FAMILY CLUBS TO AVOID HOUSEKEEPING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 75, 30 March 1914, Page 11

FAMILY CLUBS TO AVOID HOUSEKEEPING

THE LATEST PLAN. Is Manchester, England, the birthplace of many revolts, to be the centre of the greatest revolt, of modern times— the housewife's revolt, the revolt against individual ajid separate housekeeping, with all the labour, anxiety, monotony, and \Vaste that this entails? Not long ago there appeared in the Daily Mail an invitation by a Manchester professional man's wife to three other families to join her in building and occupying a communal house. She outlined her ideas : A roomy house with a separate wing or suite of rooms for each family, but with central diningroom and service rooms for the use of all, one staff of servants, one gardeif, one tennis lawn, etc. She explained how this would limit the cares of housekeeping and at the i same- time be no more costly than individual housekeeping. Whether this invitation, so widely published, was tho germ of the present Manchester movement I cannot bo sure (says a writer in a London paper). But within a very short time the applicant had obtained her necessary partners, in fact many more than the four originally intended. In addition other people, struck by the idea, went straight to their own architects with similar schemes of their own. How many separate schemes there may now be afoot m the city cannot be told, but of six Manchester architects I met last week five are engaged on communal housing schemes, and they assure me that others of their craft have commissions to. A £100,000 COMMUNAL HOUSE. On top of this there now comes a scheme so big and comprehensive aa to dwarf these smaller efforts, interesting as they are, almost to insignificance. Tlio idea is to provide not merely a communal house for three or fouv families, but a residential family club to hold scores of people. It is to cost £100,000, no less, and to occupy one of the city's finest sites. As the smaller scheme is not quite so novel, having, I understand, been tried in various places here and abroad, 1 «wili _ give no m^e than a few of its leading features. Friends who think they can live together choose a site for a house. They decide what room they want and what service, and these details, with any ideas they may have about rent, general construction, fixtures, furniture, garden, outhousing, and so on. they submit to their architect and ask him to draw up a specification. It is a troublesome "task for the ordinary architect as a rule, for it involves calculations on rather new lines, but the architects of Manchester, and — need I say? — particularly the younger men, haye been enthusiastic enough to take pains, and several attractive designs have been prepared. Labour-saving is a great consideration. Fixed furniture, let into the walls, is especially favoured for _ its convenience, compactness, and limited powers of collecting and sheltering dust. The service rooms and the common dining rooms are in most of the schemes I have seen placed centrally so a 8 to be equally accessible to each separate family wing. In some plans each wing has a door of its own, though there is also one main^ entrance for the use of all the families. The wings are each in touch with a central gallery on the bedroom floor level, so that a maid, having done her work in one wing, need not run downstairs and up other stairs to get to the bedrooms of another wing. There is one garden, of course, one tennis lawn, one garage. THE FAMILY CLUB DESCRIBED. The £100,000 scheme' of which I spoke is already fairly detailed, both as to its inner domestic economy and as to its plans structurally. The site is on Ox-ford-road, a leading Manchester highway, overlooking Whitworth Park. The area of the land is 20,000 square yards. The building will be rectangular and of four stories (three were intended originally). The ground enclosed within it (3000 square yards) will bo occupied by four or five spring floor tennis courts protected by a glass roof. Round these courts will be a wide colonnade, from, which will open the dining, reading, and recreation rooms, billiard rooms, racket court, swimming bath, and other public rooms. An orchestra is to be provided, and it will be available for afternoon tea, dinner, and for concerts. The first floor, or possibly the first and second floors, will contain the family suites. These may be adapted to suit other needs, but the majority will contain one or two sitting rooms, three or four bedrooms, a bathroom, and a pantry. Overhead will be tho "bachelor" rooms and suites. The idea is to give heating, including hot water, and full domestic service to each occupant. The rent charge will cover all these things. The tennut will, in addition to paying this rent, be expected to take a certain proportion of his meals in the public restaurant ; also to be a member of the tennis ejub, whether as a playing member or not. Outside fchf buildings there will be squnjA rackets courts, grass iennis courts, a motor garage, aud gardens. Rouud the building o:i every ik>or will be balconies, aad 011 the rooi a roof gardes? as^ a ')sayg.?ound fop children. Tfoe servants' jvx>ms will b? on the top Soce. The staff as at present, estimated 1b to comprise a manager, A housekeeper, and twenty maids, "/aotftrs, bith attendants, ainl pages, a total- of thiufcy-three servanxp. costing 21136 a year. A. suite, comprising thies bedrooms, sitting-foora, pantry, bathroom, wi#i servire, electric heating, hot, water, is to cost £100 a yew ; combined rooms tor bacnelors, with bed arwl fittings inclddcd, £75 a. year each ; . two-roomed bachelor suites £80. LESS WORBY BUT LESS PRIVACY. It is easy to spc the advantages of communal housekeeping as outlined in these two interesting schemes ; easy also to see the disadvantage?. Each housewife will have her viow, and if ono agree and the other disagree each may nevertheless he right, for tho judgmcvjt is rather -tok of taste t.han of domestic economy. It is not difficult to believe thp vtpw that greater freedom, tes& care, more social lifo, and in a muaamo -i viwe strict definition ot hoUR-'iiold expenses are to be obtained by communal housekeeping on these lines. J'ijfiy also to see lessoned pnvary, greater dependence on one'.s neighbours-, and loss of individuality in one's living. T):ep«~ pomt 1 : are personal rather than general. . 'J'be. significant thing about tlu's Manchester movement is this : Tho housewife, having apparently thought these things out for herself, is applying tor room.i. That shows what her opinion is. "Experience may alter it or not. Meanwhile she means to give up her career ax a servant-hunter and see what others can do.