Gentlemen'S Public Convenience At Bromley-By-Bow Adjacent To Statue Of We Gladstone

Gentlemen's Public Convenience at Bromley-by-Bow, adjacent to the statue of W.E. Gladstone

This gentlemen's public convenience was built in 1899 by the Poplar Board of Works. It has undergone some later modifications. (The later ladies' conveniences are not included in the listing.)

The WC is situated below street level and is identified at ground level by decorative iron railings and cast-iron gates. The railings feature scroll panels, pointed railheads, and cusped pyramidal post heads, with the initials 'WEG' set in the centre. The gates are similarly ornate with scrolled tops. The railings bound a crescent-shaped space with gates at both ends, from which two flights of stairs descend to a central entrance. The walls are lined with white glazed bricks and incorporate a foundation stone inscribed 'CONSTRUCTED BY / THE BOARD OF WORKS / FOR THE / POPLAR DISTRICT / OPENED 1899'. The original handrail survives on the stairs, leading down through an opening topped with a pink granite lintel to the WC entrance.

The interior walls are lined with glazed cream and beige bricks to dado level and white glazed bricks above, with two courses of green glazed brick at dado height. The floor is terrazzo. The triangular-shaped chamber is lit by a skylight in its furthest corner, though evidence suggests electric lighting was also originally provided. On the right-hand side are six cubicles with partitions in a classical design, now heavily painted but appearing to have marble veneer where paint has peeled away. The cubicle doors and toilets have been removed. Along the left-hand side runs a row of original russet marble urinals, each bearing the maker's mark of George Jennings of Palace Wharf, Lambeth, stamped on both the porcelain and in a roundel that also bears the royal arms. Near the entrance is a partitioned section that formerly housed washbasins or an attendant's room.

The WC was designed to fit around the statue of W.E. Gladstone, erected on this site in 1881, with the iron railings bearing his initials in recognition of this arrangement. George Jennings (1810-1882) invented the wash-out design of toilet and established his company at Palace Wharf, Lambeth in 1838, becoming the first to apply new sanitary designs to public conveniences. He introduced his innovations at the Great Exhibition at Hyde Park in 1851, where over 800,000 visitors paid to use the facility, an event that is said to have given rise to the euphemism 'spend a penny'. By the close of the 19th century, Jennings' format for basement public WCs had been adopted by reforming municipal authorities in cities and towns across the country.