The Kitchen

"After the Second World War, the "American kitchen" became the benchmark for kitchens. This was innovatory on technological rather than aesthetic grounds, but it gave a new lease of life to the kitchen as an important room. By the 1970s, spending on the kitchen had taken off, and the "fitted" kitchen has now become almost obligatory. Today we spend more on kitchens and bathrooms than on any other room in the house. The kitchen has become the shrine to the most recent and most unobtrusive technology: the smell, the elbow grease and the bustle are a thing of the past."
Planel:2000:21

The first type of closed oven were called ranges, these according to Jane Furnival were "Handsome beasts, their names proudly picked out in the middle and studded with complex brass knobs, taps and levers. But before they could be lit, they needed someone to clean the flues, sweep out the soot, clear the ashes and scour the inside with soda and hot water....After the early morning routine came the dreaded daily polishing with black lead, to stop the range rusting in the steamy kitchen atmosphere...Black leading the stove was a skill. The lead came wrapped in a sausage shaped paper...the maid had to break off a nugget and mix it with water using a little round brush. It was like making cake-icing with sugar and water. Too much water and it dripped down over the floor; too little and it clogged the brush."

Furnival:1998:98

Interviews