Questions for our UK friends.

[mayguy]

I always wonder why in the UK area, the washer and dryer (or combo in your case) are in the kitchen?

Seems like most of them are in that area, and not in the basement as most of ours are here in the states, or in a laundry room.

 

[chestermikeuk]

UK Laundry

Most of the UK housing doesnt have basements, some older house did but they tended to be used as a "Coal Shute" coal would be dropped down the shute and then stored down below, but even in these houses the are tended to be low roofed and not ideal as a room without making it deeper....

Also its the way our houses are constructed, lots of houses are grouped together, semi detached and terraced housing has been the norm here...space is at a premium so why have two rooms when one will do it appears to have been..

Along with the space, it was only really in the 70`s that automatic washers & dryers took off in a big way, many homes simply had a twintub or wringer washer which was very easy to keep in a corner of a kitchen and "Wheel to the Sink" for use and usually the boiler or water heater might well have been "Over the Kitchen Sink" as again centrally heated homes for the masses only arrived in the late 60`s....

Newer homes now often have "Laundry Rooms", which is usually a small annexe just off the kitchen, many people renovating older homes will also build a "utility Room" as it is one of those "must have, sort after, designer trends of the era" when buying / selling your home at the moment..

 

[aussie-plugs]

It's not just the UK - an Oz perspective

Here in Australia it seems to have depended on the location and era.

I grew up in the late 50's/early 60's. We always had a sepearate laundry area in our home (built 1952). It originally had a gas "copper" for boiling clothes, with a double concrete sink for rinsing. My mum had a water-powered spin dryer for extraction which was bolted to the cross member between the tubs of the concrete sink. I remember the sink having been cracked by an out-of-balance load at some point and having to be replaced.

The coppper was removed and replaced by a Bendix automatic in 1963. I loved that machine and had one as my first machine some 15 years later - rebuilt with some help from my dad.

My maternal grandmother's home (built 1930's, in a well-to-do Melbourne suburb) had a separate laundry away from the main kitchen area, with a wood-fired "copper". She died before ever owning a washing machine (around 1967)

My paternal grandmother had a laundry tub in the kitchen area, with a Hoover single-tub impeller machine with hand-wringer.

Family friends all had separate laundry areas. I actually look at some of the advertisments in the POD on this site and see the laundry appliances in the kitchen area and think it's a bit odd.

Apartments often had the laundry area as part of the bathroom. Nowadays we're starting to see laundry areas that are separate from the kitchen, but often in cupboards in a hallway near the kitchen/living areas of apartments. My issue with this is (as much as I like the slosh-slosh of a washing machine), one doesn't like to come home and be FORCED to hear the laundry being done. I much prefer to have it in a room secluded from the general living areas of the home.

Nick

 

[rolls_rapide]

Size of UK houses

The unfortunate fact is that UK houses are generally on the small side, new ones even more so. There just isn't the space for a separate utility room. Those modern houses that do have a utility room, it is usually the size of Ye Olde Scullery; i.e. small and narrow.

Kitchens were probably chosen as the place to site laundry appliances due to the water and drain facilities being close at hand (kitchen sink).

High current appliances are forbidden in our bathrooms and shower rooms, so the kitchen really was the only place to site them.

As for being odd, didn't the US have laundry appliances in the kitchen in tv shows, like 'Bewitched'?

 

[launderess]

Not exactly in the kitchen, but Mrs. Stephen's washer and dryer were in a small ultility area just before the back door, which was off the kitchen. One assumes in terms of home design such placement was so one could carry laundry outside to the lines directly.

Mrs. Brady's laundry room was a more common arrangement with it being located off the kitchen in a ultility room or laundry room, which also could have lead to or been of the maid's room.

 

[mayguy]

Thanks for the feed back everyone. Looks like Launderess has covered about the TV shows with the laundry room.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~As for being odd, didn't the US have laundry appliances in the kitchen in tv shows, like 'Bewitched'?

Hollywood, Hollywood, Hollywood.

In Wesport Connecticut a house needs a heating system; no evidence of one on that show. Many homes there were built before 1945, which means it would need a basement for its steam heating system. In order to have a bamsent it needs windows down there of at least 12" (30cm) in height. This further means that the front door and rear access to garden/yard would not be at exactly grade-level; there would be a step up to go in or a step down to go out. they got that wrong, too!

I'm sure the washer and dryer were in the kitchen so that the sponsor (Frigidaire) could benefit from having the machines be visible on-cam.

Moving the washer and dryer to the main level (up from the basement) came much later, say in the 1980's. Today W&D-ers are sometimes placed on the uppermost level among the bedrooms and bathroom(s).

