s part of an ensemble in the next room that also includes a sink, which does function with cold water, and a bathtub that doesn’t.
Back in the 1840s, during MacNab’s day, wash closets were the latest craze. The house had three of them. It meant his family and guests — although, probably not servants — could take a pass on the chamber pot or the outhouse.
“The Bramah Valve Flushing Water Closet was the toilet to have back then,” said Ken Heaman, senior curator of Dundurn. “We think of a closet as a place for clothes but it really is a small room. It could be a sitting room or a little cubby hole for a water closet.”
The toilet worked by collected rain water being pushed through a pipe and sending the contents out into the bay. That’s not kosher today, so that part of the system has not been restored.
Public washrooms today, with modern plumbing, can be found on the first floor. They are connected to the city’s sewer system.
Heaman says work is also taking place on a second wash closet, but that one won’t be part of the tour this weekend. Other improvements have been made to chandeliers and to the Cockpit building.