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THE LATRINALIA PROJECT

Latrinalia is a term (coined by American folklorist Alan Dundes in his essay, "Here I Sit: A Study of American Latrinalia"). The term refers to markings made on the surfaces of bathrooms, or, latrines (Dundes, 2007). These markings often take the form of art, signatures, musings, poetry, social or political commentary, phrases of a sexual nature or derogatory words (TINKLE, Royal College of Art, 2021). Text-based latrinalia is often also rooted in humour, showcasing a witty thought, word or drawing.

When latrinalia is created without the consent of the establishment's proprietor it is often considered vandalism. Certain venues have attempted to control the creation of latrinalia by offering options such as blackboard walls and free chalk in an attempt to avoid permanent markings being made all over the space - other venues go the other direction and regularly re-paint and deep clean the bathrooms so as to cover up and remove any evidence of latrinalia.

The purpose of this website is to showcase latrinalia in pubs of different areas of London. The 'Data' page showcases a map of London overlaid with an infographic that represents certain areas of London where one is most and least likely to see latrinalia in pub bathrooms. The 'Map' page showcases a map of London with pins at locations where latrinalia was spotted, this corresponds to the posts of the 'Feed' page of the website. The 'Upload' icon in the top right corner of all pages allows any user to anonymously submit posts of latrinalia seen and geotag it so that it appears on both the main map and feed.

This project highlights what is seen but also what is not seen. This shows that certain areas have more latrinalia and some have less - this serves as a marker to highlight attributes and traits of publicans in those areas responding to their demographic, it also serves as a marker of increasing gentrification and wealth distribution across the city.

Read more about latrinalia and discourse analysis in our 'Reading List'.