If you ‘ve ever been out and about in town or in the park the chances are that you’ll have been caught short in the need of a wee department. It’s a relief then to know that there are generally public toilets around that you can use sometimes for free sometimes for a small charge. You can partly thank George Jennings for that. He was responsible for the installation of the first flushing public toilet which made its debut at the Great Exhibition of 1851. He won a medal for his work and it was soon picked up by municipal organisations to start the installations of such features around London and beyond. Jennings style was to use marble and he created some of the most beautiful toilets ever seen. His finest work at the Crystal palace can no longer be seen as it was destroyed by fire. If your toilets need sprucing up like Jennings did then why not look to Washroom Services Gloucestershire based company  http://simplehygienesolutions.co.uk/ as they can provide all your hygiene product needs.

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The public toilet is not a place that many would choose to frequent unless you have to. But just imagine what things would be like if we didn’t have them. In the middle ages the people were quite content to simply drop their breeches and go in the street. This in addition to having to dodge the waste form windows and doors being chucked out into the street its no wonder that public health began to be considered a bit important by the Victorian era. Our ancestors where filthy and they did not concern themselves with keeping clean. Many thought that washing was dangerous as it removed all the essential oils from the human body. As the centuries wore on it did slowly become apparent that the removal of human waste from the streets and rivers might actually be a good idea and that maybe all these typhoid and cholera outbreaks might well be avoided.  Just as the Renaissance had highlight the fact that the Romans had public baths and sewers it started to dawn on the population that may this was another way to consider.

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It was the Public health act of 1848 that started to put the considerations of public health to the fore. There were two reasons of this the rise of cholera again and the report by Edwin Chadwick that completely outlined all of the problems that refuse, and squalor were causing. It slowly became the role of the local authority to take responsibility for the removal of refuse and to maintain a sewerage system.  This gave rise to the creation of public heath officers in 1851 who would report back to the board as to the performance of the authority. Just in time for Jennings new flushable toilets to start being commissioned.