What are those smaller doors for?

by fidiasi

28 comments
  1. Cupboard for utilities/bins etc. Someone said coal… maybe it was, but it’s hard to age it properly without seeing more of the neighbouring buildings.

  2. It’s the height most people used to be, especially women…

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23896855

    But no, probably coal store or maybe an outside toilet.
    In this particular case, the actual wall looks short and not even much space for lintel, maybe it’s behind the bricks?
    I’ve seen similar build into the sides of houses tho

  3. If you’re lucky and live in one of the better-run London boroughs the bin collection team will collect the rubbish from inside the cupboard. Keeps things clean and tidy, and reduces the amount of rubbish foxes and rats get hold of.

  4. Is the picture in question in Southwark ? Ah yes I can see the pointy bit of the shard.

  5. There’s no lock on it, so have a look. Probably for a bin in the time before everyone had to have five per property.

  6. Refuse (not refuse as in decline, refuse as in garbage trash)

  7. People who turn spare rooms, garages or extra floor into rented accomodation with a seperate entrance from the landlord.

  8. Not a toilet. That, for houses that had an outside privvy, was on the other side of the wall. The house, a 2 up 2 down, would have had at least two families in there sharing that outside toilet. Four families in some cases. Some earlier houses had no outside toilet and the drain that ran in the ‘ginnel’ at the back, had a drain and people would empty their pots in to there. That is why most deaths during the Industrial Revolution would be blood borne, from fleas passing on diseases.

    Coal is the answer. Though some houses used them for wood, before coal started to be delivered. Not everyone could afford coal. Later houses, this would be a coal shoot, where coal would be poured in and the coal store/house would be on the other side of the wall. Later, they became bin stores.

    A Northerner.

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