Summary
Public convenience, the subterranean element constructed in 1910, and the above-ground element dating from about 1922, with later alterations, including remodelling as a café in 2023-2024 by the architectural practice DK-CM.
Reasons for Designation
The Public Toilet, Bruce Grove, including above-ground pavilion and subterranean chamber, with staircase, railings, gateways, and pavement lights, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* for the subterranean chamber of about 1910, lined with glazed bricks and illuminated by pavement lights, with its sweeping access stair;
* for the half-timbered 1920s cottage pavilion, with jetted tiled roof and copper-domed ventilation shaft;
* the robust railings with gateway overthrows which define the site and its features are unusually lavish.
Historic interest:
* public conveniences for women were relatively rare in the early C20, and this example, built with unequal provision, and with additional facilities for women added around 1920, illustrates social changes during the period.
Group value:
* with the listed late-18 and early-C19 houses on the other side of Bruce Grove.
History
Tottenham High Road, known historically as Tottenham Street, is part of what was once Ermine Street, the Roman Road leading from London to Lincoln and York. A settlement is recorded at Tottenham in the Domesday Survey of 1086, and a manor house existed by 1254, on or near the site of Bruce Castle (the name, bestowed in the 1680s, derives from medieval ownership of the manor by Robert the Bruce). The linear settlement grew along the High Road, with what was effectively the village centre being marked by the Green and High Cross, which commemorates the medieval wayside cross which once stood there. By the C16, Tottenham was a favoured rural retreat for city merchants, with a number of mansions along the High Road; subsequent development reflects the area’s status as a place of residence for wealthy Londoners, whilst a number of schools, as well as charitable and religious foundations were established there. Thomas Clay’s 1619 map of Tottenham depicts the High Road with intermittent buildings along its frontage, and others set back within enclosed grounds. Daniel Defoe observed in the 1720s that the building along the road from the city, passing through Newington, Tottenham, Edmonton and Enfield had increased so much recently as to give the appearance of ‘one continu’d street’, especially Tottenham and Edmonton; Defoe remarks on the houses of the wealthy merchants, some retaining houses in the city: ‘many of these are immensely rich’ (A Tour Thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724-1727). However, as in most villages, Tottenham’s inhabitants were socially mixed: Peter Guillery has noted that ‘the face of Tottenham High Road was hugely varied; few of the many timber-built small-scale buildings survive’ (The Small House in Eighteenth Century London, 2004). Wyburd’s parish map, surveyed in 1798, shows much of the High Road north of High Cross bordered by buildings, many within spacious grounds.
In the late C18 and early C19, new villas and terraces began to spread outwards along existing and new sideroads running from the High Road. Of these, one of the earliest and much the most prestigious is Bruce Grove, running north-west from the High Road to Bruce Castle, following the line of one of the avenues of Bruce Castle Park. The development of Bruce Grove was made possible by the break-up of the Bruce manorial lands in 1789. Building commenced on the west side near the junction with the High Road with a group of villas (now numbers 5-16) completed by 1798. These houses, mostly semi-detached pairs, were soon associated with a number of wealthy Quaker families. In about 1820, a short terrace (now numbers 1-4) was built. The opposite side of Bruce Grove, and the stretch to the north-west, was still undeveloped in 1894, and was occupied by a row of massive elms, felled in 1903.
Substantial houses of the sort built at the end of the C18 in Bruce Grove were for those who owned carriages, but with the advent of daily coach services from London in 1823, of omnibuses in 1839, and the arrival of the Northern and Eastern Railway to the east at Tottenham Hale in 1840, Tottenham became accessible to less affluent middle-class people, and the Tithe map of 1844 shows increasing development of smaller houses along the High Road. The opening of the Liverpool Street-Edmonton branch of the Great Eastern Railway in 1872, with a station at the junction of Bruce Grove and the High Road, brought about a development boom, providing more modest housing. Industries established locally during the C19 included a lace factory in 1810, a silk factory in 1815 – this became a rubber mill in 1837 – and brewing from the mid-C19. The abundance of brick-earth in Tottenham meant that brick- and tile-making was a strong local industry from the middle ages to the C19, whilst many farms and market gardens along the banks of the River Lea supplied the London market with fruit and vegetables.
The Bruce Grove public toilet, at the south-east end of Bruce Grove, near the station, was originally constructed in about 1910, apparently to the design of WH Prescott, surveyor and engineer, on land provided by the prominent local family, the Howards, for this purpose. The site provided facilities for both men and women, located beneath ground level, and accessed via separate staircases, with an enclosure of iron railings. In the early 1920s, a pavilion superstructure was constructed, apparently to the design of H F Wilkinson, intended to provide additional facilites for women, for whom the original provision had been half that for men. This pavilion was of the ‘cottage’ type, frequently used for public WCs during the period, in London and across the country. The western staircase to the ladies’ subterranean toilets was probably removed at this time, with access to the pavilion being provided by a porch at its north-east corner, via a gateway from Bruce Grove to the east. A third phase of work took place in about 1980, when the entrance porch was remodelled, and an extension constructed to the rear. At the same time, a disabled toilet with separate access was created within the pavilion to the north. The building fell out of use in about 1985 and became derelict; it was later placed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register. A programme of work through the High Street Heritage Action Zone project in 2023-2024 has seen the restoration of the site, and conversion for commercial use probably as a café, the work undertaken by the architectural practice DK-CM. The intention is that the site will still be accessible as a public toilet, in accordance with a covenant placed on the land. The work has included construction of a new extension, replacing that erected in the 1980s, linked with a new porch in the position of the original porch. Conversion work saw the removal of cubicles and other fittings including timber screens; some have been reused as part of the new internal design, including marble stall dividers from the men’s WC cubicles.
