Dining rooms first came into their own during the Georgian period. Typically, they were a place not just for eating, but for socialising and entertaining. After dinner, the ladies of the house would retire to the drawing room while the gentlemen stayed behind to drink port and discuss politics and issues of the day.

The dining room flourished throughout the Victorian era and for most of the 20th century, but in recent years it has become somewhere only used on special occasions in many cases. That's if it exists at all: with space at a premium, many homeowners have converted what would once have been the dining room into a study or spare bedroom.

Of course, these days almost everyone eats, socialises and entertains in the kitchen. So is it curtains for the dining room altogether? In my opinion, it isn't. There is still strong demand from buyers who see a dining room as a benefit. So even if much of the time the table is covered with office paperwork or the room itself is used as an all-purpose space, I always advise sellers to present their dining room as it was intended.

A dining room doesn’t have to be formal or grand, nor should it be reverently reserved for high days and holidays. It can be relaxed and intimate, added to which it offers something the kitchen doesn't: an environment where diners can focus on one another, away from the distractions of the washing up. I like the idea of steering guests away from the kitchen. After all, not every cook wants to be scrutinised when they’re trying to thicken the gravy.

Here is a selection of dining rooms that should always be dining rooms.