By Eamonn Ryan | All photos by Eamonn Ryan

The Lindfield Victorian House Museum is a privately-owned and managed museum, full of Victorian era items, including plumbing items and original product catalogues dating from around 1900.

It was originally an upper middle-class home in Auckland Park, which at that time was a countryside area, well outside the wild mining town of Johannesburg.It was originally an upper middle-class home in Auckland Park, which at that time was a countryside area, well outside the wild mining town of Johannesburg.

Personal hygiene in the Victorian period, and indeed in nearly every era preceding it, was not conducted with the same rigour as today. Victorian men and women would wash arms, hands and faces fairly regularly but the rest of the person was pretty much left to itself. This may seem remarkably smelly, but if everyone else smells the same then one assumes the odour becomes unremarkable. 

The design of the cast-iron basin and stand at Lindfield was registered in 1897, which implies it would have been constructed by the year 1900. It has a porcelain inset, and though the taps are no longer original and were manufactured in the 1930s, says owner, museum curator and part-time parlour maid actor Katharine Love. “The bath was replaced in 1935, which is when the toilet was put into the bathroom. Before that there was an earth closet outdoor lavatory and a bucket system with no running water. In those days all homes had a sanitary lane, and the ‘night soil cart’ used to come and collect the waste. Only in 1935 did this house get an indoor toilet. The wooden panelling around the bath is from about 1904, as are the old art nouveau tiles.”

Something not seen in today’s bathrooms is a bell to call the servant or chambermaid to assist as needed, whether to bring the claret or help with washing or drying. Otherwise, the plumbing is relatively unchanged today.

For museum viewings, contact Katharine Love at lindfieldhousemuseum@outlook.com or 011 726-2932.