Odd house lighting

[Bri's Y]

My friend has just bought an old house (about 100 years old) In every room (and it must have originally been fitted with gas mantels) the ceiling light/rose is only about two feet away from the window, regardless as to how far back the room goes. Is there a reason why they did that, a Victoian thing perhaps?

Bri's Y.

[DotH]

they will have put electricity in there probably in the 1920s and been on the cusp of it being cheap and workmen being skilled to install it, probably, the wiring will probably need redoing and the lights positioning where u want them, personally i would go for wall lighting in perios style fittings and keep the ceiling with a moulded centrepiece, though if the room is big, a stunning chandalier would not go amiss

[Alibobs]

We had this in the bedrooms in our thirties built house - various electricians have said this is typical of the period and it's because dressing tables would have been situated near to the window and therefore under the lights when its dark. Not sure how this would apply to downstairs rooms though

[Noseyparker]

The gas mantels would have been positioned where the furniture would be to stop people walking into them - they used to hang low, I remember my grandpaents had a dining table under theirs.

[Ethel]

It stops your shadow being cast through the curtain.

It stopped 'peeping toms'.

[curiosity]

Yeah, I have been told what Ethel says, it was like this in my 1930's house, not in my now over 100 year old one, but then there are gas mantel positions obviously plastered, so the electrics probably went in long after.

[badlad.biz]

I thought most ceiling lights were near the window, even nowadays. If you're getting ready for bed and between the light and the window, people outside will catch a silloett of you undressing. Definatly a no no in times gone by. More upmarket houses have more than one light or even wall lighting which dosn't cause a problem.

[Octavius]

Alibobs is spot on.

Lighting and room layouts in the post-depression (1915-1930 etc) age were focussed on a single source of light, natural during the day and artificial at night.

Rooms and furniture were arranged to make maximum use of the natural daylight from windows and then the artificial light when there was no light coming through the window. Remember that lights were not so good then as they are now and would have been very directional - some areas of the room away from the window would have been very dim and therefore unused.

Perhaps the downstairs room was used as a drawing room or study and would have originally had a writing desk by the window.

[reinganum]

I concur with previous answers (especially Alibobs and Ethel) for reasons for asymmetrical placing of lights in upstairs rooms (i.e. bedrooms). I have always lived in old (pre-WW2) houses (1906 and now 1891) and in every case the upstairs rooms were wired in this way.

However, in the downstairs rooms the light fittings were dead central. Also, in my wife's childhood home (built 1925), some of the bedrooms were quite large and had windows on two sides. In those rooms, the light fittings were also central.