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

[Blondie 1,391]

We had an outside lav back in the 1950's in Hucknall.........It was horrible, always snot down the walls and newspaper to wipe one's backside on, the pipes use to freeze in the winter when you could not get the chain to pull and people left their messes, a lighted candle was always standing by the tank then, buckets of water were used.........We lived on a back yard with 2 other houses which were rented rooms, always scruffy families coming and going, they never cleaned their lav's, so they use to use ours when they thought no one was looking - my dad whitewashed it regularly and mum cleaned it almost everyday using harpic, I can remember that smell, I hated going into the lav, it was awful, couldn't wait to get into the kitchen to wash my hands afterwards.................Later the landlords changed hands and we were modernised, an inside bathroom was installed and the lav's where pulled down, that was great.......

[Compo 10,185]

That Harpic smell lingers on the nasal sensors like nothing else on the planet!

[mercurydancer 1,104]

I can certainly remember Birkin Avenue in the late 60s. It had an outside lav. It still had an Anderson shelter too. As a child I asked for the loo and my father took me down a path made of the shiny white bricks from the iron works, and to the toilet.

My father was from a big family and there was only one lav. Out the back. How they managed back in the 40s when my father and his siblings grew up is anyones guess. I suspect it had something to do with potties.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Heard about the French artist with two toilets ...........................Toulouse Lautrec

[denshaw 2,825]

I thought you might tell us about the celebrity with two toilets, Lulu.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

Expecting the rabbits to use the bog roll provided ?

[nonnaB 4,761]

My mum recalls when she was younger and they had an outside toilet. Her family kept a chicken in the back yard called Larty. It never let her go into the loo and chased her round the yard. Eventually its neck was pulled and it was served at the dinner table. She refused to touch it.

[philmayfield 5,506]

We lived in a semi in the relatively upmarket suburb of Woodthorpe back in the 40's/50's and had an outside toilet. It was just down the yard from the kitchen next to the coal house. It all seemed perfectly normal at the time as I knew no other. We also kept chickens, sold eggs and grew vegetables. My father had an allotment on Somersby Road (now built over). We ultimately moved to a house off Thackery's Lane in the 60's which did have an inside toilet and was quite a novelty at the time. When we moved to the countryside in '62 we had both an inside and outside toilet. The outside one being the archetypal brick built shed down the garden which was "convenient" when working outside. Where we now live we have four toilets - luxury I could never have imagined as a child!

[mary1947 1,907]

Born and breed up St Ann's all the house's (unfit for human habitation) had out side toilet's. We were lucky as each house in our  yard had it's own loo.

Each Saturday morning, mum would wash and scrub the toilet floor and clean the toilet. In winter dad would put in a lighted candle to stop the toilet from freezing. For the light we had a touch blub attached to a battery, believe it or not this worked. We must have had the cleanest toilet up St Ann's.

 

A member ask if any one did not have a toilet supplied by the mains water, when we lived at the coast we had a cesspit, and to get it emptied you had to phone a chap called "Cesspit Sid" now as far as I know Sid is still empting Cesspits, he must be getting on for 70/80.

[plantfit 7,206]

What a lovely name "Cesspit Sid" just love it (bet he used to come over just to take the pi$$)

 

Rog

[PeverilPeril 3,171]

All the houses that I lived in when in Nottingham had outside toilets ('loo' was an unknown word then). Speetchly St, Peveril St and Park Rd Carlton. The house we live in now had a red brick sh but it was in a state of collapse so was demolished. That was 30 years ago and that area of garden is still settling and I have to keep filling it in. The nearby Magnolia is doing well though.

We had a shock when moving into our house in France. Mrs PP went upstairs to the bathroom for the loo - there wasn't one! Then we found it - in a cupboard under the stairs. There are now 3 loos inc the cupboard. Like compo there is plenty of choice outside in our few acres.

