Drawing room

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A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and a historical term for what would now usually be called a living room. The name is derived from the 16th century terms withdrawing room and withdrawing chamber, which remained in use through the 17th century, and made their first written appearance in 1642.[1] In a large 16th to early 18th century English house, a withdrawing room was a room to which the owner of the house, his wife, or a distinguished guest who was occupying one of the main apartments in the house could "withdraw" for more privacy. It was often off the great chamber (or the great chamber's descendant, the state room or salon) and usually led to a formal, or "state" bedroom.[2]

History and development[edit]







An Indian drawing room


The term drawing room is not used as widely as it once was, and tends to be used in Britain only by those who also have other reception rooms, such as a morning room, a 19th-century designation for a sitting-room, often with east-facing exposure, suited for daytime calls, or the middle-class lounge, a late 19th century designation for a room in which to relax. Hence the drawing room is the smartest room in the house, usually used by the adults of the family when entertaining. This term is widely used in India and Pakistan, probably dating from the colonial days, in the larger urban houses of the cities where there are many rooms.


Railway usage[edit]

The term drawing room was historically also applied to certain passenger train accommodations, designating some of the most spacious and expensive private accommodations available on board a sleeping car or private railroad car. An example, named as such, was a Midland "Drawing Room Car" in 1874 which was a Pullman Import from the USA.[4]

In North America, it meant a room which slept three or more persons, with a private washroom.[5] Although Amtrak has retired its sleeping cars that were built with drawing rooms, they are still used by Via Rail Canada. The traditional nomenclature is seen as archaic, hence they are marketed as "triple bedrooms".

Drawing room plays[edit]


Drawing room comedy typically features wit and verbal banter among wealthy, leisured, genteel, upper class characters. Drawing room comedy is also sometimes called the "comedy of manners". Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and several of the plays of Noël Coward are typical works of the genre. George Bernard Shaw's Heartbreak House adds an undercurrent of social criticism to the genre. Cary Grant appeared in a number of filmed drawing-room comedies. Ernst Lubitsch was especially known as a director of drawing-room comedies.


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