When you think of the types of buildings and places that make it onto Australia’s heritage listings, you probably imagine large Victorian houses, parliamentary buildings and national parks.<\/p>\n
But tucked away on George Street, Dawes Point, is one of Sydney’s most unexpected heritage-listed sites: a cast-iron urinal.<\/p>\n
This “pissoir” (yes, that is what it’s called; it’s French) is one of Australia’s oldest, and in the humble opinion of yours truly, one of its most beautiful.<\/p>\n
But age and beauty don’t automatically qualify you for heritage protection. So how did this piece of plumbing achieve such a status?<\/p>\n
Scottish design, Sydney landmark<\/p>\n
Sydney Council has provided public toilets since 1880, but the George Street pissoir began life across the globe in Glasgow.<\/p>\n
The James Allen Snr & Son’s Elmbank foundry specialised in all manner of cast iron public fittings: drinking fountains, railings, bandstands and verandahs \u2014 they did it all.<\/p>\n
B G Plummer & Co Sydney supplied the George Street urinal to the Sydney City Council in 1911 \u2014 possibly having cast it from moulds by James Allen Snr & Son’s design.<\/p>\n
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A urinal with an identical design can be found at the SS Great Britain exhibition site in Bristol, England. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
But it’s not its exotic origin that makes this pissoir historically significant.<\/p>\n
Toilets as social history<\/p>\n
“Public toilets matter because they reflect how we value people and their human rights to water and sanitation,” public toilet researcher and advocate Katherine Webber says.<\/p>\n
“[They’re] part of the history of our public spaces, and of whose rights were promoted and facilitated in public spaces.”<\/p>\n
In the 1880s, Sydneysiders were fed up with the lack of public facilities. Men were urinating in the street, and women \u2014 well \u2014 women had to hold it.<\/p>\n
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Two women wait for their male companion outside the George Street urinal at its original location in Observatory Park, Sydney, circa 1973. (Supplied: City of Sydney Archives)<\/p>\n
“With industrialisation and the need to work out of the home, women, alongside men, have been using our public spaces and participating in public life,” Webber says.<\/p>\n
“However, there have been class and racial differences in the women who have been ‘allowed’ to be seen or acknowledged participating in public life.”<\/p>\n
As historian Anna Temby points out<\/a>, the main barrier to installation for public toilets (aside from finances) has been the question of where to put them.<\/p>\n On one hand, public toilets need to be in convenient and safe locations. But on the other hand, there has always been strong community resistance to installation of toilets \u2014 especially female toilets \u2014 in visible areas.<\/p>\n