“The first ever PUBLIC bathrooms, introduced in LONDON in 1851, cost ONE PENNY per VISIT.”

National Geographic 5,000 Awesome Facts, Fact # 7 on toilets

The earliest documented pay toilets goes back to around 74 AD in Rome by Emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus as a way to ease financial hardships resulting from war. (wikipedia.com)

Modern day pay toilets came around 1851 for the London Exhibition which were held May 1st to October 15. George Jennings , a plumber and English sanitary engineer, introduced the pay toilets at the Crystal Palace, and more than 800,000 visitors paid a penny to utilize these services. They were called ‘monkey closets’, and the first people had ever seen for a public paid toilet. For that penny you would receive a clean seat, a towel, a comb and a shoe shine. (mentalfloss.com)

After the Exhibition the idea took off with several towns and made its way to North America in 1936 when Walt Disney erected them in “Walt’s” , a popular cafe on Hollywood Boulevard, becoming the first establishment to open up public paid toilets.

Initially paid toilets were under the presumption that the entrance fee would motivate users to keep the stall cleaner, but the opposite occurred. They were trashed by angry patrons and coin boxes would be broken and stolen, according to http://www.neatorama.com.

As it turns out, Ronald Reagan, the governor at the times, banned them in California where they became obsolete in the 1970’s.

Various lawsuits by women’s groups saying that the pay toilets were sexually discriminatory because men were able to pee in the free urinals while women had to pay to urinate. A group of homeless people issued a class action lawsuit saying it was inhumane to have to pay to urinate or defecate in these facilities.

Even though there isn’t many paying toilets left in North America they are still widely used in Europe and other corners of the world. For example, Mexico have turn styles where an attendant gives out toilet paper. In Taiwan one must pay for the toilet paper but the toilet is free. In Russia you have to bring your own toilet paper.

Paid toilets still remain in France, Sweden, Germany, Columbia and Singapore.

There doesn’t really seem to be an answer to the public toilet controversy that exists today. Many businesses don’t allow people to use their toilets unless they are a customer, yet there seems to be an absence of public toilets available to, well, the public.