The Museum of the History of Toilets in Kiev is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. Will it survive the devastating Russian rocket attacks?
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One of the few world museums dedicated to toilets is in Kiev, the capital of independent Ukraine bombed by Russian troops. It is worth paying him a virtual visit before the “collateral damage” accidentally destroys its unique collections.
The Toilet History Museum is a private museum founded in Kiev by a married couple of businessmen and hygiene history enthusiasts, Nikolay and Marina Bogdanenko. It was opened in September 2007. It is on the list of the 10 most popular and interesting museums in Ukraine.
It is located in "Tower number 5", on Rybalska Street No. 22. The tower was part of the fortifications of the Kyiv Fortress and was finished in 1846 for a Russian army as a warehouse with provisions and ammunition. Today, the tower houses one of the largest business centers in Kiev and the world's largest collection of toilets and related souvenirs, which was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records.
The museum's exhibits are arranged chronologically according to the history of human development: "Prehistory", "Antiquity", "Middle Ages", "Rebirth", "XVII - XXI Century" and "ART WC".
We invite you to visit it, temporarily virtually, in person in the near future!
For details visit:
http://museumtoilet.com.ua/en/
On May 22, 2020, in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, Lindley Association commemorates the 120th anniversary of the death of William Lindley, the designer of Warsaw's sewage system and waterworks.
W. Lindley died on May 22, 1900, in his own home at 74 Shooters Hill Road in
London's Blackheath. He was less than 92 years old. The cause of death was
general age-related health problems and heart failure. In the last
moments of his life, he was accompanied by his eldest son, Sir William
Heerlein Lindley, continuator of his father's works, and his sister Julia.
The funeral took place three days later. He was buried at Charlton Cemetery in
London's Greenwich.
The bas-relief depicting William Lindley on the front of the Indirect Ozonation and Activated Carbon Filtration Station at the Filter Station in Warsaw. Author Andrzej Krawczak (2010)
William Lindley Snr visited Warsaw only once, in
June 1876, at the invitation of Governor-General Paweł Kotzebue and the temporary
President of Warsaw, general Sokrates Starynkiewicz. After a few days of
exploration of the city, he agreed to draw up a sewage and water supply project for
Warsaw. The project was published in 1879 when William Lindley retired at the
age of 71.
The contract with the city to run this great municipal investment was signed by his son, William H. Lindley. In 1881-1917 he was the main engineer for the construction of sewage and water supply in our city.
On July 23, 1881,
William Heerlein Lindley, authorized by his father, signed a contract with the
Warsaw Magistrate for the execution of sewage and water supply plans and to
supervision of their construction. Agreement between the Magistrate and William
H. Lindley is deposited at the state archive in Warsaw and consists of 42
paragraphs and additional points regarding the relationship between engineers
with the city authorities. The contents of the contract was revealed to the residents of Warsaw only in October with the publication of details in
"Technical Review" monthly.
William Heerlein Lindley in Warsaw
The citizen
committee for the construction of sewage and water supply system of the city of Warsaw was gathered two days
later. As "Kurier Warszawski" wrote on 26 July: "The first
meeting [of Committee] was held yesterday under the leadership of the city
President in the presence of Mr.
Lindley, the son. The President presented the main points of the
contract". For "supervision
and executing of works on the construction of sewage and waterworks" the
municipal authorities were obliged to pay Lindley annual remuneration of
equivalent of 2000 Pound Sterlings (paid quarterly in Rubles).
Public place
William
Lindley-father did not come to Warsaw to sign the contract, officially due to
the illness. In reality, because two years earlier he retired and withdrew from
undertaken obligations making a place for his successor, his eldest son. From
all his rights and obligations resulting from the contract with the Warsaw
Magistrate he resigned on August 26, 1881.
With signing of the contract the uncertain situation in Warsaw concerning the fate of this great project finally came to an end. Tsar Aleksander II, who died on March 13, 1881, in a bomb assault directed by the Polis anarchists, was succeeded by his son, Alexander III. In his inaugural speech (manifesto of 14/2 March) he promised “to follow the footsteps of his father and finish all what he began". In the case of Warsaw, the tsar kept his promise and signed relevant documents enabling the construction of local sewage and modern water supply system. The works could have been started, but it took five long years before the inhabitants of Warsaw could enjoy filtered water.
