Dining room

In the Middle Ages, Britons and other European nobility in castles or large manor houses dined in the great hall.

The family would sit at the head table on a raised dais, with the rest of the population arrayed in order of diminishing rank away from them.

These rooms had large chimneys and high ceilings and there would have been a free flow of air through the numerous door and window openings.

It is true that the owners of such properties began to develop a taste for more intimate gatherings in smaller 'parlers' or 'privee parlers' off the main hall, but this is thought to be due as much to political and social changes as to the greater comfort afforded by such rooms.

[3] Tables in modern dining rooms will often have a removable leaf to allow for the larger number of people present on those special occasions without taking up extra space when not in use.

[4] Smaller houses and condos may have a breakfast bar instead, typically of a different height than the regular kitchen counter (either raised for stools or lowered for chairs).