Clean as a whistle (Part I)

Offering guests a clean, comfortable bed in a quiet environment is the main function of a hotel. However, making sure that they have access to a sparkling bathroom is also an essential, given that cleanliness is top of mind for guests! This article is the first in a series of two on bathrooms. Hope you find it informative!

History of Bathrooms

The ancient Greeks and Romans had public toilets, and, in some cases, indoor plumbing connected to rudimentary sewer systems. The Romans considered that going to the toilet was a social event. They met friends, exchanged views, caught up on the news and wiped themselves with a piece of sponge fixed to a short wooden handle. This was then rinsed in a water channel which ran in front of the toilet and reused. This practice may have led to the expression “getting hold of the wrong end of the stick”.

In Medieval England, people used “potties” and would simply throw their contents through a door or window into the street. The more affluent would use a “garderobe”, a protruding room with an opening for waste, suspended over a moat. The name probably comes from the practice of storing robes in the toilet area so that the smell would discourage fleas and other parasites. Peasants and serfs, however, relieved themselves in communal privies at the end of streets.

The first modern flushable toilet was created in 1596 by Sir John Harington, the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. His device called for a 2-foot-deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern. Flushing Harington’s pot required 7.5 gallons of water. In comparison, today’s toilets use about 1.6 gallons (6 liters) per flush, i.e. close to 5 times less! Harington noted that when water was scarce, up to 20 people could use the toilet between flushes !

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