Scullery (room)
Encyclopedia
A scullery is a room in a house
traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen when the main kitchen is overloaded. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils
(or storing them), occasional kitchen work, ironing
, boiling water for cooking or bathing, and soaking and washing clothes. Sculleries contain hot and cold sinks, sometimes slop sinks, drain pipes, storage shelves, plate racks, a work table, various "coppers" for boiling water, tubs, and buckets.
The term "scullery", in a modern domestic context, appears to be somewhat archaic, the room being more commonly referred to (at least in North America
) as a utility room
or laundry room
.
The term is, however, still to be found in modern use as an alternative term for kitchen in some regions of Britain, typically Northern Ireland
, North East England
and Scotland
, or in designer kitchens.
In United States military facilities and most commercial restaurants, a "scullery" refers to the section of a dining facility where pots and pans
are scrubbed and rinsed (in an assembly line
style). It is usually near the kitchen and the serving line.
Etymology (according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary): Middle English squilerie, sculerie, department of household in charge of dishes, from Anglo-French esquilerie, from escuele, eskel bowl, from Latin scutella, drinking bowl.
located adjacent to the main kitchen, frequently to the rear of the house nearest the water supply, such as a public fountain or a well
, or near a barrel that collected rain water, which was the preferred water for washing dishes. In houses built prior to indoor plumbing, scullery sinks were located against an outside wall. Since sculleries were used for washing and great quantities of water had to be carried inside, they were made with solid floors of brick, stone, terra cotta tiles, or concrete. Although a drain known as a soil pipe would carry the dirty water outside of the house, the floors were likely to stay wet. The scullery maid
, or person washing dishes at the sink, would stand on slatted wood mats near the sinks. The floor itself was often dug 6 inches or so (150mm) below the main house floor in case of leaks or flooding. In designing a scullery, architects would take care to place the room adjacent to the kitchen with a door leading directly outside to conveniently obtain water. However, for sanitation purposes (since so much slop was processed in the scullery) no doors led from there to the pantry or store rooms.
Scullery sinks came in pairs, one for hot water and the other for cold water. They were square or rectangular in shape, shallow, and made of non-absorbent materials, such as the slate sinks at Chawton House or lined with copper to protect delicate dishes.
In addition to washing dishes and preparing foods for roasting and boiling, such as cleaning vegetables and dressing poultry, game, and fish, the scullery was used for boiling water and doing laundry, which necessitated the following equipment:
Sanitation was a special concern for house owners, whose sculleries could be the source of illness if they were not properly drained or kept clean. Grease, which abounded in scullery sink water, could choke up a soil pipe and start stinking up the house. Water from green vegetables also has a peculiarly objectionable smell, thus drainage was of the utmost importance."The most generally recommended arrangement for carrying away scullery sink water is to make the pipe pass through the scullery wall terminating a little above the ground and to discharge its contents into an open drain from which it is conducted by a pipe into the drain leading to the sewer."
In the late 19th century, unsanitary conditions in sculleries and privies could lead to chronic illness. A writer in an 1898 edition of Lancet, observed:
, recommended that porcelain sinks should be used in sculleries attached to hospital wards. "The best sink for a scullery is the new white porcelain sink recently introduced with hot and cold water laid on. Care must be taken that the waste pipe has no direct communication with a closed drain otherwise foul air is certain to find its way into the hospital."
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...
traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen when the main kitchen is overloaded. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils
Dishwashing
Dish-washing is the process of cleaning cooking utensils, dishes, cutlery and other items. This is either achieved by hand in a sink or using dishwasher and may take place in a kitchen, utility room, scullery or elsewhere...
(or storing them), occasional kitchen work, ironing
Ironing
Ironing is the use of a heated tool to remove wrinkles from fabric. The heating is commonly done to a temperature of 180-220 °Celsius, depending on the fabric. Ironing works by loosening the bonds between the long-chain polymer molecules in the fibers of the material...
, boiling water for cooking or bathing, and soaking and washing clothes. Sculleries contain hot and cold sinks, sometimes slop sinks, drain pipes, storage shelves, plate racks, a work table, various "coppers" for boiling water, tubs, and buckets.
The term "scullery", in a modern domestic context, appears to be somewhat archaic, the room being more commonly referred to (at least in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
) as a utility room
Utility room
A utility room is a room within a house where equipment that are not used in day to day activities are kept. Utility refers to an item which is designed for usefulness or practical use, so in turn most of the items kept in this room have functional attributes...
or laundry room
Laundry room
A laundry room is a room where clothes are washed. In a modern home, a laundry room would be equipped with an automatic washing machine and clothes dryer,and often a large basin, called a laundry tub, for hand-washing delicate articles of clothing such as sweaters, and an ironing board...
.
The term is, however, still to be found in modern use as an alternative term for kitchen in some regions of Britain, typically Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
, North East England
North East England
North East England is one of the nine official regions of England. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Teesside . The only cities in the region are Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland...
and Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, or in designer kitchens.
