dolls house source information

The Bathroom

For many, the practice of washing and bathing in the bedroom was the norm. As the Victorian era progressed and depending on the size of the house and the social standing of the family indoor plumbing became increasingly popular.

Prior to this the pitcher and bowl on top of a washstand was a ubiquitous sight in Victorian bedrooms. A bathtub or hip bath of copper or zinc would be brought into the bedroom each time a bath was required. This would be placed on a bath blanket with an oil cloth below. Hot water would be transported up the stairs by hand.

By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, indoor plumbing enabled a tap and fixed bowl with plug and pipe for waste water to be fitted in a bathroom. Bathtubs could occupy a fixed permanent site. The first bathrooms were converted from dressing rooms and secondary bedrooms and therefore were quite large. Plumbing fixtures were boxed into fixed cabinets in an attempt to disguise their real function.

Ceilings were made of pressed tin. This was introduced in the late 1880’s and were a pre-fabricated substitution for ornate and moulded ceilings. Tin ceilings were ideally suited to bathrooms and sculleries- small and humid rooms.

Floors were covered in linoleum, finished in geometric or tiled patterns.

Cast iron radiators would be heated with hot water pumped up from a boiler located on the floor below.

By 1880, water closets joined the bathroom, also disguised but anxiety about their presence in the house at all resulted in them being sectioned off into a cubicle on their own. Other bathroom furniture included:-

Wardrobes

Dressers

Sofas

Side tables

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, increased pride and consideration for bathroom styling led to boxed in fixtures falling out of fashion. Roll topped baths of cast iron, and ball and claw feet became de rigeur. Pedestal sinks were introduced and toilets were decorated with scroll or floral designs. A water tank was fixed high above the toilet bowl and fixed on metal brackets. The toilet seat was made from a variety of woods. Gas geysers were available from the 1860’s onwards, but before 1850 washstands, outhouses and chamber pots were normal. By the end of the century bathrooms were still not standard in Victorian homes