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

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-66591376

This news report got me thinking. 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

I wonder if this arrangement might become popular again, with (1) students / young professionals struggling to find suitable accommodation and (2) home owners struggling to pay mortgages

I think very few people want to live like that nowadays.

Housing and house shares already exist for students and young people.

For those struggling to pay their mortgage, would they have the space to let out a secure room in their house and the time to cook them breakfast/dinner and clean up?

These days, you’d probably need insurance, food hygiene certificate and checks, plus presumably DBS checks if you had kids in the house.

I think this might have worked in the 50s with a woman living in a large house who was a good cook and didn’t go out to work (so had time) trying to increase the household incomes by utilising spare bedrooms. I’m not sure it translates to many people’s lives now. The old big boarding houses near the sea are all flats now!

Whilst I see the benefits, I cannot see it happening. There are more things in modern society especially with technology that make it difficult to co-exist with strangers, and for those prepared to accept that, I expect Air BnB type short term arrangements can make more money.

we had lodgers when i was a teenager
i think my dm cooked and we sat down together as far as i can remember,
must have been awkward

there is a private hotel in the seaside town near me
i am interested what that is - i guess it is long term stay

Well within the last 10 years I spent 2 as a lodger and 4 in an HMO (house of multiple occupation). It’s still a thing!

We have often had lodgers. It’s still a thing. They’ve been a variety of ages. The only difference from a boarding house I can see is that in a boarding house you’d expect meals to be provided for you and also a communal sitting room.

There are hardly any landladies of old anymore.

I went to a funeral a few years back and found out the woman had been a landlady and had had so many interesting lodgers over the years with lots of interesting stories.

I think it's because nowadays women don't live in houses too big for them anymore. Bigger houses were relatively cheap in the 20th century.

I think there should very more publicity about the £9k tax free you are allowed to earn from a lodger. It's a very good way for women to earn money.

Where do you get 9k from? This says 7500
https://www.gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home/the-rent-a-room-scheme

If you charging 9000 you need to pay tax on 1500
self-assessment.icalculator.com/guides/rent-a-room-relief.html#:~:text=Rent%20a%20room%20example&text=As%20the%20annual%20rent%20of,tax%2C%20which%20is%2020%25.

My grandparents ran boarding house in 1940s and 50s. Different to today's hmos

My GM ran boarding houses, with family members. Those big houses have now been demolised for slum clearance or converted into flats. She made a good living as a LP with four children1930-1950. It kept around 16 of them, they lived in the basements of the houses. If you think rigby in rising damp, that house would be worth millions and has probably been converted. The lodger system replaced it. You do get B&Bs that offer discount long stays.

I imagine it would have offered a good deal of protection for young women on their own, too. The dragon landladies may have been a hindrance to those wishing to smuggle a boyfriend in, but would have been a great excuse for anyone needing to shake off a persistent pest at the end of the evening.

I suppose people don’t want this sort of set up now. Young people want their privacy and to be able to have their friends over and not to have to be home for meals at a certain time etc. It also wouldn’t feel altogether safe to me to have a house full of strangers living with myself and my family, lots of them presumably younger single men.

Isn't it a HMO? A house where people rent a bedroom (with its own lock) and share everything else? There are plenty of these in London. Its not a "normal" house share where someone rents a house and gets other people in (often going through interviews to see if they get on) or a group of people rent together - but rather a landlord putting random people in, sometimes of different sexes/ ages. Usually around 3-4 people per house.

Its grim, tbh.

They do still exist in some of the seaside towns but more from a short term holiday perspective than a student type set up. My husband and I stayed in one in West Wales for a race we were doing, a couple with a lovely house on the seafront ran it and had little tables set up in their front room for breakfast etc. You had to sign a book by the stairs for the fire alarm to say when you entered or left.

The other thing is that it's both easier and more expected that everyone can cook for themselves now. Back in the day, it wasn't even a given that women could cook, if they had grown up with servants. And you had to go out shopping in the daytime- to the butcher's for your meat, the greengrocers for the (inevitable) cabbage... Nowadays you can grab a ready meal from Tesco Metro at 9.00pm if you need, or order in from Just Eat.

Same with laundry- everyone has automatic washing machines and most have tumble dryers now.

We've had quite a few lodgers over time. You don't need to pay tax on income derived from letting out a room in your house - up to a certain amount.
It's a great way to boost your income if you have a spare room.

When I went back to uni a year after graduating to do a masters, I lived in a big house in Highgate. It was owned by an elderly lady who had lived there all her life and she rented out six rooms to students. We all had access to a kitchen (separate to hers) and several ancient bathrooms with baths so big you would bob around in them, and malachite tiles.

One day I let the meter reader in and he (knowing the house) opened a door in the hall that I always thought was a boot cupboard, and walked down quite a big staircase into a massive cellar, where the meter was.

Happy days! The students all got along great, and the lady of the house really couldn't have lived in a house like that alone. I'm sure it is owned by an oligarch now, with a home spa and cinema in the basement.

That sounds lovely. The advantage of that over a shared house is that, given one person becoming a problem, there is no politics or an ugly tussle required to get them out- the landlady can step in and do it.

I lived in a convent run boarding house/student digs for a bit which was pretty miserable. The nuns only allowed the kitchen electriticty on for 90 mins in the evening so if your turn was last then they switched the electricity off whilst you were boiling your pasta. Dads weren't allowed in any part of the building, some days you weren't allowed to cook and had to eat their evening meal which was rationed into tiny portions.

I also was a lodger to a lady who was verbally abusive.

Both places didnt allow boys so i had to always go to the man's place to have sex (and in the case of the convent had to stay until the next day as the front door was locked at 10)

However i did stay in a lovely student digs type place for under 25s (you didnt need to be a student) which was great as it was run by a company and very geared towards younger people.

Places like the third would be great for young people as you met so many people like yourself and i made friends for life.

My parents' generation (born 1940s) used lodgings, like a boarding house, if they needed to work away from home for a while. It was a room rented in someone's house with shared bathroom and the owner (usually an older woman) would cook breakfast and an evening meal at set times. Also do laundry. It was company for the homeowner too as I think they'd watch tv together in the evenings sometimes.

I've been a lodger in the 2000s and it was a very different experience. Room provided but had to do own meals - working around other people in a shared kitchen and usually the home owner made it pretty clear they didn't really want you there and limited access to the kitchen!

I can't imagine the first set up working now!

I had a few days in a student residence in Newcastle this summer. Bedsit with shower, desk and mini kitchen. Communal lounge, gym, laundry, cinema room and party kitchen. £38 a night on AirBnB when hotels were over 100.
I’d have loved that when I was a student, instead of mouldy ramshackle student flats (now selling for €1m) in Rathmines!

When I first started working in London I lived in lodgings, this was mid 80s.

It was in a flat in a mansion block in Earls Court, the landlady was quite grand and a senior civil servant although her housekeeping was shambolic and the flat hadn't been modernised since the 1920s! She rented out three rooms, to girls only but all of us were out most of the time.

There were compromises but it was very cheap, I think people today think they are entitled to more and want brand new accommodation all to themselves.

An old lady in my DM’s (dementia) care home, told me more than once very crossly that another resident still owed her nine quid for the previous week’s rent!

How long ago she’d had lodgers goodness only knows - must have been decades for £9 a week - but she evidently thought the care home was her own boarding house. 😂