It’s an English Rose kitchen hat trick — three days of stories about these wonderful vintage design kitchen cabinets made and sold in England back in the day. Today’s finale: Photos of vintage banquette seats — a feature that I have never seen offered in vintage steel kitchen cabinets that were made and sold in the U.S. Reader Sarah sent me these photos four years ago, when she had them for sale. Yes — gulp — four years ago — good thing I never throw anything out including emails. I think they are soooooo coool! And lookie this —>>>>
The “kitchen seats”, as Sarah called them, open up for storage inside! Those crafty Brits!
Thank you, Sarah! P.S. Sarah told me they were sold long ago….
ineffablespace says
These are interesting from a historical/cultural standpoint, but I agree they don’t look comfortable. (And the scale seems a little awkward, too).
But the McDonalds in Leicester Square, London, (at least in 1988) had seats that were shallow and tilted forward, so that you had to keep your feet firmly planted on the floor to stay seated–you’d fall on the floor if you relaxed at all.
I guess this was a way of increasing turnover and available seating in a very busy location (and avoiding loiterers and vagrants), but I can’t imagine being able to even Do such a thing in the US for liability reasons.
Totally off topic except the uncomfortable English seat while eating reminded me
pam kueber says
I will guess the justification for the design of the English Rose banquettes: Smaller UK kitchens — need to compactly insert these; cushions thin because there was less affluence / desire to keep costs down. They may not even have had really thick foam like we have today… or at least not much access to it.
Carolyn says
This is a half & half – how come American banquettes seem to usually be wasted space? They don’t often show the storage or access to under the seats or it’s just the back and seat and empty floor space? But they do have a lot more padding than these! Yikes, even in the campers from way back, there was more foam. Unless they’re those ones that only made of wood – doesn’t encourage lingering at the dinner table…
Oops! KIDS! Can you hear their heels beating out a tattoo on these bottoms?!
All in all, I’ve enjoyed this week’s offerings – how alike we are while so different.