The 1940s House: The Bathroom and Toilet

IWM Senior Historian Terry Charman tours IWM London's 1940s House (closed January 2012) and speaks about life in wartime Britain for the typical family.

[@MerseyBilly]

Such luxury! When I think that my own parents did not have an inside bathroom or toilet or running hot water until almost 1970. In fact, I was born into an all-gas house, as they did not have limited electricity installed until 1951. The war may have been well over, but austerity and poverty reigned in many areas (such as my own city of Liverpool, England) for decades after.

[@zeeteavathepipe3184]

In Romania we had a lot of areas without running water. In the '90's or even '000's you could found them in Bucharest, which is the capital.

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

@@zeeteavathepipe3184 this bathroom is from 1946

[@arickett68]

I lived in Birkenhead across the River Mersey from you! And we had NO bathroom, just an outside toilet. No HOT running water either. It was still like that when I emigrated in 1965!!

[@abdullahmoney69]

I have one question for Romania is that why wasn't hygiene there for a long time I don't mean it in a mean way but why is it like this

[@matthewvwuk]

I have personally been to the IWM London a few years ago & visited the 1940's house there & I thought it was quite amazing to be going back in time to how life was like during WW2 in Britain & for a house like this to have a bathroom with hot & cold running water & an indoor flush toilet was something of a luxury back then! I imagine the water was heated by a back boiler behind an open fire or immersion heated & with galvanized steel & lead plumbing to boot! We take our modern bathrooms for granted really in this day & age really & thank you for posting this video.

[@robertkennedy3439]

I love the 1940's house,thanks for showing.

[@mydailymotion1]

The title should say 'The 1940s MIDDLE CLASS House '. Working class people did not have this luxury, though this point is mentioned.

[@Nyx773]

This is showing the home set up for the historical reality TV show "The 1940s House". This is not supposed to be a representation of the typical house in the 1940s

[@lakshmivaidyanathan2254]

@@Nyx773 I thought so

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

@@lakshmivaidyanathan2254 that be 1945 or 1946

[@capablemaria]

My granny had a bath in the kitchen, it was curtained off when not in use. 1970's

[@cosh5]

That looks much like our 1970s bathroom! We had an outdoor toilet until the mid 1980s, and really thought we'd gone up in the world when we could finally afford to rent somewhere with an indoor toilet. Our new home had no gas or electricity though, so it wasn't all good news 🤣

[@MN-re9oh]

My mother in law's bathroom is worse than this. And it's 2017. Some countries have had it rough throughout the ages.

[@papermason]

Looks like my grandparents house in East York, Ontario, Canada. It looked so much like an old English house.

[@annrogers8129]

We lived in an old cottage, dating back to the 1600’s. We had no indoor bathroom or toilet, but there were chamber pots, I remember. Also there was no water laid on. We had to get water from a stand pipe, down the track from the house. I was born in the cottage in the 1950’s with the midwife in attendance. So different now, but not necessarily better.

[@Kubulek17]

Controversial opinion here but I strongly believe that having a nice modern looking bathroom with hot running water and a toilet is much better than having a chamber pot

[@fairlyvague82]

Ann Rogers You can’t really argue that today’s standards aren’t better. Women were still dying in childbirth at home due to unforeseen problems.

[@eatiegourmet1015]

@@fairlyvague82 Better in other ways, not creature comforts. There was dignity, and pride of family, faith and country. There was a sense of community, of common goals and aspirations. Oh I'm not saying there were not curtain-twitchers and envy, jealousy, cattiness.... but people pulled together when the chips were down, they defended their way of life, didn't kneel down to thugs for the sake of pandering political "correctness".

[@Kubulek17]

@@eatiegourmet1015 I guess you’re purposely ignoring all those historical wars and millions of records of feuds between people. People fought just as much back then as they do now. You’re only seeing the fights now.

[@adriandip8448]

@@eatiegourmet1015 Imagine objecting to indoor plumbing, hot water, and soap because you want to use the n- word

[@OCC_Plumbing_and_Restorations]

That looks amazing!

[@ryanbarker5217]

notice that the hot and cold faucets are separate, which i believe is a trait of older english plumbing.

[@GarGri]

still the case in modern houses with separate taps for hot and cold water.

[@ethan.000]

It still happens in most modern houses in America as well

[@l.5832]

@@ethan.000 He means the spout. Most bathrooms have separate handles to control hot and cold, but the water comes out of a central spout. In the old bathrooms (and I remember them!) there were 2 spouts often in opposite corners of the sink. This would necessitate your using a plug to fill sink for the water to blend. No holding your hands under temperature controlled stream. Worse yet, many faucet handles were spring-loaded so the minute you let go of them, the handle sprung back and water shut off. So one hand had to constantly be holding the tap. Good times!......

[@annabellesinger3717]

These days modern man is so spoiled compared to this!

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

this should be called 1945s house

[@mariabrett6712]

we had a tin bath and outside loo😉

[@spinynorman8217]

I put my outside loo back...have you any idea how hard it is to source a high cistern! I loved going outside there was no smell and l had a picture of the queen on the wall opposite the throne... brilliant...l had an inside bathroom too,a built in metal bath just no naff marble and gold taps so ill at ease in a humble terrace; an unspoilt terrace is a thing of beauty as they're extremely rare. The terraced house should be appreciated not butchered and derided ... remember we pulled down thatched cottages not long ago.

