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What do English people mean when they say that something was put in the airing cupboard? What is an airing cupboard? Why do English people have them? Does anyone in the United States have one?
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The Airing Cupboard is the area often in a bathroom where the hot water tank for the household is situated. It is therefore often the warmest place in the house. It was common to have slatted shelves above the hot water storage tank to store spare towels, bedlinen or other such linen to keep them dry and aired as often in times gone by many houses did not have 'central heating' and so damp would creep into other cupboards and and therefore not be the best place to store such items.
I hope that helps. A storage area often in the bathroom where the hot water tank keeps the shelves above warm and aired.
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Yes, Donny,
Paul has given a perfect answer, but even the English tease each other about it. My cousin used to describe warm water as 'aired water'! I think this is the first house I've ever lived in that doesn't have an airing cupboard. There is no central heating and no hot water tank - all the hot water is produced by instant gas heaters. They used to be described as 'Ascot' heaters (just as vacuum cleaners used to be called 'Hoovers') - after the makers name - but our water heaters are French!
Love,
Anthony
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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The house in P-town we used to own had an attic room about 15x15 feet which had slatted shelves and was entirely lined with aeromatic cedar.
We never used it to store linens though.....
During that time we turned the room into an entertainment room..... Hey, it was the late 60's, early 70's..... one 'entertained'
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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It is a warmed cupboard for linen.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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How come y'all just don't leave the clothes on the line or in the dryer until they're all the way dry?
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Eldon wrote:
How come y'all just don't leave the clothes on the line or in the dryer until they're all the way dry?
Hahaha! Is there a day in the year in England on which you can be sure that washing that you hang up in the morning will be dry by the end of the day? (I remember that in 1953 they chose June 2nd for the coronation because it was a day on which it had not rained for the past 100 years: and it poured!)
Now, were I live you can hang your washing up in the morning, take it down when you get home from work, put up another lot to dry over night and start all over again next morning.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Almost no-one would put damp stuff in this cupboard.
In part the cupboard is historical. The UK's plumbing regulations insisted that the hot water system was kept separate from the high pressure mains incoming system.
We had to have a header tank for cold water and a tank gravity fed form it for hot water. The header tank was separated from mains pressure with a ball valve. The hot tank was in a cupboard.
How reasonable to use the rest of the cupboard space for linen storage and keep it bone dry!
Our regulations have changed to allow pressurised hot water systems, and new build homes are dispensing with airing cupboards. Even so, some sort of linen storage is needed, and this is still names "airing cupboard" because we seem not to use other terms.
Where do other nations keep their linin?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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John..
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Toe is in the water |
Registered: March 2008
Messages: 56
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Well said,
it mainly goes back tp the times when houses did not have central heating,but did have a hotwater cylinder, and ithe this cupboard that housed the cylinder would be wood slatted shelves, where your mother would keep the lined etc so that it did not get damp in the winter.
But now the Brits have showers and heating like our other freinds ie u.s.a etc
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JimB
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Likes it here |
Registered: December 2006
Messages: 349
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Timmy, I'm sure that like with other things you will find it has different names in different places in the US, but I have always know it to be called the linen closet. It is usually in the hall connecting the bedrooms and bathroom and bedding and towels are stored in it. Some houses have more than one if the bedrooms are spread out and many bathrooms have their own closet for towels.
I'm curious. I understand the purpose of the airing cupboard with the damp weather (even if it is not raining) that you frequently have. Do you find that things NOT stored in the airing cupboard, such as clothing, are not bone dry when put to use?
JimB
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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No inherent dampness that I can think of.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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What is an "Airing Cupboard" 
Re: What is an "Airing Cupboard" 
