Jennings
NAME: Jennings, George
ACHIEVEMENT(S):First public toilets.
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: c. 1812, at London, England.
DATE/PLACE/AGE AT DEATH: 1882, in Clapham, London, England. Aged around 70
DISCIPLINE: Sanitary engineer
FIELD: Public sanitation
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Unknown
SIBLINGS: Unknown
SPOUSE: Unknown
CHILDREN: Several sons who carried on the family business
EDUCATION: Unknown
MAJOR WORK: None
LIFE AND TIMES: During the 1840s Jennings manufactured a variety of earthenware pipes, sinks, baths and water-closets, and became closely involved with the movement for sanitary reform in London led by <collaborated with> Chadwick*, Lord Shaftesbury and others. In 1847 he received from Prince Albert the medal of the Society of Arts for his designs, and in 1851 introduced his toilets at the Great Exhibition of 1851, where 827,280 visitors paid for their use. The new toilets proved extremely popular, as the replaced communal latrines without seats or partitions.
During the Crimean War (1853-56), Jennings' firm was responsible for the sanitary arrangements of the <did sanitary backup for> Crimean War* military hospitals at Scutari (where <work related to> Nightingale* was based) and Varna.
Then, in 1855 came Jennings's revolutionary suggestion to Colonel Haywood, chief engineer to the Commission of Sewers, that the Commission authorize the design and construction of underground public toilets in the City of London. After meeting resistance as to cost and "public delicacy", Jennings became a prominent campaigner for a network of public toilets for London, crusading for the provision of "conveniences suited to this advanced stage of civilization" in place of "those Plague Spots that are offensive to the eye, and a reproach to the Metropolis".
He was soon offering to construct and furnish such an underground 'Halting Station' anywhere in the City of London free of charge, provided the "respectable attendants" in his employ were allowed to make a small charge for the use of closets and towels. The idea was rejected by the City of London, and it was not until the 1870s - with <work related to> Bazalgette's* extensive new sewage system in place - that Jennings was given the commission.
The public toilets he then constructed in London were designed to be both as functional and as beautiful as possible: many were placed underground with identifying surface cast-iron arches and railings, or pergolas. Those built above ground were distinctive buildings, with pillars and decorative panels, and all were lit by elegant lamps.
Inside, Jennings designed a central pillar with urinals around it, reminiscent of a flower with its petals open, and economical with both space and water. The urinals, first made of slate, soon all became ceramic.
By the 1870s Jennings was internationally famous. In 1884 he was posthumously
awarded a gold medal at the Heath Exhibition for his 'Pedestal Vase' water-closet, which was described as being "as perfect a sanitary closet as can be made". In a test, its two-gallon flush removed ten apples, one flat sponge 4.5 inches in diameter, a quantity of plumber's grease coated onto the pan, and four pieces of paper stuck to the surface.
His sons carried on the business and the firm’s greatest triumph of the firm came in 1900, when the “symphonic closet” won the Paris Grand Prix and the title 'Closet of the Century.' It was the direct ancestor of the modern lavatory..
ASSESSMENT: George Jennings was particularly forward-looking in his attitude towards sanitary reform, and the need for public conveniences in the modern metropolis.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: George Jennings, early sanitary pioneer
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
"A Pioneer in Sanitary Engineering", in The Sanitary Record, (1897) 23
April, 368-72
Wright, Lawrence, Clean and Decent: The History of the Bath and Loo, Rev. ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980