Spisrummet – en arbetarbostad i slutet av 1800-talet

I slutet av 1800-talet gick flyttlassen från landsbygden till de växande industriorterna vid kusten. I Holmsund, utanför Umeå, kunde man få jobb på sågverket och därmed också få möjlighet att hyra ett rum med spis i arbetarbostäderna på Västerbacken. I Umeå fanns inga särskilda bostäder för arbetare. De hyrde ofta ett enkelt och billigt rum i en vindsvåning eller ett uthus.

I spisrummet kunde det bo 6–8 personer. Familjerna hade flera barn och det var vanligt att man hade en inneboende för att få hjälp med hyran. Den öppna spisen var den enda värmekällan och där lagades maten. Vatten hämtades i en brunn på gården eller i Umeälven.

Föräldrarna sov i sängen och övriga sov i kökssoffan och på golvet. Tapeter var en nymodighet i arbetarnas hem. De var dyra och värdefulla och sattes bara på övre halvan av väggen. Vid det smutsiga golvet hade man en målad avtorkningsbar yta.

Den personliga hygienen var ingen viktig sak. Läkarna hade precis börjat inse att vatten och renlighet motverkade sjukdomar, men det var en svår uppgift att sprida den nya kunskapen till folket. Man trodde att smuts var ett skydd både mot sjukdomar och kyla, och detta skydd skulle inte tvättas bort!

English

The Bedsit: A Housing Form for the Working Class

At the end of the nineteenth century, it was common to see families relocating from the countryside to the growing industrial communities along the coast. In Holmsund, outside of Umeå, one could get a job at the sawmill, which came with the opportunity to rent a single room with a simple cooking fireplace (and a shared outhouse in the courtyard rather than a bathroom) in a block of worker’s apartments in Västerbacken. In Umeå there was no housing specifically designed for workers. They were often left to rent a simple and cheap room in an attic or an outbuilding.

Six or eight people might live together in a bedsit apartment. Families had several children, and it was common for them to take in tenants to help with the rent. The only source of heat was an open fireplace, and it was there that food was prepared. Water was fetched from a well in the courtyard or from the Ume River.

The parents slept in the bed. The others slept on the “kitchen sofa” (a wooden bench with a backrest and cushioned seat for sleeping) or on the floor. Wallpaper was a novelty in working-class homes. It was expensive and valuable, and was hung only on the upper half of the walls. The floor was dirty, but the boards would be painted for a cleanable surface.

Personal hygiene was not an important matter. Doctors had just begun to realize the role of fresh water and cleanliness in preventing disease. But spreading awareness of the new science proved to be a difficult challenge. It was popularly believed that dirt provided protection against both illness and cold and ought not to be cleaned away!