 At this event, public toilets were relatively novel, and Ibbetson was given the task of writing an 'Official Report On The Waiting Rooms and Washing Places in the Exhibition Building' - during which he recorded "The largest receipt from the Waiting Rooms was on Wednesday, 8 October 1851 when 11,171 persons made use of them".Ibbetson died at Biebrich in Prussia, where he had lived for several years.Some years earlier he presented a valuable collection of fossils to the Museum of Practical Geology in London.