In my current rental apartmen the W&D (supplied by moi-meme, not the landlord) are in the kitchen due to space avaialability and access to water, eletricity, drain and a window for venting the dryer.

I have only once in this country seen the W&D in a bathroom.
Actually having a good healthy odorous constitutional when the dryer is running is a great way to get "recycling odors" in your laundry....

In Greece the washers were located in the bathrooms in the early 70's. Don't know about today.

Kithchens with a W&D are called "utlity kitchens" here.

 

[toggleswitch2]

There are 30+/-cm per foot. and 2.54 cm per inch.

In old (read: circa 1920's and before) apartment buidlngs in New York City there was, by law, in every apartment a double 4' wide (1.2m) kitchen sink with two 24" (60cm) bowls. The shallow was used as a kithcen sink and the deep as a laundry tub.

So we have a 4 foot sink, a space next to it for a 2 foot refirgerator and space for a 3 foot stove, standard/common in those days.

One thereofre put a 24" (60cm) [read: small]washer in the space of the fridge and had a perfect deep sink for the drain hose.

So you had 4+2+3= 9 feet which happily becomes:

2.5 feet (30 inches/75cm) for a standard stove
2.5 feet for a refrigerator
2.0 feet (24 inches/60cm) for a dishwaser
2.0 feet for a sink
---------------------
9.0 feet, TOTAL
=====================

Hence many washers in NYC were by Sears/Kenmore or Whirlpool. They made the largest 24" inchers in general. GE stopped making them then retarted and stopped again. Maytags were 25.5" IIRC

 

[toggleswitch2]

Where did the washer go?

On Bewitched, in early (or just before) season 7, there was a fire on the set.

The "new" set showed some changes to the kitchen, the laundry "nook" and added a breakfast room. The fake staircase up from the kitchen is a joke, but anyway.

In season 7 there is a Maytag Harvest Gold dryer in the kitchen, (with the name-tag [badge] covered with a piece of black electrical tape) without any washer sighted, or visible. That makes NO sense.

The Maytag DW is pretty neat as well.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Hey UK boys, how was gas delivered to the Parkinson washer (by the Parkinson stove Co, LTD. BTW!) when it was used as a portable?

 

[launderess]

Have laundry and housekeeping manuals from the 1920's through 1950's and beyond, and many give examples of laundry areas located on the main floor, regardless if the home had a basement or not. Indeed remember homes from one's youth and those shown in magazines featuring ground floor laundry areas.

For one thing it saved having to haul wet laundry up flights of stairs to be hung out on the lines. Yes, tumble dryers have been around since the 1940's or so, but not everyone had them, surely not as common as today.

Next, not all women fancied going down to what was normally a dark, dank, cold and often unfinished space to do laundry. It also meant that if one had small children they were left alone if one didn't have someone to keep an eye on them.

Of current television programmes shown in the United States, "The Bernie Mack" show, which is set in California shows a home that is ground level, indeed only a one floor ranch type home, but it does have a basement. No steps in front, nor patio area either.

Back to Bewitched:

IIRC, the home Mr. and Mrs. Darrin Stephens moved into was "new". Mr. and Mrs. Kravitts had a home that looked much older than Sam's. Certianly remember Sam and Endora doing some "landscape" work when they went to see the house for the first time. Twitching up plants and lawn where it twas once barren earth.

Since the show began in 1964, it would have been possible for some sort of heating system to be located on the ground floor for a two story house.

The home does have one small "step" at the front door, however one cannot tell if there is any sort of basement form the front because plants and hedges are planted below both the den and living room window. These plants pretty much cover the view. Given the height of the windows and location, there could have been a basement.

In any even, 1164 Morning Glory Circle has to be one of the most beautiful homes. Nevermind the inside does not match the outdoor floor arrangement. There is someone who has plans to spec of what the house would look like if it was built as used during the series (back staircase to now where, three second floor bedrooms.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Technically a "basement" is below-grade space with some windows, and is generally used when fenstration is reasonably good.
A "cellar" is oftentimes without windows or tiny ones.
There is legal definition in NYC as to the difference.

~Next, not all women fancied going down to what was normally a dark, dank, cold and often unfinished space to do laundry. It also meant that if one had small children they were left alone if one didn't have someone to keep an eye on them.

Funny, the adult women I have dealt with are not coddled/spoiled enough to be afraid of their own basements. It's not a bad place if kept neat, clean and organized. But that, of course, takes work.

Leave small children alone? If they are that small do laundry as they nap, or sleep for the night. Do laundry while they are in school or *HORRORS* take them with you to see they boogey-man in the basement! NEWSFLASH: unattended children? This is exaclty what happens when the care-taker is on the phone, in front of the TV, or busy distracted shopping. Nothing new under the sun.

