Toilet Clubs?

lagaffe

lagaffe

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Can anyone shed any light on 'Toilet Clubs'? Have seen a few straights recently on eBay that are marked as such and indeed managed to pick one up which is marked - "The Army & Navy Toilet Club, 24 Queen Victoria Street & 16&17 Poultry, EC"

Googling has turned up almost nothing (just this British Library reference to an advert: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/evanion/Record.aspx?EvanID=024-000002470&ImageIndex=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/evanion/Rec ... ageIndex=0</a><!-- m -->):

Heading or Venue Army and Navy Toilet Club
Place London, Strand
Title Army and Navy Toilet Club, 227, Strand, (opposite the law courts.) Hot and cold baths 1/- each. Haircutting shampooing bay rhum lotion 6d. Each. Shaving 3d. The largest saloon in London with American shaving
chairs
Size 19 cm.
Date [1884]
Imprint [London] : John Amos Lowe, the London cheap cash printer, Charles Street, Hatton Garden
Notes Dated in MS.: June 1884
Genre Advertisement; Leaflet
Subject Public baths; Haircutting; Hair - Shampooing; Shaving
Click to expand...

Does anyone know any more about these places?

Cheers

Grant
 
I've got a friend who's member of a Toilet Club. I'll give him a ring and set things in motion. Hopefully he'll come up trumps but he may just be blowing hot air. Either way it'll be a gas! :p
 
From the Oxford English dictionary:

[A Toilet Club was a barber's shop which, in the 19th century, offered reduced charges to clients who paid a regular quarterly or yearly subscription: OED]

Regards,
Neil
 
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