In the old neighbourhoods of Amsterdam the houses didn't have a bathroom or shower. There was only a toilet and a tap in the kitchen and the bedroom. People washed themselves during the week at the tap and small children were washed in a zink tub. In order to improve the health of the working people at the end of the 19th century they could have a shower in a public bath building in the neighbourhood where they had to pay for. Mostly they did on saturday, to go more often was to expensive. I remember as a little child my parents, brother and sister went to the public bath at the end of our street, only I was to young and was washed in the tub in the kitchen. Things have changed, every house has a bathroom now and the bathhouses are closed . This one in the Diamond neighborhood from 1926 was one of the last one's closed in 1986. Some of the buildings had this typical round shape as the one in my street also had.
Very interesting. At one point when I was seven..we for a short time lived out in the coutntry with no bathroom. Bathing was in a galvanized tub on the porch...and I hated trips out the outhouse where I remember snipers!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenSo is this one a museum piece like some of our one-room schoolhouses here in the States?
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI hate my auto correct! That was supposed to be spiders!
BeantwoordenVerwijderenOh Janey, you made my day with your snipers behind the bushes!
VerwijderenWe gotcha Janey but glad the spiders didn't! Hygiene certainly has improved over the years.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenI remember having Sat. night bath beside stove in big ole tub on kitchen floor at my Aunti's farm. We always had a tub at home - I guess that was a luxury that came with the house my parents moved into after the war. My Dad was a soldier and all the soldiers were offered these single dwellings first, when they came home from the war. I know I got bathed in the tub at my Aunti's farm though, and the girls were always first and the boys last. he,he Apparently, they were more dirty than the girls. ha,ha
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThat is an interesting bit of cultural history.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenWij hadden vroeger een lavet waar ik als kind in werd gewassen. Leuk stukje geschiedenis.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenDearest Marianne,
BeantwoordenVerwijderenIndeed what times have changed; for the better! Imagine that once a week they could afford to take a shower at the public bathing and more often than that was too expensive...
Hugs to you,
Mariette
Interesting post. I'm glad some of the bathhouses have been preserved for history.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThat is a fascinating bit of history. Your mention of zinc tubs reminds me of my childhood. My grandmother used to set one out in the yard and fill it with water on hot days for us to play in and cool off.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenthis may look primitive as we look back , but it was very progressive at the time and improved health overa
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThey served a good purpose Marianne.. would be good if they could find some constructive use for them now, although I'm not sure what that would be :)
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