How the Corridor Changed the Way We Live Together

The surprising social consequences of hallways

Photo by runnyrem on Unsplash

If you were a wealthy British person during the Victorian Era and you wanted to build yourself a home, Robert Kerr had the perfect formula. In his book The Gentleman’s House, he argued that the mark of an impressive home was not its size or its cost but its design:

Let it be again remarked that the character of a gentleman-like Residence is not matter of magnitude or of costliness, but of design, — and chiefly of plan ; and that, as a very modest establishment may possess this character without a fault, all unadorned ; so also the stately Seat of a millionaire may perchance have so little of it that the most lavish expenditure shall but magnify its defects.

The qualities which an English gentleman of the present day values in his house are comprehensively these :

Quiet comfort for his family and guests,

Thorough convenience for his domestics,

Elegance and importance without ostentation.

To this end, he offered some “fixed and final rules, of which no compromise ought to be offered.” The first of these — before comfort, convenience, spaciousness, or importance — was privacy. The most important type of privacy was the kind that kept…