Into the
modern era, humans typically practised
open defecation or employed
latrines or
outhouses over a
pit toilet in rural areas and used
chamber pots emptied into streets or drains in urban ones. The
Indus Valley civilization had
particularly advanced sanitation, which included common use of private flush toilets. The
ancient Greeks and
Romans had
public toilets and, in some cases,
indoor plumbing connected to rudimentary
sewer systems. The latrines of medieval monasteries were known as
reredorters; in some cases, these were connected to sophisticated water systems that swept its effluent away without affecting the community's drinking, cooking, or washing water. In the
early modern period, "
night soil" from municipal outhouses became an important source of
nitrates for creating
gunpowder. 19th century refinements of the outhouse included the
privy midden and the
pail closet. Indoor toilets were at first a luxury of the rich and only gradually spread to the lower classes. As late as the 1890s, building regulations in
London did not require working-class housing to have indoor toilets; into the early 20th century, some English homes were built with an upstairs toilet for use by the owners and an outhouse for use by the servants. In some cases, there was a transitional stage where toilets were built into the house but accessible only from the outside. After
World War I, all new housing in
London and its suburbs had indoor toilets. For plumbing reasons, flush toilets have usually been located in or near residences'
bathrooms. (Both were initially located above the
kitchen and
scullery on the same account.) In upper-class homes, the first modern lavatories were washrooms with
sinks located near the bedrooms; in lower-class homes, there was often only a collapsible tub for bathing. In Britain, there was long a prejudice against having the toilet located in the bathroom proper: in 1904,
Hermann Muthesius noted that "a lavatory [i.e., toilet] is practically never found in an English bathroom; indeed it is considered downright inadmissible to have one there". When toilets were placed within bathrooms, the original reason was cost savings. In 1876
Edward William Godwin, a progressive architect-designer, drew up affordable housing with the toilet in the bathroom, and faced criticism for it. America and most European countries now combine their toilets and bathrooms. In
France,
Japan, and some other countries, separate toilets remain the norm for reasons of
hygiene and privacy. In modern homes outside of France, Japanese toilets also often provide special slippers—apart from those worn in the rest of the house—for use within the toilet. == Society and culture ==