Pay toilet

A freestanding, coin-operated pay toilet stall in Paris.

A pay toilet is a public toilet that costs money to use. It may be street furniture or be inside a building, e.g. a mall, department store, railway station, restaurant, etc.

The practice of charging for use of public toilets is the origin of the British euphemism for urination, to spend a penny.

Payment

Payment can be accomplished by:

• putting money on an unattended plate
• putting money in a box with a slot
• putting money in the slot of a turnstile or spring-door, which unlocks it
• giving the money to a toilet attendant (who is sometimes also in charge of the cleaning); there may or may not be a rule to pay in advance.

Except in the case of a coin-operated lock, the fee may or may not be fixed. Even if the fee is fixed, it is not enforced in the first two cases.

Modern times

Pay toilets are almost unknown in the United States. A campaign by the Committee to End Pay Toilets In America (CEPTIA) resulted in laws against pay toilets being enacted in a number of cities and states in the mid-1970s. Around that time, most restroom owners found they were losing more money due to stolen pay boxes than they made.

Pay toilets are not uncommon in Europe. Paris, in particular, is particlarly well-equipped with them: the streets of the city are forested with self-cleaning, coin-op booths (landmarks like Sacre-Coeur generally have several); riders on the Metro may encounter coin-op bathrooms in its underground stations; and even non-mechanized bathrooms may have attendants who expect tips. (This is not to say that there are no free bathrooms in the city, however -- large stores often have them.)

History

Ancient times

The earliest public toilets were set up in Knossos of the Minoan civilization in the Crete island, now part of Greece. However, the earliest pay toilets were erected in Ancient Rome in 74 AD during the rule of Vespasian, after a civil war in Rome affected greatly the Roman finance. His initiative was derided by his adversaries, but his reply to these objections is now famous: "Pecunia non olet" ("Money does not smell").

Medieval Ages

In some cities, during the Middle Ages, there were sellers of public toilets, who were equipped with a large cloak and a bucket, and for a fee, you could use the bucket, while hidden by the cloak.

References

• Bathroom Blues