Sunday 19 April 2015

The Stand-Up Wash: Keeping Clean in Victorian Britain

When is a bar of soap like a joint of beef?
Answer:  When they cost the same.

Money for Old Soap
In Victorian England, a four-ounce bar of soap cost roughly the same as a joint of meat. For poorer households, faced with a choice between cleanliness or eating, naturally they looked for other ways to keep clean.

Indeed, since Victorian soap worked best with hot water (it didn’t dissolve or lather well in cold water), this involved additional time, money, and effort, to bring coppers of water to the boil. So all in all, washing with soap and water was not a realistic daily habit for many people.

Stand and Deliver
This doesn’t mean people neglected their personal hygiene. Full immersion baths were a rarity but most peoples’ daily routine started with a stand-up wash. For most this was done in the bedroom, although some female servants may have done their ablutions at the kitchen sink – made more conducive by the heat from the range.

A washstand was a standard piece of furniture in many Victorian bedrooms. On it stood a jug of cold water, a bowl, and a clean rage. The person washed first thing in the morning, immediately after rising. Most bedrooms were cold, chilly places, especially as the sash windows were kept open at the top and bottom (regardless of weather) to allow good ventilation and reduce the risk of illness. This meant in winter most people kept their nightclothes and worked on one part of their body at a time.

The art of a stand-up wash was to pour water into the bowl. The soaked flannel was then rubbed on each part of the body, and rinsed. Once the water became too soiled it was discarded into the slop bucket and more water poured into the bowl. Working methodically, all of the body was cleaned, with each part being scrubbed and dried before moving onto the next bit.

Pore Theory
In more affluent households, a servant rose before the rest of the house. She boiled a kettle, to provide hot water for her employers’ morning ablutions. Washing regularly was a Victorian phenomenon since previous to this it was believed that the skin’s pores allowed entry to disease. Since washing opened the pores, this made the activity potentially foolhardy for those wishing to keep well. Part of the change of attitude came about because the Victorians believed that oxygen passed into the body through the pores, and so clearing away dirt aided this process.

Dress Protectors
Before the advent of anti-perspirants the armpits of garments could be ruined by perspiration. To combat this, ladies who wished to protect expensive gowns used dress-protectors. These were small detachable pads which fitted into the armpit. These could then be removed and washed separately, having done their job of shielding expensive fabrics from sweat.


And finally, one home remedy to reduce the unpleasant odour associated with sweaty armpits was a wipe over with vinegar. In theory this might help kill the bacteria that created the worst smells – but the trade of was that it left you smelling like a fish and chip shop. 

16 comments:

  1. Great article, Grace. There is so much about basic hygiene that is difficult to learn from history since it was taken so much for granted that people didn't write about it (much) in letters or describe it in journals. I am always glad to find bits of information that explain just how they did things. As an aside - that woman's waist in the first picture is unreal! I know that can't have been healthy.

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    1. Isn't that waist amazing! There's inspiration for another blog post right there.
      I totally agree with your comments about basic hygiene. So often I read a historical novel and wonder that the characters never seem to go to the toilet or get a wash.
      Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment.
      Kind regards,
      Grace

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  2. I have an antique wash stand, bowl, and pitcher in my guest room. (Purely ornamental!) I always assumed that the bowl and pitcher were for washing hands and faces only. I had NO idea that it was used to wash the whole body. Thanks for a very informative post.

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    1. Oh how lovely! It's a comment on life that the pretty jugs and bowls survived to the present day, but the slop buckets didn't (except, I suppose for some chamber pots.)
      Thanks for visiting, do call again.
      Regards,
      Grace

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  3. My grandmother's house in Maine had no running water, so we washed this way as children when visiting her -- usually a week or two at a time. It never bothered me in the least, but it was summer.
    I would like to note, however, that the idea that bathing was unhealthy came in with the Reformation and puritanical outrage over public bathing houses that were viewed as immoral. Also increasing crowding in cities was causing a spread of disease, which was associated with water (the dirty water, of course) and also put people off bathing. Throughout the Middle Ages, in contrast, bathing was common. The very wealthy had hot and cold running water in their castles (e.g. the Black Prince at Kennington, Percys at Warkwarth). Most in the upper-classes had cork-lined baths, often with linen curtains, that were set up and filled by hand (bucket by bucket), and the poor went to public bath-houses. Guests were always offered baths, particularly knights. In the crusader states where the Roman tradition of bathing had never died, there were lovely bath houses with marble floors and tile walls etc.

