small kitchen table

small kitchen table with Rustic

By Building Supplies Photographed in Salt Lake City
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the very first half the twentieth century, the ‘kitchen table'was a vital item of furniture for the British working-class family. Its importance is clearly shown in working-class autobiographies which described the important points of domestic life during the very first half the twentieth century.

Your kitchen table needs to be put in its environment in order to understand its significance. Nowadays we may assume that this was the kitchen. Certainly, in middle-class homes, your kitchen table was there, but in the working-class home it had been however family living space. For just two thirds of the autobiographers examined, this room was described as a ‘kitchen'however for one third it had been referred to as a ‘family area '. Food was prepared and cooked in the family area but it had been unlikely to be a area for washing dishes. This would be achieved in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A separate ‘kitchen'was therefore not a given in the working-class home and plans for the very first council houses in 1918 had ‘living rooms'and ‘sculleries'but no ‘kitchens '.

For all it was the table – the only one in the house. It had been the focal point of the family area and activities took place around or on the table. In early area of the period, the main light source might sit there. Some uses for the table are familiar; others are actually rare. It had been at your kitchen table that the family ate together, sometimes in two sittings if the family was large. Though middle-class families now eat meals within their kitchen, this was incorrect ahead of the Second World War. At that time, only the servants ate regular meals at your kitchen table in wealthy households and your kitchen of the lower-middle class suburban ‘semi'had little space for eating at a table.

Food preparation was generally done at your kitchen table because it was the only work surface in an era before units. The table was used as an ironing board and for washing up in homes lacking a sink. People sat, sewed and read there. Memoirs of working-class childhood recall playing at the table and utilizing it for number of games from Ludo to ping pong. Homework would be done at the table too as overcrowded bedrooms lacked desks, heat and adequate lighting. Middle-class children had an alternative relationship with your kitchen table because doing offers and doing homework could be achieved elsewhere. In every, the autobiographical sources referred to 24 different uses of your kitchen table. These ranged from eating to more obscure uses such as for example an operating table to get rid of tonsils.

The uses of your kitchen table varied as time passes and reflected the distinctive weekly and daily routines of the working-class home. Ironing would occur either on washday (usually Monday) or these day. Food preparation was a day activity, whilst the playing of games took place in evenings and at weekends. Uses of the table were also seasonal: warmer weather and lighter evenings meant children played outside and grown-ups chatted on doorsteps. Changing the look of the table could also help alter the ambiance of the living room. On Sunday, the weekday tablecloth (or newspaper) might be replaced with a smarter cloth signifying the special nature of the day.

The centrality of your kitchen table declined in working-class homes after the Second World War but has increased in importance in middle-class homes. All of the living spaces increased in the former alongside how many tables, while in middle-class homes, your kitchen table grew in importance as did your kitchen itself. Present-day usage of kitchen tables thus reflects a convergence in domestic culture between both classes, though contemporary advocates of the ‘farmhouse kitchen'rarely acknowledge its antecedents in the working-class living room.