The small space between the street-door and the stairs, hardly sufficient in
length and breadth to deserve the pompous name of a “hall,” is usually
furnished with a couple of mahogany chairs, or, in wealthier houses, with
flower-pots, statuettes, and now and then a sixth or seventh-rate picture. The
floor is covered with oil-cloth, and this again is covered with a breadth of
carpet. A single glance tells us, that after passing the threshold, we have at
once entered the temple of domestic life.
Here are no moist, ill-paved floors, where horses and carts
dispute with the passenger the right of way; where you stumble about in some
dark corner in search of still darker stairs; _ where, from the porter’s
lodge, half a dozen curious eyes watch your unguided movements, while your
nostrils are invaded with the smell of onions, as is the case in Paris, and also
in Prague and Vienna. Nothing of the kind. The English houses are like chimneys
turned inside out; on the outside all is soot and dirt, in the inside everything
is clean and bright.
From the hall we make our way to the parlour —the refectory
of the house. The parlour is the common sitting-room of the family, the
centre-point of the domestic state. It is here that many eat their dinners, and
some say their prayers; and in this room does the lady of the house arrange her
household affairs and issue her commands. In winter the parlour fire burns from
early morn till late at night, and it is into the parlour that the visitor is
shewn, unless he happens to call on a reception-day, when the drawing-rooms are
thrown open to the friends of the family.
Large folding-doors, which occupy nearly the whole breadth of
the back wall, separate the front from the back parlour, and when opened, the
two form one large room. The number and the circumstances of the family devote
this back parlour either to the purposes of a library for the master, the son,or
the daughters of the house, or convert it into a boudoir, office, or breakfast.
room. Frequently, it serves no purpose in particular, and all in turn.
These two rooms occupy the whole depth of the house. All the
other apartments are above, so that there are from two to four rooms in each
story. The chief difference in the domestic apartments in England and Germany
consists in this division: in Germany, the members of a family occupy a number
of apartments on the same floor or “flat”; in England, they live in a
cumulative succession of rooms. In Germany, the dwelling-houses are divided
horizontally—here the division is vertical. Hence it happens, that houses with
four rooms communicating with one another are very rare in London, with the
exception only of the houses in the very aristocratic quarters. Hence, also,
each story has its peculiar destination in the family geographical dictionary.
In the first floor are the reception-rooms; in the second the bed-rooms, with
their large four-posters and marble-topped wash-stands; in the third story are
the nurseries and servants’ rooms; and in the fourth, if a fourth there be,
you find a couple of low garrets, for the occasional accommodation of some
bachelor friend of the family.
The doors and windows of these garrets are not exactly airtight,
the wind comes rumbling down the chimney, the stairs are narrow and steep, and
the garrets are occasionally invaded by inquisitive cats and a vagrant rat; but
what of that?
…. We leave the Doctor between the horns of this dilemma,
and descending a good many more stairs than we ascended, we find our way to the
haunts of those who, in England, live underground—to the kitchen.
Here, too, everything is different from what we are
accustomed to in Germany. In the place of the carpets which cover the floors of
the upper rooms, we walk here on strong, solid oilcloths, which, swept and
washed, looks like marble, and gives a more comfortable aspect to an English
kitchen than any German housewife ever succeeded in imparting to the scene of
her culinary exercises. Add to this, bright dish-covers of gigantic dimensions
fixed to the wall, plated dishes, and sundry other utensils of queer shapes and
silvery aspect, interspersed with copper saucepans and pots and china, the
windows neatly curtained, with a couple of flower-pots on the sill, and a branch
of evergreens growing on the wail round them—such is an English kitchen in its
modest glory. A large fire is always kept burning; and its ruddy glow heightens
the homeliness and comfort of the scene. There is no killing of animals in these
peaceful retreats. All the animals which are destined for consumption, such as
fowls, ducks, pigeons, and geese, are sold, killed, and plucked in the London
shops. When they are brought to the kitchen, they are
in such a condition, that nothing prevents their being put to the fire. And
then, in front of that fire, turned by a machine, dangle large sections of
sheep, calves, and oxen, of so respectable a size, that the very sight of them
would suffice to awe a German housewife.
Several doors in the kitchen open into sundry other
subterraneous compartments. There is a back-kitchen, whither the servants of the
house retire for the most important part of their daily labours—the talking of
scandal apropos of the whole
neighbourhood. There is also a small room for the washing-up of plates and
dishes, the cleaning of knives and forks, of clothes and shoes. Other
compartments are devoted to stores of provisions, of coals, and wine and beer.
Need I add, that all these are strictly separate?
All these various rooms and compartments, from the kitchen up
to Dr. Keif’s garret, are in modern London houses, lighted up with gas—and
pipes conducting fresh, filtered, and in many instances, hot water, ascend into
all the stories—and there is in all and everything so much of really domestic
and unostentatious comfort, that it would be very uncomfortable to give a
detailed description of every item of a cause which contributes to the general
and agreeable effect.
Max Schlesinger, Saunterings in and about London, 1853
The wine merchant sat in his dining-room next morning, to receive the personal applicants for the vacant post in his establishment. It was an old-fashioned wainscoted room; the panels ornamented with festoons of flowers carved in wood; with an oaken floor, a well-worn Turkey carpet, and dark mahogany furniture, all of which had seen service and polish under Pebbleson Nephew. The great sideboard had assisted at many business-dinners given by Pebbleson Nephew to their connection, on the principle of throwing sprats overboard to catch whales; and Pebbleson Nephew's comprehensive three-sided plate- warmer, made to fit the whole front of the large fireplace, kept watch beneath it over a sarcophagus-shaped cellaret that had in its time held many a dozen of Pebbleson Nephew's wine. But the little rubicund old bachelor with a pigtail, whose portrait was over the sideboard (and who could easily be identified as decidedly Pebbleson and decidedly not Nephew), had retired into another sarcophagus, and the plate-warmer had grown as cold as he. So, the golden and black griffins that supported the candelabra, with black balls in their mouths at the end of gilded chains, looked as if in their old age they had lost all heart for playing at ball, and were dolefully exhibiting their chains in the Missionary line of inquiry, whether they had not earned emancipation by this time, and were not griffins and brothers.
Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins, No Thoroughfare, 1867
With one exception, all parts of the abode presented much the same appearance as when Stephen Lord first established himself antiquated, and in primitive taste. Nancy's bedroom alone here. The furniture was old, solid, homely; the ornaments were displayed the influence of modern ideas. On her twentieth birthday, the girl received permission to dress henceforth as she chose (a strict sumptuary law having previously been in force), and at the same time was allowed to refurnish her chamber. Nancy pleaded for modern reforms throughout the house, but in vain; even the drawing-room kept its uninviting aspect, not very different, save for the removal of the bed, from that it had presented when the ancient lady slept here. In her own little domain, Miss. Lord made a clean sweep of rude appointments, and at small expense surrounded herself with pretty things. The woodwork and the furniture were in white enamel; the paper had a pattern of wild-rose. A choice chintz, rose-leaf and flower on a white ground, served for curtains and for bed-hangings. Her carpet was of green felt, matching in shade the foliage of the chintz. On suspended shelves stood the books which she desired to have near her, and round about the walls hung prints, photographs, chromolithographs, selected in an honest spirit of admiration, which on the whole did no discredit to Nancy's sensibilities.George Gissing, In the Year of Jubilee, 1894
see also Mrs. C.S.Peel in "Homes and Habits" (article) - click here