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It is a relic of the days when “real ladies did not use the toilet”.
When Sydney’s heritage-listed State Theatre opened on Market Street in 1929, it was also thought rude for women to eat, drink or smoke in public, said Stuart Greene, the theatre’s manager of food and beverage, who leads regular public tours of the building.
If women did need to use the facilities in this time of euphemisms, it was a furtive affair requiring a dash from the darkened theatre to the Butterfly or Pompadour powder rooms.
“All our artworks are the same. Men on a sailing ship, doing a masculine activity, women gathering flowers in a field, doing a feminine activity,” Greene said of the theatre known as the Palace of Dreams, where he has worked for nearly 30 years.
Unchanged since it was built, the design by architects Henry White with John Eberson is called Cinema Baroque by some, junk architecture by others, and, by the 1970s, an example of a foolish and fabulous period of Australian architecture by The Sunday Telegraph.
From the choice of statues to the mosaics by the famous Melocco brothers, the theatre captures the spirit of the time in marble, scagliola (a fake marble) and reproductions, some as hollow as the taverns in old spaghetti westerns.
The men’s toilets include vast “smoking” rooms that dwarf the powder rooms: the College Room is for men of substance, with photos of prime ministers and leaders, while the Pioneer Room is a faux hunting cabin, with guns and a stretched animal skin on the mantel.
Like many venues across the city, it has fewer, and smaller, toilets for women than men (including urinals).
Sita Sargeant, creator of feminist guided walking tours She Shapes History, said the Butterfly Room was a remarkable space.
“It is rare that you see gender inequality so clearly on display through the physical space. This architecture was telling women that the city was not for them, like: ‘go home’,” Sargeant said.
“It tells the story of what life was like for women in 1929. There are not many spaces that throw you into the inequality that existed, and how rough it was for women.”
When the theatre opened, advertisements promised it had placed “ladies’ conveniences within the auditorium for your discretion” so women could go to the toilet when the lights dimmed, and away from the foyer.
On city streets, men urinated in public in the 19th century because of the lack of facilities.
“It was even harder for women, who often didn’t even have facilities provided by their workplaces,” read the City of Sydney’s archives.
The city built “urinaries” for men from 1844. By the early 20th century, there were 10 lavish underground public conveniences for men featuring polished Tasmanian blackwood or cedar.
The first public toilet for women opened in Sydney around 1910, but wasn’t well patronised because women didn’t feel safe.
Info: State Theatre tours
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