The Westoe Netty is a painting by Robert Olley

Robert Olley

Robert Olley is an artist born in 1940, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England.Olley, a former miner who worked in the mines for 11 year from 1957 to 1968 is known as the "Geordie Lowry"....

. It depicts a historical scene inside a public toilet

Washroom

A public toilet is a room or small building containing one or more toilets and possibly also urinals which is available for use by the general public, or in a broader meaning of "public", by customers of other...

 (Netty

Netty

Netty may refer to:* Netty Kim , Canadian figure skater* Netty Witziers-Timmer , Dutch athlete* North East England dialect for toilet or public convenience* JBoss Netty a Java project for asynchronous I/OSee also...

 is a Geordie

Geordie

Geordie is a regional nickname for a person from the Tyneside region of the north east of England, or the name of the English-language dialect spoken by its inhabitants...

 dialect word for toilet). Painted in 1972, it has become a cultural symbol of North East England

North East England

North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...

 working class history.

Olley was a former miner

Miner

A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....

 turned local artist, and his painting was inspired by a real toilet that was formerly sited in Westoe

Westoe

Westoe is a suburb of South Shields, Tyne & Wear, United Kingdom.- History :Westoe was originally a village a mile south of South Shields, and was gradually absorbed into the urban sprawl extending from the centre of Shields at the end of the niineteenth century.In contemporary usage the term...

, South Shields

South Shields

South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...

. His painting depicted six working class men and a little boy using the netty, which was used by workers travelling to the nearby Westoe Colliery

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

. The painting portrays the wall of the netty covered in humorous and often vulgar graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

, reflecting many local phrases and cultural references.

The original toilet was built in 1890. When the area it was sited in was earmarked for regeneration, the toilet was saved from demolition by friends of the artist, who dismantled it and put into storage in 1996 in a local shipyard. In 2008 the toilet was rebuilt as a permanent exhibit at the Beamish Museum

Beamish Museum

Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum is an open-air museum located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County Durham, England. The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early...

, County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, and opened on 25 July 2008 with a recreation of the picture's scene staged for the media.