Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Small kitchen range in bedroom
Hi all,
I've just moved into a house in the area and when removing the board from a fireplace opening discovered a small late Victorian kitchen range..but in an upstairs bedroom.
I'm a bit befuddled by this. There's no way the house was big enough to justify a live in maid if any sort... And there's a perfectly good kitchen downstairs with space for a range. No sign the house was ever divided up into flats... Has anyone else come across anything like this in an upstairs room?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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That bust looks like Lord Kitchener. I doubt it was part of the original design!
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Permalink Reply by PeterPiper on
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Lord Kitchener in the kitchen!? Your stove needs you!
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Permalink Reply by J on
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Yep, Kitchener we reckon. He was amongst the soot and debris on top of the oven. There's a pressed tin ashtray it looks like he sits on.There was a papier mache tray too, but pretty much mashed.
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I first lived on the Ladder as a child in the 1950s and into the 60s and 70s. Our house was owned by a woman who came to collect rent every Friday. We lived on the first floor and another family lived on the ground floor. We had one front door and shared the entrance hallway- no self-contained flat. Downstairs had use of an outdoor toilet, no bathroom so all personal hygiene happened at the kitchen sink. The kitchen was small, called a scullery, and had a “copper” in one corner-a wood heated circular, fitted washing “machine” - used for boiling water and putting in the washing - no agitator so not sure how effective it was. Upstairs, now the back bedroom overlooking the garden, was our kitchen: sink, cooker and GAS fridge! We hung our washing out by using a washing line on a pulley which allowed us to pull the washing along a rope that stretched the length of the garden and attached to a high metal post. We had a separate toilet and bathroom but no bath or basin in the bathroom but it was used to store a tin bath which was carried into the kitchen every Sunday night. We filled it by boiling saucepans of water and emptied it by scooping water up into a washing up bowl and pouring it down the kitchen sink. We all shared the bath water. Around about 1965, the owner decided to convert the house. The stairs were boarded into our top floor flat. Each flat was given an internal entry door. The outside toilet area and a small extension became a downstairs bathroom. Sounds like a different world. But I have many happy memories of living in that house with my mum and dad.
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Permalink Reply by Geraldine on
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The first part of your post also describes our house in Seymour Road in the 40s and 50s. It was one of the larger houses at the bottom of the road and divided into three 'flats'. Only one bathroom - on the first floor - ground floor had outside lavatory only. Certainly no hot water; boiled kettles only. Would be considered primitive in the extreme today but there are happy memories, as you say. After all, when you have experienced nothing better why should you be dissatisfied? It was a different world then.
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Thank you Lydia, that really paints a picture. I remember shared bathwater too, and there's a photio somewhere of my mum blowing soap bubbles for me and my brother sitting in a tin bath...
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Oh the good olde days ! Happy memories of very similar accommodation.
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Hi there
I love this post, I had heard that the houses were split but it is lovely to see evidence of that, and that the range was behind there all the time!
many thanks for posting,
eileen
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Cheers Eileen. Tbh, I rather thought my renovation days were behind me... Looks like this house has ideas of it's own...
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