On Tuesday, August 11, 2015 at 1:43:14 PM UTC+1, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
newshound wrote:
On 10/08/2015 18:54, Jonno wrote:
Jim S scribbled


Someone asked mr "Why do Victorian homes have such high ceilings"
I don't knoe the answer.


Coal fires.


No, gas lighting.

My house is Victorian. The ceilings in the main part are high. Those in
the rear addition low. Rear addition was originally kitchen, scullery,
bathroom, bedroom. With gas lighting and open fires, to kitchen and
bedroom.


Such properties often have many different levels and little runs of stairs as other rooms are build over the varying height lower rooms.

I know folks in liverpool, lots of high ceilinged large terraced houses there. However I was always struck with the "tunnel", where the stairs double back over the hallway / entrance to the kitchen, and the 10 foot ceiling drops down to about 7 feet. Its hard not to dip your head.

I think its a real shame modern house ceilings are de facto standard 8 foot, or the slightly lower 2.4m. A standard of 9 feet would have made such a difference to the feeling of space. Our kitchen extension has more height, and it feels really nice.

I think due to roof line considerations in planning, building near to 8 foot ceiling houses perpetuates. I'd consider building into the roof or digging down if I was building such a house.

From the photos I've seen, a lot of the footballers house type Mc-Mansions have large rooms with only 8 feet ceilings, which leads to horrible proportions, like standing in a multi-storey car park.

Simon.