Szablyár Péter: Step by step - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Vertical immobility - the maid's backstairs

The masters tried to isolate the maids from their own residential quarters. At the beginning, servants had their pallets set up in the kitchen, which they could enter via a separate door. Later on, a separate room was built for them, where equipment to satisfy the minimum requirements of personal hygiene were provided. Apartment houses were built with maids' backstairs in addition to the impressive central staircase; servants were only allowed to use the former. Narrow and difficult to climb, these auxiliary stairs were usually located at a distance from the main staircase. Warning signs reminded servants of their obligation to restrict their movements to the backstairs. With few households owning a vacuum cleaner at the time, servants would use these stairs to carry the carpets down to the carpet-beating frame in the courtyard. It was by way of the backstairs that they lugged the fuel up to the stoves from the cellar and also took the washing up to the loft to dry.

The following could be read about maids' backstairs in the satiric weekly Borsszem Jankó (johnny Pepper): "HOUSE POLICIES in force in the Palace of the Academy and tenement blocks:... 6 3. Separate backstairs are set aside for servants, and it is

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