The Public Health Act of 1848 called for 'Public Necessaries' to be provided to improve sanitation, and in 1851 the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace had toilets for visitors designed by the sanitary engineer and plumber George Jennings. The first on-street public toilet for men appeared in London in 1852, with a facility for women opening the following week. Thereafter, however, public toilet provision for women in Victorian England was generally very poor by comparison with that for men. William Haywood, City of London Corporation Engineer, started the first municipal public toilets in 1855. George Jennings proposed locating WCs below street level, minimising offense as well as the space occupied; the first underground toilets appeared at the Royal Exchange in 1885 and by 1895 Jennings’s public conveniences, mostly subterranean facilities for men, had spread to 36 British towns. During the later Victorian and Edwardian periods local authorities constructed public conveniences conforming to a high standard, with considerable attention being paid to their external design. Despite the efforts of the Ladies’ Sanitary Association, amongst other groups, from the mid-C19, inequality of provision continued into the early C20, largely on the basis that women travelled away from home less than men; at the same time, urinals were cheaper to construct. In practice, of course, the lack of facilities limited independence and freedom of travel for many women. The socialist writer George Bernard Shaw, a vestryman for St Pancras, campaigned for facilities for women in Camden High Street in the early 1900s, but many felt the subject was an unseemly one. Provision for women did gradually increase, but C19 and early-C20 ladies’ public toilets are rare nationally, and most of those examples which are now listed were designed for men.
Details
Public convenience, the subterranean element constructed in 1910, and the above-ground element dating from about 1922, with later alterations, including remodelling as a café in 2023-2024 by the architectural practice DK-CM.
MATERIALS: the above-ground external elements of the facility consist of a pavilion with plinth of red salt-glazed brick, the upper parts rendered and painted, with applied timbers, and a plain-tiled pitched roof with slightly jetted eaves and decorative ridge tiles. There is a centrally-placed square ventilation shaft in the form of a cupola with louvered sides and a copper domed roof with finial; this shaft is a replacement, following the original design. The window openings hold fixed timber multi-pane frames with opening hopper sections above. The subterranean elements are protected by cast iron railings, and railings of the same type enclose the site to the south. Cast-iron pavement lights illuminate the subterranean chamber.
PLAN: the pavilion as originally built is a single-storey rectangular structure, orientated roughly north/south, spanning the triangular site within which it is set, bounded by the railway line to the north and Bruce Grove to the south. There is an extension of 2023-2024 to the north and north-west, linked with the rebuilt entrance porch to the north-east; the north-western elevation of the extension is curved to fit the boundary of the site. The subterranean section of the facility is triangular on plan, beneath the pavilion, and is accessed via a staircase to the east.
EXTERIOR
Pavilion: the west, south and east elevations have two windows each. The gable end of the pavilion fronts Bruce Grove to the south, enlivened by a bargeboard with chamfered detailing and a stretcher near the apex. In the western elevation the two windows are separated by a door opening, holding a replacement glazed door. At the northern end of the east elevation is the rebuilt porch, constructed of glazed timber panels with an angled entrance. The northern extension extends to the north-west of the original pavilion, and is constructed of glazed timber panels with large double doors to the south.
Railings and stairs: chunky and ornate cast-iron railings set on a red-brick plinth with stone capping run along the Bruce Grove boundary of the site, with openings providing access to the western side of the pavilion (originally providing access to the subterranean ladies’ toilets) to the west, and to the stairs to the below-ground section (originally the men’s subterranean toilets) to the east, with a third entrance (probably later) further east leading to the pavilion’s entrance porch. The entrances have cast-iron gates and there are lamp overthrows to the western and eastern gateways, with another framing the top of staircase. Railings also border the western and north-eastern boundaries of the site, and the western approach to the pavilion, as well as encircling the stairwell to the east. The stairwell, which is lined with white glazed brick, is entered from the south and curves to access the basement at the north-east end.
INTERIOR
Pavilion: the interior of the 1920s pavilion is lined with cream tiles, with red tile detailing to the dado and skirting, and following the line of the timber-boarded ceiling. The original cubicles have been removed. Towards the north end the space is spanned by a timber screen with a glazed transom. The northern wall of the pavilion has been removed and the original space now opens into the extension. Fittings installed in 2023-2024 include a lift at the southern end of the pavilion and a servery to the north; the floor has been covered with chequered tiles.
Subterranean chamber: the interior is lined with glazed bricks, with green bricks to the dado and skirting and a moulded dado detail. The floor has chequered tiling installed in 2023-2024. The coffered ceiling is composed of steel I-beams set in a grid supporting concrete slabs, with sections of cast-iron pavement lights, some repositioned. All original sanitary fittings have been removed. The stair leads under a chamfered arch into a small area which originally contained urinals. A small room for an attendant beneath the stair is floored with original black and white chequered tiling. To the west is the former men’s lavatory area which originally contained washbasins; this now houses the lift. A gap in the tiling on the north-east wall indicates the original position of a row of urinals. On the western wall the spacing of the original men’s WC cubicles is marked by strips of marble retained when the stall dividers were removed. What was originally the women’s section, with its staircase, attendant’s closet, WC cubicles, and lavatory area with basins, occupies the south-west corner. This area has seen some reconfiguration. There is a later opening in the wall which originally divided the former urinal area at the foot of the stairs from the women’s section, reflecting the loss of the separate women’s staircase/entrance.
