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Jul 19, 2023

This is how people would go to the toilet in the past

"Going to the toilet isn't something people talk about, butthe most natural

"Going to the toilet isn't something people talk about, butthe most natural thing in the world is, of course, how and where people would relieve themselves,"researcher Ragnhild Hutchison tells sciencenorway.no.

Hutchison is a historian and researcher at OsloMet. One of her recent undertakings involved trying to cook based on 18th century recipes in the research project FoodLessons.

"Theydidn't have toilets in the countryside, so instead they had a designated spot. Youwould go there to pee and poo," Hutchison says. "Preferably near the water orby a stream. And ideally, the current should flow downward, so they couldcollect drinking water higher up in the stream."

It was importantto defecate and urinate in the right place near the stream, where the waterwould flow downward. If people fetched water from an area that had beencontaminated with urine and feces, they could get sick.

"Peopledidn't drink water in the old days in Norway because it made them sick. Theydrank whey. It contained so much alcohol that the bacteria died," she says.

Whey iswhat remains after making cheese from milk.

Outdoortoilets did not exist on Norwegian farms until the 19th century. Onlywealthy people had outdoor toilets before that.

"Previously,they didn't need it; they could simply go outside and pee. They would just gooutdoors or behind the barn to relieve themselves," Hutchison says.

Some farms hada pole against the house wall that they could sit on to go to the toilet.

"They couldsit there, dangling their legs with their bottoms in the air," Hutchison says.

"Outdoor toilets with multiple seats that could accommodate several people existed. Did theygo to the toilet at the same time?"

"Yes! I’msure you’ve heard that girls go to the bathroom together? Here, we have bothgirls and boys who went to the bathroom together. And they would sit there andhave a pleasant chat with each other," she says.

Hutchisonadds that it was probably more practical to have multiple seats.

"There weremany people, children, and servants, and everyone needed to use the toilet. Itwas more convenient to empty if all the waste ended up in one place rather thanin several separate outdoor toilets," she says.

"Ordinary peoplerarely wore underwear; they didn't really use anything. If they needed touse the toilet, they stood with their legs apart and urinated," Hutchison says.

"Didthey not wipe themselves with anything?"

"No, I don'tthink so," she says.

"Didn'tthey use moss, leaves, or sticks?"

"Whenurinating, they didn't need it. They could use those things when defecating,"she says. "People didn't shave their pubic hair. But with more hair growth, it probablyworked differently for girls when they stood to pee."

If youlived in an apartment building, you would have a communal outdoor toilet, andthen the nightman would come and empty it, Hutchison explains.

The nightmanwould empty the outdoor toilets and remove dead animals at night. Being anightman was not a job one could choose, but rather a job people receivedinstead of getting the death penalty.

Oslo'soutdoor toilets would have overflowed if it weren't for the nightman. Even so,the nightman was not considered important, and they had very low status.

In the 19thcentury, ‘klaskedoen’ was introduced in Norway, which can perhaps be translated to a 'splashtoilet'. It was a type of outdoor toilet used inapartment buildings with multiple floors.

Since theydid not have running water yet, there was a pipe that ran through all thetoilets in the building. That way, you could hear the water splashing beneathyou when your upstairs neighbour used the toilet, hence the name ‘klaske’, or splash.

In 1899, itwas prohibited to build these types of toilets in new houses, and efforts weremade to phase out the system where waste traveled down several floors.

Theauthorities suggested portable buckets as a replacement. Therefore, sanitationworkers had to carry toilet buckets down the staircases.

In 1973,the Oslo Health Council decided to close all ‘klaskedoer’, but the last one wasnot closed until 1985.

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Translated by Alette Bjordal Gjellesvik.

Readthe Norwegian version of this article on ung.forskning.no