I write this sitting in my living room in a flat which was part of the wing added in 1804. This room was for 156 years the entire living space for generations of residents. I have two additional rooms plus a bathroom and a kitchen; the whole flat comprises what were previously rooms for four inmates. The same is true of flats in what we now call Old House, the 1780 building. We can get a good idea of life in these rooms from the Geoffrye Museum in London.
Their almshouse was also built in 1780, and the museum has reconstructed the interiors of some rooms to show what they were originally like.
The focus is, of course, the fireplace. This provided more than heating; it was a resident's only means of cooking. Coal was provided along with the weekly subsistence allowance or "maintenance", as well as turves for keeping it going but damped down. Water had to be heated over this fire. There is room for only a single bed. How couples coped when men were finally allowed to bring their wives into the Charterhouse is not clear. There is a table, two chairs and some pewter tableware. Our rooms also had a cupboard or shelves, and perhaps a rail for clothes.
The receptacle under the bed was essential. The privies could be a long distance from the room, and were unpleasant earth closets. Water closets were introduced in 1849 in a block next to the main building, to contain six water closets and a bath, “according to the latest improvements”. £49 was spent on the plumbing work, and a further £20 on painting all the buildings on the site. The water closets were unfamiliar to some of the inmates, and in November a notice was printed “ordering that any inmate found guilty of damaging or stopping up the water closets by pouring any substance in any way injurious will at once be suspended and their pay withheld.”
When buildings were added in the mid-19th century, their facilities replicated the existing ones. But drainage was always a problem at the Charterhouse, and by the beginning of the 20th century it was becoming a major concern. In 1902 John Watson, the Surveyor, had made an inspection and reported: “In the Bromby Wing the WCs for the use of the inmates are placed under the staircase, without either light or ventilation, and are most unsanitary; and with respect to the Dikes Wing, the inmates have to cross the open yard to some very old and unsatisfactory privies, and I suggest that when the finances of the charity justify an alteration that it would be a great convenience if porches were built with w.c. and slop sink over the same on the first floor, similar to those in the Dibb Wing.” He had prepared plans, with costings of £50 each block. The matter was referred to a sub-committee, which reported back with a plan to get rid of all the old w.c.s and privies and put in new lavatories. These meant the upgrading of the drainage system, and Watson wanted new drains in the northern part of the yard. The problem was not solved. In February 1906, the Master reported that there was a “stench” arising from the drain in Bourne Wing, and they needed to replace an old brick drain with stoneware pipes. In December of the same year, “The Master reported that during the past summer diarrhoea had been more prevalent than usual amongst the inmates, and especially in the rooms adjoining the sewer referred to in his report of 2nd April last [relating to Bourne Wing] and that cases were still occurring.” There had been a death. A sanitary inspector had said that the sewer and the open privies in Bourne Wing were not sanitary, and the doctor, who agreed, had said that the privies ought to be emptied more than once a week, especially in hot weather.
Modernisation of any kind was a long, slow process. The trustees were always extremely reluctant to spend money on facilities for the residents. They had no option following the damage caused by the blitz and the long closure after the war, but even then the improvements were minimal. A few of the rooms were merged into double rooms. The surveyor wanted electric plugs fitted, but this request was ignored. The Master managed to get wash hand basins installed in the bathroom. Rooms were now lit by electricity but the residents had no control over it, and the lights were turned off at 10.00 pm. Naturally some residents defied this imposed curfew by turning to candles, even though this was forbidden.
At this point, expectations of what charities like the Charterhouse should provide were changing. With the arrival of the welfare state residents no longer received a weekly subsistence allowance; they had to pay "maintenance" or rent for their accommodation. Yet living conditions deteriorated. In October 1954 the Master, Ronald Helm, wrote a furious letter to the trustees. He gives a picture of how rudimentary the facilities still were. The only way in which residents could get water to take to their own rooms was to “bend low over a bath” to fill containers, “a difficult and tiring physical task”. He wanted each bathroom to be fitted with a sink unit with draining board “without further delay”. The hot water in the bathrooms came from immersion heaters and was unsuitable for drinking, so he wanted electric water heaters in the bathrooms above the sink units, “such as has been installed in the Matron's kitchen”. Just as infuriating to him was the fact that the only form of heating the residents had was their coal fires, which had to be lit before they could even boil a kettle, and had to be kept alight even in high summer to enable them to cook a meal. Not only did this cost a great deal of money in fuel, but it was a huge inconvenience to the residents and “a cause of much discontent”. He urged the Trustees to dispense with the coal-burning grates and install electric fires. At the same time they should provide each living room with “a plug-point and a small double-ring electric cooker, together also with an electric kettle”. Helm stressed that he had brought these matters to the Trustees' attention many times before, and now wanted them to get on with it. He made sure that the letter was sent to each of the Trustees.
Despite the support of the Surveyor, there was more delay, and in 1959 Helm wrote a brutal report condemning conditions. A year later he resigned and went back to parish ministry. In the same year a contract was signed with Geo. Houlton & Sons Ltd to "to improve and modernise the arrangement of the living quarters and provide necessary food storage, washing and lavatory accommodation together with the stripping out and replacement of all internal out-of-date finishings, fixed light windows, kitchen ranges and decayed timbers etc.” Most of the accommodation became double rooms (which, of course, reduced the numbers which could be housed). Electric plugs were put in the rooms, with pre-payment meters, and Baby Belling cookers were provided. However, there were still fireplaces but no washing or toilet facilities in residents' rooms, and no real kitchens. There were no wash basins in the bathrooms. Over the next decade many residents paid to replace their open fireplaces with electric fires. And then a hike in the "maintenance" or rent angered many of the residents.
In the mid 1970s a "new house" was built (records have been lost from that time so details of cost etc are missing). It consists of two self-contained flats, one above the other, in a building on a piece of spare land on the western edge of the property beside the hall. A much bigger redevelopment soon followed. There were large grants available to Housing Associations, so the Charterhouse became an HA. Plans were drawn up to replace the Victorian buildings with flats. The 1780 building (Old House) was listed so had to be kept. The 1804 Bourne House should have been demolished but Council planners decided to give it a local listing. The rooms in these two buildings were converted into one- or two-bedroomed flats with bathrooms and kitchens, and gas central heating.
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