This toilet was constructed to cater for patrons of the Bartholomew Fair, which despite being a cloth fair was arguably better known for hosting freak shows, so when the toilets were built they included a range of unique features including urinals set at five different heights, to cater for dwarves and giants, and a cubicle containing two adjacent toilets, which could be used by any siamese twins who were appearing.
When the fair ceased to be held, plans were made to alter the toilet’s opening hours to benefit workers at the nearby meat market, in the same way that several pubs in the area had unconventional licensing hours to cater for employees who worked through the night and finished early in the morning, but after beginning the project the City of London Corporation came up against some unexpected opposition. It turned out that public conveniences were subject to complex and labyrinthine laws laid down in the sixteenth century by the Worshipful Company of Toilet Attendants, and it was actually far more complicated to arrange late opening for public toilets than for pubs, so after several decades of legal wrangling the idea was abandoned, and the toilets have lain unused ever since.
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