Victorian bathrooms
Apr. 16th, 2019 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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victorian221bFound this website while researching for a fic and thought it would be a shame to lose the link.
The earliest Victorian bathrooms were just fitted into regular rooms. The fixtures were all fitted into wood to make the room feel equal to a parlor or a bedroom. Everything felt like furniture, and the room was decorated as such – paintings, wallpaper, wainscoting, fabrics, rugs…. everything that you’d have in a normal room, but now you had a tub, sink, and toilet.
Eventually, the Victorians realized that maybe wood WASN’T the best choice for a bathroom – especially once hot water pipes and tanks were added to houses, towards the late 1800s. Then came this fascination with cleanliness, and rooms became tiled (or, linoleum if you weren’t as wealthy), and fixtures became made of one piece of porcelain. SO much easier to keep clean. White was considered a clean color that you would know when to clean.
Showers were all the rage for the well-to-do. Some were just tanks suspended over the tub, and you could operate them with a pull-chain (a lot like a camp shower). Rib cage showers are hard to find these days (and expensive!), and they look a little like torture chambers, but they are SUPER cool.
When bathrooms became stand-alone rooms, they were often located at the back of the house, as out of the way as possible, to deal with sewer smells. Once the S-Bend was invented, and plumbing could keep the smells out, bathrooms could move around, and often were located under stairs or in former dressing rooms. The bath and sink were commonly in one room, and the toilet in another (the lavatory or water closet).
The earliest Victorian bathrooms were just fitted into regular rooms. The fixtures were all fitted into wood to make the room feel equal to a parlor or a bedroom. Everything felt like furniture, and the room was decorated as such – paintings, wallpaper, wainscoting, fabrics, rugs…. everything that you’d have in a normal room, but now you had a tub, sink, and toilet.
Eventually, the Victorians realized that maybe wood WASN’T the best choice for a bathroom – especially once hot water pipes and tanks were added to houses, towards the late 1800s. Then came this fascination with cleanliness, and rooms became tiled (or, linoleum if you weren’t as wealthy), and fixtures became made of one piece of porcelain. SO much easier to keep clean. White was considered a clean color that you would know when to clean.
Showers were all the rage for the well-to-do. Some were just tanks suspended over the tub, and you could operate them with a pull-chain (a lot like a camp shower). Rib cage showers are hard to find these days (and expensive!), and they look a little like torture chambers, but they are SUPER cool.
When bathrooms became stand-alone rooms, they were often located at the back of the house, as out of the way as possible, to deal with sewer smells. Once the S-Bend was invented, and plumbing could keep the smells out, bathrooms could move around, and often were located under stairs or in former dressing rooms. The bath and sink were commonly in one room, and the toilet in another (the lavatory or water closet).
no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 06:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-16 10:13 pm (UTC)Love that bondage frame shower.
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Date: 2019-04-17 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-17 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-21 04:48 pm (UTC)I wrote a story once about Holmes installing a shower in his cottage in Sussex as a surprise for Watson.
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Date: 2019-04-21 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-21 07:58 pm (UTC)https://watsons-woes.livejournal.com/1535087.html
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Date: 2019-04-22 05:28 am (UTC)