Saving on heating bills

To me, a bungalow is a small building placed in the backyard of an established house in order to house an elderly family member (or occasionally a ratty teenager). Also colloquially known as a "granny flat".

 

Yes tell me about it (and I have commented on this before). When we visited my Oz sister (also Victoria resident) for the first time in 2001 and she lived in the 'outback' (country side) and had a fair bit of ground and fields (paddocks) she used to tell me that 'Bungalow' -as she remembered them from the UK - DID NOT APPLY IN AUSTRALIA. So in brotherly sister argumentative fashion I then asked what she called the scores of Bungalows in the general area and in the local town (a main street with shops, pubs and a bank) all single storey dwellings, and not forgetting her own. She replied quite emphatically they were ALL HOUSES.

But, in direct contradiction to the fact the term was not used in Australia, she told me that they did in fact call the large Shed in their grounds a Bungalow, but that was simply their own term because it also doubled as a 'Put-you-up' for guests who could not be accommodated in the House. She reminded that when a cousin of ours visited with his girl friend the previous year (they were "back- packing" having both finished 'Uni' to use the Oz -and sadly now our own- vernacular and had arranged to call on his Aunt), they were accommodated in the "Bungalow" to give them privacy. She explained a Wash Basin and Water Closet had been installed and of course a bed. This meant they could carry out ablutions before breakfasting in the House. (I made a note to ask said cousin what he thought of the Bungalow).

So yes if you want to confuse, and be careful you may also annoy, an Australian, tell them they have a nice Bungalow. It seems every dwelling is a HOUSE. Period.

Even though I have known this for ages it still seems strange to me that with so much of its population descended from UK immigration - from Convict days, before and after - the term 'Bungalow' never caught on.

 

I think that is what NZers call a "sleep out". Often used to live in while building the main house and eventually turned into a garage.

 

It does not state that explicitly. I only drew that conclusion because the Japanese models installed in NZ are offered at much lower prices, including installation. Of course, costs may increase if the materials used in constructing the house make installation harder. Most homes in UK are constructed of brick/block whereas those in NZ are mainly wooden frames clad in wood or brick. The wooden construction survives quakes better.

 

I think that some people believe that it is only a true bungalow if it has a verandah. Otherwise it is a single storey house.

 

In the UK a Bungalow needs no qualification, it is just a single storey dwelling. No need to qualify whether it has a verandah, a few do, most don't. Our previous dwelling was in fact a Bungalow, our current one a 2-storey detached House.

Apropos of nothing we live in a very long road on a bus route which has a mixture of shops and private dwellings. Leaving out the shops my best estimate of the different dwelling types just down one side - and types are very intermixed - is of the order 6 -1-3 : Being (2 storey houses/3 storey houses/and Bungalows. Most of these were built 20 or more years ago. Side roads leading off (of which there are many) mostly contain older dwellings, and by far the largest proportion of these are Bungalows. As a seaside resort, not surprisingly most new builds are two storey flats or maisonettes, although there are quite a few 'plush' Bungalow conversions taking place with Dormer roofs and such.

(Note no need to qualify a Bungalow as anything more than a one storey dwelling)

 

In Canada, we call a single-story house a bungalow. We also have bi-levels, where when entered, you go downstairs to another floor or up a few steps to the main floor. Then we have duplexes, two houses side-by-side, generally with the main floor and then one up a flight of stairs to another one. Also three-level and four-level splits; we lived in a four-level before downsizing to the mobile in which we now live. In that case, we entered the main floor where the kitchen and living room were, went up seven steps to three bedrooms a bath-and- a- half, or down seven to a family room, bedroom and another bath, and then down another seven to what we called the basement, where the furnace and laundry were.

 

A "sleep out" to an Aussie is a covered-in verandah. As more children arrived, an Aussie Dad would cover in another section of said verandah to provide sleeping accomodation for the growing family.
And Bob, the term "water closet" is almost unknown out here though you may see W.C. occasionally in real estate advertisements.

 

Yes not quite sure why I used the term (my age probably and that my paternal Grandma used to constantly say to me as a child, the Water Closet is in the yard and remember to shut the door). I think my other Grandma used to say 'Lavatory' (Which I understand is what the Queen prefers although goodness knows where I picked up that gem of information). I can't remember when Toilet became vogue nor when Loo overtook that, but Toilet seems to reign in this household.

I am not now sure what term my sister used when first telling of her 'Bungalow' conversion but I think she may have said we had a Sink & Toilet installed. I chose Wash Hand Basin instead of sink which is a bit up-market, and then sort of went down-market with Water Closet. I seem to remember Oz males (mostly but not exclusively) sometime substitute 'Privy' and I do know the term dates back into antiquity in England. But a rose by any other name is still a rose!

 

Or as Ronnie Barker said, "the doughnut in granny's greenhouse".

 

To confuse matters, I have just read the following sentence in Burnt Sugar, a novel by Avni Doshi set in contemporary India: "The lane is full of tatty double-storey bungalows and flowering gulmohar trees."

 

I don't know why that pleases me, but it does. So why did Australia decide they would not use the term when many of its early settlers - like Canada - were of British origin, part of the British Commonwealth and fully used to the definition of a single storey dwelling as 'Bungalow' (yes the word is of Indian origin but everything has to have roots somewhere). I am intrigued to know why Australia chose to avoid the word, well at least in the general sense, even if they seem to have saved the word for a separate outhouse or shed. Perhaps someone can throw light on the subject..

 

Yes that's all we need..."double-storey bungalows". However perhaps in contemporary India we have the reverse of the Australian decision to call all dwellings Houses. Perhaps in India all dwelling are Bungalows. I think I may have to lie down

 

Agreed, but don't forget migration to Australia as 'free settlers' even late 19th Century and lasting well into the 20th Century culminating in the "ten-pound pom' era, was more than enough time for many British words to take hold in Australia.

The British were also active in India from the 1860's onward and think how many words we use today that had origins in India...Bungalow, Chutney, Curry (of course) Dungarees, Gymkhana, Guru, Jungle, Karma, Khaki, Veranda... (and a quick Google records at least 120 words of Indian origin that are part of our modern day lexicon).

So I say again, how come Bungalow missed out in Australia? I know my parents certainly (early 20thy Century born) and grandparents (late 19th Century born) were aware of the word, even if they couldn't afford to buy one, and I doubt many came up for rent.

Interestingly, as I have lived in Kent for many years and know a little of its history, I was aware that Kent boasted the first development of houses sold as Bungalows which took place in Westgate on sea in 1869/70 and a year or so later in nearby Birchington on sea. Between the two wars they were built in other coastal resorts around the country and later in the suburbs of towns and cities.

I found this article on the development of the Bungalow which might be of interest. (just ignore any sales pitches)