Why traditionally, are kitchen sinks fitted under a window?

A few reasons to consider: A sink under the window receives good natural light You can't have wall units where you have a window and units above a sink are an annoyance so the space is perfect without sacrificing any storage. It's nice to watch what's going on outside By having the sink on an outside wall it would have made plumbing for waste easier

There are no real guidelines for whether the sink should be fitted under a window or not, but there is one practical argument for it. Fitting a sink under a window means you can look out of the window when you do the dishes! And it will let natural light on your work, so that they get nice and clean too. Kind regards, Alexander

i would say its mainly a british thing to have sinks under windows, abroad nornally it not the case, when i design a kitchen and it suit having it not under the window has its benifits as normally when you are at the sink, you are looking in the sink rather that sight seeing, where as to have clearwork top in front of the window give a very bright working area or b/bar area and also as quite often your eye is draw to the window to look out over the garden you are not also looking possibily at a sink full of pots, generally it is your own preference to the location , no agrument is right or wrong

because you need a window sill to dump all them sponges ect on. lol

its nice to look out of the window when washing up ,and another factor might be that most of the waste plumbing usuelly goes through an external wall,so the sink is ideally placed over a window

one of the main resons is the british put them under the windows is that, it is a outside wall and drains are usally at the foot of that wall.

Just backing up most of the answers in that it is generally seen as the most "enjoyable"area is to wash up.But also where the shortest run of waste pipe would be to enable a good flow of waste water.

As already said really. Generally you would only fit a sink where there are no wall units or anything encroaching the sink/drainer area directly above it so a window wall is usually the most obvious. The only place they are usually fitted when not in front of a window is in an island unit when space and practicality permits.