Flushed with Pride: The History of the Lavatory

This week John and Clive present their long-awaited podcast on one of the most essential but least discussed rooms in any dwelling – the lavatory.  Or (because no object in English or any other language is subject to so many euphemisms and circumlocutions) the necessary, the little house, the smallest room, the going place, the jakes, the john, the pissing place, the bog, the toilet…the list goes on.  Although it fulfils a universal need, the loo has taken many forms over the centuries, being subject not only to technological innovation but social change.  Today’s norms were not always those of the past.  Did multi-seater conveniences provide users with the chance to talk to friends, or do they reflect the discipline of monastic or military life – to be frequented only at certain times and in a regulated manner?  From the magna cloaca of Ancient Rome to Sir John Harington’s funny but laboured book on the first water closet, via the Victorian sewers (which Clive has visited) beneath London, ypompod shines a light on a subject that, in some respects, cannot be too private.  Warning: the episode may contain schoolboy humour, however much John and Clive have attempted to avoid it.