InKing Henry VIIIof England ’s pleasure palace , Hampton Court , there was no escaping class — not even in the loo .
The Martin Luther King , of course , had a luxurious place to squat . According to the Hampton Court Palacewebsite , he and other royal sat atop a cushioned chair “ cover in lambskin , disgraceful velvet , and ribbons , ” loft above a pewter chamber mint .
This toilet was private , located in a so - address “ stool way ” that was attend to by a luxuriously - ranking courtier do it as theGroom of the Stool . It was a privileged , well - respected gig , akin to being a bathroom incidental , but focused on deal the monarch butterfly ’s waste . ( Apparently the bridegroom would even take notes on the sovereign ’s movements . In 1539,Henry VIII ’s groomshowed a flair for euphemisms by writing that the world-beater had take laxative and get “ a very fair siege . ” )
How did courtiers and servants go to the bathroom?
Down a social thole , Henry VIII ’s highest - respect courtiers were n’t nearly as coddle as their Billie Jean King , but they were still prosperous enough to have their own private chambers — and , therefore , their own chamber pots . The same , however , could not be said for Hampton Court ’s many servant .
The noisome truth is that Hampton Court was not well equipped to serve the somatic motive of hundreds of servants . During the B. B. King ’s boisterous banquets , busy servant on a regular basis heeded nature ’s call by relieving themselves in hidden hall corridors and on sizzle fireplaces .
In the kitchen , the boy assigned to turning the spit werecommonly found“interlarding their own grunge to help the drippings . ” The walls reeked of urine so mischievously that , according tohistorian Lucy Worsley in her bookIf Walls Could Talk , “ the palace direction would have crosses chalked onto the walls in the Bob Hope that people would be reluctant to unhallow a spiritual symbol . ”
How did Henry VIII and his courtiers deal with it?
To ready the trouble , King Henry VIII reconstruct a elephantine toilet mental block by theRiver Thamescalled the Great House of Easement . ( The king was no slouch at deploy the periodic euphemism either . ) The lav had two story and could seat 28 the great unwashed at one time .
As a mutual space , it had no stalls and no rampart and greatly resemble the other public crapper in England , which were essentially glorify benches with holes cut through them . ( In London , there was an telling 128 - seater call Whittington ’s Longhouse , which wasdivided into two sectionsfor men and women . )
The only matter arguably worse than using the Great House of Easement was cleaning it . The communal lav led to a armoured combat vehicle that , after the king ’s festivities , had to be scrubbed by a group of king - charge boys , make out as Gong Scourers . In 1995 , Simon Thurley — then - curator of Historic Royal Palaces — toldThe Independent , “ After the court had been here for four weeks , the brick chambers would meet pass - high . ”
make clean your menage ’s sewer does n’t seem like such a chore , now does it ?
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A version of this story was in the beginning published in 2018 and has been updated for 2025 .
