Auckland’s first Council-funded
toilet was built for men on Queen Street wharf in 1863. However, the first
Council-funded women’s facilities did not open until 1915 - after women’s
groups and the district health officer had spent many years agitating for them.
Prior to the Wyndham Street loos opening, women relied on toilets at the public
library, railway station, ferry company and stores – who lavishly advertised
these sought-after conveniences. The Strand Café offered “beautifully
fitted ladies’ lavatories”, and Smith and Caughey “cordially invited”
ladies “to
make free use of our up-to-date writing and retiring rooms and lavatories.”
Council refused to include women’s
restrooms in the new town hall – although it provided full men’s facilities. It
wasn’t until 1937 that the Wellesley Street East women’s loos were built –
partly in response to the lack of women’s toilets in the town hall since it opened
in 1911. Council also failed to provide mothers’ restrooms when planning the
Civic Square, suggesting that “this
was not a public need, but an agitation by a small section of the community.”
To refute this claim, a 1924
meeting in support of women’s restrooms was attended by ministers and clergy
of all denominations and representatives of over twenty societies including St
John Ambulance, Girl Guides Association and the Women’s National Reserve. The
Civic League’s Alice Basten listed nearly 20 towns in New Zealand who already
had mothers’ rest room. Mrs Ballantyne of the International League said “It
was disgraceful that mothers had to go down side streets to attend to their
children,” and Mr T. Bloodworth noted “If
father had to push the pram… there would be rest rooms in every street.”
Finally, in 1927, a mothers’
restroom opened in the reserve on the corner of Symonds Street and Karangahape
Road. It included a sitting room, changing rooms, pram room and lavatories.
However, although public restrooms were free for men, women had to pay a penny
to use the lavatory, and tuppence to use a wash-hand basin and towel.
A newspaper correspondent who had lived in Wellington, Sydney and country towns never had “to pay for the use of conveniences until I reached enlightened Auckland… While my children were small, both they and I had to pay for admission to the… Wyndham Street establishment.”
Author: Leanne, Central Auckland Research Centre