Toast rack

A toast rack or toastrack is a serving piece having vertical partitions (usually from five to eight in number) connected to a flat base, used for holding slices of toast. It often has a central ring handle for carrying and passing round the table.

The term toast rack is also used in other fields, notably railways and architectural design, usually as a derivative term for objects resembling a toast rack (see below).

The earliest known examples of toast racks date from the 1770s. They have been made in large quantities since then and are still being made today.

By maintaining air gaps between the slices, the toast rack allows water vapor to escape from hot toast instead of condensing into adjacent slices and making them soggy. However, this increased air flow can also mean that the toast becomes cold more quickly.

The toast rack's design and shape follows prevailing fashion. The dividers were often made from silver wires and these in turn were soldered to either a wire-work or solid base that sat on four feet. Sometimes the base is separate and was used to dispose of any crumbs that fell. Some ingenious designs were made including expanding or folding types (so as to take up less space). Others had incorporated egg-cups or receptacles for jam or marmalade.

A designer renowned for his innovative take on the toast rack was Christopher Dresser (1834–1904), who studied at the Glasgow Government School of Design from the age of 13 and is widely thought of as the 'father of modern design'.

Modern designs are often made from stamped and folded stainless steel sheet or from welded stainless wire.

Manchester Metropolitan University's Fallowfield Campus main building, the Hollings Building designed by architect L. C. Howitt, is often referred to as "The Toast Rack", due to its unusual architectural design. The appearance is compounded by the fact that the building was constructed to house a department of domestic science. A neighbouring building, by the same architect, is said to resemble a fried egg. The building was Grade II listed in 1998 and was described by the prolific architectural critic, Nikolaus Pevsner as "a perfect piece of pop architecture".

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