Creating a VICTORIAN KITCHEN

A new book, Victorian Modern: A Design Bible for the Victorian Home, by Jo Leevers and Rachael Smith, takes a look at the history of Victorian rooms and how they can be adapted for life today. This is an edited extract of its chapter on kitchens

- Jo Leevers and Rachael Smith

The history of the Victorian kitchen

In grander houses, the kitchen was a hot and busy place, located as far as possible from the rest of the house. Today, it has evolved into a role that could not be more different: a sociable hub where family and friends gather together and meals are shared. Whether in a country home or an extended terraced house in the city, the kitchen has to be both practical and hardworking - but there is also plenty of scope to get creative with innovative design ideas.

In historic houses now open to the public, the old kitchen, scullery and butler's pantry tend to be where visitors linger, taking in the rows of shiny copper pots, the neatly organised silver, the cast-iron range cooker and the scrubbed surfaces for chopping vegetables and rolling pastry. Part of this fascination lies in the fact that a well-preserved kitchen gives an authentic glimpse into how life was lived in another century, with the same tasks that we do every day - apart from polishing the silver-carried out in an entirely different setting.

Hardworking space

For the Victorians, the kitchen was a place of undisguised hard work. It was this labour - whether by the wife, a housekeeper or numerous staff in a grand house - which underpinned the smooth running of the household. In the 19th century, the kitchen was consigned to the basement or the rear of the house; in some homes, it might even have been in a separate building altogether. The aim was to keep the smells and constant clatter at a remove from the more genteel spaces, with servants often summoned by a bell.