So, who DID have a house with an outside toilet.

[jackson 301]

Izal Toilet Roll made wonderful tracing paper when I was a kid - mum used to wonder why it didn't last for long.

[littlebro 234]

Chloros bleach came in a ribbed brown glass bottle. The ribbing was an identifier for people with poor eyesight.

I recall in a chemistry lesson at junior school, we had to mix Chloros bleach with (I think) sulphuric acid - the reaction was to give off chlorine gas.

Well, no Health & Safety in those days.

[jackson 301]

My mum had a tall, white, enamel bucket and she'd make a dilute of cold water and Chloras and soak the whites in pre Monday washing day - made them extra white.

[Beachbum 68]

As i remember you could always get a nice tune out of izal and your comb.

[Michael Booth 7,364]

1001 cleans a big, big carpet, for less than half a crown.

[Fynger 841]

[crankypig 457]

When I lived with me parents on Carlton hill we had a row of 4 toilets for our houses,they were a good way from the house,if it was dark it was very scarey going to the loo ,no lights,sometimes there would be a drunken bloke lying in the passage (he was from next door)you nearly fell over him sometimes.Later on we all had toilets put in our back gardens ,but still no lights,my dad put a parrafin heater in ours cos it was always freezing up.We had to have a peepot at night,it was too scary to go outside.

[The Engineer 614]

The smell of the lavatory - was it the ubiquitous whitewash, especially when damp?

In one house we had off Highbury Vale, Bulwell (mid-1960s onwards), our outbuildings were a wash-house and a lav. The wash-house had a chimney stack and presumably would have had a 'copper' in the corner (it wasn't a coal-house; we had a coal-hole and cellar for that).

During our occupation, both outbuildings were incorporated into the main dwelling and became a utility room (I think we still called it the wash-house, especially as it housed a washer and a dryer) and, predictably, an indoor lav. We continued to use the Evening Post though.

[StephenFord 866]

When we moved to Long Eaton in 1954, our 1930s semi had an outside toilet and coal house, just a step across from the back door. (The intervening space was roofed over, but not enclosed at the ends. There was also a light outside the back door, but not in the loo itself. (This was remedied with an adaptor and flex, threaded through a hole drilled in the top frame of the door - enough to give "elfin safety" heart flutters. The smell of the lavatory (at least in Winter) was the residual paraffin fumes, from the little lamp that burned to prevent the pipes from freezing. (It also made it just about bearable to go on frosty evenings!)

[catfan 14,793]

In the '70s I lived at my sister's house on Birkin Avenue, Hyson Green, where we had an outside toilet.

This was in a row of six toilets, my sister's was kitted out with the Evening Post as per usual, but there, it was a matter of picking the sheet up off the floor & when you finished reading, rip a square off ! Then chuck the EP back on the floor. Only posh people had a nail or bit of string on the inside of the door to hang the paper on.

I always used a neighbour's toilet cos it was a lot cleaner & had proper loo rolls installed in there. Luckily I was never found out.

[carni 10,094]

Until I was 10/11 (can't remember exactly, must be getting old) we lived on Hardys Drive Gedling, this was in the 1950s. We lived in a Semi that had a shared courtyard round the back. Our toilets were across the courtyard, round a corner and in a little alley. As far as I can remember; there was no lighting. There were four of us children and parents. If we needed to go after dark mam or dad would escort us, but during the night if needed, we had a jerry "I wonder why it was called a jerry"? I remember the feeling of luxury when we moved to phoenix Estate and had an indoor Loo and a real bathroom. Very Posh!

[benjamin1945 16,160]

Loo this Looe that,wonder if you get an outside Loo in Looe,............anyway thought you'd gone to Looe,...........take ya' Jerry to Looe in case its outside in Looe,.........The loo ,that is.

[Blondie 1,392]

We had an outside loo for years.......one day the landlord - Hartwell at Hucknall decided to modernise us and he pulled the loo's down and put us a brand new bathroom in the house..........

