THE HOUSEPLACE: the history of the all-inclusive kitchen
- Johnny Grey
- Apr 15
- 4 min read
Johnny writes here about exciting new directions of kitchen design. The kitchen is now a much more sociable place, softer, where we blend work and leisure. It’s less built-in and more relaxed. The Unfitted Kitchen’s time has come. So perhaps has the rather odd word ‘Houseplace’.
HALLWAY GREETINGS
The almighty kitchen is encroaching on other rooms. Take the hallway. As the place where we first land, meet and greet and decide where to go, it is now often integrated into the kitchen. Once upon a time you hung around in the hallway, especially if you lived in a castle. Medieval hall houses and farmhouses also tended to have large communal entrance areas. They would contain a big fireplace (the only one) and a refectory table. Later on, the hallway was refashioned by American settlers and English Arts and Crafts architects as a parlour. This became a dining area and place to talk, a non-culinary domestic space. The parlour now sits squarely in history (see below, re Dove Cottage) though the instinct for food and conversation taken together remains very much in force. Then along comes the modern kitchen. In its post-war guise this was a room that excluded most social activity. The 1980s saw however a return to the larger farmhouse kitchen, which has now become the default. My perfect kitchen is an open invitation to conviviality, a place where we can pretty much do what we want. Why segment our activities into separate rooms if we don’t need to?
ALL TOGETHER NOW
Today we can stay in the kitchen pretty much all day. With a multi-purpose central island at its heart and backed up by specific zones for cooking, cleaning up, home- and office work and enhanced by a boiling water tap to make a pot of tea, you can set up home in here. A window seat to catch the sky or at least the garden, and a decent sized table, big enough to spread out your papers and laptop, enjoy a coffee with a friend or dine with the family, are key components of this scene. In line with multi-generational design, children’s involvement in cooking is something people now really think about. It is not too much to hope that ultra processed food can be phased out when everyone feels they can cook. Central islands provide the perfect layout for cooking with children. Likewise, the smaller peninsula is overdue for a comeback, this time in an ergonomic shape instead of a basic L. A rise-and-fall mechanism makes islands and peninsulas ideal for users of all ages and abilities to take part in prepping, serving and eating. With our different heights and fitness levels, we are afforded the chance to sit down while doing these activities.
POETIC LICENCE
The poet William Wordsworth named the parlour, the main room of his house in the Lake District, ‘the Houseplace’. This was where he, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his sister Dorothy spent most of their time in their home, Dove Cottage. Only 15ft by 20ft, it was used in conjunction with their kitchen. The Houseplace is a term from medieval architecture for a room used by all the inhabitants of a house, like a hall. This room saw the writing of some of the greatest poetry in the English language plus Dorothy’s famous journal. With its two tables a lot of simultaneous writing could have been achieved. After long walks in the fells and dales the Wordsworths welcomed friends and sat around the fire. A dresser displayed plates, eating utensils and household objects. Wordsworth’s adaptation of the medieval term ‘House Place’ reflects the focus in his writing on specific sites, country people, nature and landscape. It makes for an interesting comparison with ‘parlour’ the Middle English-Anglo French term for a reception or entertainment room, the word obviously connected to talking.
UNFITTED FITS THE BILL
The physical edges of the kitchen are undergoing a softening which, I sense, coincides with the desire for a more friendly way of living in a kitchen. There is less focus on neatness and minimalist perfection and a move to a more personalised space. Open shelves replace blanked off cupboards, a patterned curtains hangs below the sink and multi-purpose islands fulfil a wide range of uses. The recognition of the need for eye contact during cooking activities, on the basis that the sweet spot of a kitchen always faces into the centre of the room, is more widespread. All these requirements are best met by freestanding furniture. It is no longer the case that people expect everything to be built in and even the term ‘unfitted’ is becoming a bit mainstream (Martha Stewart Living referred to it in April 2025). With confidence about DIY and self-designed kitchens on the increase and with builders and installers playing an important role, the unfitted concept is ideal since it is easier to install than a fitted kitchen and of course more flexible.
You are invited to see Johnny Grey, who will be presenting a talk at the NEC, Birmingham, InstallerSHOW on Tuesday 24th June, 12:15 – 1:15pm.
The NEC Installer Show’s dates are 24-6th June 2025
