to think that boarding houses could come back into fashion (not boarding schools)

Yes, and there's one with a student boarding hall which I think is AC being quite daringly modern. Or is Hickory Dickory Dock that one, I get them confused.

The one with the flat with the office-working girls is definitely her being 'modern' - in fact that's one of the things i love most about AC is that her books span forty years and the social changes are incredible - from nice young gals at home in the vicarage types to independent young working women living in flats (even if inevitably they have to be secretaries to the Important Men) - she definitely shows young women getting on with life.

Some of the EM Delafield ones (Tension is a great one) show how precarious boarding house / clerking life was for young women in the first decades of the last century - yes they could be completely independent from their families for the first time but the boarding house fees took up most of their salaries, then the standards of dress were high with all the problems of laundry etc, no opportunities to get career progression, no chance to get out and meet nice young men (although they must have met men in the office?) to marry and get away. It was not as much drudgery as being a servant, but pretty bleak.

Really, what with posh people having servants and servants living in, and many in betweens living in hostels or boarding houses or digs, far fewer people must have actually lived alone!

Hickory Dickory Dock (Agatha Christie) has a student boarding house.

I think Helen might have lived in one at the beginning of Riders as well, which is what, the 70s?

Going back to Agatha Christie, Third Girl is about a flatshare.

I think there was an article recently (if anyone remembers where from?) about the number of over 50s house sharing, and renting rooms, being on the rise.

Yes, I agree @NeedToChangeName

A relation of mine owned a couple of boarding houses (and a coal business etc) in the early C20. These were enormous Victorian terrace houses and mostly housed single people (I checked the census).

Just like a house of multiple occupancy surely? There are several big old houses here each with 10+ bedrooms in them.

The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien was another one.

Books with either lodgings or boarding houses (very, very common for respectable women who worked in london)

The Making if a Marchioness
The Heel of Achilles by EM Delafield
The Girls of Slender Means (I think? Maybe a women’s hostel)
The L Shaped Room.

It was definitely a huge thing for about a century - as the clerk/office/shop workers classes emerged.

My Gran had rooms in Bloomsbury. She had a scullery, a sitting room and a bedroom. She shared the loo and bathroom with all of the other occupants of the building, who had a similar set up. There was an elderly man next door to her, who had the same and smaller rooms for single people upstairs (don’t think these had a kitchen, more of a bedsit).

Do you mean this sort of thing, OP?

When I got my first job after uni, (over 40 years ago) I lived here for about 6 months, until I found a house share with some friends from work http://westboroughhouse.co.uk/

There was a housekeeper then, who did the cooking, (though it looks like it’s now self catering) we had an evening meal included in the rent and I think breakfast, though I’m not sure as I never ate breakfast!

@ChristAndHisBike
What they ate? You're forgetting the lady doctors and their beavers!
😁

*'Beaver' being their name for a mid-morning snack.

@OnionBhajis is correct. The HMO licensing. If three or more people are sharing facilities who are not "one household" then it becomes a HMO. Which may not require planning (is permitted development for 6 people), but does require licensing.

This could put people off as there are requirements (such as fire requirements) as well as council inspections (and I presume costs to pay for registering!).

I think it's a great idea when student accommodation is expensive/scarce. My dad used to live with various landladies when he was a student.

I think that was it. You had this perfect set of circumstances.
Large houses with plenty of rooms, a war widowed owner who could no longer afford to run the house on her own but she could cook and clean. So she could rent out the rooms, cook the meals and keep a roof over her head into the bargain.

Those big houses are nearly all flats now.

Yes. See the film The Lavender Hill Mob. They all live in a boarding house. One big house where the individual people had their own rooms but shared bathrooms. The landlady, usually a widow, would have her rooms downstairs and provide meals.

This article describes our house. We regularly rent out a room to language students who come to our city to learn English, or to University students who need somewhere short-term to stay in between their tenancies.

'Digs' or 'lodgings' used to mean landlady provided meals, everyone sitting at the table at set times.

Some were good, some not.

It still happens and I can see variations of that being affordable now.

I hope communal bath houses don’t come back into fashion, although you do see places like that in motorway services for truckers and those who live “the van life”.

I read a haunting short story by Neil Jordan about an Irish immigrant slowly and intentionally taking his own life in the warm clean bath cubicle.

I am old enough to remember Boarding Houses.

Their name changed to Guest Houses, but were the same.

Each person had a bedroom with a sink.

There were communal dining room, bathrooms, toilets and Lounge with TV.

The Landlady ived in the premises and she cooked and served breakfast and evening meal.

You still get them in holiday destinations, where you can pay for half board (bed and breakfast) or full board (added evening meal).

When I started work a couple of my colleagues had moved a long way from home and started off in boarding Houses. They were cheaper overall than being a lodger because meals were included (though you ate what you were given - there was no menu to choose from!)

My friend who is a lot older than me went to university in the 60s and boarded with a family and had to share a bed with another student 😂

They're trying to push this in ireland atm. You can rent out a room and it won't affect your benefits/allowance/tax band

My sister did this in the early sixties in Australia. Older lady rented out rooms to “suitable young ladies”, provided breakfast and evening meal. Company and money for her, safe accommodation and company for young girls just left home.

I’m in the US, but somewhat ironically my DH and I are thinking of setting something similar up to this in a few years. It’s a unique situation and we’d be catering to a very specific group.

Essentially it’s an area that has several (8-9 ) passenger boats that do summer cruises - small historical sail. The boat kids (20-somethings) crew these boats are a nomadic bunch that travel from contract to contract with very little in the way of possessions.

We are planning to move to the area in a few years and if we can find the right house we want to offer up this type of lodging for the kids. We floated the idea to the crew one year (no pun intended) and they loved it.

Most of the time they are sleeping on board, they only need accommodation random nights and during the full time at the front and end of the season. They will then move on to other contracts in warmer places for the winter.

They need a place to wash clothes, maybe store a car, and they don’t want to fool around with cooking or cleaning when they at port. If we do it we’d offer basic accommodation (bed and a wardrobe), linens, cleaning, and meals.

Right now a bunch of them will rent a place and all contribute, but that comes with all the drama you’d expect for people coming and going and with no real full time residents.

We don’t expect to profit from this. If we can make enough to break even we’d be ok. It’s more about getting into the community.

And then, to complicate matters, you have the notion of 'taking in boarders', like Sylvia does in Ballet Shoes, which is a much grander notion than the theatrical boarding house/ digs.

Although I am not sure how the boarders ate, all I seem to recall them consuming is alcohol! Perhaps Nana did them some kippers or a nice posset?

I think the word you are looking for is a hostel. They used to be provided for staff at some places, and I think there used to be hostels for single police officers, nurses etc. I went for a job in a well known supermarket in London many moons ago and they had a hostel for staff to lodge . It's a good thing and should definitely make a come back

Like the sitcom rising damp