new name for bungalow?

Thank you Elegranfor your info stuffed post, I like the sound of the stained glass and sunburst door [very Art Deco.]So your house was built with an upper storey, but all sounds quite original [some bungalows have been hopelessly messed about with.]You are correct FlicketyB in that the earliest will be about 1830 [so I was once told] there may have been a few built before then, that are no longer in existance.There were a lot built in the 1920's and 1930's big eras for all kinds of house building [including Council houses.]The next lot of building was late forties and into the 50's and the hugest of the building surges was in the 1960's. I would love to visit a Victorian bungalow though [have been in Vict. cottages, and semi's and terraces, cramped and poky so expect bungalows may have been the same] although it did depend on the wealth of the purchaser.

I think the earliest bungalows date back to the mid-19th century. I think they were built by colonial administrators, planters and army officers returning from India, as single storey houses were so unusual in England, they used the Indian name bungalow to describe them. I have certainly seen bungalows that date to at least the start of the 20th century and some that were possibly earlier.

There are plenty of pre WW2 bungalows. I live opposite 4 that I know date from the early 1930s. They were built as farm cottages to replace a terrace of 15/16 century thatched cottages that burnt down in 1929 when a spark from a steam train set the thatch on fire.

roses We were the third owners of our house and we were here longer than either of the others. My husband knew it from the day the previous owners to us moved in about 1947, as the son was his best friend and he played here often. It has hardly been altered at all, structurally. We replaced windows and added a small conservatory at the back (south) and upstairs we enlarged a walk-in linen cupboard into a tiny boxroom, which just takes a single bed, and extended the main bedroom into the eaves for an ensuite. The other double bedroom is as it was. It was built with 2 bed rooms upstairs, not converted to add them, so there is a well-proportioned staircase and a large half-landing window.

Original features? A round stained glass panel in the front door and a "sunburst" inner door, some nice light fittings, a picture rail in one of the two bay-windowed front rooms - built to be as the "best room" but we have always used the room at the back of the house, which gets the sunshine, simple cornices in the three downstairs public rooms and the hall, good-sized kitchen, 9x7 ft bathroom, all the doors have a single panel (very modern at the time, when 4 panels were normal) unreliable bronze doorbell which has the original wiring buried where it can't be replaced.

My house is a single story, as are most of the houses where I live, they are just called "houses". There is also one and a half houses, bedrooms built in the roof space. The reason I think this is, is because most plots are a least a quarter acre, so the houses are quite big, and the wind (like today) hopefully does not damage them.

We definitely have a spread out. Quite a good name as we we say things like keep turning right at every corner to new visitors as rooms keep appearing around a central hole. I think they are expensive to run as the area covered is for council tax I believe and heat loss in the roof space even with good insulation is something special.

No, I'm not from Australia, rosesarered, but do visit as often as I can as we have family out there. What puzzles me about Australia is that the "houses" are bungalows but the new builds are on very small plots. With all that space you'd think they could have larger gardens. Not many in our area so not much choice if we wanted one.

Not sure really Elegran I just felt stifled as if I needed air, and had to get out.The cottage one had been 'done up' and was ready to move into but just felt unpleasant[ the new paint effect felt a bit like slapping make up onto a corpse kind of thing!] The bungalow just felt really unhappy.
Anyway, tell us more about your 1930's house?have there been many changes, additions to it? What is it called [only if you want to say.]

My 1935 bungalow has a very nice atmosphere.

I agree that houses have atmosphere. I don't know whether it is a "psychic" one or a combination of the colours and faint smells left behind and the air of being either spruce and well-cared-for or run-down and unkempt.

As it was when you were younger, would the (deceased?) owners have been of the first generation to own it, who could perhaps have contributed to the atmosphere (physical not psychical)?

Or maybe they were an odd lot.

I wonder if anyone on this site lives in a Victorian bungalow?There probably aren't that many around now, but does anyone live in a 1920 or 1930 one? What are they like? Once, house hunting somewhere in Devon when we were younger, we were shown around a 1930's one, as I am interested in architecture, nobody lived in it, though it was clean and ship-shape so to speak, but had such an 'atmosphere' that I couldn't wait to get out of it!We have moved house loads of times and have looked around hundreds of houses [some not so ship-shape] and this atmosphere issue has only raised it's head twice, the 1930's bungalow, and once, a very old cottage [both houses in Devon, by great co-incidence!] Has anyone else ever felt this?

