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

No OP, a lodger is when you rent a room in someone else’s house. It is v common. Have a look at Spareroom.com and you’ll find thousands of people looking for lodgers.

Board and lodgings is a place to stay (lodgings) with meals provided (board)

So a Lodger would usually cook their own meal while a boarder would have meals provided.

For those who remember Rising Damp, I'd describe that as a lodging house.

Films where a man lived with a landlady who cooked his meals and probably washed his clothes for an extra fee would be a boarding house, strictly no guests of the opposite sex etc.

They were common here to back in the first half of the last century. One in our town by docks burned down and many men lost their life.

The government gives people a tax break to rent a room in their house. Up to 7250 pounds income is tax free per year. Many people make use of that.

My Great-Gran ran a boarding house in the 70s. It was all older, single men and she cooked their meals and cleaned.

She gave it up after she left my Nan in charge while she went home to Ireland for a visit and 3 of them died (all of natural causes) but still..

The 1950s, George Orwell, idea of boarding houses was for single men who had a job but weren’t from the area. With draconian war widow landladies.

The depressing lifestyle of one bath a week, meals on rationing often heavy on boiled cabbage and strict rules on who could visit probably drove them to marry early!

Nowadays I think some people who need help with their mortgage offer language students a single or twin room with bed, breakfast and evening meal. Or University “digs” without food but use of kitchen and bathroom.

I just think nowadays a boarding arrangement is more expensive than lodging, so wouldn't help students. I payed less for lodging than boarding, and for boarding had to share a room.

Abbeyfield have houses like this for the elderly. They have to be in good health, there's no personal care, just bed and board.

Which is why it was a boarding house - you got bed AND board, ie meals.

Many families in tourist areas do this to 'board' foreign students. The first time I came to the UK I stayed for 4 weeks with a family in Eastbourne, sharing a room with another foreign student. They cooked breakfast and dinner for us, and we were allowed to watch TV in their lounge. It was a tiny 3 bed Barrat box, they had 2 children themselves. There were hundreds of foreign students in Eastborn, all boarding with local families. Later I moved to Oxford and lodged with a family, i.e. they didn't provide food for me or cleaned my room. But there were many pupils in Oxford who boarded with people, and if you live in Oxford or Brighton/Eastborn area, you get regularly leafleted whether you want to house 2 or more foreign pupils and cook for them, do their laundry etc.

As property is so expensive I can't really see it coming back again except in the sense of families taking in a lodger.

Surely boarding houses arose out of a fairly unique set of social and economic circumstances? For much of the twentieth century property was relatively cheap with lots of large, unmodernised Victorian houses - many of which have now been converted into flats. Plus the impact of the two world wars e.g. a war-widow might decide to rent out rooms rather than struggling to get into the workplace with non-existent childcare.

This type of larger property just doesn't exist any more. The OP said in their first post that it would help "home owners struggling to pay their mortgage". That's why I think most of us initially though they were talking about a single lodger not an actual boarding house.

I think what has happened in a lot of cases is that in tourist areas these larger properties have become holiday flats or b & B's and in non tourist areas they have been split up into flats.

No-one is going to invest in such a large property and go through all the admin (HMO/fire regs etc etc) as it just would not be profitable.

I lodged with a family when I first moved to London (this is within the last 10 years.) There were 2 or 3 young professionals renting single bedrooms and sharing the family bathroom & kitchen. Is that what you’re talking about? I would call that taking lodgers not a boarding house. A boarding house implies meals provided I think which would be odd in this day & age.

We all cooked our own meals in the family kitchen separately due to work/social commitments. Occasionally we would all eat together.

I imagine it’s less common these days as not many people have 3 or 4 spare bedrooms to rent out. Particularly in large cities with big student populations.

Yes Golga that's like my parents describe and precisely those reasons!

It's also quite different from the more modern lodging with a family too.

@NeedToChangeName you have misunderstood what boarding houses and lodgers are.

A lodger rents a room in someone’s house, and generally cooks and cleans for themself.

A boarding house is where communal meals are provided, and bedrooms may be shared or singles. My dad lived in a boarding house in the 50s.
They were also popular in seaside towns as a way of making money, particularly with people widowed by the war who needed to find income streams.

A house/flat share is where a bunch of people rent a home with personal bedrooms and communal spaces. In general, the owner doesn’t usually live there but it’s possible.

When my Dad was a student, he rented a bedroom in someone's house, alongside other students. Quite simple accommodation without facilities that people might expect nowadays, but it was affordable and convenient. And extra income for the landlady

When my FiL was at university, he lived in a couple’s house-and described it as living ‘in digs’. This was in the 50s, before large halls of residence must have been built in many universities. He paid them for the room and sat and ate with them for morning/evening meal times. The woman didn’t work and had time to cook/clean up after the meals.

Your solution for families struggling with the mortgage is an interesting one. Even if they had a spare room large enough to rent out, I wonder how many busy struggling families would want to cook/clear up after someone else’s meals or have them cooking their meals in the kitchen separately at the same time as them. Many houses today aren’t big enough for this, I don’t think.

Shiny- they were actually called boarding houses though!

So my dad lived in one for a good while (no idea if it was 6 months or a couple of years though) and it was like pp mentioned with a lady in charge of the house and evening meal.

My mum's family would have stayed 2 weeks in the summer but it was definitely and old fashioned boarding house not. Like a modern BandB!!

I dont know what happened to them. My mum has often talked about how different times were then.

The problem is HMO licensing in major university cites. We have looked at buying a house to turn it into a HMO in a student area, sadly we pulled out as despite 90% of the surrounding houses being HMOs the feeling was we wouldn't get permission

I do have some experience in this area. Dd attended a specialist college from the age of 16-19 where most of the students lodged with a family. Dd lived with a couple and 2 other students. Many of her friends at similar colleges did similar. Also many in the theatre industry on tour stay in similar places. More recently when her shared house in her work city broke down she went to lodge with a couple.

Her college has now almost totally abandoned this type of accommodation in favour of private halls of residences. It is really hard to find, non student lodgers are much preferred. Touring theatre people also struggle to find places to stay.

I know what you mean. My dad lived in a boarding house after leaving home until he got married. He had a room in a house, but an evening meal was cooked by the landlady and eaten with the other boarders in the dining room.

Boarding houses like this were often mentioned in the 1940s and 50s books I used to love. The landlady was usually quite a character!

I’d say that’s more temporary guest accommodation, rather than somewhere to live longer term.

Lodgers tended to live in a room in someone's private house or a in a 'bedsit' set up, where the landlord may or may not have also lived in the same building. Bedsits used to be quite common in the UK, but I don't think they are so prevalent now - essentially a bit like student accommodation (own bedroom come sitting room, perhaps with a small cooker/sink, and shared bathroom/larger kitchen facility) but anyone could rent one. I am not sure if some of the legislation around safety maybe put and end to some bedsit set ups, perhaps in some cases for good reason. I feel sorry for students who get accepted at University and then struggle to find somewhere to live - the thing is students/parents complain about a lack of accommodation but often locals in the city/town also complain that 'there is only/too much student accommodation' and 'nothing for non-students'. Bedsit/basic student accommodation set ups would actually work for both students and those on a limited income/starting out/starting again/actually not wanting to live in a whole house alone/other groups I cannot think of just now.

The way they described it was quite different to a premier inn or lodging in the scene we've had lodgers before.

Big house with several rooms used for this.