Photograph of a bathroom in Hampstead, 1974

This is a photograph of a bathroom in Hampstead taken in 1974. By the early 1970s, eighty-eight percent of British homes had their own indoor bathroom. Bathrooms were no longer seen as purely functional. Instead, they were becoming places of private luxury and contemplation. This photograph shows a middle-class bathroom. The modern bathroom suite has a bidet, which was an innovation at this time. The patterned tiles used here create an ‘ethnic’ look that was popular in the 1970s.