Hi Margaretm are you from Australia? No , not that many bungalows [the name comes from India, the days of the British Raj] in certain parts of the UK. There tend to be more built in areas where people want to retire to, hence the thought that only older people want to live in one.They take up more land, so are not often built in suburban areas [nowadays] although the older ones can still be found all over the place. I love them, and when the children were young found them a great house to live in, saving all that tramping up and down the stairs.They vary just as much as 2 storey houses, from the small and cramped to the large and luxurious, some have postage stamp gardens and some have acres.

They are just called "houses" in Australia, where there seem to be more of them. Not many in our area of the UK, although I wouldn't mind one.

My parents retired to a large and roomy bungalow in an area with a lot of bungalows, most of them quite expensive, mainly occupied by retired people and kept in immaculate order.

When we sold DP's bungalow after their deaths, we got an extremely good price for it because it was in such good order. We sold it to a retired lady who promptly remodelled it, adding, extending, having landscape gardeners in.

A year after the sale it was unrecognisable as the bungalow my parents had lived in. Her work destroyed the features that the estate agent had said made the property so saleable, large windows and pleasant views from all the main rooms. Ah well each to their taste.

Asked my 9 year old DGS this question , he thought for a second and said
they can be called 'spread-outs' [the rooms are all spread out.... kind of makes sense.]His next thought was 'flat-spreads', so all things considered am happy to go back to the original 'bungalow.'

sorry.

Yes, I realise that.

Ana I saw the old thread about bungalows and dying off in them [not sure if I posted on it or just read the comments.]I was using irony in my replies just now [friendly irony.]

I think your bungalow image is taken from those property building TV shows, Apricot, where someone buys a choice piece of land with a dilapidated little house on, knocks it down, and builds a Hollywood mansion in its place. These bloated plutocrats are a tiny minority of the poulation, not at all representative of real people. They knock down perfectly good villas, too, to build their massive monstrosities in the garden.

The heyday of bungalow building was in the thirties. Anyone who was in one continuously from the time they were built (and possibly had difficulty maintaining it as they grew older) has now died off and been replaced by younger owners.

Like me. Drop in and see my bungalow if you are passing. When I get too old to climb the stairs (yes, it was built with bedrooms up in the roof and a permanent stair) I shall move my bedroom down into one of the three spacious public rooms downstairs and stay here as long as I can get to the (downstairs) bathroom and operate the microwave. I do intend to keep it maintained though.

There was, although it wasn't disparaging about bungalows as such, rather a discussion about the government's view that most pensioners wanted to retire to one. Did you post on that thread, or was it before your time?

LOL Ana we are certainly getting that way!
Yes, bungalows DO have a bad rep, always have. People say things like 'whoa! I'm not ready for a bungalow yet!'I think there was a thread a while ago about that very subject.

Are you saying you are old, live in a run-down bungalow and can't maintain it then, rosesarered? I've never thought bungalows had a bad reputation at all - until now.

apricot I think you must know us..!
That's it though you see fellow Gns, thats the bad rep that bungalows and their owners have!That's why a new name is called for. However apricot this thread is really for thinking up another name.

What a terrible slur on bungalow-owners countrywide, apricot! I have very fond memories of the lovely one I owned when I was (shock horror) only in my forties, and I maintained it very well indeed...

Oh dear, I think of bungalows as run-down and occupied by old people who can't maintain them. When they eventually get sold (50 years later) a whopping great house is built on the site.

I was trying to think what I would call my 'bungalow' if I had one. I have seen some amazing bungalows around, my mother's is beautiful and built into the side of a hill. I don't mind the name and I wish I could post a photo of the one I was first brought up in on this thread, as it was a proper indian bungalow with a verandah around it.

I would simply refer to it as my house. Then add that it was single storey.

Anyone remember The Beatles song 'Bungalow Bill'?
I can't see the name ever changing to something else in the future [this was hardly a serious thread anyway!] Just wondered if anyone could come up with something that fitted the bill and sounded nice. It's difficult though isn't it to think of something?Plus it's something rather British, the good old days of the RAJ etc. Although I am the only Chai wallah around here!DH is shouting for yet another mug of it as we speak.