Georgian & Regency Houses Explained

by Trevor Yorke

  FIG 6.4: The drawing room was the other principal reception room into which guests were shown before a meal and where the ladies retired afterwards. In this example it is a lighter, more feminine space, reflecting this use. The dado rail, which had fallen from favour in the dining room, was still fitted here as chairs continued to be rested up against the wall.

  The décor of the room reflected its feminine nature, with generally lighter colours and more delicate and refined furnishings. Rose pink and, later, light greens were popular for the walls while in the Regency period there was a trend towards bringing the outside into the room, with full height sashes and later French windows and mirrors positioned to reflect the exterior foliage.

  FAMILY ROOMS

  In large and medium sized houses there would be other rooms for the use of the family, generally on the ground floor. A morning or breakfast room was provided in larger houses, while the drawing room was reserved for guests and family leisure pursuits, and breakfast could be taken here. They tended to be light, airy rooms at the front of the house and had similar arrangements to the drawing room, although with less impressive decoration and fireplaces.

  In some earlier and rural houses a general parlour (from the French verb parler, meaning ‘to speak’) was used for everyday meals and conversation. As it was not generally seen by guests the décor was less elaborate than in the reception rooms, with just a cornice or coving and skirting board and a fireplace with a cheaper but still reasonably decorative surround.

  FIG 6.5: The morning room was an informal family room in larger houses used for leisure, light meals, writing and reading. In this Regency example there is a table for breakfast, a writing desk and an upholstered armchair.

  The 18th century saw an increase in literacy which, coupled with an interest in the sciences and the ancient world, made the collecting of books a growing pastime. Previously a small closet off the bedchamber would have sufficed but now the wealthy gentleman needed a larger, specific room to house his books so a library or a study was often provided. In the more spacious terrace house it was found at the rear, with built-in bookcases (glass fronted early on, open later), writing desks, sometimes space for artwork and antiquities to be displayed and a lectern with an ancient manuscript or book of note upon it. Despite its masculine nature it could still be used by other members for letter writing, playing cards or for meeting guests.

  HALL

  The hall had fallen from being the impressive central room in medieval and Tudor houses to become a simple passage in most 18th century terraces. In the larger detached house it could still be a noteworthy space leading to the stairs at the rear, with a stone or marbled floor and family portraits on the walls – before they were relegated and replaced with classical artefacts, niches or columns in the finest later examples. In the terrace it was trapped at the side, making it a long, thin room with an arch at the end supporting the main dividing wall between the front and rear rooms and with the stairs beyond this. Walls were often painted in a common colour like stone to suit the hall’s lower status and to complement the rooms leading off it, the floor was either stone, marble or floorboards, and lighting was limited to a simple pendant oil lamp and whatever daylight passed through the fanlight.

  FIG 6.6: PICKFORD’S HOUSE, FRIAR GATE, DERBY: This hall from a large detached house is a wide central space with stone floor, decorative plaster ceiling and plain coloured walls so as to complement the principal reception rooms which lead from it.

  BEDROOMS

  The bedrooms were positioned on the first floor and above, and their size and elaboration of décor gradually reduced the higher they went to reflect the status of the occupant, from the owner to the servants. In the finest houses the husband and wife might have separate sleeping quarters while in the smallest the whole family would have fitted into the one room.

  FIG 6.7: The bedroom in this Regency example has a four-poster bed with curtains to keep the draughts out, a dressing table, mirror, chest of drawers, wardrobe (with pull-out drawers rather than a hanging rail within) and a small table for taking light meals and tea. If there was no adjoining dressing room then a wash-stand would also have been in here and baths would have been taken in front of the fire in a metal tub.

  The Georgian and Regency bedroom was not only for sleeping and dressing but also for washing as bathrooms were non-existent early on and rare even at the turn of the 19th century. This was partly because piped water, where laid on, was of too low a pressure to reach up to the first and second floor but also because when there were servants to bring it up and help you dress why would you need it anyway! Even when it was provided, later in the Victorian period, many of the upper classes did without a bathroom despite those below them on the social ladder having them fitted. This meant that there would be a wash cabinet, usually set in a corner, with a marble top, wash-basin and jugs on top for everyday cleaning. A metal hip-bath, usually stored elsewhere, was positioned in front of the fire and filled with jugs of hot water brought up by servants from the range or a copper in the kitchen for the periodic bath times.

  FIG 6.8: PICKFORD’S HOUSE: An example of a four-poster bed. It was not designed just to be imposing but to support the curtains, which were drawn around it to keep out draughts. This was important as the room was rarely heated (there would have been a fire but it was only usually lit if someone was ill or at bath time).

