Parisian Public Urinals: History and Hidden Uses

Parisian public urinals (vespasiennes), initially for hygiene, became sites for secretive activity, resistance communication during WWII, and even unique subcultures. Only one remains today.

These public urinals unintentionally created a public location for secretive activity, leading to their usage by private homosexual men as early as 1862, and as area to exchange information for those in the Resistance during WWII. In 1876, conservative Catholic political leader Eugène de Germiny was jailed in what came to be a political detraction for taking part in what was labelled indecent exposure with an 18 year-old man, and remarkable French create Roger Peyrefitte claimed that during the German Line Of Work of The Second World War “the streets were vacant, yet the pissotières were complete.” Even unfamiliar person subcultures, such as ‘soupeurs’, who appreciated dipping stagnant bread in others’ pee evolved around these strange columns of Parisian society.

Origins of Parisian Urinals

In the very early 19th century, public rest rooms began to be set up all across Paris to fight the city’s unhygienic problems, which had actually led to various epidemics (public commodes for women were not set up, as they were considered to use up too much room on public highways). They were called vespasiennes after the Roman emperor Vespasian, that famously positioned a “pee tax” on the purchase of pee accumulated from public commodes which was generally used by washings and natural leather tanneries for its ammonia.

Public urinals multiplied rapidly in Paris, and by 1904, the city’s rues and boulevards were populated with around 4,000 of them. As the visibility of pipes in private residences enhanced, use the rest rooms reduced, however not prior to they handled a couple of different uses.

Decline and Legacy

The majority of vespasiennes were dismantled from the 1960’s onwards, and today the only one staying is the one outside La Santé jail. The historic and social importance of these public urinals is hallowed with an affixed plaque. And, yes, it’s still possible to do your organization there today!