Obviously date from an extinct era where there was no shortage of people to fetch, carry and sweep

As family homes today, these [London terraced] houses do not fulfil modern concepts of good design: four sets of stairs to service no more than eight or so rooms obviously date from an extinct era where there was no shortage of people to fetch, carry and sweep. But the design is otherwise less inconvenient than outsiders suppose. The numerous separate strata, initially reflecting the socially stratified nature of nineteenth-century life, adapt well to the disparate needs of the modern family, who do not necessarily wish to gather in one large circle round the parlour lamp of an evening, or even round the television set modern lighting and heading systems make such unity unnecessary

G. Tindall, The fields beneath (1977; 2010 edition), 121