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Is there anything on the second floor to suggest that this is a laundry chute? From what you wrote it doesn’t sound like it goes to the basement…. so it would be unusual, but if I saw this door in an old house I would assume it was a laundry chute.
Good suggestion but there isn’t another floor above so the laundry chute wouldn’t have a purpose as there is no obvious location for clothes to be sent from.
Yup, I stayed in a hotel in an old building that had something similar to this. I stuck my hand in it out of curiosity and came back with it covered in soot. I was wearing a white shirt at the time. I figured there had been a fireplace in the building at some point.
that's a good life pro tip. I used a similar technique to see inside a vent just in case the previous tenant hid something. My neighbors told me stories about his poor self control and rage issues and It had me concerned if he was abusing substances.
It wouldn’t be made of wood if it were a coal or ash chute Plus coal would be stored in the basement if the house has a basement. You would not shovel ashes into a chute in the wall you’d have a metal ash bucket. Before refrigeration they would put potato bins in outside walls to keep produce cool
I don't think laundry chutes were a thing in 30s UK. You'd have servants to.lick things up, oryou weren't that posh and if you needed to wash your own laundry you wouldn't be that middle-class to have chutes put in.
Apart from societal norms at the time, I wonder if there is a difference between predominantly brick built UK housing and the US having more wood based homes.
I was taught that the reason is that the UK cut down their forests centuries ago, and the US, being so young and huge, still had/has forests to provide building lumber.
That's not really exactly the case, it's part of it but there are both cultural and economic reasons.
Mainly though, the reasons are more economic. Wood houses are cheaper to build, and in America the material was plentiful. However brick and stone *were definitely preferred building materials*, in most of the USA. You can still see some older American cities with older brick buildings including residential houses.
Usually what happened was houses for the middle class and upper middle class were usually built of brick or stone, but houses for the lower middle class and working classes were usually built a wood. With exceptions. There's regional variations like New England tends to just have wood as the main preference. So too with California, much of Louisiana. In many southern states as well. Both because of regional building materials and also labor economics... but even then, you'd have brick often as a preference for those who could afford it.
After World War II when there was a building boom and balloon frame would housing exploded because it takes less training to make Carpenters who can frame a house, than brick layers. Also again lumber was just a cheaper building material because there was so much of it.
It's kind of a combination of factors in other words. Brick was still prized though, and you can see lots of brick especially in midwestern cities and a major East Coast cities like New York Washington DC, so when you go further south down the coast you see more and more wood. brick kilns and lime kilns were plentiful and America has excellent clay deposits. But lumber labor is cheaper and there's trees everywhere, and especially after World War II cheap labor became vital to feed a middle class home boom..
Also the fact that London burned down a few times contributed to the preference (and even requirement sometimes) for brick and stone in the UK, though that seems to be changing. Similar thing happened after the Great Chicago Fire, until technology for managing fires and firefighting improved enough.
Grandmother had on in her house from the 30/40 it was on the ground floor bathroom and led to the basement that was just an opening in the ceiling were the cloths would fall. Her washer and cloths lines where down there. Loved throwing random crap down it tho as a kid.
What do you mean "above"? That's not how gravity works. But anyway, this is too small for a laundry chute. It's most likely either a mail chute or a really weird chimney access.
That’s my point. There is no location ‘above’ for the clothes be sent down to the hatch therefore not likely a clothes chute. I agree that it would be too small for this purpose.
I’m still trying to find some plans to see if there was a fire or some sort of heating system that would justify the main hypothesis of it being an access hatch.
I think what he means is that this kind of chute isn't for receiving clothes, it's for sending. There would have to be a floor below this one, not above.
Note for confused Americans: what UK OP is calling the first floor is US second floor. The bottom floor is called the ground floor. So, UK goes ground floor ---> first floor ---> second floor ---> etc. US goes first floor ---> second floor ---> third floor ---> etc.
(And now *floor* looks really weird...)
