A wheelchair user in Toronto checks washroom locations before going to restaurants or bars because many facilities place washrooms in basements reached by steep, narrow stairwells. She posts review videos ranking accessibility under the handle “Access By Tay,” and says washroom location is a frequent question from her audience. A bathroom historian connected to Heritage Toronto traces the problem to early Toronto public health conditions before plumbing, when pit latrines and basement waste systems contributed to groundwater pollution and illness. As Toronto built a sewer system and supplied treated drinking water in the mid-1800s, low water pressure may have limited the ability to supply plumbing to upper floors, influencing where washrooms were installed.
"“Any time Taylor Lindsay-Noel wants to go to a restaurant or bar in Toronto, she first checks where the washrooms are located. Usually, she finds, they're tucked away in a basement. ‘It happens extremely often,’ she said. ‘Especially in the core, which is so disappointing.’ Lindsay-Noel uses a wheelchair, which makes these restaurants and bars off-limits to her.”"
"“Navigating washrooms is one of the worst parts of her nights out. ‘It's one of the most sought-after questions I get from my audience,’ she said of washroom locations. ‘It's something that we all do. It's something that we all need.’ If you frequently dine or drink in Toronto and need to use the loo, surely you've seen it too: dank, dingy washrooms hidden down a steep, creaky, narrow stairwell.”"
"“Bateman points way back to a pre-plumbing Toronto, when there was no running water. Pit latrines outside and in basements were the standard. ‘All that human waste [was] just seeping through the soil into the groundwater and polluting it,’ he said, adding this was making people sick and creating a public health nightmare. By the mid 1800s, Toronto decided to take the issue seriously, rolling out a sewer system and supplying treated drinking water to homes.”"
"“‘One of my theories here is that in these early days the water pressure was so low, I wonder if they even had the water pressure to push it to an upstairs,’ he said. A map of Toronto from the mid-1800s, showing where sewers were laid up until 1875 and in some cases,”"
Read at www.cbc.ca
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