The trend of doing away with the dining-room is to be lamented. It shows that British society is coarsening; it also shows that family life is becoming more and more casual – far too casual, in fact.
The dining-room was at one time an essential room in the house. No self-respecting housewife would have wanted to be without one. It really wouldn’t have been the ‘done thing’. These days, however, anything goes. Pop- and entertainment-culture has taken over. Mothers don’t wish to cook anymore; and their children don’t want to sit down to eat, let alone dine; rather, so many of our young prefer to eat ‘on the hoof’, watching the box, or listening to their favourite ‘cool’ music. Many, I’m sure, eat whilst they surf the Web.
To so many people these days, because they don’t think for themselves, following the likes of Posh and Becks or Jamie Oliver or Kathie Lette has become de rigueur, and far more important than convention.
Let Posh and Becks and their ilk do their thing. The experience of dining is something which really shouldn’t be lost to our children. Heaven knows our children have become coarse enough already!
If we apply the logic that it is wasteful of one’s money and resources to buy dining-room furniture or silverware, and too much trouble to use the dining-room, then we might as well use the same logic and throw out the dinner plates too. The family can eat out of the carton, standing in front of the refrigerator, using their fingers. How civilized and uplifting that will be! I dare say, many already do eat this way. Need we wonder why so many people have no manners anymore, let alone any dining etiquette?
Ultimately, if we want to be super-efficient, we can do as the Bedouins do: We can use one huge round plate, placed on the floor, sit cross-legged in a circle around it, and eat with our fingers – right hand, of course! (The left hand is used for unclean things.)
Perhaps this is all part and parcel of the next stage in the Islamization of our culture!
It is so sad that Britain, once a nation which led the world in matters of etiquette, is in the process of losing all that we have held so dear for so long. A few days ago, we got news that Gordon Brown was doing away with Britannia on the back of our 50p pieces; now we hear of the demise of our dining-rooms.
I promise you, one day, we shall come to rue the day that we dispensed with all that was considered refined. - ©Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Britons can't be bothered with separate eating areas, says Alice Thomson. We want home cinemas insteadMark Alexander (Paperback)
First it was fish knives and finger bowls, next went napkin rings and decanters, then mustard pots and marmalade spoons, now the British are throwing out the entire dining room. We have had enough of them.
They were usually dingy affairs anyway, the place where mothers laid out sewing patterns and fathers filled out tax returns, where children were told to keep their elbows off the table and great aunts served prune juice. With their swag curtains and brown furniture, they were a sign that you had finally made it to the middle classes.
In days gone by, they also facilitated the dating game, as Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, explains: "Dining rooms were vital in the 18th century. It was one of the few ways that a man could meet a single woman." Times have changed; the internet takes care of social introductions now.
No one shows off about their dining rooms anymore. Dining rooms were for hostess trolleys and hot plates, vol-au-vents and souffles. They required a huge amount of effort. If you have a dining room you can't serve the carrots out of the saucepan.
You have to put them in a serving dish. Even the ice-cream has to be decanted and, along with the rest of the food, either has to be trundled along a corridor or dispatched through a hatch in the wall.
The washing-up involved in having a dining room is horrendous. Most are also filled with silver which means several hours a week polishing the candelabra. And the cutlery. You must have serious cutlery, as well as a proper dinner service. Then there are curtains to think about and formal chairs. You have to dress the part too. Pyjamas look as out of place as a milk carton at a dining room table.
It's easy to see why the dining room has gone the way of trifles and Christmas pudding. It requires too much perspiration. Far easier to knock the kitchen and the dining room into one huge space and let the children use it as a football pitch and grazing ground.
Everyone has open kitchens now, from David Cameron to Posh and Becks and Jamie Oliver. Guests on Location, Location are more likely to ask for wet rooms than dining rooms. Kathy Lette, the comedienne, changed hers into a television room because she "loathes entertaining". Even the Queen prefers having her breakfast out of tupperware in an informal atmosphere. Dining rooms are not cut out for modern life >>>
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