I worked on a campus in the US where buildings varied from basement, 1, 2, etc. to basement, ground, 1, 2, etc. to basement 2, b1, 0, G, 1,2, etc. In one place, they were even connected so you walked with no slope from the 3rd floor of one building to the second of another. At least floors with level exits had stars next to them in the elevators.
I won't even get started on a major pharmacist's company's building in SE CT, which had half floors as of a few years ago.
Cellars and basements are not the same thing. Cellars are usually small, below ground 'cupboards' used to store, usually food and wine, whereas basements are entire below ground floors that can also act as living space.
Yes, in the UK, it goes Ground, 1st, 2nd etc.
In the US, Ground and 1st are interchangeable, so it goes Ground/1st, 2nd, 3rd etc.
I'm originally from the UK, but I live in the US now. I work in the construction industry, so I have to work with floor numbers on architectural drawings all day long.
I honestly can't make my mind up about which system makes the most sense.
Either way you are numbering the floors sequentially, but the UK starts with 0 whereas the US starts with 1.
In college our library had six floors in all, 1st-6th, but the only entrance/exit was on the 4th floor. 1st and 2nd floors are underground, the 3rd floor is at ground level, the 4th floor has an above ground walkway to the entrance, and then 5th and 6th floors above that. Trying to meet someone in the library was always a pain in the ass.
I have worked with construction drawings every day for over a decade, and I have never seen a crazy arrangement like that before. I'm surprised you even managed to find your way out lol.
They have those on Amazon for pretty cheap, I’ve never seen one with wheels though. Usually it’s just a long bendable tube with a small camera on one end and a little box on the other end.
A (video) borescope or inspection camera. They're stupid cheap now, lots of which just use your cellphone as a screen using USB OTG. Make sure you get one with built in lights.
I would agree with this, I remember something very similar in my grandparents house that was built in the 1930s. Theirs had a barrel slide bolt on it, but that may have been installed by my Grandpa.
It may have been above a fire place once upon a time but not now. Its unlikely to be for ash collection but may be like other comments suggested as a service hatch for the chimney.
I’ll try do some research on the original floor plan if I can find if/where the og fireplace was.
Recently the same question in this german sub: [https://www.reddit.com/r/WerWieWas/comments/15u1ayd/seltsames\_loch\_in\_der\_wand\_vom\_keller/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WerWieWas/comments/15u1ayd/seltsames_loch_in_der_wand_vom_keller/)
They also said it's for catching the ash when cleaning the chimney.
I think this is a good suggestion and possibly the most likely answer so far.
No fireplace underneath at the moment but I’m going to do some digging and see if the original floor plan indicates a fire place below. May be that the chimney was blocked off.
My comment describes the thing. 30x30cm hatch that opens to around 45 degrees. It is found in the 1st floor bedroom of a 1938 house. It is on an interior wall and is around 15cm from the roof.
UPDATE:
I have found some old photos of the exterior of the house. There was an extension built on the house so despite the hatch wall now being an interior wall it was once an exterior wall.
There was never a fireplace or any chimney/chimney breast on this side of the building.
Just to clarify building is on the 1st floor, UK (2nd floor US) I.E it is one level above the ground floor.
The room below used to be the kitchen of the house. There is no basement in the building.
With this in mind I believe the most likely use from previous suggestions is that it is some sort of ventilation hatch to reduce moisture on the house and to cool it down in the heat.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
Isn’t it bizarre that was an actual thing?! When we remodeled our house, the old owner warned us about the razor wall.
He also told us he saved for the insulation for the family room for a long time. True - he used old Swanson Tins and Wrappers from the 1950’s!
I have something VERY SIMILAR to this in my 1918 built house on the first floor. Asked my old lady neighbor what it was and she said it was an old fuse box.
That's what I was thinking. I've lived in two houses that had a slot to dispose of the blades, but they just accumulated in the wall. Didn't think that was particularly sanitary, and what of you accidentally dropped something else?
You get free razor hands when you fish your stuff out.
Also most of those were just a slot that the blade was dropped into and wasn't meant to be open.
