When did playrooms become a thing?

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I'm early 40s and not a single person I knew growing up had a playroom. Now it seems it's quite common? Or definitely not unusual?

Why did they become a thing? What happened to kids just playing with their toys in the living room and their bedrooms?

They’ve been a thing for a very very long time. They may not have been called playrooms, but it was quite common in the past to have a day nursery for playing and learning and a night nursery which was a bedroom. It’s just that generally in the past people had more children, so people with less money would not have been able to afford spare bedrooms to make one a playroom. But they’re not a new invention by any stretch of the imagination.

I had one growing up. My kids have always had one. We built a conservatory in our first house for one and then had a reception room built specifically as a playroom. Now they’re teens we have a tv room

People had playrooms in Enid Blyton!

We had one in the late 80s/early 90s.

I grew up with a playroom. Lived in a reasonable sized 3 bed terrace (but not massive).

Technically it was the dining room but kitchen was big enough for a dining table so parents decided a play room was better use with 4 kids. As we got older it changed to a room with and old sofa and tv so we could play on a games console and adults could still watch what they wanted.

I’m 70 and I had a playroom as a child. It was lovely, full of my own things. I had a tepee, a train set, a doll’s house, a rocking horse and all my toys and dolls. I spent hours in there both alone and with my friends. I wasn’t banished from the rest of the house though. Sometimes I took toys into other rooms but preferred my playroom.

My brother and I had a playroom in the 60s. I was in awe of the girl in my class who had her own playroom while her brother had one too.

We didn't have one growing up although I knew a lot of people that did.

But my mum's a bit hyacinth bucket and we had a lounge, a sitting room, a study, a dining room and a sun room. One of them was probably a playroom to anyone else😁

We has a playroom in the 70s

A few of my friends growing up had playrooms. I didn't.

We had a garage conversion 10 years ago which we used as a playroom although tbh more toy storage as they dragged everything through anyways 😂

Now it's a spare bedroom / study because they're older

Could it be a "renaming" thing. We had a family living room and a separate "posh lounge" (used at Xmas, for parents' parties etc). Toys mostly in our rooms though.

This. We have a kitchen, diner, living room plus a separate lounge and separate dining room. The dining room gets used once a year on average so when the DCs were younger it made sense to turn it into a playroom. We’re gradually reclaiming it!

We had a playroom in the 70s and my DC had one in the 00s. My DGM had a "nursery". I think "playrooms" became popular mid century when open plan living became fashionable so it was good to have an extra reception room to keep all the toys out of the way, whereas their predecessors, "nurseries", were upstairs to keep the children rather than the toys out of the way 😂

We had 2 very elderly neighbours in the early 90s (as were they) who had both been born in the Victorian houses they lived in and that their parents had bought as new builds 😮One of them showed me around so I could see the original layout. There were 3 interlinking rooms, 1 bedroom for the 2 boys and 1 bedroom for the 3 girls with a day nursery (playroom) in between. The house had 6 bedrooms, they could have had a bedroom each, but the children were still expected to share.

My much older brother and I had a playroom which actually meant I had a play area in the middle of his train set. Everyone I knew had one.

Couldn’t do it for my own children as we live in London and house prices were too much from the beginning to devote an extra bedroom to it.

We didn’t, but plenty friends did. Late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s. I think it depends on the style of house you grew up in. Terraces, flats and period cottages, probably not. Around me there were lots of mid-century houses on cul de sacs that had a dining room through an archway. Young families turned them into playrooms.

We're in a three-bed with a tiny box room that's been turned into a toy room because I don't want toys anywhere downstairs.

We had a playroom in the 70s and 80s. Ours was upstairs. Nothing posh or huge, just somewhere to store our board games and larger or shared toys. It allowed us to have a place to play together. Lots of my friends had them too. I don’t think they were unusual.

I'm in my thirties and had a playroom

Not new at all - the kids in Mary Poppins have that lovely playroom that gets tidied during ‘a spoonful of sugar’.

I suspect it’s been a middle class thing since the Victorian / Edwardian era.

Always been a thing.

Not a new thing. I was a child in the 90s and most friends had one. We didn’t but in the minority

I had a playroom and I'm early 40s

I'm wondering this, we had a playroom in the 60s but no utility room, as we got older the playroom became the utility room and was marketed as such when DM died 7 years ago

We had a playroom (I'm 61). Big house and it's where the TV was too. We weren't little kids there though - I think my younger sister was 5, I was 8 and older sister 10 when we moved in.
Now I think people have 'family rooms ' now. We didn't then.

41 - had a playroom

Used the dining room off the kitchen for mine. Bought a couple of antique pine chests at auction did them up so everything could be put away if we were entertaining. Both my families with children do have a playroom. Open plan living would make this more difficult I guess