Happy Loo Year! Toilets Highlight Where to Pay a Visit

Toilets - or bathrooms, if you live across The Pond - usually serve one purpose – which everyone appreciates – but at UK-based castle hotel, Langley Castle (www.langleycastle.co.uk), in Northumberland UK, they help highlight why it’s the most authentic, medieval and fortified castle hotel in England!

Langley Castle’s early ‘toilets’ (no longer in use, might we add!) are regarded by experts as Europe’s best example of medieval ‘garderobes’ (medieval loos).  

Langley Castle’s own research suggests that 41% of people do not know what a garderobe is, which perhaps indicates that they have never seen one.  

Langley Castle actually has 12 fine examples, four on each of three floors in its south west tower, set into the seven-feet-thick stone wall.  

They are a decorative feature nowadays,  quite a talking point when guests and non-residents view them on the castle’s daily Battlements tour, and totally Instagrammable, with the stone corbel, which once held the seat, visible through a pointed arch.   People sat on them, waste was ejected outside, fell into a pit and was washed away by a stream. 

Garderobes actually got their name because medieval folk would hang their gowns in them, allowing the ammonia from the urine to kill off any fleas!

Having so many garderobes indicates Langley Castle was not just a family home, built by knight, Thomas de Lucy in 1350, but a garrisoned castle, often under siege. This was due to its location – in the warring lands around the Anglo-Scottish border -  and because of its allegiance to the English monarch, Edward III.

The garderobes are a great pointer as to why any visitor, who recognises the important of authenticity within a heritage experience, should stay at Langley Castle and why anyone who loves to seek out quirky toilets should also pay a visit (pardon the pun!).  

Here are some more toilets to seek out around the world, or to note because they too are historically significant!

1. The Hundertwasser Toilet, Kawakawa, New Zealand

These are the most photographed toilets in New Zealand, thanks to being both useful but also contained within a public work of art designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Undulating patterns in ceramic tiles, a living tree growing through the roof, small sculptures, the use of coloured glass and a natural grass roof, make this an eye-catching WC.  As it utilised glass bottles, other waste and bricks from a Bank of New Zealand branch, it also has a sustainable element to it.

2. The Solid Gold toilet

This rather lavish loo, fashioned from gold and valued at $6m, was stolen from Blenheim Palace, former home of Sir Winston Churchill, just days after being installed as part of an art exhibition.  Designed by Italian artist, Maurizio Cattelan, it was fully functioning prior to its theft.  Should you spot it, do alert the authorities!  Meanwhile, you can always visit Blenheim Palace and imagine its existence.

3. Benjamin Franklin’s Privy

Visitors to Benjamin Franklin’s house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, can view his brick-lined, circular privy, thought to have been built between 1786 and 1787.  Waste was conveyed down a stone drain, which connected to a vertical brick pipe, transporting it into a pit. Not too dissimilar from the garderobe principle.

4. Uredd Rest Area - Norway

Called the ‘world’s most beautiful toilet’, this frosted glass and concrete structure, located where the Uredd submarine sank in World War II, affords stunning fjord views, whilst enabling users to enjoy the midnight sun and the Northern Lights. 

5. Two storey outhouse – Cedar Lake, Michigan

Dating from around 1875, it’s a case of woe betide those using the bottom storey toilets within this towering outhouse, which had four holes on each floor.  It may originally have been attached to a boarding house or other building but now stands alone as an iconic part of the landscape.  Some say that it was constructed like this, so the owner of a local store could give his wife and seven daughters more privacy, allowing them to access the top floor ‘holes’ via a walkway from their home, whilst lumberjacks visiting the store used the ground floor facilities.

6. Lobster Loos, Wellington

These lobster-shaped toilets are part of the public space on Queen’s Wharf in Wellington and were created, at a cost of NZ $375,000, after architect Bret Thurston won a contest.  Constructed of orange steel and covered with an anti-graffiti coating, they were intended to be a tourist attraction in their own right.

7. Wall-mounted hole toilets – Fort Jesus

These toilets provide a bit of a talking point at the UNESCO World Heritage Site near Mombasa, designed by Giovanni Battista Cairati and in the hands of the Portuguese, Arabs and Brits, at different times in its history.  The fort was originally ordered by King Felipe II of Portugal, to help protect the town from invaders.  Viewed from above, it is shaped as a man.

8.Toilets on USS Monitor

When the Civil War ship, the USS Monitor, was discovered in 1998, 140 years after its sinking, salvagers were intrigued by the flush toilets found on board, which ejected waste in a torpedo-like manner.  At times though, it is thought sailors had to beware; if the valve sealing and ejection system went wrong, they could be hit by a stream of seawater coming the other way!  One fifth of the ship was salvaged and you can see it at the Batten Conservation Complex at the Mariners’ Museum and Park in Newport News, Virginia

9. Housesteads Roman Fort

Close to home for Langley Castle, the nearby loos at Housesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall are the best-preserved Roman loos in Britain. The fort once held 800 soldiers and there were neither niceties nor loo roll involved in the ablutions.  Men sat side by side to do their business and then used a communal sponge on a stick to clean up.  Other Roman toilets close to Langley Castle can be seen at Roman Vindolanda.

10. ‘Toilet Island’ – near Belize

This toilet, near Placencia in Belize, cannot be missed on this tiny island and is the perfect choice for anyone wishing to live life as a castaway or pee in peace.  With little else around other than a handful of palm trees, the flushing toilet seems a real luxury.

11. Comstock Saloon, San Francisco

Visitors to this bar can see a restored urinal (known as a spittoon) running around the bar counter, into which the clientele could originally relieve themselves without leaving their seats. Original white ceramic tiles, dating from 1907, line the urinal, which originally also benefited from having sheet metal to protect the bar front.  Nowadays, it is just a quirky feature and customers are not encouraged to make use of the facility!

12. The NASA toilet

The NASA toilet was devised for the International Space Station and works in zero gravity conditions, separating urine from waste.  The former is filtered and used as drinking water and the latter is frozen, to get rid of odour and bacteria.  You’ll have to be an astronaut to use this, but if you’re up there and on it, do share your pics!

Sometimes, it’s safe to say, that you just feel in your water where something authentic and unusual is to be found.  If you recognise that is at Langley Castle, visit www.langleycastle.co.uk to find out more.

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Editors notes

Langley Castle, built in 1350, is located in Langley-on-Tyne, Northumberland and is one of the few authentic, fortified medieval castles in England. It has a rich history, with strong links to Jacobite rebellions, is located just a stone's throw from the World Heritage Site of Hadrian's Wall and boasts features including battlements, seven-feet-thick walls, window seats set into the walls and the best example of medieval garderobes in Europe. It is one of the most exquisite wedding venues in the north and also offers a wide range of options when it comes to exclusive use, with the castle being available for weddings, family celebrations, Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs, D&D-style events and a wide variety of corporate functions.