[PeverilPeril 3,283]

We didn't have an inside loo until I was 21. Tin bath and public baths and newspaper on the nail until then. Bought 1st house at 24 with modern bathroom...whoooo! 2nd house at 26, bathroom and separate toilet.....whooo!-whoooo!. 3rd house at 30 with downstairs cloakroom, en suite shower and w/c, plus a family bathroom = 3 loos...whooo!whooo!whoooo!. 4th house at 48 had a utility room with loo, a family sized bathroom and a Victorian red brick sh' house in the garden with hole in the ground for droppings. Whoooo! whooo! what!? 5th house at 64 had a cupboard under the stairs with a loo in it, but being in the boondocks meant that one could return to nature, so countless loos!. I did add a couple of better ones though.

...must stop..need the cupboard...

[carni 10,094]

By the time I've worked your riddle out benjamin, it will be to late! Yes we have got an inside Loo in Looe. I don't think it was there when the old smugglers lived in the cottage though. Come to think of it, there are no yards or gardens. I wonder where they went?

Thank you for your good wishes Ian.

[PeverilPeril 3,283]

Apart from the traffic limitations Looe is a lovely place. My sister used to own the Grapevine Resto on the quay side in East Looe. In the past the restuarant courtyard was abattoir - so the massif grape vine flourished on the ancient blood. My sister used to take the grapes to the nearby monkey park.

[Guest]

Must say your outside affairs are fraught with hazard,at Skynner st.we had an outside bog: in a row of 4- these backed onto another 4.Because my Dad worked at Boots,there was loads of Timothy Whites 2 ply. My Mam swilled it out with bleach every day,the neighbours- Arthur and Harold Salmon "liked their pop" to say the least and would Destroy!! the toilet as well as blocking it with the Evening Post. Conversations of the hangover type would take place while in 'situ'" is that iron?" ( me ) or "is that Nikki nnna lious?" ( my brother Nick). A day of reckoning came in the the form of Mr. Merry from the corpo: Lil the aged mother who ( cleaned??) at the Corner Pin had put in a complaint about "blocked" throne, Mr Merry took one glimpse in and put a lump hammer straight through the outrams claro!! Me witnessing this aged 10, kids today stuck to games consoles just have'nt bleddy lived!!

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

26 years old 1972 before I ascended the heights to get an inside lavvy

[Chulla 4,946]

There was a popular saying/retort years ago. When somone was asked where they were going, and the person spoken to thought that they were being nosey, they would reply - 'I'm going for a shit with a blanket round me'. Some said a rug not blanket.

[Cliff Ton 10,467]

This is Garden Street in Radford, and a back yard which had outside toilets.The lady is my mum, but we've no idea who the kid is.

[LizzieM 9,509]

Ref. # 168. .........Well CliffTon's Mum always had a rag rug at the ready Chulla, # 169

[Compo 10,328]

#154: Talking of drunks in the alley: when I lived in Annesley rows (outside toilet) there was a couple lived a few doors down. She was huge and he was tiny. On a Saturday night he would often stagger down the street singing a wartime song that was something about "Blue" and his wife actually called him 'Blue' because of this. He was not completely "All there" at times and it was put down to having been a Japanese prisoner in Burma during WWII. As a punishment for some misdemeanor they tattooed a huge Rising Sun on his back. No wonder he enjoyed a pint or three!

[Guest]

Yer right compo, our entry served as a toilet from blokes in the peacock, my Mam use to run'em!!(I did message you about Rosso man)

[OrphanAnnie 296]

We lived in a council house with our first inside loo in 1960, also had outside one and coalhouse which we kids had to use when dad was on nights so not to disturb him. The loo I mean not the coalhouse....

[FLY2 10,108]

Dad whitewashed the inside walls of ours to make it brighter, but it only showed up the spiders more easily.