The bathroom fixtures have had many forms as well as uses throughout its early development. From the early idea of a faucet to the toilet itself, it has had many social and functional tasks associated with it. Through the 1800’s, the toilet evolved in order to function in an open air sewer system, but in addition function for the needs of all individuals. During this time period, large cities were faced with disease, odor, and lack of waste management. During the evolution from holes into walls, innovators of the 1800’s were able to create fixtures and solve problems such as noise, water usage and user error. These all came down to the fixtures design including the shape of the bowl, water usage as well as informing the user of its proper use. However, before the 1850’s, indoor plumbing was typically unavailable to those who were not nobility or of the wealthy class. These earlier fixtures allows one to look at the life of someone without the luxury of indoor plumbing and waste management. 

The original sink was actually one of the few fixtures that existed outside of the bathroom and allowed users to use it for hand washing as well as hair and body washing without completely submerging into a tub full of water. Traditionally, washing of the hands would be done during the morning(Wright, Pg. 39), or before a meal (Wright, Pg. 34). This was based on who was present, however, the fixture itself was a pitcher that was used as a  reservoir, and was paired with a basin, many times during a meal water was poured over the users hands into a small bowl (Wright, Pg. 35). As time would go on, users would start to see more built in basins that would have a removable reservoir (Pg. 38). This allowed users to warm the entire reservoir of water above a fire and place it above the basin to be used, and would take the water that was used away from the user. This feature was shown in the early 1500’s, and allowed us to see how it would have been used during that time. Some of the more portable wash-stands, allowed users to use the water for multiple uses such as soap and toilet water (Wright, Pg. 39).  However, water was used very little compared to today’s toilets that use an average of up to 7 gallons of water per flush on low eco-friendly models, and as low as 1.6 gallons of water on eco friendly models.  (Water Footprint Calculator).

Toilets have made many advancements since the invention of earlier models. One of the main models used many names including ‘hiding holes’, ‘priest’s holes’, ‘private chapels’, or most commonly known as garderobes. Many of these types of early toilets were built between two walls with a seat laid over it with an open shaft directly below, Shown in Figure 1(Wright, 48). While the shafts differed, they could be stacked side by side or even in a radial pattern dispersed evenly around a column, shown in figure.2 (Wright, Pg. 47).These configurations would drop directly into a moat (Wright, pg. 48), however, if a moat or a direct water source was not available, waste could be disposed of in a cesspool.
Cesspools were in common usage during the early 1800’s, and this was due to the lack of a sewage system. These caused many problems within large cities such as London. As one could assume, nobility and the rich had direct access to these and could afford to pay to have waste removed, or they could have an additional cesspool be built in order to manage the waste of their home. During the 1840’s, Queen Victoria’s Castle included more than 53 cesspools that were mismanaged (Angus, Pg 35-36). This was a continual issue, and led to many issues including disease and damage to homes. It was common for home owners to connect these cesspools to public rainwater sewers in order to dispose of this waste and limit damage to their homes (Angus, Pg. 33). In 1847 outbreak of a typhus epidemic it brought attention to the dangerous conditions large cities create without having a proper sewer system, and it wasn’t until 1850’s that laws would be discussed and implemented requiring water closets and running water be mandatory in homes (Angus, Pg. 50). During that time, we saw major innovations and solutions to these new indoor fixtures.
During the 1870’s, about twenty years after water closets and indoor plumbing were made mandatory, we saw innovations in these fixtures. During this time, there were two main types of Hopper closets, one was long which consisted of an oblong cylinder with water flowing in a spiral direction to flush fluids, however this proved to be inefficient due to the lack of momentum it created due to the long cylinder (Wright, Pg. 201). The Short hopper, with its same shape but lower cylinder and was ideal for budget type projects such as prisons or mass scale projects (Wright, Pg. 202). In addition to these, there were also the Washout Closet, the Valve Closet, and The Washdown Closet. Many of these had significant defects such as inefficiency due to lack of water from evaporation or failed flushing due to user error (Wright, Pg. 202). Shown in Figure 3.In addition to the fixture itself, it was typically incased with a chair, or wooden frame shown in figure 4. However in 1885, Twyford created a pedestal fixture that allowed for that casing to be removed and allowed for proper examination of the fixture itself (Wright, Pg. 205). This also allowed for the fixture to be decorated on the exterior shown in figure 5.