Family bathroom behind kitchen. Why?

TBagpuss

As others have said, in many cases it it because the houses were not originally built with bathrooms, so the bathroom was added later.
It may also have to do with what worked for the plumbing - if you have the kitchen and bathroom together you minimise the pipework needed. Also, building a single storey extension close to where you already have all the plumbing and drainage is generally likely to be much cheaper than a 2 storey extension, and give you more living spacethan if you give up a bedroom to add a bathroom

In my first house, which was a 2-up, 2-down terrace built in 1903, my house had an upstairs bathroom as the back bedroom had been split in two leaving a bathroom and smaller bedroom. However, several of the others in the street had the original 2 large bedrooms upstairs, and the kitchen had been split in two to create a downstairs bathroom - it seems to depend in part on when the bathroom had been added.

user1977

jonnydeppiwish! said:

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.

The first flat I bought (small tenement one in Glasgow) had only had a bathroom installed in 1986.

The flat upstairs wasn't quite as luxurious - it had a shower cubicle, but in the kitchen!

Doozergirl

Scotbot said:

Doozergirl said:

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.  

You want an example of his shlong? I think you are on the wrong site😂😂😂😂

Honestly, you'd be surprised!

SallyDucati

lookstraightahead said:

My first house was a two made into three bed with a downstairs bathroom with a huge corner bath. Worked fine for us. In fact if you've only got one toilet I think it's better to be downstairs. Whichever way it's better than an outside toilet, no shower/bath, no central heating and newspaper for toilet roll.

Only toilet downstairs can work - until you reach a certain age and need to get up in the night to use it!  Thankful for my en-suite now.  

KeepOnKnitting

My 2-bed terrace originally had an outhouse shared with the neighbours across the road. A downstairs bathroom was installed at some time, and probably for the whole row of terraces at the same time. This space is now the dining space in the kitchen, and you can see where the wall has been removed. The upstairs bathroom is above the kitchen to reduce plumbing distance in what once was the middle-size bedroom. So my second bedroom is smaller than the bathroom. Some houses in the terrace still have 3 beds and the downstairs bathroom with small kitchen.

Essentially, the layout is a function of the history of house building and modernisation.

zagubov

Visited my uncle in London in the 70s and yes all the flats in his building shared an outhouse at the bottom of the garden.

But back in the day WCs were regarded as too dirty to have indoors.

There's plenty of big houses down here which had toilets you could only access from their own separate outside door.

Internally they'd be located near kitchens, for plumbing reasons, but not accessible from inside the house.

Even in tenements the w.c would be a separate shared facility from the flats on the same landing.

It's one of the reasons why postwar veterans were delighted to live in what look to us like cheap shoddy prefabs but which were really ingeniously designed.

And why people could be tempted into high-rise flats from the tenements they replaced (central heating helped here).

Why people in space-strapped Britain think it's better to have toilets and bathrooms combined when Japan bans it is baffling.

Woolsery

aoleks said:

I don’t want my shlong dangling in front of guests when I’m on my way from the bathroom to the bedroom

Probably only you and John Barrowman have this 'problem.'

babyblade41

My first house I bought in 1982 had no indoor loo & a bath was at the end of the kitchen, It was an end terrace with a 100ft garden .

No central heating but there was an old gas fire in the small living room , windows were metal &froze in the winter .

Turned the box room upstairs into a bathroom and extended the kitchen .

Paid 26k for it & sold for 47,500 2.4 years later.  Never put in central heating or changed the windows

My first born went to bed wrapped up like an eskimo in the winter but I absolutely adored the house 

SuseOrm

babyblade41 said:

My first house I bought in 1982 had no indoor loo & a bath was at the end of the kitchen, It was an end terrace with a 100ft garden .

No central heating but there was an old gas fire in the small living room , windows were metal &froze in the winter .

Turned the box room upstairs into a bathroom and extended the kitchen .

Paid 26k for it & sold for 47,500 2.4 years later.  Never put in central heating or changed the windows

My first born went to bed wrapped up like an eskimo in the winter but I absolutely adored the house 

And we were grateful 🙄

Silvertabby

I was brought up in a 2-up-2 down that had an upstairs bathroom - but only a sink and a basin.  The loo was in the back yard.  Even though the bath had to be filled by a procession of kettles and pans carried upstairs, as we had no/very little hot water on tap, mum thought we were 'well posh' because her childhood bath had been a metal tub in the kitchen.

Although they were owner occupiers, the council offered grants to fit indoor loos.  Initially, my mum was dead against it as 'it's not hygienic to have a toilet indoors'.  Dad eventually talked her round, although she insisted on keeping the outdoor loo, with the indoor one being for 'emergencies only'.