  In the finest bedrooms four-poster beds were still to be found with drapes (heavier fabrics earlier in the period, lighter cottons, chintzes and linen later) hung around to reduce draughts in a room that was unheated (fires were only used to permit the circulation of fresh air up the chimney or to be lit when someone was ill). Curtains around the bed were seen as rather unhygienic later and were replaced in the 19th century by half-tester beds with solely decorative drapes hung over a frame at the head of the bed. Beds were of wood at this date – it wasn’t until the Victorian period that metal framed versions became popular, with wooden slats or strapping beneath. There would be a number of mattresses stacked upon each other with straw in the bottom one and feathers or hair in the top.

  Other furniture would include a dressing table (if there was not a separate dressing room) usually positioned between the two front windows to gain the best light, a chest of drawers, a wardrobe with trays or shelves rather than a rail, small tables and chairs or chaise-longue. A chamber pot would also be found here in many houses, which would be emptied out in the external privy every morning by the maid.

  Servants’ bedrooms were usually in the attics although some slept in basements in smaller houses. Although furniture was limited and would be cheap or hand-me-downs from the family’s rooms, there would still be a bed with mattress, a chest of drawers, chair and a washing basin and jug. This room might, however, be shared by more than one member of staff.

  DRESSING ROOMS, BOUDOIRS AND CLOSETS

  In the largest houses there would usually be additional rooms separate from or leading off the main bedrooms. Dressing rooms for both men and women were popular (the male version was known as a ‘cabinet’ earlier in the period), giving more space in the bedroom itself, and they are often found as a small room adjacent to a main bedroom or in the small extension at the rear that came into use in the Regency period. They would contain a wash-stand with facilities for washing and shaving and also the chamber pot.

  FIG 6.9: PICKFORD’S HOUSE: An example of a wash-stand where servants would bring a jug of hot water for daily washing and shaving either in the bedroom or a separate dressing room.

  Boudoirs became fashionable around this time (from the French word bouder, meaning ‘to sulk’) as a relaxing space where women could sew or read, either next to the bedroom or in the smaller room at the rear on the piano nobile.

  The closet was originally named after the close stool (basically a chamber pot covered by a closed top with a hole in it), which was stored in here or in the dressing room. By this period it had also become a male sanctuary and was more luxurio
usly fitted than its purpose might suggest, in medium sized houses it might also double up as a study. It was still usually a small room, either off a bedroom or dressing room and increasingly by the Regency period in the small rear extension.

  Flushing toilets began to appear in the late 18th century in the finest houses, assuming mains water was laid on and drains were in place. Many were fitted on the ground or first floor extension as the water pressure would only reach this far, and the early systems tended not always to be effective so many stuck with chamber pots.

  Smaller Houses

  RURAL HOUSING

  The large house in the village for the vicar or doctor would reflect the style and layout of similar structures in the towns but medium sized farmhouses could have a different arrangement. In many there was no hall and the front door opened directly into the front room, a large living room and kitchen all in one (the ‘houseplace’ in the north) although later the cooking might be transferred to a kitchen and scullery at the rear. A parlour or sitting room could also be found off this at the front of the house. Behind this there would be a scullery and, in many, a dairy reflecting the working nature of the house, with the stairs usually between them at the rear although up the side in some. In some parts of the north and west the old arrangement of having the byre for livestock attached to the side of the house continued into this period.

  Smaller cottages for agricultural workers would usually have a main living room and kitchen all in one at the front with a small pantry and scullery behind it. Upstairs there would be one or two bedrooms accessed by a small staircase or a ladder in the smallest examples.

  SMALL URBAN EXAMPLES

  Surprisingly, things could be better in this period for the working classes in the town compared with the city. The backs to backs and small terraces, which became the slums in the Victorian period, were at this date rented by the better class of worker. Still there would usually only be a living room and kitchen all in one in a back to back, with a scullery or wash-house in the room behind in larger terraces. Upstairs there would be just one or two bedrooms; if it was the latter the mother and father would use one, with any babies kept with them, while the other children would use the other.

  A large section of the population, however, was crammed into older terraces with other families and might have just the one room in which to live, eat and sleep. These were desperately poor conditions, although the long hours and the fact that many men ate and drank away from the home after work probably helped families adapt to the limited space.

  CHAPTER 7

  Service Rooms

  FIG 7.1: A Georgian kitchen in the basement of a large terrace house. The fireplace contains an early metal range with adjustable sides to vary the width of the fire and a smoke jack above, which turned the spit in front of it. All kitchens would have had a substantial wooden table for the preparation of meals, and dressers to keep pots, pans, and everyday crockery.

  The service rooms were positioned either at the rear corner of detached houses with cellars beneath or in the basement, especially in large and medium sized terraced houses. Later in the period, rear extensions began to be built to house a scullery now that piped water was becoming available in towns and, as the pipes ran down the backs, the kitchen usually moved to the rear basement room to be close to it. It was not until well into the Victorian period that large rear extensions containing the kitchen and washrooms were built, providing staff with better working conditions, creating more privacy for the family and helping to keep cooking smells out of the house.

