2015 Jaw Boxes at Shuttle Row

Pictured here when I visited the David Livingstone Centre in June 2015, is the “Jaw box” at the top of the circular stair turret, leading into the birthplace of David Livingstone at Shuttle Row. The jaw box was an original feature of the building, dating back to the 1790’s and its purpose was to throw your slops, i.e your sewage down the gaping hole, for mass collection at the bottom. Whilst this may seem positively disgusting, the idea at the time, meant no throwing out of windows and may even in its time have been a welcome feature, keeping smells out of the houses themselves.

However, as the 1800s progressed, sanitation and disease awareness and conditions improved and the jaw boxes ceased to be used. Toilets were soon built outside to the rear of Shuttle Row. There were 4 dry toilets set into a small stone building with adult and child crude toilet seats. A midden was located nearby, where residents would also throw their waste. The midden was known to often be contaminated with sewage. This midden and those awful toilets were still in use in the 1890s, and i suspect even beyond that.

On social media:

Anne Mackie My Grannie called the old black sink in her house the JAWBOX
Una Cochrane Hamilton I’m sure a jaw box was a built in sink a bit like a Belfast sink that was built in bellow a window.
Marianne Stark Aitken Paul is there any way of knowing the exact room David Livingstone was born in and where he and his family lived? I’ve often wondered about this.
- The Blantyre Project I’m quite sure its through the door pictured to the right.