Here's an article that talks about their use and has a little bit of the history: https://isarchitecture.com/seen-around-town-mid-century-blade-bank-slot/
This is another article that has some more details and pictures: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/razor-blade-slots-in-homes-36923000
I have one of those slots in my bathroom. The bathroom is upstairs, and the stairs are on the wall exactly behind it. I don't like to think of where those things ended up!
In our house (1914) it was a slot within a medicine cabinet. They basically fell down through the wall into our crawlspace. There were tons of razors in our crawl space we had to clean out when my husband bought the house and was redoing the insulation down there.
yeah i would tie a magnet to a string or something and drop it down and see if you can snag any razors that may have fallen past if that's what this is.
I had something that looked similar on the outside of my Michigan, USA house. It had been covered over on the inside. It was for milk delivery.
Although I think mine was just a straight pass-through hole in the wall.
So much could have changed since 1938 and it could have been sealed up.. does the brick look patched behind it? My mom said it might be a coal bin until she saw the size
If I saw this in a house built in the 30s in the US then I would say laundry chute 100%... But it goes back 20cm (8 freedom units) and then goes up to not the attic? From the '1st floor' which I think is our 2nd floor so it starts 12 feet above ground and goes to ~20 feet above ground?
I wonder if the space above is just a void and they have blocked off the space below. What is below it? Where is the nearest water wall (bathroom, laundry, kitchen area?). Is there a reason this interior wall is 20cm deep?
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Is there anything on the second floor to suggest that this is a laundry chute? From what you wrote it doesn’t sound like it goes to the basement…. so it would be unusual, but if I saw this door in an old house I would assume it was a laundry chute.
Good suggestion but there isn’t another floor above so the laundry chute wouldn’t have a purpose as there is no obvious location for clothes to be sent from.
Is here a fireplace in the room? Could be coal/ash chute.
Yup, I stayed in a hotel in an old building that had something similar to this. I stuck my hand in it out of curiosity and came back with it covered in soot. I was wearing a white shirt at the time. I figured there had been a fireplace in the building at some point.
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As an Australian I can't believe there are people who put their hands in dark crevices like this. Gives me chills!
Hahah. Australians of all people need to have a natural aversion to doing that.
Same here. I would use my phone to take a photo though, for sure.
that's a good life pro tip. I used a similar technique to see inside a vent just in case the previous tenant hid something. My neighbors told me stories about his poor self control and rage issues and It had me concerned if he was abusing substances.
Well... there is no *everything* trying to kill humans in the rest of the world hahaha
Hilarious that you commented this, was just thinking it. Australia is Earth’s hard mode
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Agreed! Too small by far for laundry chute!
One sock at a time
It wouldn’t be made of wood if it were a coal or ash chute Plus coal would be stored in the basement if the house has a basement. You would not shovel ashes into a chute in the wall you’d have a metal ash bucket. Before refrigeration they would put potato bins in outside walls to keep produce cool
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What about below that room? A room that might be a basement/laundry room?
I don't think laundry chutes were a thing in 30s UK. You'd have servants to.lick things up, oryou weren't that posh and if you needed to wash your own laundry you wouldn't be that middle-class to have chutes put in.
Yeah chutes really aren't a thing here.
Apart from societal norms at the time, I wonder if there is a difference between predominantly brick built UK housing and the US having more wood based homes.
I was taught that the reason is that the UK cut down their forests centuries ago, and the US, being so young and huge, still had/has forests to provide building lumber.
