Yet another toilet question...

[Ouisch]

I was browsing a web page where 50- and 60-something UKers were recalling the way things were when they were young...  Several mentioned having to use a "long drop toilet."  What does that mean?

[jno]

outdoor privy, usually - no plumbing, just a hole in the ground with a long drop from the seat to the bottom of the hole. Memoir here

[kev100]

It was an outside toilet which was basically a toilet seat below which was a "long drop" of about 5 feet, the faeces were deposited into a pan and then you went inside and turned on your kitchen tap, the water would run into the drain outside which had a "tippler" this was an earthenware pan which when full of water would tip over and flush the long drop toilet.

The stench from these things had to be experienced to be believed and this wasn't hundreds of years ago it was very common in 1950's britain.

[Ouisch]

Great link, jno, thanks!

 

Sounds like a long drop is somewhat similar to what we called an "outhouse" in the U.S. 

[jno]

That's interesting kev100, I hadn't realised some were 'flushable'.

[kev100]

jno, I'm no expert on britains ancient plumbing systems, what I have described above is what I had to use for the first fifteen years of my life until we had a bathroom installed.

I was sent to the public baths (by my mum) twice a week where you could fill this huge bath with hot water and have a really great soak, and clean towels for threepence, I couldn't get out of it because on returning home she would inspect me very carefully to make sure I'd been, the good news was that for being a clean boy I used to get a mars bar.

[lindapinda]

JNO and KEV,I remember in the 60's going to a kid's party on a farm,and the toilet was inside a wooden shed,and consisted of a wooden seat over some sort of container! I was so shocked,and remember going home and telling my mummy!Couldn't believe it.