The ability to make our indoor spaces consistently warm transformed how we live — now, climate change demands a similar upheaval
In 1961, the government-commissioned Parker Morris Committee published its first report into the ideal standards for state-funded housebuilding. This report set out an ambitious new agenda for how the British population should be housed. It recommended that in outdoor temperatures as low as -1C, houses should be able to maintain temperatures of 18C in living areas, and 13C in the kitchen and circulation space.
This was a radical proposal, which aimed to make more of the home usable for longer — bedrooms, for instance, were too cold for much of the year and were used for little else than sleeping in. The Parker Morris Committee proposed that there should be space “in every home for activities demanding privacy and quiet”.
“Gas central heating, although offering only insipid warmth in its early days, ‘opened up’ the house and encouraged the use of upstairs spaces beyond the basic routine of washing, dressing and sleeping,” says Kathy Davies, a researcher on Just Heat, an international project that investigates historical heating transitions, at Sheffield Hallam University. “It gave individuals the opportunity for privacy and more choice in where they spent their time.”
Central heating was the cornerstone of a wider transformation in British quality of life. Starting in the late 1960s, government funding in the form of “home improvement grants” also helped with bringing toilets indoors, installing hot water and, in more extreme cases of disrepair, refitting entire properties. Our appetite for heat kept growing: in 1970, the average internal temperature in Britain was 12C, according to UK government statistics; by 2010, it had reached 16.9C.
This was more than a change in temperature — it was a wholesale redesign of the cultural and social life of the interior. Central heating, alongside insulation and double glazing, made it more practical to knock through walls and create open living areas. It made the kitchen the main social space, and meant that we could spend more time in bedrooms.
“Suddenly bedrooms, previously cold and damp, became comfortable and cosy areas in which to hang out — arguably heralding the rise of teenage spaces,” says Sonia Solicari, director of the Museum of the Home in London.
