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THIS IS PLUMBING
Turn of century plumbing at the
Linfield Victorian House Museum:
Part 1
By Eamonn Ryan
The Lindfield Victorian House Museum is a privately-owned and
managed museum, full of Victorian era items, including plumbing
items and original product catalogues dating from around 1900.
It was originally an upper middle-class home in
Auckland Park, which at that time was a countryside
area, well outside the wild mining town of
Johannesburg.
Personal hygiene in the Victorian period, and indeed in nearly
every era preceding it, was not conducted with the same
rigour as today. Victorian men and women would wash arms,
hands and faces fairly regularly but the rest of the person
was pretty much left to itself. This may seem remarkably
smelly, but if everyone else smells the same then one
assumes the odour becomes unremarkable.
Something not seen in today’s bathrooms is a bell to call
the servant or chambermaid to assist as needed, whether to
bring the claret or help with washing or drying. Otherwise,
the plumbing is relatively unchanged today.
For museum viewings, contact Katharine Love at
[email protected] or 011 726-2932. PA
The design of the cast-iron basin and stand at Lindfield
was registered in 1897, which implies it would have been
constructed by the year 1900. It has a porcelain inset,
and though the taps are no longer original and were
manufactured in the 1930s, says owner, museum curator
and part-time parlour maid actor Katharine Love. “The bath
was replaced in 1935, which is when the toilet was put into
the bathroom. Before that there was an earth closet outdoor
lavatory and a bucket system with no running water. In those
days all homes had a sanitary lane, and the 'night soil cart'
used to come and collect the waste. Only in 1935 did this
house get an indoor toilet. The wooden panelling around the
bath is from about 1904, as are the old art nouveau tiles.”
Katharine Love stands before the home she has lived in since 1967, containing many
plumbing and other artefacts that were collected by her mother for decades before that.
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A catalogue from Walter MacFarlane & Co, Ornamental
Sanitary and Constructional Ironfounders.
@PlumbingAfricaOnline
April 2020 Volume 26 I Number 02