KITCHEN PLANNING

Evening Star, Issue 23373, 16 September 1939, Page 19

KITCHEN PLANNING

PRACTICAL ITEMS IGNORED How far is the thoughtlessness of man who places kitchen equipment and cupboards in the wrong places, responsible for the servant problem? To quite a large extent, according to Mrs D. D’Arcy Braddell, whose husband is a London architect, and who, herself, for the past 25 years has been designing household decorations and model kitchens. A few months before her marriage in 1914 she supervised the redecoration of the Mansion House. “If only builders would employ women consultants.” she said at her home in London recently, “ I am no ardent feminist, and I have only one slogan, ‘ common sense.’ But just look at some of the things these men do! “ Sometimes they place the gas cooker in a draughty The flames are blown about, money is wasted, the food is not cooked as it should be. _ “ The electric light fitting is often placed over the left shoulder, instead of the right, so that the cook stands in her own light. . ‘ “ Most people like a small kitchen nowadays, but there is usually room for two sinks. Yet often there is only one placed by the gas cooker. _ Therefore, when cook and kitchenmaid are at their busiest they get in each other’s way and ‘ have words.’ “ I am convinced that lack of attention by men to things which they do nob regard as important in designing a house, is responsible for much of the dissatisfaction among servants _ to-day. The best type of servant requires the best conditions. “ The modern house often has too much outward show. More money should be spent on the more_ practical items. Some houses have linen cupboards with hot water pipes at the other end of the house. And often there is no cupboard for the maid to keep her brooms and dust-pans.” Mrs Braddell sees eye to eye with her husband on planning, and has designed several kitchens for him. Sometimes she is assisted by her 22-year-old daughter* Virginia, who has been trained to follow her mother’s footsteps.