wooden kitchen table

wooden kitchen table with Mediterranean

By Home Builders Photographed in Houston
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the very first half the twentieth century, the ‘dining 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 facts of domestic life during the very first half the twentieth century.

Your kitchen table needs to be placed 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, however in the working-class home it had been in the primary family living space. For two thirds of the autobiographers examined, this room was called a ‘kitchen'however for one third it had been known as a ‘family area '. Food was prepared and cooked in the family area but it had been unlikely to be always a place for washing dishes. This would be achieved in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A dedicated ‘kitchen'was therefore not certain in the working-class home and plans for the very first council houses in 1918 had ‘living rooms'and ‘sculleries'but no ‘kitchens '.

For a lot of it was the table – alone in the house. It had been the focal point of the family area and activities took place around or on the table. In early the main period, the key source of light might sit there. Some uses for the table are familiar; others are now 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 inside their kitchen, this was incorrect before 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 as it was the sole work surface in a time before units. The table was used being 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 deploying it for selection 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 a different relationship with your kitchen table because doing offers and doing homework could be achieved elsewhere. In most, the autobiographical sources referred to 24 different uses of your kitchen table. These ranged from eating to more obscure uses such as for instance an operating table to get rid of tonsils.

The uses of your kitchen table varied over time and reflected the distinctive weekly and daily routines of the working-class home. Ironing would occur either on washday (usually Monday) or the following day. Food preparation was a day activity, whilst the playing of games took invest 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 following the Second World War but has increased in importance in middle-class homes. The range of living spaces increased in the former along side how many tables, whilst 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.