A kitchen is rarely just a kitchen these days, with Clients expecting more and more from the hub of their home. A few weeks ago we looked at laundries in kitchens; today we’ll step into the ‘unseen quarters’ of today’s larger kitchens, and work out the difference between a Butler’s Pantry and a Scullery.
We’ll start with a step back in time to the Victorian Era, and look at the roles of the namesakes of today’s pantry extensions.
You’ll be greeted by Mr Butler
The upper-class houses of the Victorian era saw the Butler’s role rise from a simple cupbearer to a highly ranked servant. In his newly established position, the Butler added the more modern wine cellar (‘buttery’ or pantry) to his charge, alongside his dining room duties and front door attendance. In his day-to-day work, the Butler would greet and announce the arrival of guests, wait on the table at meal times, and clean and polish the household silver and knives.
His pantry space (the ‘Butler’s Pantry’) was a dedicated space for the cleaning, counting and polishing of the family silver, sets of china, serving dishes and so on. The Butler would keep this pantry locked in order to prevent the theft of the family heirlooms, and would sometimes even sleep in the space for added security!
But you won’t meet the Scullery Maid…
At the opposite end of the servant hierarchy was the lowest ranking female servant, the Scullery Maid. Scullery maids were very young girls employed to assist the cook. They were the first to wake in the morning and the last to go to bed. They rarely saw the outside of the Scullery, which was the small kitchen or room at the rear of a house used for washing dishes and other dirty household work.
So how do these historic roles determine what we call our kitchen extensions today?
If your client is looking for a dry storage space to house the overflow of their pantry-ware, it’s likely they’re after a Butler’s Pantry.
If they’re asking you for an unseen wash-up area, and need cooking quarters and sinks and suds in their kitchen extension, you’ll be designing a scullery.
Of course, both areas need good design, and as the potential ‘work-horses’ behind a show pony kitchen, they need plenty of attention in the design stage. We’ve taken this into account in our new-and-improved Awards program, and will be excited to share our new categories with you soon. Watch this space!
I very belatedly, just saw this excellent little article, Thought it was great and pretty accurate historically.
Basically if it’s a wet area, it’s a scullery, a butler’s pantry, if it’s dry.
It really doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that.
Thanks Rex
Now I know what to call the back half of our new kitchen
Alex
Scullery is much closer to what we design today
That’s good to clarify
What would the room be called if it was a blend of both?
Regards Fiona
I’d suggest a scullery if it has facilities for washing up and cooking… Would be interested to get feedback from other Members. Brian?
In most Victorian properties the butler’s pantry was next to the dining room.
The kitchens would be usually in the basement on the ground floor.
Food would come in at one end of the Butler’s pantry and the butler would take in into the dining room at the other end.
Thus, the kitchen staff would not enter the dining room, only the butlers.
Quite often the sink would be made from timber so that the crystal glasses would not chip.
The term we use in Australia to describe the butler’s pantry has very little resemblance to the historic room.
Traditionally the kitchen had the cooker (AGA etc) and a central table.
Running water was added to properties and with this, sculleries were added and became the wet rooms for washing and food prep.
A separate cold room larder or pantry with marble tops to keep food cool was where the food was kept.
It is funny how with time we have gradually returned to many different rooms for the kitchen.
There is not much we do today that hasn’t been done before!
Thanks for your comments, Brian. Sounds like you’re a bit of a history buff?!