The Garderobe

Every castle needs a garderobe. I wanted an old stone medieval one, with a hole for the deposits to leak out over the castle walls to the ground below. But I also wanted a more comfortable modern Victorian/Edwardian one. I decided to combine the two.

The exterior of the medieval garderobe has the trademark couple of corbels supporting a protruding stone casement housing the 'throne' itself (real life example above). Nowadays, when you visit a castle, the interior of such a facility has a glass sheet covering the hole from the elements so you can peer down the shute to the dizzying drop below. Mine has these elements, but the toilet surroundings are more comfortable than the bare stone walls of a ruined castle. Modelling my design on multiple Victorian conveniences (as at Knightshayes, Sambourne House, or Ham), I wanted Victorian papered walls, wooden panelling (stained coffee stirrers and obeche) shelves for the loo paper (stained lolly sticks), and a hinged wooden seat (obeche). 

I already had a miniature porcelain potty from Streets Ahead (?), complete with the secretion and excrement themselves, which I wanted to fit into my loo. And I planned to fit this in between the 'Victorian' wooden seat and the 'medieval' glass sheet: a number two lurking between ancient latrine and modern lavatory!

This garderobe takes a position in the chapel tower of Hordle Castle, just off the attic nursery, Chester, all of which is a Victorian/Edwardian extension to the castle. So I wanted a Victorian William Morris wallpaper for the garderobe, and chose the much-loved Willow design with a green background, and a border with squirrels to match. However, I had not yet bought any mini wallpaper paste and used PVA to stick the paper on: this meant that some of the colours of the design distorted to a gritty yellow, actually pretty appropriate for an antique bog really! To avoid this happening just above the seat, I used double sided sticky tape to secure the wallpaper instead.

Also above the seat I added a tiny window, made of see-through packaging sheet, cereal packet with Sharpie felt-tipped 'lead'. Every castle needs a garderobe and every garderobe needs a window, especially with a tiny historic lurker plopped into it for all eternity!