[@michelles2299]

If you had one my grandma had an outside toilet and a tin bath

[@jensturgess7685]

I think its beautiful,very smart

[@jfree1998]

Roosevelt's wife's name was Eleanor not Helena

[@JulietGermanotta]

Can I move in, PLEASE??💯❤️❤️

[@juliadespain718]

President Roosevelt's wife's name was Eleanor, not Helena.

[@Moosetta]

For sure, Julia.

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

nice bathroom

[@godofzombi]

Imagine sitting in the outhouse when the air raid sirens went off...

[@poptarts8938]

godofzombi *WOW* that's very unfortunate!

[@sarahellison8487]

can anybody suggest any uther tv series or documentaries about people going back please

[@verdew8181]

This bathroom looks just like those of several of my older relatives' homes several decades ago.

[@jamesgeiger4795]

Seems like houses were more modern in the USA in the 40s, from what I've seen in movies. This bathroom looks more equal to a 20s or 30s bathroom here in the states.

[@Neldidellavittoria]

+james geiger Even in Argentina they were more modern. :O How times have changed.

[@Lady_dromeda]

I guess id be super lucky if I lived in the 40’s, my house has two bathrooms

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

nice old bathroom

[@angelapennock2639]

This was grandmothers bathroom. I can still smell Izal toilet paper

[@hildaelson4203]

Now imagine we not only have bathrooms and lavatories inside the house, but inside bedrooms as well. My house have 5 bedrooms plus my dad’s office, the kitchen and the hallway and ALL of them have their own bathroom or lavatory. We were thinking about installing one in the sitting room and one in my office but that would have been too many for the maid to clean. So in total we have 7 bathrooms and one lavatory. Would have been unthinkable in the 1940s.

[@Moltenbramley]

I can’t tell if this is sarcasm

[@l.5832]

It's actually unthinkable today....

[@liveswithgarden6566]

You wouldn't mind sitting in the cold damp, spider toilet. If you had a cigarette, that's what my mum used to do.

[@lilyandrose8557]

We live in such opulence now

[@sandraford4235]

What bathroom? Ours was a tin bath in the back kitchen

[@davidbrown8303]

a lot of people still have bathrooms that look like this they are called poor people.

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

@Therese A. Judith Izzo-Davis the 50s bathrooms are also nice too

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

@Therese A. Judith Izzo-Davis I saw 1 of these old baths in a shop

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

@Therese A. Judith Izzo-Davis I also want one of these baths

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

@Muslimcel nice bathroom

[@kristinesharp6286]

Was their toilet outside? I didn’t notice that?

[@barbarasmith7663]

In the show/house they had a seperate indoor toilet next to the bathroom

[@x6621]

Yes Yes That is such luxury that dad must have been an MP or a Banker who was quite rich.

[@coastergrl5161]

was it a lot harder in England in the 1940s then the USA or did both countries have the same struggles?

[@MrDaiseymay]

It was very much harder in Britain. Virtually ALL cities were bombed to a devestating degree, particularly Coventry--and of course London. Fifty thousand citizens were killed and badly injured. EVERYTHING was strictly rationed, as Hitlers U-Boats sank millions of tons of shipping, which carried our food and materials. There were some restrictions in the US, caused by the War, but no enemy bombs fell on USA soil--to my knowledge.

[@lindabrown7374]

Philip Croft Just Pearl Harbor,

[@salemcripple]

LINDA BROWN Oregon was bombed, as well as being shelled by Japanese U-boats. And parts of Alaska were actually occupied by Japanese forces.

[@Kelly-tj8xv]

+ashley “girlstorm09” rodriguez No, in the 1940's, we here in the U.S., and in Canada, had nice indoor bathrooms, electricity, and pretty much everything we have now. Even in the 1930's, all homes in the U.S. and Canada had electricity and indoor bathrooms. Only the poorest families had outdoor toilets.

[@Kelly-tj8xv]

+Kelly Maguire We also had plenty of hot water, electric vaccums. Living in England was darn right archaic compared to life in the U.S. and Canada during the same time period.

[@azabujuban-hito8085]

Who the heck is Helena ?

[@markokelly2494]

Yes, I heard him say Helena also. Hopefully he means Eleanor.

[@spinynorman8217]

I love this bathroom it's cool l hate modern bathrooms they're so glitzy.

[@hotpointbrownlover3365]

this is also a 50s and 60s bathroom

[@randomvintagefilm273]

A first aid kit against a bombing raid? Yeah good luck with that!

[@fairlyvague82]

There actually were many minor injuries from slight structural damage to the house causing injury, to falling and scraping the knees on the dash to the Anderson shelter!

[@nathaliegrieves3859]

Thank God i don't live in those times

[@georgelynn9713]

..lllcancil

[@Perktube1]

i would squeeze like I never squeezed before XP

[@user-di2on5gl2d]

It looks unsanitary to bathe in bathtub.