ABSTRACT
Historians, as well as other social commentators, have tended to regard lodging as an insignificant phenomenon in history. There is a long-standing belief that urbanisation and industrialisation necessitated the ‘separation of home and work’. The process of redefinition was taking place throughout the society, although it was interpreted in different ways by different class groups. It was undoubtedly the urban middle class who were the most zealous in promoting the separation of spheres, proseletyzing their message to both the upper and developing working classes. The basic services provided in lodgings seem to have been ‘attendance, light and firing’. ‘Attendance’ included services such as cleaning, carrying water and coal, emptying slops such as waste water and chamber pots, making fires, running errands.