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    1. Very interesting, both Grace's article and your comments, Helena. I wish I could remember everything I learn from you both.

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    2. Thank you, Helena and Debra. It seems to me from Helena that bathing goes in and out of fashion...not a happy thought!
      G x

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  4. Brenda Kelliher23 April 2015 at 05:11

    I learned from my father ( now 95 years old) - when onboard our small sailboat for a week or more, "wash down as far as possible, then wash up as far as possible - then wash Possible. !!!" All with the same bowl of water ....!

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    1. Love it! That does sound a "nautical" way of doing things. Thank you for sharing!
      G x

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  5. You can still get "dress shields" to keep perspiration stains out of your clothing, though they are rarer these days.

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    1. Gosh - interesting - I suspect using anti-perspirant is easier. I wonder how the dress shields attach.
      Thanks so much for stopping by.
      G x

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  6. I used to use 'dress shields' in the fifties and sixties here in Australia.

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    1. Hi Parlance,
      thanks for dropping by. Do you remember how the dress shields attached?
      I imagine they would make you hotter as well, since they are effectively insulating an area that is designed to lose heat.
      G x

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  7. Hello, Grace. I found the mention of "dress shields" interesting, having found them sewn onto some second-hand clothing, but haven't really made use of them myself in modern clothing. I normally buy clothes I can wash myself, but those shields are really practical in fancy dresses and jackets. I had the Swedish name for the "dress shields" in the back of my head and searched online. The colloqial name is "svettlappar" (sweat rags), business name "ärmlappar" (arm rags or arm pads). You can still buy them in haberdashery shops and departments, I suppose, they're at least available online, see here: http://www.textilpresentia.se/sybehor/muddar-svettlappar There are black and white in different sizes for long sleeves, short sleeves and sleeveless clothes, suitable for both male and female suits, tails and ballgowns. You fasten them with safety pins or you can make a few stitches. One make is Prym, for example article number 994181 for white medium.
    I guess Swedes are both old-fashioned and practical. We didn't really get modern bathrooms in flats and houses until 1930s to 50s, lots of summer houses and some other old houses still aren't modernized with hot and cold water and bathroom, so many Swedes still live like in the old days at least on vacation. In some cases you're not allowed running water and sanitation like in allotments, where many people more or less live all summer. So we still know how to wash with the help of a bowl and cloth. My parents' summer house (my grandparents' permanent home) got a bathroom in 1955, but we need to heat the water in the boiler with the wood stove, so in summer we usually don't bother getting hot water in the tap for showers and warm washes. We heat water in a pot on the stove and pour some hot water in cold tap water in the water basin for wash in bathroom, sink in kitchen for washing dishes. For a less Victorian way of washing, clothes off, you can stand in a small tub, close to your water basin and pitcher, rub with washcloth and pour water on you, dirty water ends up in the tub around your feet. I wouldn''t call Swedes Victorian ;) , we just like to live in an old-fashioned way for a while. As long as we can get a nice shower before work or after gym on weekdays.
    Greetings, Åsa
    P.S. Haven't read your books, but since it looks like you put attention to historic detail and facts, I feel inclined to do so, Love your name too. Elliot from Persuasion?

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    1. Thank you, Asa, for such fascinating information. What goes around comes around. I can see people going back to the "Swedish" wash if water rationing came in during a drought.
      As a student I lived in a flat so grotty that I'd never dream of getting a bath there. Instead, I used the stand-up wash method, and visited the sports centre from time to time for a shower. Nobody remarked I smelt!
      Oh, and "Grace Elliot" is a tribute to Grace Dalrymple Elliot - an 18th century lady with a reputation for living life on the edge (and manipulating people - but we'll draw a veil over that part.)
      Once again, thank you for your comments. Would you be interested in writing your observations as a short guest blog post? It would be lovely to share this with more people.
      Kind regards,
      Grace x

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  8. I can remember washing in the river as a kid. We used Ivory soap because it would float.

    Deb

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