Green’s Dictionary of Slang

necessary house n.

an outhouse, a privy.

[UK]N. Field Woman is a Weathercock IV ii: She showed me to a necessary vault. Within a closet in the chamber too.
[UK]N. Field Amends for Ladies I i: I met her in the necessarie house i’ th’ morning.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 3 July n.p.: He took the Tankard with him to the necessary house, only to secure it, and meant to have presently brought it in, having no thoughts of stealing it.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 31 May n.p.: That he being coming out of the Necessary House, he saw several of the Soldiers about Nichols with their Swords drawn.
[UK]N. Ward ‘The Humours of a Coffee-House’ in Writings (1704) 293: My Stomach is so Sick and Head so Giddy (Yauk) that if you don’t lead me to (Yauk) the Necessary-House, I shall be forc’d to do something that I should not do.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 30 May 4/1: The Prisoner came to his House and called for a Pint of Drink, and afterwards wanted to go to the Necessary House in the Cellar, which he did, and came up again.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 8 Dec. 6/2: One Day she invited me to go with her to Stepney to take a Treat of Cakes and Ale, and I went; and while we were drinking together, I had Occasion to go to the Necessary House [...] I was no sooner got thither, but she came in after me — and we were very merry together.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 21 Feb. 94/2: He called me down again, and said, What have you done with the Bag? I have it, says I, but what wou’d you advise me to do with it? Why, says he, you might have thrown it down the Necessary-House or have burnt it, but give it me and I’ll take care of it.
[UK]Proceedings Old Bailey 13 Apr. 150/1: He viewed the Seat of the Necessary-House, and put down a long Fork, or Thing with Prongs, and brought up the Body of an Infant; her Father was with me, when the Child was brought up, out of the Necessary-House.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 19 Feb. 118/2: He asked me whether the necessary house went into the river, or whether I ever emptied it: he told me he had dropped a tin snuff-box in it.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 17 Apr. 169/1: I was coming out of the public house, going to the necessary house by the water side; I tumbled over this barrel.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 18 May 207/1: I went to the necessary house: I heard a noise in it; I fetched a candle, put it through the hole, and saw something.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 10 May 353/2: He sat up on the night of the 30th of March, to attend the night-men who were emptying the necessaries belonging to the houses in Angel Gardens [...] He heard the deceased and a man together in a necessary-house and [...] from what he heard pass, he was convinced they were criminally concerned together.
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 13 Jan. 164/2: What little house, a necessary house?
[UK]Proc. Old Bailey 11 Jan. 98/2: I heard some thing wiping the floor of the necessary house, it seemed to me as if with a cloth.
[Ire]S. Beckett Murphy (1963) 183: I desire that they [i.e. remains] be burnt and placed in a paper bag and brought [...] without pause into what Lord Chesterfield calls the necessary house.
[US]Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 necessary facility [...] necessary room n. Referring to the restroom or bathroom.