The role of the kitchen has changed dramatically over the past seventy years, particularly in the last decade. Prior to the second world war even quite modest urban households had a cook toiling away in the basement, and in suburban and country houses the dirty deed of cooking took place in some dark warren of rooms on the north side of the house, far away from the family and their guests
Following the second world war domestic staff became a rarity, and with the typical housewife now responsible for feeding her family the kitchen assumed more importance stylistically and functionally. Out went the unhygienic painted cupboards, wooden worktops, dish racks and china sinks, and in came a plethora of labour saving gadgets and acres of shiny new laminates and easy to clean vinyl flooring.
However cooking was still generally carried out well away from public view, connected with formal dining rooms only by serving hatches. The housewife guarded her territory fiercely, with hubbie very often not having a clue what the cooker looked like!
Since then we have all become much more interested in food and cooking, and the kitchen is very often now the centre of family life. Although there are still plenty of laminate kitchens fitted every year, the trend has been towards creating warm attractive rooms that double as living spaces, with sofas and places to do homework.
As a result over the thirty or so years I have been creating kitchens, along with creating fresh contemporary spaces, I have found myself putting back the natural surfaces, china sinks and wooden cupboards that our forbears couldn’t wait to strip out! I have also moved kitchens from some dark place somewhere in the back out into the sun, perhaps into the original drawing or dining room, or into a new purpose built extension.
