Cast Iron Urinal, 1902

Not your normal Edwardian preserved item - this is a cast iron urinal for men, originally located at New Street in the centre of Burton-Upon-Trent in Staffordshire, across the road from the General Hospital and near the Bass brewery's railway line. It was one of twenty-two new 'water closets' provided to the males of Burton in 1902/3 as part of Burton Town Council's sanitisation scheme. It is built in cast iron with a louvred glass roof. Urinals like this were common on the urban streets of Britain in the Edwardian era, however public conveniences for women were not to be provided until much later in the century.