On March 14, Jakub Lewicki, the Masovian Voivodeship Conservator of
Monuments, informed that the Water Tower of the Polfa Tarchomin Pharmaceutical
Works was registered as a historical monument.
The water tower building was
erected in the complex of pharmaceutical plants in Tarchomin, on the premises
of Ludwik Spiess' plants nationalized after World War II. In 1957, the final project of the tower's crowning by Ing.K. Bohatyrewicz, was
developed by the BIPROFARM company.
The Tarchomin Water Tower, present day
Phot. Małgorzata Łoś
For more photographs of the tower visit:
Małgorzata Łoś, https://wiezecisnien.eu/mazowieckie/warszawa_polfa/
We have received the very sad news of the death of Alexander Caspar, one of the oldest descendants of William H. Lindley.
Alexander Caspar with wife Beatrice (on the left) and Hanna Żelichowska
in Blackheath (2015)
Alexander Walter Horst Caspar (6 April 1934-26 February 2021), was the great-grandson of W.H. Lindley and the grandson of his daughters Julia Fanny Elizabeth and Robert Boveri. He spent his childhood in Germany and worked in Swiss banks. There he met his wife Beatrice Spotti, with whom he has two daughters.
He showed a deep interest in the history of the family and was an outstanding source of knowledge about their many connections with famous European families.
Alexander Caspar's grandmother, Julia Fanny, stayed with her father, W.H. Lindley in Warsaw in 1901.
Alexander Casper visited our city with his wife in 2006, took part in family reunions, incl. Baku and London (2015), where a memorial plaque on the Lindley family home was unveiled.
Alexander Caspar and the family (from left:) wife Beatrice, sister Ursula (in the background) and Heinke Peschke with Karin Deubner
Alexander Caspar's family has long musical traditions, many of its members played different instruments. This tradition is continued by the youngest daughter Julia, a talented Swiss violinist.
With his passing, a very important chapter in the history of the Lindley family has been closed. He was a living link between the distant past and the present. I owe him a lot of invaluable information about the past. It is regrettable that the epidemic took our time to continue these fascinating journeys into the times of the pioneers of civilization's progress at the time.
May He rest in peace.
Hanna and Ryszard Żelichowscy, in the name of Societas Lindleiana
February 2021
In the history of Warsaw, the capital of the liquidated Kingdom of Poland, he has been assigned the ungrateful role of the military president of Warsaw. He held this function as a major general of artillery in the Russian army in the years 1875-1892. He liked Warsaw and stayed with it for the rest of his life. He died on August 23, 1902. His character was viewed positively by Poles from the very beginning. The Monument to Starynkiewicz at the Filter Station and the square bearing his name are the only commemorations from the period of the Russian partition preserved in Warsaw, and his grave in the Orthodox cemetery in Wola is under the care of the capital MPWiK S.A.
He became famous for his responsibility and honesty. His out-of-pocket
payments to the municipal treasury for damages caused by improper investment
purchases have become legendary. During the years of his term in office, there
were great investments in infrastructure, including the construction of water
and sewage systems, the launch of the first public horse-drawn tram line, the opening
of a large Bródno cemetery and the construction of a new gas plant in Wola.
Without diminishing the merits of Starynkiewicz in building the largest investment in Warsaw - water supply and sewage systems - the Russian sources unknown to the then national journalists reveal that it could only be possible thanks to the successful appeals to Tsar Alexander II and Alexander III by two Russian governors-generals - Paweł Kotzebue and Piotr Albedyński - placed higher in the hierarchy of military power administering Warsaw than the provisional president!
Literature:
Sokrates Starynkiewicz, Dziennik 1887-1897, PWN, Warszawa 2001.
Ryszard Żelichowski, Lindleyowie. Dzieje inżynierskiego rodu, Biblioteka Societas Lindleiana, t. I-III, Warszawa 2019.