“Spend A Penny”

For those of you who have been watching “Victoria” on Masterpiece, you will have seen that Prince Albert put together a “Great Exhibition” showcasing “the wonders of industry and manufacturing from around the world”.  This would be the first of many World’s Fairs!

Prince Albert was a visionary and could see that this would be a great thing both for England and the world but he did it with some fear, at one point, actually thinking that perhaps he should not go forward having almost completed it!  Yes, he was genuinely very perturbed.   He was terrified that it would be a disaster and that the monarchy would be tainted as a result.

One of the many things people feared was that with all of those people coming to it, where would they be able to relieve themselves.  This is when he came up with public lavatories and the term “spend a penny” was born.  You placed one of those large, copper coins, known as a penny, into a slot and the door opened for you to use the lavatory.

The Crystal Palace was an enormous success, considered an architectural marvel, but also an engineering triumph that reflected the importance of the Exhibition itself.  It lasted six months and the average DAILY attendance was 42,831  people.

Certainly, their fears were totally unfounded!

Yes, a marvel indeed!