House of Easement is a sound installation of musical works composed in response to the ‘mock-Tudor’ architecture of the public toilets at Pleydell Gardens.
The work consists of two movements: the pavan and galliard, a pair of courtly dances popular during the Tudor period (1485-1603), that were often nominally dedicated to notable persons of society, from peers to pirates.
Henry VIII’s courtiers at Hampton Court shared a ‘great house of easement’ with 28 seats on two different levels.
“See the house of easement be sweet and clean” - Wynkyn De Worde, The Boke of Kervynge, 1508.