Servants' hall on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The servants' hall is a common room for domestic workers in a
The servants' hall is a common room for domestic workers in a great house
A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...
. The term usually refers to the servants' dining room.
If there is no separate sitting room, the servants' hall doubles as the place servants may spend their leisure hours and serves as both sitting room and dining room.Background
Meals in the servants' hall were sometimes very formal affairs, depending on the size and formality of thehousehold
A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is i ...
. At dinner in a formal house, the butler and housekeeper presided over the table much as the master
Master or masters may refer to:
Ranks or titles
* Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans
*Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...
and lady of the house did 'above stairs' (i.e., in the rooms occupied by the employer).
In Victorian England, the strict rules of precedence were mirrored by the domestic staff in grand or formal homes in the seating arrangements of the Servants' Hall. A senior servant such as the lady's maid took the place of honour but would have to "go lower" (i.e. take a place further down the table) if the employer of a visiting servant outranked the mistress of the house.
See also
*Servants' quarters
Servants' quarters are those parts of a building, traditionally in a private house, which contain the domestic offices and staff accommodation. From the late 17th century until the early 20th century, they were a common feature in many large ...
References
Domestic work Rooms {{Room-stub