Public Lavatory

Categories / City Services/Housing and Communal Services
PUBLIC LAVATORY. Since the early 18th century, primitive latrines were arranged on the territory of gostiny dvors, markets, ports, and along river and canal banks. Public "retiradniks" (from the French "retirer", meaning "to retire"), wooden houses with holes in the floors built above cesspits, were constructed in courtyards; they were used by street cleaners, doormen, street vendors and residents of basement floors. The first "retiradnik" inside a building was built in 1710, at Tsar Peter the Great's Summer Garden; the first public lavatory was arranged in 1871, near the Mikhailovsky Manege (a cabin on a stone foundation under a yellow roof with a gas-light, architect I.A. Merz). Back stairs in apartment buildings were equipped with toilets using the flow-through system, set up for residents of apartments without sanitary conveniences. Sewers were mainly made of wood (a few were made of brick), and led to cesspits. Excrement was removed from pits with scoops (in a few cases by pumps) into open barrels or boxes. On Vasilievsky Island, there was a dung-cart service, provided at night by numerous private workmen. During summer time, sewage was removed on special boats (each held up to 300 carts) along the Smolenka River and the Zhdanovka River to Lakhta, where it was dumped and carried off into the sea. By the end of the 19th century, a number of public lavatories and street urinals were constructed on city streets, and were kept clean with constantly flowing water. Cabins were used for public street lavatories from the early 20th century, and were heated in the winter. Public lavatories were located at the Alexander Garden, at the Senate building, at the Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor, along Chernyshev Lane, at the Mariinsky Market, on Zagorodny Avenue, at the Technological Institute, at the Baron Willie Clinic, at the Post Office building (paid), in all railway stations, on Sennaya Square, and at the Corps Yard. Street urinals were set up mainly along bridges, inside the Gostiny Dvor and Apraksin Dvor, along the railing at the Alexander Garden on the Admiralty Square, in the Mikhailovsky Public Garden, and in other crowded places. Almost every building and drinking-house had a public “place of convenience.” In the late 19th - early 20th centuries, three identical public lavatories, shaped like small mansions, were constructed on Kronverksky Avenue, and near the Nikolaevsky Bridge and Tuchkov Bridge (architect A.I. Zazersky; one of them existed up to the early 1960s, and was destroyed only when the Gorkovskaya Metro Station was being built). In Soviet times, there were few public lavatories in Leningrad, which caused certain inconveniences. In the 1990s, public lavatories were under the jurisdiction of Spetssluzhba Municipal Enterprise. Since 1991, the network of privately-owned public lavatories started forming, and the number of public "places of convenience" increased noticeably. By the beginning of the 21st century, running a public lavatory became unprofitable because of high rent charges, and their number began to decrease again. According to State Sanitary Epidemiological Inspectorate regulations, there must be a public lavatory every 500 meters, but this rule is not observed. In 2002, St. Petersburg had 500 public lavatories under the jurisdiction of the Vodokanal State Unitary Enterprise.

References: Все секреты про туалеты Петербурга / В. Герасимов, В. Левтов. СПб., 1998; Светлов С. Ф. Петербургская жизнь в конце XIX столетия (в 1892 г.). СПб., 1998. С. 51, 105; Юхнева Е. Д. Благоустройство петербургского жилища: 100 лет назад // История Петербурга. 2001. № 1. С. 29-34.

I. A. Bogdanov, Y.N. Kruzhnov. Peter I, Emperor
Zazersky Alexey Ivanovich
Zazersky Alexey Ivanovich
Kronverksky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Светлов С. Ф. Петербургская жизнь в конце XIX столетия (в 1892 г.). СПб., 1998
Все секреты про туалеты Петербурга / В. Герасимов, В. Левтов. СПб., 1998
Юхнева Е. Д. Благоустройство петербургского жилища: 100 лет назад // История Петербурга.2001 Manege
Senate and Synod Buildings
Bolshoy Gostiny Dvor
State Institute of Technology, St. Petersburg
Post Office, Central
Apraksin Yard
Tuchkov Bridge
Gostiny Dvor