The New Murrey and Blue blog

Box/cupboard/alcove beds have been mentioned in other articles on this blog, the subject of early sleeping arrangements always being fascinating.

I first saw some of these enclosed, built-in beds when I was a child in 1953 and was lucky enough to be taken to the Folk Museum at Cloppenburg in Lower Saxony in the then Western Germany. At that age I thought they looked terrifying. There was no escape if a monster came along and attacked me! 😱

Now I’ve come upon another article (see here https://www.exploringgb.co.uk/blog/medieval-box-beds) which tells much more about what they were actually like and how one had to sleep in an almost sitting position….(a) because the beds weren’t all that long and (b) only the dead slept flat!

Box beds were clearly an excellent idea if you were young and fit, and some say they should make a comeback, but they could be hazardous too, as you will also read in the link that prompted me to write this article.

So….would you like to have one….? These days my cranky old knees would put paid to any notion of clambering in and out of such a place, especially the floor level bed in the top photograph. I tell you, folks, a crane and a prayer would be needed to haul me out of there. 😄

All the above illustrations are from https://www.exploringgb.co.uk/blog/medieval-box-beds, except the picture of Cloppenburg, which can be found (together with other links to the folk museum) at https://murreyandblue.org/2022/09/12/where-did-weary-medieval-travellers-sleep/.

Obviously not all the illustrations are of what we would call medieval beds, but the idea had certainly been around for a long time. I don’t know exactly when some bright spark first came up with the idea.