  FIG 7.2: Cut away views showing the possible arrangement of service rooms in a medium sized Georgian terrace (top) and a larger Regency house (bottom).

  KITCHEN

  The kitchen was the principal service room. It was where the cooking took place, although the washing and preparing of ingredients, the washing up afterwards and storage of food was usually done elsewhere in larger houses (there would rarely be a sink in the kitchen in this period). The focus of the room was the fireplace with a range set in the opening. Earlier in the period the range was always an open type with an adjustable basket to hold the coals and various jacks, cranes and roasting devices from which to hold or suspend the food or vessels around the fire. In the late 18th century the first cast iron ranges began to appear with a central open fire and an enclosed oven and boiler on either side. Although these open ranges became popular from 1800, some cooks still preferred roasting on an open fire and resisted change – or if there was the space had both. From the 1830s more economical ranges, where the central fire was enclosed on the top with a removable door in front, became popular.

  FIG 7.3: PICKFORD’S HOUSE, FRIAR GATE, DERBY: A restored kitchen with large fireplace and apparatus for roasting, cooking and boiling around a fire of adjustable width. There is also a central wooden table and a dresser along the back wall.

  FIG 7.4: A drawing of a kitchen grate with a smoke jack from a large Georgian house, showing the metal flanks (A) that could be adjusted to make the fire larger or smaller. The hot fumes from this rose up the flue (B) and turned the fan (C), which rotated the shafts (D) and via a pulley the spit (E) in front of the fire.

  A long table for the preparation of dishes would have stood in the middle of the kitchen. It was usually made of pine, scrubbed to a pale colour with the grain showing proud after years of sanding and washing. Slatted wooden boards might be positioned around the table for the cook and servants to stand on, while the floor beneath was solid, composed of stone flags or tiles. A dresser would have stood against a wall with open shelving above and below (sometimes enclosed underneath) for cooking utensils, pots and pans and some dinnerware.

  FIG 7.5: An early cast iron open range, which became available in the late 18th century, with an oven to the left and a boiler on the right of the grate. Unlike a modern cooker, which you simply switch on and is cleaned by self cleaning liners, the cast iron range was time consuming, complicated and dirty. Fires were kept lit continuously (helping to protect basement kitchens from damp), controlling the heat was notoriously tricky and took an experienced hand, and the range needed regular black leading.

  SCULLERY OR BACK KITCHEN

  The back kitchen, later more generally called a scullery (derived from the French word for ‘dish’, which in turn comes from the Latin word scutella, meaning ‘salver’, hence it was where the plates and dishes were washed up), was next door to the main kitchen (usually behind it in a terraced house). It was a versatile space, which was used for messy tasks like preparing meat and gutting fish, as well as being where the washing up and laundry were done (the largest houses might have had a separate laundry). The floor would be flagged, tiled or brick, usually with a slope or central drain to take away the water.

  FIG 7.6: A portable roasting spit was an ingenious device to cook small joints. The open face was positioned in front of the fire and a clockwork mechanism at the top rotated the meat hanging from the chain, with the concave back helping to reflect the heat onto the joint.

  The room would have contained a sink, which was generally wide and flat (deeper ceramic types only became widely available in the 19th century) and made of stone or wood with a watertight lead sheet lining. Wooden tubs might have been set within the sink for washing up delicate items like china. Water was collected either from a well or rainwater butts, although sometimes a well was positioned beneath the floor with a hand pump above next to the sink for convenience. The water was generally heated up in a copper, especially from the late 18th century when soap, which required hot water for the best effect, became popular for laundry (previously lye had been used, a solution made from boiling and straining wood ash, which was used with cold water). The copper was a round metal tank set in a brick or stone frame (usually in a corner) with a fire below to heat the water for both washing up and laundry.

  FIG 7.7: The back kitchen or scullery was where the washing up of cooking implements and the laundry were done. In this example there is a shallow sto
ne sink with a wooden bowl for washing, a hand pump raising water from a well below (or nearby), a copper in the corner, and a small fire on which irons could be heated.

  Washday was generally dreaded by the staff and, unlike today when you simply flick a switch, it was time consuming and hard work. There were tubs and boards for washing and scrubbing with lye or soap, and there might have been a mangle for wringing out large and heavy pieces. Drying racks were suspended from the ceiling on pulleys or positioned in front of a fire for smaller items. There might also have been a space out in the garden or yard for drying. Ironing was done with metal irons heated on the fire and pressed down on a table covered with a sheet.

  FIG 7.8: A copper with a wooden lid covering the bowl in which the water was held and an opening below. This accessed the fire and had a gap underneath from which the ashes could be removed.

  FIG 7.9: COGGES MANOR FARM, WITNEY, OXFORDSHIRE: A selection of laundry equipment in a shallow stone sink.