Bungalows called ‘cottages’ just because they’re in a holiday setting.

[BrilloPadHairball]

It’s probably me but what’s all this about holiday lets being labelled a cottage when it’s clearly a renovated bungalow or just a one level abode? Is that really a cottage? To me, the word ‘cottage’ conjures up something farm-housey in the countryside - unless you’ve gone on holiday by mistake.

It’s not just one-storey houses; in the UK, anything used for holiday purposes tends to be called a “cottage.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottage

I think there is a cultural strain in the UK that fundamentally aspires to be rural and thinks of cities as being a bit suspect (think of all those children’s literary classics where moving from the city to the countryside is the cue for all the kids to become wholesome and rosy cheeked and start having wonderful exciting adventures etc.)

Also, the UK is highly unusual in that rural areas tend to have higher incomes (on average) than urban areas once you have excluded London - in most countries it is the other way round. Hence, terms like “village” tend to be aspirational (in my parents’ city, all the “posh” suburbs call themselves “villages,” while those on the other side of the city certainly do not, despite the fact that the latter are probably geographically further from the city center) and the same may be true for “cottage.”

When I browse Rightmove for detached houses usually when my neighbours are watching Jerry Springer at top volume again it always seems to return me at least a handful of random grotty terraces and semis very much like the one I actually live in, because they've been categorised as "cottages" and therefore Rightmove thinks they fit my criteria. Cottage my angry throbbing arse.

Are you the Farmer?

We have a holiday let in the Cotswolds. It’s an apartment. To me it’s definitely not a cottage. But in the majority of our reviews, guests refer to it as a cottage.

Have you seen the Rhode Island 'cottages'? I don't think there's a definitive meaning for cottage.

On a related note, why are static caravans now called "holiday lodges" 🤣 For some reason this always really annoys me which I am well aware is probably highly unreasonable!

The bungalow I live in was originally built as a "holiday chalet" for a lord Harrison in 1935.

Of course he's the fucking farmer!

(that's my TV sorted for tonight 😁)

Yes, exactly! This is the Astor ‘cottage’.

I think it is to conjure up a picture of something nice, very disappointing if it turns out to be more prefab than cottage

If you consume enough cake and fine wine, preferably the finest wines available to humanity, you stop minding so much.

There a semi detached bungalow that’s referred to as the cottage in my area

i think because it’s the only smaller than the rest single floor dwelling in the whole area.

I don’t refer to it as that really as iv never needed to bring it up in conversation I suppose but I know the one people mean if it’s mentioned

The house I grew up in was built as a labourer’s cottage by the county council in 1900, with a half acre of garden to allow for growing food. Exactly the same structure, modified only by the addition of a bathroom has been marketed as a ‘bungalow’ both times it’s been on the market since the 1990s.

Agree that there’s no definitive meaning for ‘cottage’.

But keep away from Jake. And bulls. And Old Harrovians with designs on your body.

Its an aspirational thing.

A friend of mine used to live a tiny, quite small, not especially attractive house on a main road of a large but not very rural village. It was old (1930s) but with no period features whatsoever. she constantly referred to it as a "cottage".

Another friend lives in an actual cottage. Its a vast, 200 year old bed with a huge garden in the arse end of nowhere, labelled on maps since forever as "VillageName Cottage". You can't move in it for beams and original stone flag floors and fireplaces.

Id define a cottage as:

• rurally located
• of an attractive, vernacular architectural style, usually featuring period features
• not necessarily 1 storey - more often two but the upstairs might feature eaves & dormers
• varying on size from small through to really quite large but lacking in ornate/elaborate features like columns or anything remotely greek/roman/gothic/georgian townhouse stylings

Frogmore Cottage is not my idea of a cottage either. More a mini stately home.

Round here there are purpose built farm labourers' housing, also quarrymens' housing, some of which are still in landlords' ownership (revealed when renovated en masse) and I have mentally classifed them as cottages, despited their being in rows of six to eight Victorian terraces, stuck out in the country alongside the road. Classified by purpose, and original cost.
Not by any means aspirational. By contrast my grandparents lived in a freehold farmhouse which would be seen as a cottage from its size. It didn't have a water supply. A previous occupant, a worker for a 'big house', had, when that house had fitted a hydraulic ram for its supply, had one for himself, and when the owner found out, he had it ripped out as it wasn't suitable for employees, who after all could use the spring down the hill.

Oh yes, I forgot about Frogmore Cottage. Poor Meghan must have had a bit of a shock, not realizing that the “cottage” in question is actually something like three times the size of the average British home while being unexceptional by American standards.

My FHL is indeed a rural cottage! We actually don't actively market it as such although I use the word for SEO as it's such a popular search term.

That's probably why all the definitely not-a-cottage houses/bungalows use it.

I find this particularly irritating on Rightmove as well.

Yes terraced houses referred to as cottages aren't cottages in my world either

Loving the Withnail references. Has anyone ever noticed how Uncle Monty’s grotty little cottage becomes amazingly welcoming once he arrives and gets the breakfast on?

Don't get me started on 'Villa'. Lots of closet Latin scholars around...

To me, a cottage is stone built. I live rurally and in a bungalow. I have a cottage garden, and a front door that people say looks like something from Hansel and Gretyl. It absolutely isnt a cottage, and is only 80 years old, but the stone built semi detached properties in the extremely 'sought after' and idyllic village next to me that are described as cottages sell for three times the price of my property. Photo attached of a cottage that sold most recently. It had most of its features stripped out of it, but obviously still had that olde worlde village cottage charm.

A certain village location and cottage description can add hundreds of thousands.