In United States military facilities and most commercial restaurants, a "scullery" refers to the section of a dining facility where pots and pans
Cookware and bakeware
Cookware and bakeware are types of food preparation containers commonly found in the kitchen. Cookware comprises cooking vessels, such as saucepans and frying pans, intended for use on a stove or range cooktop. Bakeware comprises cooking vessels intended for use inside an oven...
are scrubbed and rinsed (in an assembly line
Assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process in which parts are added to a product in a sequential manner using optimally planned logistics to create a finished product much faster than with handcrafting-type methods...
style). It is usually near the kitchen and the serving line.
Etymology (according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary): Middle English squilerie, sculerie, department of household in charge of dishes, from Anglo-French esquilerie, from escuele, eskel bowl, from Latin scutella, drinking bowl.
The traditional household scullery
The scullery was a back kitchenKitchen
A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation.In the West, a modern residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets arranged according to a modular design. Many households have a...
located adjacent to the main kitchen, frequently to the rear of the house nearest the water supply, such as a public fountain or a well
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
, or near a barrel that collected rain water, which was the preferred water for washing dishes. In houses built prior to indoor plumbing, scullery sinks were located against an outside wall. Since sculleries were used for washing and great quantities of water had to be carried inside, they were made with solid floors of brick, stone, terra cotta tiles, or concrete. Although a drain known as a soil pipe would carry the dirty water outside of the house, the floors were likely to stay wet. The scullery maid
Scullery maid
In great houses, scullery maids were the lowest-ranked and often the youngest of the female servants and acted as assistant to a kitchen maid. The scullery maid reported to the cook or chef...
, or person washing dishes at the sink, would stand on slatted wood mats near the sinks. The floor itself was often dug 6 inches or so (150mm) below the main house floor in case of leaks or flooding. In designing a scullery, architects would take care to place the room adjacent to the kitchen with a door leading directly outside to conveniently obtain water. However, for sanitation purposes (since so much slop was processed in the scullery) no doors led from there to the pantry or store rooms.
Scullery sinks came in pairs, one for hot water and the other for cold water. They were square or rectangular in shape, shallow, and made of non-absorbent materials, such as the slate sinks at Chawton House or lined with copper to protect delicate dishes.
The general sink in the scullery, into which all kinds of liquids and matter are emptied, from green-water to greasy matters, should be made of a non-absorbent material, such as stoneware or fire-clay. Or if the sink is to answer the double purpose of receiver and washer, i.e., if instead of washing the dinner-plates, etc., in a tub placed within the sink, the sink itself is to be used for the purpose, then instead of fixing a sink of non-elastic material, as stoneware or fire-clay, a wood sink lined with tinned copper should be fixed, copper being sufficiently elastic to prevent the breakage of crockery ware, and its surface being smoother and therefore cleaner than lead.
In addition to washing dishes and preparing foods for roasting and boiling, such as cleaning vegetables and dressing poultry, game, and fish, the scullery was used for boiling water and doing laundry, which necessitated the following equipment:
- Set pot (the "copper" or a big metal tub): boiling water
- Dolly tub: soaking dirty clothes overnight
- Wooden tub: for scrubbing
- Mangle: For squeezing water out of cloth
Sanitation was a special concern for house owners, whose sculleries could be the source of illness if they were not properly drained or kept clean. Grease, which abounded in scullery sink water, could choke up a soil pipe and start stinking up the house. Water from green vegetables also has a peculiarly objectionable smell, thus drainage was of the utmost importance."The most generally recommended arrangement for carrying away scullery sink water is to make the pipe pass through the scullery wall terminating a little above the ground and to discharge its contents into an open drain from which it is conducted by a pipe into the drain leading to the sewer."
In the late 19th century, unsanitary conditions in sculleries and privies could lead to chronic illness. A writer in an 1898 edition of Lancet, observed:
A private house in this neighbourhood rented at 4 a week was pointed out to me because its inmates had suffered a good deal of sickness, scarlet fever, measles, etc. Here in the back yard measuring about 10 ft by 5 ft I found that the privy was only separated from the scullery by a wall four and a half inches thick and that it stood nine inches higher than the scullery floor. By the privy and forming part of it was an open ashpit full of disgusting filth. The rain keeps this filth in a constant state of moisture, so that the excremental matter percolates through the rotting wall of the scullery, and yet against this wall there are shelves where cooking utensils are placed. On the morning of my visit, some potatoes, ready peeled for cooking, were piled up against that part of the wall which was permeated with the moisture from the privy. When it rains the amount of water coming through the wall from the privy and into the scullery is much greater and the scullery is only separated from the living room by a door which generally remains open.
Hospital sculleries
For maximum sanitation, the 19th century English nurse, Florence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
, recommended that porcelain sinks should be used in sculleries attached to hospital wards. "The best sink for a scullery is the new white porcelain sink recently introduced with hot and cold water laid on. Care must be taken that the waste pipe has no direct communication with a closed drain otherwise foul air is certain to find its way into the hospital."