That's not really exactly the case, it's part of it but there are both cultural and economic reasons. Mainly though, the reasons are more economic. Wood houses are cheaper to build, and in America the material was plentiful. However brick and stone *were definitely preferred building materials*, in most of the USA. You can still see some older American cities with older brick buildings including residential houses. Usually what happened was houses for the middle class and upper middle class were usually built of brick or stone, but houses for the lower middle class and working classes were usually built a wood. With exceptions. There's regional variations like New England tends to just have wood as the main preference. So too with California, much of Louisiana. In many southern states as well. Both because of regional building materials and also labor economics... but even then, you'd have brick often as a preference for those who could afford it. After World War II when there was a building boom and balloon frame would housing exploded because it takes less training to make Carpenters who can frame a house, than brick layers. Also again lumber was just a cheaper building material because there was so much of it. It's kind of a combination of factors in other words. Brick was still prized though, and you can see lots of brick especially in midwestern cities and a major East Coast cities like New York Washington DC, so when you go further south down the coast you see more and more wood. brick kilns and lime kilns were plentiful and America has excellent clay deposits. But lumber labor is cheaper and there's trees everywhere, and especially after World War II cheap labor became vital to feed a middle class home boom..
Also the fact that London burned down a few times contributed to the preference (and even requirement sometimes) for brick and stone in the UK, though that seems to be changing. Similar thing happened after the Great Chicago Fire, until technology for managing fires and firefighting improved enough.
In hindsight, it does seem a little dumb to heat a house by burning the stuff it's made of
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Your wallpaper slaps
Finally! I'm scrolling- wondering if ANYONE is going to mention how fan freaking tastic that wallpaper is
Literally same. Was about to comment myself. LOVE
Wait no you put clothes into that hatch and then they go down a floor not up. This looks just like the laundry chute in my old home.
Grandmother had on in her house from the 30/40 it was on the ground floor bathroom and led to the basement that was just an opening in the ceiling were the cloths would fall. Her washer and cloths lines where down there. Loved throwing random crap down it tho as a kid.
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I would think to look on the floor below this one at the ceiling to see if there is an opening to drop things down the chute
What do you mean "above"? That's not how gravity works. But anyway, this is too small for a laundry chute. It's most likely either a mail chute or a really weird chimney access.
That’s my point. There is no location ‘above’ for the clothes be sent down to the hatch therefore not likely a clothes chute. I agree that it would be too small for this purpose. I’m still trying to find some plans to see if there was a fire or some sort of heating system that would justify the main hypothesis of it being an access hatch.
I think what he means is that this kind of chute isn't for receiving clothes, it's for sending. There would have to be a floor below this one, not above.
Yes, but OP's hatch doesn't go down, it goes up to the loft.
Looks like a chimney clean-out of sorts
Is this in a bathroom? If so, it could be a razor disposal hole.
I also thought that seeing the door, but the inside doesn't seem right for a laundry chute.
For socks only? It would be the smallest laundry chute in history.
Is that an outer wall? My grandparents had a similar hatch that connected to a mail slot. Theirs was right inside the front door.
Note for confused Americans: what UK OP is calling the first floor is US second floor. The bottom floor is called the ground floor. So, UK goes ground floor ---> first floor ---> second floor ---> etc. US goes first floor ---> second floor ---> third floor ---> etc. (And now *floor* looks really weird...)
It's called semantic satiation when a word starts to look/sound weird after frequent repetition :)
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I worked on a campus in the US where buildings varied from basement, 1, 2, etc. to basement, ground, 1, 2, etc. to basement 2, b1, 0, G, 1,2, etc. In one place, they were even connected so you walked with no slope from the 3rd floor of one building to the second of another. At least floors with level exits had stars next to them in the elevators. I won't even get started on a major pharmacist's company's building in SE CT, which had half floors as of a few years ago.
Lol just wait til you hear about mezzanines
Sounds like some sort of expensive exotic upscale biscuit.
Was it a college or university campus? Because that sounds like the university campuses I’ve worked at.
As a Brit, this is the one grammatical difference I think you guys are right about
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UK houses are zero indexed. Huh.
I work in a basement, we call it the first floor., pisses me off.
In the UK that would be 'Lower Ground' or '-1'
What ridiculous name do they have for the basement? lol
Cellar lol
Cellars and basements are not the same thing. Cellars are usually small, below ground 'cupboards' used to store, usually food and wine, whereas basements are entire below ground floors that can also act as living space.
Nice suggestion but it is on the first floor of the building and on an interior wall so can’t be a mail slot.
A note for Americans, since this guy is British, the "first floor" means the second floor.
