Scullery

[9] 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, terracotta tiles,[10] or concrete.

[11] 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.

They were square or rectangular in shape, shallow, and made of non-absorbent materials, such as the slate sinks at Chawton House [13] or lined with copper to protect delicate dishes.

[14] In addition to washing dishes and preparing foods for roasting and boiling, such as cleaning vegetables and dressing poultry, game, and fish,[15] 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.

"[17] In the late 19th century, unsanitary conditions in sculleries and privies could lead to frequent bouts of infectious illness among the home's occupants.

A writer in an 1898 edition of the medical journal The Lancet,[18] 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.