The Grim Old Days: Shelter

Walk through your home tonight and notice a few things: a solid floor, windows that close, a bathroom, rooms where you can have some privacy. These conveniences are easy to overlook. In the shelter chapter of The Grim Old Days, Chelsea Follett describes housing conditions that would make many of us deeply grateful to return to the home we have today.

For many ordinary people in preindustrial Europe, home meant one cramped room where the family cooked, ate, worked, and slept. Dirt floors, damp walls, smoke from an open hearth, and little daylight were common. Some households shared their shelter with animals. Follett describes two or three families in seventeenth-century rural France sharing less than 180 square feet—less space than many bedrooms today.

The buildings themselves could be dangerous. Thatched roofs and wooden structures made fire a constant threat, sometimes destroying large portions of a town. Poor materials and construction also meant walls, floors, and entire houses could collapse. A roof overhead offered shelter, but it did not necessarily offer the safety we associate with home.

Even wealth provided limited comfort. Follett notes that the Palace of Versailles lacked bathrooms, with human waste accumulating around the palace. A separate bathroom remained unusual even among the wealthy for centuries. The grand buildings that survive in paintings and photographs can give us a misleading picture of everyday life. Most people lived in much humbler places, many too fragile to survive.

We still have work to do to make safe, comfortable housing available to everyone. But we can recognize how much progress people have made through better materials, construction, sanitation, and countless improvements. When you come home tonight, take a moment before noticing what needs fixing. Notice what already works. A dry, warm, secure place to live is a remarkable thing to have.