Story of our homes

The BBC is presenting a history of homes, which really resonates as we rebuild our home.  For example, it notes we have come full circle from a single room for cooking, eating, sleeping and socialising, into "open plan" living with a single room for cooking, eating, sleeping, and socialising.

Along the way, however, everything became very specialised:

• The rich acquired "living rooms" -- which, ironically, were meant to impress guests rather than actually be lived in -- in the Tudor period (16th century), with the merchants getting them in the 17th Century, and everyone in the 18th century.  In the UK, average living room size has been falling since 1975 as builders make room for bathrooms, utility rooms, and studies.
• In medieval times, your main concerns were to be warm and safe, so sleeping was communal.  However, after Guttenberg invented the printing press in 1440 and reading became more fashionable, bedrooms started to get more private.  Tudor houses had small, solitary rooms called "closets" for reading and praying, and although that trend died out in England, the Pilgrims took it to America.
• In the 17th century, the kitchen -- with its associated smells -- was banished to the basement, another wing, or a separate building, depending on your wealth.  It was not until the 20th century, with the invention of the extractor fan, that the kitchen became a communal space again.
• In the 17th century, the toilet was a pot in the living room (and emptied out the window).  The first recorded sewer system was 3000 BCE (yeah, 5000 years ago), with flush toilets appearing sporadically from 2500 BCE to 500 CE, when they appear to have been lost with the Roman empire.  Elizabeth I had one circa 1600, but she refused to use it.  It wasn't until the end of the 19th century that they caught on again, in part because of the valve flush (which was quieter), the S trap (which prevented odours), and a wash out design, but mostly because the Victorians felt waste was unhygienic.  (They also thought bathing was unhygienic and night air was unhealthy.)  Incidentally, Thomas Twyford invented the first "one piece" ceramic toilet in 1885, and we are installing a Twyford one piece ceramic toilet in our cloakroom.  (New, of course.)
• In 2001, the average British home had 5.3 rooms.  The 2011 census has just been taken, and it will be interesting to see if this number has gone up as homes take on more functions, or down as more people have opted for "open plan" living, making each room serve multiple purposes.
  

While on the topic of toilets, I should dispel three urban myths:

1. Although Thomas Crapper did indeed make toilets (and put his name on them), the word "crap" predates this, and any similarity is just coincidence.
2. Water does not swirl counter-clockwise south of the equator.
3. Garderobes were medieval closets for storing clothes, and also the toilet, as the smell deterred fleas and moths.  (And that was only for the wealthy!)

And finally, you should know modern toilets cause colon cancer.