My Nan always called it..

My Nan had a scullery and a front room, freezing cold, for company only, which never happened. She was originally from the Fens then moved south in service, called jigsaw puzzles zigzaws and chimneys chimblies.

The outside toilet was the netty.

It was known in SE as the privvy

I loved my grandparents Edwardian detached house in West London. It had a dining room and sitting room either side of the front door, a glass door through to the back where there was a large kitchen with a range cooker, huge pine dresser with a knife sharpener and some other lovely Victorian/Edwardian furniture, plus the bell board. It was so warm and cosy.

On the other side of the passage was the scullery which I hated, it was cold and had a concrete floor and a sink with a huge wooden plate rack. So wet stuff was done here, next to it was a larder and I think another loo which was freezing.

Out side was a fairly small but gorgeous walled garden, I remember the hollyhocks, and now at last after more than 50 years I have succeeded with these lovely flowers! It was surrounded by chestnut trees. How I would so love to have that house here in France, but in our garden.

I think its a shame that words have changed their meanin g and that people giggle at once innocent words like glory hole, muff, beaver, pussy and even knob What can i call the round door handles? You have to be so careful what you say these days and it annoys me.

I was brought up in a small country cottage, sitting room with coal fire, small kitchen with a Raeburn (poor man's AGA) & a pantry complete with meat safe & window with mesh instead of glass. Stairs came off the kitchen to two bedrooms. Outside loo.

This didn't change until I was 11 (1966) when my parents bought the barn attached to the cottage & extended so we had large kitchen, a fridge for the first time & a pantry for storing tins etc. Dining room & sitting room. Bathroom, what a luxury & 3 bedrooms.

We had a large garden, front & side with shrubs, flowers & lawn & back garden full of fruit & veg. I loved my home.

One nan lived in a terraced house with a living room- where we ate, sat and played cards, there was a big black fireplace with an oven, but the scullery off it was where the sink and the cooker were. The front room was only used on special occasions although we were sent to sit in it and play quietly when the grown ups were playing cards on a Sunday night. Even when it was freezing!
Other nan moved into a prefab great astonishment because there was a fitted kitchen with---- a FRIDGE!

When my grandfather died we moved to live with my grandmother, in large house now worth £2.5 million (London suburb) The bell board was still there and working, we drove my grandmother mad by ringing them frequently. There was a huge hall, a drawing room and dining room, good sized genuine cloakroom (pegs on both sides of the room, with a large loo off it. The kitchen was a big square room with an understairs scullery with separate sink. There was a shelved larder (with meat safe) and then a small hall leading to outside with another much smaller loo and a coal room.

Upstairs there were three large bedrooms, a bathroom almost as big as the dining room, and then on the second floor another attic room used for storage, though I imagine it is now is another bedroom. There was a tiny door at the end of this leading to the rest of the area under the roof, used for storage, and we used to climb through this and hide, pretending to be in the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'

That makes me sound very privileged, but we moved in there because my father earned little money as an insurance clerk and I can remember my mother tying her shoes with string because she couldn't afford shoelaces. It was not a success, major personality clashes!

I have a very small kitchen (couldn't swing a cat) but its saving grace is a fab walk in pantry. Some of my neighbours have knocked theirs out, but I never would. Its fantastic. DH has shelved it from top to bottom and I keep all sorts in there.

Kitchen with scullery with copper and leading off a walk in larder. There was also a butler's pantry. Small room just containing a large sink with rows of shelves. (no butler)

I thought a 'press' was a Scottish term for a cupboard of some sort. (I've read Mollie Weir's wonderful autobiographies)

We had a kitchen - large room, with walk in cupboard, large wooden table in centre, sofa and chairs and radio etc, and a scullery with the cooker, sink and some small cupboards with enamel tops. Our front room was at the front of the house and never, ever used!

I think Meandashy is using press to mean cupboard.

Traditionally, in large houses with servants, the scullery was a small room off the kitchen where the dirty jobs of washing, washing up, vegetable peeling etc. took place. My nanna had the kitchen, where we sat during the day. There was an old fashioned range in there but it wasn't used for cooking, just for heating the room. The back kitchen had a gas cooker, sink and wooden draining board. There was almost always a big tin bath with washing steeping and a poss tub too. So, the back kitchen and scullery were one and the same in that house. The names were used interchangeably. It was a big, three story house on the main road through Bootle but several of my mother's brothers and sisters lived 'at home' back then, even after they were married and had children of their own, so my nanna and grandad had no best sitting room until they'd all left home. When we visited there at Christmas, my sisters and I used to try to stay awake on New Year's Eve to hear the ship's and tugboats blowing their hooters at midnight down on the Mersey.

Damn that predictive text putting apostrophes where they're not wanted! ?

My nan always called her kitchen The scullery think she was in service back in the day.

I've never heard of a "kist" in Ireland but we have one here in Scotland. I also only ever call the airing cupboard the "hot press".

My gran had a three storey near Victoria Park E3.It seemed huge to me when a child. It too had a scullery which fascinated me with a shallow sink that water splashed everywhere.She kept chickens and I loved to collect eggs.
She sold it in the sixties.I wonder what it would cost now to live in that area.

Jacques for custard is among lots of family words Anyone guess why ?

'50s - we must have been posh because we had a toilet off the back kitchen. The window was usually open, so I sometimes climbed in there when everyone was out and the house was locked.
There was also a coal cellar, pantry, and clothes stretcher across the ceiling. As well as a sink and gas cooker.
This was my grandparent's old house. Before that (WW2) we lived in an upstairs flat and I can't remember what the kitchen was like there.

Cousteau?

My husband's family lived in an old terraced house and they always called the tiny kitchen the scullery which to be honest I couldn't understand.x

Yes, my Nan always called it the 'back kitchen'. She too had been in service so I'm sure this is where it originated from.

We had a back kitchen(the only one) then a larder (pantry), also the front room (sitting room), and at the top of the stairs was a lumber room (a glory hole) Havent thought about these things for ages, it feels quite reminiscent, takes me back a bit!

Great to hear the word "press" again. It was in very common usage 50-60 years ago here in Scotland but haven't heard it in many years.

So glad I started this thread, loving reading these posts, thank you all!