Family bathroom behind kitchen. Why?

w12ee3e

I don't get it. Why were properties of a certain period all configured with the toilet / bath / shower room all behind the kitchen? It seems like the most utterly brain dead place to locate those facilities. The only logical explanation I can think of is this was some sort of weird compromise on the out house concept, also long dead. But then again those never had showers or bath.

Slinky

When the houses were built they had a toilet at the bottom of the garden, and you took a bath in a metal bath in the kitchen. A lot of the houses didn't even have running water inside. My mother grew up in a house with a tap at the other end of the row of houses, everything they wanted had to be brought in a bucket.

Be grateful for what there is now.

RelievedSheff

This has to be a wind up?

user1977

Generally because you're looking at houses which weren't built with a bathroom, and (rather than lose space upstairs) that was the most logical space to add one - it's where the plumbing is, for example.

jonnydeppiwish!

RelievedSheff said:

This has to be a wind up?

I think so - either that or it’s someone who thinks bathrooms, let alone indoor facilities, were common place even 70 years ago.

Even up until the 90s, baths and showers were not an everyday occurrence as they are now. When baths were run, everyone in the house used the same water.

Sunsaru

RelievedSheff said:

This has to be a wind up?

Nope, some people tend to forget that there was a time before they were born...

aoleks

It’s not what’s been mentioned above, it’s the cretin trend of magically transforming a 2 bed house into a 3 bed by moving the bathroom downstairs.

auto reject from me, it’s one of the worst things you can do to mess up a house layout. I don’t want my shlong dangling in front of guests when I’m on my way from the bathroom to the bedroom, not to mention the cold…

RAS

The one I find more difficult is when the only bathroom is over the out-shut kitchen, accessed via the back bedroom. Made heating the hot water from the back boiler easy but not taking lodgers.

FreeBear

Slinky said: When the houses were built they had a toilet at the bottom of the garden, and you took a bath in a metal bath in the kitchen. A lot of the houses didn't even have running water inside. My mother grew up in a house with a tap at the other end of the row of houses, everything they wanted had to be brought in a bucket.

I have memories of a (rural) house that had an outside toilet (horrible, smelly thing), and bath time was the kitchen sink. Wasn't even that long ago. Current home has a proper flushing loo and a bath (both upstairs) and linked to a main sewer - Still have a cesspit up the garden somewhere.

Doozergirl

aoleks said:

It’s not what’s been mentioned above, it’s the cretin trend of magically transforming a 2 bed house into a 3 bed by moving the bathroom downstairs.

auto reject from me, it’s one of the worst things you can do to mess up a house layout. I don’t want my shlong dangling in front of guests when I’m on my way from the bathroom to the bedroom, not to mention the cold…

I've got to see this.  Show me an example, please! 

It really is what everyone else has said above - that the houses pre-date bathrooms, but if someone's doing what you've said then I'd love to see it.  

Murphybear

We looked at a rental property a few years ago, before the modern rules existed.  The bath was in the kitchen, a big board covered it when not in use.  The only loo was outside.  Needless to say we didn’t take it.