Ostens Servway: The Modern Service Hatch

The image shows the Ostens Servway modern service hatch from the Ostens Ltd catalogue between 1930 and 1940. Before the First World War, middle-class British people employed servants to take care of the housework. By the 1930s, most middle-class people could no longer afford domestic help. Instead, housewives were expected to prepare meals and still be an excellent hostess. Innovations such as the Ostens Servway hatch allowed housewives to separate functional kitchen space from the social dining room, and became the new mark of the middle-classes.