Victorian public lavatories for women win listed status

VICTORIAN public lavatories for women have been granted listed building status in recognition of their role in helping release women from the home, Historic England has announced.

Conveniences in Berwick-upontweed, Northumberland, and Seaburn in Sunderland, designed to provide total discretion for Victorian ladies have been recognised for their value to British history and releasing women from their “urinary leash”.

Historic England has said the lavatories were important in breaking the bondage faced by women who lacked the same facilities as men, and were constrained by the call of nature to staying close to home.

The lavatories have been given Grade II listed status by the Department of Digital Culture Media and Sport.

Experts have said they were an important aspect of UK heritage, and should be valued along with churches and country estates.

The lavatories join other antique WCS listed for protection, including a 17th century outhouse and the Roman communal facilities at Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall.

Debbie Mays, head of listing at Historic England, said: “Many people often think of listed buildings only as churches, castles and grand stately homes but buildings like toilets are also an important part of our nation’s rich history. They are captured in the myriad of types included on the list.

“The lavatories in Berwick and Seaburn reflect the emerging changing social status of women at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.

“The appearance of toilets like these

‘Toilets like these represented the opening up of a new world of leisure and work for women’

represented the gradual opening up of a world of new leisure and work opportunities previously unavailable to women.”

The Bank Hill ladies’ toilets in Berwick-upon-tweed opened in 1889, and the building’s resemblance to a country cottage obscured the true function of the site. It cost 1p to enter, and has since been used as an ice cream parlour.

Underground facilities in Seaburn, dating from between 1901 and 1904, are historically significant as they catered for women as well as men.