Recesses in buildings were, and still are, ideal places for people to urinate in the street out of sight.
The fight against public urination
Urination corners
In the corner of Lille Torv, beside Restaurant Gæstgivergården, a warning painted on the wall prohibits "uncleanliness". During the nineteenth century, attempts were made to stop people from creating so-called urination corners in the streets.
When nature calls...
Although public urinals began to appear from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, the town’s urination corners never disappeared completely. Even today, many urban areas still smell of urine.
On a downpipe at Thorvaldsens Museum in Copenhagen, the remains of the inscription "All uncleanliness is forbidden here" could still be seen in 2016—an attempt to discourage people from urinating there.
