A Grubby Lot

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

When I was young we only had a bath once a week – the day, Friday, was known as ‘bath night’. In my great-aunt’s house a line was drawn in the bath to show where the hot water had to stop – it was about four inches from the bottom. Everyone in England smelt – […]

Upstairs, Downstairs

Posted on by Jonathan Beckman

For the children of Leslie Stephen, growing up in the late nineteenth century in their large house in Hyde Park Gate, servants were inevitable cogs in the complex social and practical machinery of the upper-middle-class home. Lighting fires, producing meals, cleaning and polishing, their work was for the most part as intensive and back-breaking as […]

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RLF - March

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