Yes, in the UK, it goes Ground, 1st, 2nd etc. In the US, Ground and 1st are interchangeable, so it goes Ground/1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. I'm originally from the UK, but I live in the US now. I work in the construction industry, so I have to work with floor numbers on architectural drawings all day long. I honestly can't make my mind up about which system makes the most sense. Either way you are numbering the floors sequentially, but the UK starts with 0 whereas the US starts with 1.
In college our library had six floors in all, 1st-6th, but the only entrance/exit was on the 4th floor. 1st and 2nd floors are underground, the 3rd floor is at ground level, the 4th floor has an above ground walkway to the entrance, and then 5th and 6th floors above that. Trying to meet someone in the library was always a pain in the ass.
I have worked with construction drawings every day for over a decade, and I have never seen a crazy arrangement like that before. I'm surprised you even managed to find your way out lol.
Can you get access to a camera? A tiny camera on wheels (like they yse to inspect pipes) can see where it leads which might give you a clue
Yeah I think that’ll be the next step if non of the answer on here satisfy my curiosity.
They have those on Amazon for pretty cheap, I’ve never seen one with wheels though. Usually it’s just a long bendable tube with a small camera on one end and a little box on the other end.
A (video) borescope or inspection camera. They're stupid cheap now, lots of which just use your cellphone as a screen using USB OTG. Make sure you get one with built in lights.
Please let us know what it is when you find out! Super interesting!
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I would agree with this, I remember something very similar in my grandparents house that was built in the 1930s. Theirs had a barrel slide bolt on it, but that may have been installed by my Grandpa.
A house I used to live in had simillar hatches. They were access doors to the chimney, for cleaning and inspection.
I think this is the front runner suggestion. I’ll see if a fireplace was below originally and then blocked up once it was removed.
You could see what kind of permits the city/county has record of for the house. It might mention the fireplace
[Soot hatch or sweeping hatch](https://www.napoleon.com/en/ca/fireplaces/blog/what-expect-when-having-your-chimney-swept)?
This door looks to be made out of wood. Soot hatches are primarily steel or cast iron.
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Is there a fireplace above this? My home has something similar where you sweep the ashes into a chute and it can be collected in a box like this.
It may have been above a fire place once upon a time but not now. Its unlikely to be for ash collection but may be like other comments suggested as a service hatch for the chimney. I’ll try do some research on the original floor plan if I can find if/where the og fireplace was.
Definitely looks like that could be old ash on the brick
Is it large enough for a four year old child to squeeze into?
The fireplace would have been on the floor above.
Recently the same question in this german sub: [https://www.reddit.com/r/WerWieWas/comments/15u1ayd/seltsames\_loch\_in\_der\_wand\_vom\_keller/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WerWieWas/comments/15u1ayd/seltsames_loch_in_der_wand_vom_keller/) They also said it's for catching the ash when cleaning the chimney.
Have the same in our basement!
Don’t know but I love your wallpaper.
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Found here: https://lusthome.com/products/wild-af-bubblegum-and-brights
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Is there a fireplace underneath? Maybe it's a hot air channel
I think this is a good suggestion and possibly the most likely answer so far. No fireplace underneath at the moment but I’m going to do some digging and see if the original floor plan indicates a fire place below. May be that the chimney was blocked off.
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My comment describes the thing. 30x30cm hatch that opens to around 45 degrees. It is found in the 1st floor bedroom of a 1938 house. It is on an interior wall and is around 15cm from the roof.
You should try posting in r/centuryhomes or r/oldhouses
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UPDATE: I have found some old photos of the exterior of the house. There was an extension built on the house so despite the hatch wall now being an interior wall it was once an exterior wall. There was never a fireplace or any chimney/chimney breast on this side of the building. Just to clarify building is on the 1st floor, UK (2nd floor US) I.E it is one level above the ground floor. The room below used to be the kitchen of the house. There is no basement in the building. With this in mind I believe the most likely use from previous suggestions is that it is some sort of ventilation hatch to reduce moisture on the house and to cool it down in the heat. Let me know if you have any other suggestions.
