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More Room at the TopMost Victorian and Edwardian houses of any size had attics, usually reached by rickety, winding stairs and intended for the use of servants.
Even quite modest homes often had a little attic room for a live-in maid to crawl into for a brief sleep.
First used purely for storage, attics began to be turned into rooms in the mid-18th century, when lath and plaster partitions and ceilings were added.
As they were used by servants, apprentices and skivvies, they were inferior to the main rooms in the house.
Otherwise known as garrets or rookeries, these rooms under the eaves were considered cheap, substandard accommodation for those too poor to afford a proper room.
After the First World War, with the advent of a more democratic attitude to housing and the demise of live-in servants, attic rooms disappeared for a time.
The concept will not go away, however.
We continue to have a fondness for attics, so much so that in recent years homeowners have been trying to re-create them with expensive and extensive loft conversions.
Now a few enterprising developers are doing away with the need for loft conversions by reintroducing the attic.
This time round, though, for perhaps the first time in the history of domestic architecture, the attic is being built to the same high standard as the rest of the house.
more: property.timesonline.co.uk/articl... (688)
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4/11/2005 | Viewed 12,921 time(s)
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