Garret
{{Short description|Small attic used as apartment}}
{{About|a habitable attic|people named Garret|Garret (given name)}}
{{Distinguish|Garratt locomotive}}
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) - The Garreteer's Petition - N00482 - National Gallery.jpg by Turner, 1809]]
File:Carl Spitzweg - Der arme Poet (Neue Pinakothek).jpg, The Poor Poet ({{lang|de|Der arme Poet}}), 1839, depicting a garret room]]
A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally small with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a building, at the very top of the stairs.
Etymology
The word entered Middle English through Old French with a military connotation of watchtower, garrison or billet{{snd}} a place for guards or soldiers to be quartered in a house. Like garrison, it comes from an Old French word {{lang|fr|garir}} of ultimately Germanic origin meaning "to provide" or "defend".{{citation |title=Oxford Dictionary of English |edition=2nd, revised |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2009}}.
History
In the later 19th century, garrets became one of the defining features of Second Empire architecture in Paris, France, where large buildings were stratified socially between different floors. As the number of stairs to climb increased, the social status decreased. Garrets were often internal elements of the mansard roof, with skylights or dormer windows.{{Cite web|title=Mansard roof {{!}} architecture|url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/mansard-roof|access-date=2021-03-09|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}
A "bow garret" is a two-story "outhouse" situated at the back of a typical terraced house often used in Lancashire for the hat industry in pre-mechanised days. "Bowing" was the name given to the technique of cleaning up animal (e.g. rabbit) fur in the early stages of preparation for turning it into hats. What is now believed to be the last bow garret in existence (in Denton, Greater Manchester) is now a listed building in order to preserve this historical relic.[http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/two-storey-planking-shop-bow-garret-6857125 Denton bow garret becomes listed building] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328010817/http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/two-storey-planking-shop-bow-garret-6857125 |date=2014-03-28 }}, Manchester Evening News.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Wiktionary}}
- [http://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4420 Old Maid in the Garret] (song)
{{Room}}