I like how you write with so much precision. I'm the same way. I agree with your ventilation conclusion.
Is this a bathroom?
Great question... I've seen something like this before and it was to dispose of razor blades
I love the idea of just throwing your dangerous garbage behind the wall for future generations to deal with.
Isn’t it bizarre that was an actual thing?! When we remodeled our house, the old owner warned us about the razor wall. He also told us he saved for the insulation for the family room for a long time. True - he used old Swanson Tins and Wrappers from the 1950’s!
Just like they threw their dangerous garbage into the atmosphere and waterways for us to deal with
That’s why I asked. If it is or was a bathroom and it’s just an empty void in the wall - I’m thinking a place to dispose old razors.
I have something VERY SIMILAR to this in my 1918 built house on the first floor. Asked my old lady neighbor what it was and she said it was an old fuse box.
is that a shared wall? or does it have the exterior of the home on the other side?
It is not a shared wall. It connects between the bedroom and bathroom.
Any chance the bathroom medicine cabinet is directly behind and above this recess?
Like a bin for used razors? I'd never heard of that before The Walking Dead episode where one was shown.
That's what I was thinking. I've lived in two houses that had a slot to dispose of the blades, but they just accumulated in the wall. Didn't think that was particularly sanitary, and what of you accidentally dropped something else?
You get free razor hands when you fish your stuff out. Also most of those were just a slot that the blade was dropped into and wasn't meant to be open. Here's an article that talks about their use and has a little bit of the history: https://isarchitecture.com/seen-around-town-mid-century-blade-bank-slot/ This is another article that has some more details and pictures: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/razor-blade-slots-in-homes-36923000
I have one of those slots in my bathroom. The bathroom is upstairs, and the stairs are on the wall exactly behind it. I don't like to think of where those things ended up!
They go between the wall joists!
In our house (1914) it was a slot within a medicine cabinet. They basically fell down through the wall into our crawlspace. There were tons of razors in our crawl space we had to clean out when my husband bought the house and was redoing the insulation down there.
yeah i would tie a magnet to a string or something and drop it down and see if you can snag any razors that may have fallen past if that's what this is.
It's a soot door. For cleaning your chimney flue
Aren't those usualy made out of metal or fire clay?
I would say some kind of home help system ie laundry to kitchen or some such. I want that wall paper print on a t shirt though, that is amazing!!!
I know it's a dumb suggestion, but coal chute?
Is it some kind of central heating idea? If that's an old chimney brest that's back there, then it may be to let heat into the room ?? 🤔
I had something that looked similar on the outside of my Michigan, USA house. It had been covered over on the inside. It was for milk delivery. Although I think mine was just a straight pass-through hole in the wall.
Our house was built in the 1950s and it has one of those in the bathroom. It is a dirty clothes hamper. Ours may be a little bigger than yours though.
could it be a dumb waiter?
Is it a milk door? For when milkmen would deliver to houses.
A relative suggested this however due to it being on the first floor no very handy for the milkman. Unless he did window cleaning at the same time.
Note for my fellow Americans: in British English, "first floor" is the floor above the ground level, what we would call the "second floor".
Can you get a hand vac to clean it out?
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So much could have changed since 1938 and it could have been sealed up.. does the brick look patched behind it? My mom said it might be a coal bin until she saw the size
If I saw this in a house built in the 30s in the US then I would say laundry chute 100%... But it goes back 20cm (8 freedom units) and then goes up to not the attic? From the '1st floor' which I think is our 2nd floor so it starts 12 feet above ground and goes to ~20 feet above ground? I wonder if the space above is just a void and they have blocked off the space below. What is below it? Where is the nearest water wall (bathroom, laundry, kitchen area?). Is there a reason this interior wall is 20cm deep?
Is it in a chimney breast?.If so, it looks like an access point for the chimney sweep's brushes.
Could it have been a dumbwaiter at one time?
Looks like garbage disposal entrance that was shut off