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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Location Location Location Kitchen Hatches

32 replies

Belinda5 · 10/02/2024 19:28

I've just been watching another LLL where the buyers want to knock through to the kitchen and get rid of the kitchen/dining hatch. AIBU to want to start a SAFE OUR HATCHES campaign. I just love them. They're an evocative part of our history and narrative. Please don't get rid of them/

OP posts:
Seashor · 10/02/2024 19:29

I love them too.

dotdotdotdash · 10/02/2024 19:29

I think hatches are due a come back!

Dearg · 10/02/2024 19:32

😂😂😂 I am not a fan of open plan , but really struggling with the hatch.i am more about saving the hostess trolleys.

Farwell · 10/02/2024 19:34

We lived in a couple of houses with hatches. It was brilliant for dinner parties, being able to remain in conversations and get stuff to the table easily. And then shut the mess/cooking smells in the kitchen out of sight. I am not a fan of open plan at all.

CormorantStrikesBack · 10/02/2024 19:35

My Granny had one and I loved it! Haven’t seen one for decades.

OhhhhhhhhBiscuits · 10/02/2024 19:52

Dearg · 10/02/2024 19:32

😂😂😂 I am not a fan of open plan , but really struggling with the hatch.i am more about saving the hostess trolleys.

I have just got my mums hostess trolley as she doesn't use it anymore and omg it is a game changer for big meals. Christmas Dinner was made so much easier, and if we have people over and have a lot more food being served it just makes it a breeze.

HeadShoulderHipsandCalves · 10/02/2024 19:53

Dearg · 10/02/2024 19:32

😂😂😂 I am not a fan of open plan , but really struggling with the hatch.i am more about saving the hostess trolleys.

Oh yes! I used one recently - huge cumbersome thing, but so handy.

OverTheCountryClub · 10/02/2024 19:54

We bought a house last year and most of the houses we viewed had hatches! The house we went for sadly has had the hatch bricked up (you can feel a faint bump outline where it was). I quite like them - we are tempted to restore ours! 😂

SleepingBeautySnores · 10/02/2024 19:56

I am the proud owner of a HATCH!! We recently moved into a property built in 1983 and the original hatch is still here. We love it! We've had several dinner parties over recent months, and as another poster said, once the meal is served, if there are cooking smells, you can just close the hatch and they're gone. Then when it comes to clearing table, it makes it so much easier if one is in the dining room passing dishes through, while the other is in the kitchen putting them straight in the dishwasher, saves us walking all the way around and through our lounge numerous times. THE HATCH STAYS!!😆

Runnerinthenight · 10/02/2024 19:58

The only person I ever knew who had a hatch was MIL! It was handy. Wouldn't work with the layout of our house.

Not a fan of open plan either. It looks good but I like a bit of separation and the ability to close doors on rooms I might not want on show!

QueenBean22 · 10/02/2024 20:00

We had one in our childhood home and we used to play ice cream man’s through it.

Dearg · 10/02/2024 20:02

@OhhhhhhhhBiscuits @HeadShoulderHipsandCalves loving the trolley love 😁

KreedKafer · 10/02/2024 20:02

Haha, I love a hatch! I’m very fond of those kinds of retro details in houses. My aunt and uncle had one and my grandad used to pull silly faces at us through it!

Tidypidy · 10/02/2024 20:05

My brother and I used to climb through the hatch. Mum only found out a few years ago and was horrified!

datchet · 10/02/2024 20:06

My Aunt and Uncle had one in their house in the 80s/90s there was a breakfast bar on the kitchen side of it and at Christmas my uncle would do the conveyor belt game from the generation game and push all the presents across for the kids on the other side to remember.

Cheering at the cuddly toy.

Happy memories.

YANBU.

AuntyMabelandPippin · 10/02/2024 20:08

We have a hatch. We saw it and thought we'd be getting rid asap, but 20+ years later it's stayed and we love it.

Food is warm and you can offload the plates so easily and close the hatch if you've visitors.

snoopyfanaccountant · 10/02/2024 20:09

My parents moved from a flat to a terreced house when I was a toddler and my DGF knocked a hatch between the kitchen and the dining room. It was so useful and on one occasion a folding chair stored behind the kitchen door fell over, preventing the door from opening, and I was lifted through the hatch to remove the chair.
DM still lives in the house and a few years ago she had the hatch bricked up :( .

Both my DGMs had hostess trolleys; my aunt has one but I don't know where the other went and I wish I had it.

LlynTegid · 10/02/2024 20:11

Fond memories of the cat when I was a child using the hatch to get to the dining table.

I'd prefer to get rid of Location Location Location.

StressyMcStressFace · 10/02/2024 20:13

We had a hatch in our house in 70s/80s. It was hinged at the bottom and opened out flat attached by 2 chains at the top - like a drawbridge. One day we were having guests. Mum had made some enormous cream laden and elaborately decorated pavlovas and set them on a trolley below the hatch for later. My brother was on the other side and wanted to open the hatch for a look. So he gave it a shove ...

You can imagine the carnage!

Shudacudawuda · 10/02/2024 20:16

Our house definitely used to have a hatch but a previous owner must have bricked it up. I would like to reinstate it when we re-do our kitchen, I think they are so useful.

WiddlinDiddlin · 10/02/2024 20:18

We have a hatch, its fucking useful as i can shove the pots and stuff through then trundle round in my chair and grab them on the other side. Saves me from trying to carry hot cups of tea from kitchen to living room too!

We also do the conveyor belt thing with shopping... one of us trundles it past the hatch and the other has to remember or guess whats next... We are NOT proper grown ups at alllllllll.

Mrsdashwood · 10/02/2024 20:21

datchet · 10/02/2024 20:06

My Aunt and Uncle had one in their house in the 80s/90s there was a breakfast bar on the kitchen side of it and at Christmas my uncle would do the conveyor belt game from the generation game and push all the presents across for the kids on the other side to remember.

Cheering at the cuddly toy.

Happy memories.

YANBU.

What a lovely story 😊

NImumconfused · 10/02/2024 20:36

Dearg · 10/02/2024 20:02

@OhhhhhhhhBiscuits @HeadShoulderHipsandCalves loving the trolley love 😁

My lovely mum has not one but two hostess trolleys (she had hers for decades and then when a friend said she was getting rid of hers mum adopted it). They don't come out often, but when we're doing Christmas Dinner for 13 they are very handy.

We also had a hatch when I was a kid in the 70s, and like a PP above, mostly used it for climbing through!

Cuckoochanel80 · 10/02/2024 21:53

Also loved climbing through it as a kid, funny I was just thinking about hatches recently

InfiniteUsernames · 10/02/2024 22:24

My mum has one. It’s great, very practical. My DC do climb through it though.