Just noticed in Gareth King’s dictionary that a euphemism for ‘toilet’ is ‘lle chwech’ which I understand as meaning roughly ‘six place’.
I’d love to know the origin of this term. Presumably there’ll be several mutually exclusive ‘real’ answers!
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Its a new one on me. Perhaps, place (room) number six?
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Could it be referring to the toilets way back in history that had more that one seat?
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I believe it’s primarily a northern expression. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it on Rownd a Rownd a few times. I may have heard one version of the origin, but my memory of it is very cloudy, so I will wait for it to be hopefully refreshed by someone else.
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GPC agrees with you (“ar lafar yn y Gogledd”) and refers to “vulgar English six ‘a privy’” (an expression I hadn’t heard before).
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In the depths of my memory I remember someone saying that terraces of houses with outdoor ‘conveniences’ would have a shared arrangement, consisting of a row of several seats next to each other under one roof, often six. Known as the place of six, lle chwech.
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Da iawn - that’s similar to what it says in ‘Dweud Eich Dweud: A Guide to Colloquial and Idiomatic Welsh’ , i.e.that it refers to an era when a toilet would have been shared between six houses (and gives a quote from ‘Un Nos Ola Leuad’ by Caradog Prichard), although unfortunately it doesn’t clarify whether there were six seats or just one shared between the six houses
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I’m less keen on the idea of one seat shared between six houses, although why not - a public loo is one or several seats shared amongst many! 
No matter how many seats there were (and I can see an argument for several when you can wedge a lot of people into six houses), I’m betting there was only one pit underneath…
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… and maybe not too far away from the well either 
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Multi-seat loos were far more common than we tend to think - many roman examples are still evident, and there is even a Welsh example at Penrhyn dock. At at least I think it’s still there, but it may not be open to the public (for viewing not using, I should add 
)
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Diferiad dychrynllyd…
I’m going to hope that in our particular imaginary example, the poor souls are situated very close to a mountain stream.
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I think it was an 8-seater! Built for the dock workers of course. I went there with Ifor ap Glyn on a recce for a documentary series!
Trailer here (though unfortunately the Penrhyn ‘palace’ doesn’t feature in the trailer): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6nJbo262ck
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I’ve seen s pic of a doubler but haven’t seen one in real life. Check with St Fagans?
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PS. We still have our old outside loo and coal house.
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I queried this one a while back with friends in Anglesey and they said it came from the days when it cost you 6d (sixpence in old money) to have a pee in a public toilet. I noticed earlier this year in Caernarfon (and down here in Weston) that it’s now 20p a pee - inflation!
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… and it used to be just a single penny as recently as the early 60s I think, certainly in the 50s (“going to spend a penny”)
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Absolutely John. My mam still says she’s off to ‘spend a penny’ to this day.
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Just to confirm that this is most definitely used in the wild in the Gogs. I’ve heard it loads and used it myself and no one bats an eyelid. 
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That seems quite expensive!
The story I heard was that the conveniences provided for the workers in the slate quarries would consist of a pit with a plank above that had six holes cut through so that six workers could sit at any one time. There’s probably a germ of truth in there, but locating the story in the slate quarries may just be an invention to explain why it’s a term associated with the north.
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