What were the typical hygiene conditions (w.c. bathrooms etc)in tudor britain?

Answer 1

In richer houses, people would use commodes - chamber pots enclosed in stools which their personal servants would empty. Hampton Court had public toilets which would be emptied and thoroughly cleaned when the Court moved to another palace.

In castles, you can still see the privies, which are tiny spaces in the thick walls where you could do your business in a hole over a plank and the waste would drop down into the moat. There were also communal toilets made of stone where you couldn't see each other but could chat (think Harry Potter and the amazing bathrooms in "The Chamber of Secrets").

Many still think that the Tudors were filthy and never washed; while this is true in part, it is also true that undergarments of linen were washed frequently by the washerwomen, and changed. The brocades and damasks that comprised the beautiful outerwear of the more wealthy could not be cleaned as easily as we can manage nowadays, so the linens would absorb the sweat and secretions of the body, be washed and changed, and the rich materials would be worn again. They were meant to last for years; fashion didn't change as quickly and easily as it does today, especially in our "throwaway" society.

Don't forget that our standards are very different from those in Tudor times. There is still a bath supposedly used by Mary, Queen of Scots that one can see now, and everybody would use a basin and jug to wipe their face and hands. Even teeth were cleaned with split twigs and primitive toothbrushes, but they didn't have the technology or knowledge that we have now.

Ideas of health were very different also, and medicine. Please don't denigrate the beliefs of the time based on the advanced knowledge we have now. It is also true that you wouldn't have noticed the smells of those times: now we have pollution, petrol, filthy behaviour - which hasn't changed much in the matter of spitting and breaking wind in public, etc - emissions of cars, planes and so on; in those days it would have been body odours which people sought to cover with pot-pourri, perfumes, scented gloves, etc, but we are all used to the smells of our own time.

Don't forget, also, that in medieval times, bathing was popular. You can see pictures here:
http://scholar.library.csi.cuny.edu/~talarico/medieval/bath02.jpg
http://www.sewerhistory.org/images/wh/whm/whm02.jpg

Lice combs would also have been used to rid the hair of lice - a problem we still have today in schools - and scented soaps were made along with pomanders to wear around the neck which one could sniff to cover the odours of the streets.

Whereas the smells if one could go back in time would probably be very unpleasant, we have substituted those with our own more modern aromas.

NB: we are learning a lot today from the cesspits of medieval Europe - see the Museum of London!
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.138
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Learning/Learningonline/features/viking/viking_4.htm

It is also true that people threw their waste from their windows into the street, where central gutters would contain all kinds of horrible waste matters, but it is what they were used to. Think of the waste we send to China these days, and where the waste of our immensely huge population goes - and swim in the deceptively clear seas of the Caribbean, etc.

Answer 2

Pretty seedy I would say. But there are plumbing and technological inventions about great britain at www.history.com
Get the pics as well they might be funny. They had a reasonable facsimile of a mirror, but they were so faded and weird they always looked unkempt with their wigs until someone else told them they were crooked they would not have know. Pretty googy huh? Some people gargled and they used a trough to spit or a can. They rarely took baths but they did take a swim once and a while in the summer.

Answer 3

htere were no water clsoets or bathrooms in tudor england, they used " chamber pots" that were emptied by chamber maids or servants, washing ones hands and other bathing were not in common fashion either, hygiene was mostly a 19th century concept when it was first detemined that germs cuased disease, before hand animlas even lived indoors with poorer people. the wealthy did bathe but no regularly, nor did they brush thier teeth, they hoped the wine or water they drank cleansed thier mouth. arm sleeves or pieces of bread were used to sop up stains on ones face. human waste was discarded pell mell outside of ones premises, as well as animal waste was not cleaned up

Answer 4

Probably pretty basic, and nasty. However, Sir John Harrington invented a flush toilet in 1596. this for Elizabeth I. it was called 'The Ajax'. but he was ridiculed and the invention wasn't generally adopted. I guess the majority of the populace hardly ever washed and were a pretty smelly lot.

Answer 5

that happens interior the Philippines and united states, too. You call that "in basic terms in Britain"? I call wearing the national dress with a pair of strolling pants "in basic terms interior the Philippines" Beat that!