Evans (1978) mentions that rooms having more than one door was a fault in domestic buildings after the 19th century. Doors adjoining rooms created a matrix of interconnected chambers. Robert Kerr’s (1865) ‘The Gentlemen’s House’ (Cited by Evans 1978) mentions that thoroughfare rooms were an inconvenience. Kerr believed that limiting the number of doors meant limiting contact with various members of the household, between servants, men, women, children, and guests. (Evans 1978)

 

Hence the domestic passage was introduced. Kerr (1865) identifies the passage as an architectural way of overcoming the mixing of servants and family, avoiding the racket of children and the prattle of women. The introduction of the passage to domestic architecture consigned servants to a limited territory, always adjacent to but never within the house, “they were always on hand but never presented unless required” (Evans 1978)

 

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Enter: Servant walking down the corridor – in the direction of the scullery - holding a metal tray and cloche

 

He knows that he can only enter a room when the door is open, as this means that the rooms occupant is allowing others inside

 

He has to knock first and wait for a response, he dares knock on a door that is closed, unless given very specific instructions to do so.

 

Enter: Female servant and young girl walking in the direction of the playroom

 

A female servant walks past him, they nod pleasantly to one another. She is holding the hand of a young girl.

 

All the doors are shut closed in the corridor, besides the door of the playroom.