The first census to report on how well people were housed was
that of 1891, but the only statistics gathered were on the
number of rooms and the number of people in each household. From
1951 onwards, more questions were asked about 'amenities',
meaning specific facilities that households either possessed or
had shared access to. One interesting measure of progress is the
change in the amenities covered by the census. In 1951, these
were piped water, a cooking stove, a kitchen sink, a 'water
closet' meaning a flush toilet, and a 'fixed bath', as distinct
from a tin bath hung on the wall between uses. In 2001, the list
of key amenities was shorter: central heating, and 'sole use of
bath/shower and toilet'. Differences in what information was
recorded by each census complicate comparisons over time, and
none of our three measures are entirely consistent. Our detailed
statistics are held in structures called nCubes, which you can
think of as tables with one dimension, or with two ... or with
twenty. Their dimensi