My grandad didn't get a fridge till the late 1970s.  He had a pantry with a cold shelf and a meat safe.  Milk was fresh daily. In the hot summer of 1976 his neighbour let him use her fridge to keep things fresh. After that he invested in a fridge.  I still remember the fuss we all made admiring it.  He was so thrilled. Miss you Grandad!❤ ❤❤

One thing I remember about the influx of electric kitchen appliances was the old kitchens didn't have enough electrical outlets.

not exactly your average 1950s house .The people living there would have been quite well off

In the mid 70's when I was about 5, our family of 4 first lived in a small two room 2nd floor flat in a repurposed Edwardian house. We had a bathroom with s bathtub that opened off the kitchen but we shared the loo on the landing with the couple renting the 1st floor. I distinctly remember a day when my mum put out some minced meat on the fire escape to keep it cool as we didn't have a fridge in that house, and the neighbor's cats came by and ate it all up! In 77 my parents were able to buy their own house where we had the luxury of a fridge and freezer plus a nice washing machine that my Grandmother bought us as a gift.

31:05 There is actually an American commercial where basically it taught women how to convince their husbands to buy them improvements in the house. it was more along the lines of doing it to keep up with the Joneses rather than helping the woman out. Although, there was one where the wife had to travel to help take care of a family member for a couple days and the husband left with all the housework realizes his wife needs help in the home.

We provided the Servis Supertwin Twintub washing machine , it's still working like new today 65+ years later !!

All I remember from the 1950's was the constant freezing cold from only having one coal fire for the whole house, the condensation running down the steel-framed windows, the shared bath water because hot water cost too much and endless cheap cuts of meat made to stretch to the whole family. The huge improvement in our lives didn't happen until the 1960's. Still freezing cold, though, even then, but we had a fridge and a washing machine by 1965!

How amazing - after all these decades, we still use the same brand names in the kitchen.  Kenwood, Russell Hobbs, Morphy Richards, Tefal.... A lot of brand loyalty especially for Kenwood. The famous American stand mixer might be prettier, but the Kenwood Chef is still king.

I remember my mum getting her first washing machine in 1967, a twin tub second hand they scrimped and saved as well as borrowed some money but there was too much washing with 2 children (1 a baby) and two foster children. Social services were critical if the foster children had dirty clothes. First fridge was secondhand in 1971 but was badly damaged in 74.
Our kitchen was the same from when the house was built in 1934, it finally changed to a fitted one in 1974. We got a new fridge as well. The mangle is still in the rear garden.

What's really funny is that in 2004- when I was 25 years old- I moved to a remote area in Gansu, China for English teaching. My provided apartment actually came with a twin tub washing machine, so back to the 50's I went lol! I didn't even have hot water, except for a hot water heater in the "bathroom" (that's another story, but I showered over the toilet!!) so in the cold dead winters I would fill heavy buckets full of hot water for the twin tub so my hands didn't seize up in the cold moving clothes from one side to another!! I did this for a whole year. Really made me appreciate everything that we have today!

A lot of people in South Wales didn't even have 75% of the appliances even in the mid 80s!

Kitchens weren't a thing in most miners houses and they were built as extension's in the late 70s early 80s!

"Making bread, which I imagine was a daily occurrence".  Erm, they had bakeries in ancient Egypt.

£95 for that twin tub in 1955 is the equivalent of £2,100 in 2025.

My Auntie had a walk in pantry, with a cold slab..... there was a vent next to it, which let cold air in, to keep items cold...... and the 3 walls had shelves right up to the ceiling...... i'd kill for a pantry like that, today!..

All I remember is the suffering we endured. We were poor, living in a poor home with nine children. Mother worked relentlessly, and most of our meals were cooked on a coal range. If dinner wasn’t ready when Father came home from work, Mother was beaten. We children were given chores, and if they weren’t completed, we were beaten by Mother. Life was hard, and we didn’t know any different.
This programme felt designed for the well-off, not for families like ours. We didn’t have a washing machine until the 1970s, when I started my own family. The borax soap used in the 1950s caused severe hives on my skin, but if I complained, I was beaten, so I learned to endure it in silence.

And then teflon started making everyone sick

I found it so frustrating that in the egg whipping she was clearly showing him the way to whip the eggs and then he immediately uses the wrong grip and wrong technique with no vigorous force  and then says "as an engineer" when looking at the mixer

My parents married in 1945, I was the youngest of 4 born in the mid 50s and lived in a Victorian 3 bed/bathroom/3 downstairs rooms plus back kitchen, the fridge was a gas fridge, washing machine with manual mangle and a vacuum cleaner, and a television bought in 1953
the breakfast room [we called it the kitchen] had a coal fire with a back boiler for hot water.
My mum had gas fridges until the late 70s as did my Nan
the house had 4 5amp sockets, 1 in each downstairs room and 1 on the landing, in the bedrooms light adaptors were used if needed

My mum didn't whisk egg whites for merangues , I was delageted that job.
when my mum worked we children prepared meals and went to shops ect and my dad who was home first would also prepare and cook meals
my mum bought a melamine kitchen table and sideboard [plus chairs]  in the mid 60s

Mom tells the story of the time she put Grandpa's fishing bag through the wringer without realizing there was still a fish left in it. And then, the first electric washer they got used to agitate so hard, two or three of the kids would pile onto it to keep it from walking across the kitchen floor.

Being a Canadian, I cannot attest to what a 1950s British kitchen was like, just ours. I was born in 1958 so whatever Mom had was gotten before I was born (#4 kiddo). Mom had a wringer washer, the mangler was attached to a round deep tub. We used to play hide & seek in it...I could fit neatly in it when I was 8. I'm not sure where or when it disappeared, but until then it was used to store rinse water from our automatic washer (bought in the early 60s) and reused for the next load (so is my recollection of how my mom hastily explained). We had a fridge that was always in the house and moved with us to BC from Ontario in 1968. I'm sure it was a 50s' model because it resembled the one in the video, only a bit taller. It worked until my father's death in 2016. By then it was in his workshop keeping his soft drinks cool. I ripped the butter door off for a keepsake because we were sure the new owners wouldn't keep the fridge (that butter door was taped shut as the springs were shot). Mom didn't have a stand mixer-we used a hand mixer.

In 1981 I received a Hoover Washer Spin Dryer (a twin tub like in the video) from a friend and I loved it! It meant that I didn't have to load up the baby & clothes and walk down to the laundromat! We bought an automatic washer in 82 after #2 baby was born.  My MIL gave me her Kenworth Chef set in about the 1990s-my Sunbeam Kitchen Centre had died a nasty death. It was very old when I received it & when I got it. I replaced it with a Kitchen Aide mixer and gave it to my DIL who used it for years. I still have a iron my parents received for a wedding gift in 1950 & it still works. Weighs a ton though. Good for crafting. Some appliances just keep on ticking!

Enjoyed this video, such a nice looking kitchen after its makeover!