Yes Lady L, I agree with you. There are many examples of laundry areas on the main level in this country. However in my city and area, when homes have multiple levels, I have not seen it. Real-estate (land)is far too expense and at a premium to indulge in such a thing, when basement space is available.

Smantha's laundry nook did not allow for pretreating of stains (where is the slop-sink /laundry tubs?). Where is dirty laudnty stored until ready to wash? Where are delicates washed and hung-up to dry indoors? Where are the 3,000 laundry additives kept? And finally where WERE Samantha's outdoor lines? So as you can clearly see a tiny laundry nook/area in the kitchen is absolutley superior to other options

Listen, as far as we know there was no bathroom or powder-room on Samantha's main level either. And the wall-of-windows type of doors to the rear garden from the living room is riduclous in her sopposed climate. Not an ounce of weather-seal noted.

Sorry, I just see things differently.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Hooray for Hollywood!

supposed climate, that is.

 

[launderess]

IIRC, there was a laundry shoot from the second floor down to the first. Could be wrong, but remember someone getting stuck in it once (Aunt Clara?).

Sam was often seen taking baskets of laundry up and down stairs.

As for pre-treating stains and the rest, where does one do such things when the washer is located in the kitchen? Or even built in to a cabinet such as the fast growing fashion in the United States, long common in the UK and Europe. One would hope persons aren't treating soiled laundry in the same sink and on the same counters where food is prepared, but then again....

Our laundry is in a nook just off the kitchen, and most pre-treating is done either as laundry comes out of the hamper and is being sorted (goes into a vintage wheeled laundry cart with three different compartments), or in the case of linens as they come off the beds or table.

L.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~One would hope persons aren't treating soiled laundry in the same sink and on the same counters where food is prepared, but then again....

How about this one. Railroad-room type flat in the boroughs (for our international friends, outer NYC) where the bathroom was added later, in a corner of the kitchn. Toilet and tub only. That's right boys and girls and girly-boys, think of the mixing of odors; dinner before and after digestion. And even beyond that: one must wash their hands, after using the loo, in the kitchen sink. G-R-O-S-S!

I don't mind having my washer in the kitchen. In a prior residence I had a Firgidaire undercounter dryer next to my stove-- near the gas supply. One must abosolutely watch their cooking odors when drying clothes; the dried load will stink of food!

 

[autowasherfreak]

Hollywood Washers and Dryers

I was watching Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie the other day, and on Bewitched all I saw was the dryer in harvest gold, then when I was watching I Dream of Jeannine Tony and Jeannie were at the Bellows for dinner and they had an avocado green Maytag set I think. The Brady's had a avocado green Whirlpool set. Anyone recall what brand of washer and dryer Shirley Partridge used? One the Beverly Hillbillies, did Granny ever use her washer and dryer? I would love to have the Kitchen from the Beverly Hillbillies.

 

[vintagesearch]

if you have a washer all the way in the basement like we do you wish you would have it in the kitchen like most at least i do its such a bitch to carry the monstrosities of clothes aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way downstairs i wish we had a first floor setup this way i could just go half way LOL, i guess its more excercise!

 

[passatdoc]

Don't forget the other famous Westport residents...the R

The Ricardos moved to Westport (my father's hometown, he is an alumnus of Staples High School in Westport) in the middle of the 1956-57 season, and remained there for the 1957-1960 run of the Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, which used the same characters, setting, and storyline as I Love Lucy. Their Westport home had a laundry room between the kitchen and the dining room. The laundry room door was featured on several Westport episodes, including Lucy Raises Chickens and The Star (Tallulah Bankhead) Next Door.

 

[passatdoc]

Another advantage of laundry rooms in the garage was made ov

Here in coastal California, it is common even in newer homes to have the laundry area located in the garage. The garage location keeps the dryer heat out of the house, important in coastal areas where air conditioning is not a necessity. Further inland, where central A/C is the norm, there is less reason to place the machines in the garage, so indoor laundry rooms are more common.

But there is a second reason for the garage location: usually the garage floor slab is six inches below the house slab. If the machine suffers a leak, it floods the garage but not the inside of the house (yeah, a tiled laundry room with a drain in the middle, like I've seen in Oz, would do the trick in case of a flood, but I've seen US layouts with no drain or safety pan...crazy!).

Last week the washing machine drain pipe embedded in my garage wall suffered a leak and a puddle about a meter across formed after doing a load of wash. This was an easy plumbing repair, and it brought home the advantage of having the laundry in the garage.

It does freeze here in the winter, but only a few degrees below freezing, and never cold enough to freeze water pipes, so the unheated garage can safely host a laundry area.