[Chulla 4,946]

Our first house after we were married had an outside toilet (a bit posh - it was a lavatory). One day there was a terrific storm and lightning struck the chimney stack, sending a shower of house bricks into the yard and through the lav's slate roof. Thankfully no-one was on the throne at the time. The lav had an interesting feature. As you sat there contemplating on a sunny day, a very narrow beam of sunlight projected through a tiny hole in the door, producing a perfect pinhole camera image of the outside scene on the inside whitewashed wall. You don't get that added extra with modern-day toilets. On the negative side it used to freeze up in winter.

[denshaw 2,825]

Down the Meadows everyone had an outside Lav, no bath or shower, we had to go to the public baths on Muskham st, only one electric socket in the whole house, I don't know how we survived.

[loppylugs 8,351]

190.  I bet the image was upside down though.  You'd need to do some exercises to see it right way up. 

[katyjay 4,997]

Not about Nottingham (I know! First time for everything) but seeing the word Lavatory reminded me of the difference in English and American. When we were motel hunting 31 years ago, one of the States we looked at, was Colorado. The agent showing us properties was also a motel owner. For our overnight stay he suggested we stay at his place and could see what a remodelled motel looked like. The next morning at breakfast, he asked if the room had been O.K, and mentioned the bathroom. He said the lavatory is a bit small though, you can hardly wash your hands in there. We looked shocked, wondering what sort of country we'd come to, he then explained he was talking about the tiny corner wash hand basin. Known as a lavatory! Learned 2 new words there, when he took us to lunch, and I ordered a sandwich and chips and got a bag if crisps on me plate.

[plantfit 7,206]

We had an outside toilet when we lived on Bathley street,smelled of paraffin in winter and damp white wash rest of the year,spiders as big as sparrows anall

 

Rog

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

When I worked on EMGB in the early 60s winter was a great time for us, nice and frosty, snow on the ground, finished work and off we went defrosting outside loo's and mending leaks in the lead pipe's. Plenty of beer money in a winter.

 

Don't think I'd seen an inside loo or soft bog roll until I worked in Nottingham Park, it was Izel at school and the evening post at home. Proper recycling.

[radfordred 6,278]

You knew which kids @ Sidney Person Hill had a piss pot in there bedroom they stank of urine?

 

  

[catfan 14,782]

#192.

Ayup Katy, how come the bottom couple of feet are always missing from US bog doors ?

[katyjay 4,997]

I reckon, if the lock gets stuck, you can limbo out of there! Actually I don't know the answer, as well as a gap at the bottom, there are gaps up each side, like the door is smaller than the gap. I always pee as fast as I can, to get out of there. LOL. 

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

^^^^^^^That's why they have the gaps ................. folks are much quicker so they have to install less loo's, no sitting there contemplating the history of the universe. Just economy like over here they loo rolls are now much narrow about 10mm I think, saves a fortune in paper.

[OLDIE 45]

Lived in Radford, an outside loo across the yard. In winter Dad hung a hurricane lamp near the cistern to keep it from freezing. News Of The World toilet paper, or the Post. As kids we were frightened of the dark, so we had the luxury of a "high end" plastic torch from Woolworths. Didn't trust us with candles! The toilets at Claremont school were outside, and it was a toss-up what was worst  . Tha smell of disinfectant, or the smell of----well, you know. I wonder if that's why it was  the place to go to sneak a quick fag? Moved to a house in Forest Fields, with an inside toilet. What luxury. Oddly there was an outside one as well. Handy when you had an elder sister using the facilities. I guess we all take it for granted nowadays, I'd love to see how today's kids would manage.

[catfan 14,782]

They wouldn't, uman rites & all that rubbish !

[Jill Sparrow 9,671]

My relatives in Garden Street had no bathroom and the loo was right at the bottom of the yard. No light and the danger of a freeze up in winter. As a child who was extremely picky about toilets, I wouldn't use it. If Emily or George needed to answer the call of nature in the night, there was a pot under their bed!

[MargieH 7,423]

Catfan, Do you think the people there would be expected to carry poo bags to clear up after their dogs.....  just a thought...