Terrace housing

[E27007]

Not a terrace , but similar, The impressive Pullens Estate in SE London, one of the last remaining Victorian tenements dating from 1886 by James Pullen, the Pullen Estate has seen use as a setting for historical films
The Pullens Estate SE London Elephant & Castle

Most of Saltaire, for a start. The National Trust also have a set of back to backs in Birmingham.

There is still back-to-back terraced housing in occupation by people in West Yorkshire, Hebden Bridge and Sowerby Bridge.

Back-to-back terraced houses, Hebden Bridge

 

[Kaliwax]

Wow - that does look remarkably lengthy in that picture!

Got knocked down 3 years after that picture taken, once the mine shutdown, people had to move to look for other work and I don't think these houses had inside bathrooms either, which might have had them brought down, and issues with the drains. Been replaced with new housing now.

 

[WesternLancer]

There is still back-to-back terraced housing in occupation by people in West Yorkshire, Hebden Bridge and Sowerby Bridge.

Back-to-back terraced houses, Hebden Bridge

Are those genuine back to back houses?

I only ask as there is often confusion since genuine back to backs are very rare to have survived as I understand it - by 'genuine I mean where the two houses share a party wall at the rear - ie no back door, and no windows at the back of the house. So a terrace of back to backs have only one exterior wall, the front wall, as the other three walls (apart from the houses at the ends of the rows of course) are all party wall. Most demolished because the lack of windows and doors on the back elevation considered insanitary in terms of space and fresh air requirements for occupiers.

Not possible to see from that picture if that is the case design wise in the Hebden Bridge example, but if course it may well be.

I have often heard people describe adjacent rows of terraces as 'back to back houses' but I believe that is not the same thing and is an incorrect description.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Are those genuine back to back houses?

I only ask as there is often confusion since genuine back to backs are very rare to have survived as I understand it - by 'genuine I mean where the two houses share a party wall at the rear - ie no back door, and no windows at the back of the house. So a terrace of back to backs have only one exterior wall, the front wall, as the other three walls (apart from the houses at the ends of the rows of course) are all party wall. Most demolished because the lack of windows and doors on the back elevation considered insanitary in terms of space and fresh air requirements for occupiers.

Not possible to see from that picture if that is the case design wise in the Hebden Bridge example, but if course it may well be.

I have often heard people describe adjacent rows of terraces as 'back to back houses' but I believe that is not the same thing and is an incorrect description.

They probably were geniune back to back, but whether they still are is unlikely.
In the mid 1970's after finishing University I moved to Cornholme (nr Todmorden) and purchased a back to back end terraced house for £100. My brother had purchased a similar property around the front for £75
a couple of years earlier. The reason they were so cheap was because they were due to be demolished within two years, however they are still there and have been 'knocked through' to create a decent sized property - currently I think it is a holiday home.
My house had three floors - a room on each - and an outside loo. My brother's house had a cellar in which he installed a toilet and shower - when he moved away I bought his house and the couple who owned the house mine backed on to purchased mine.
I thoroughly enjoyed living there, many houses in Cornholme at the time were back to back, it was the poor relation to Todmorden which itself was definitely not as 'upmarket' as Hebden Bridge (even in the 1970's)

Incidentally, after four years I moved to Cambridge, living in an NHS rented house (luxury!), explaining to a female colleague that I used to live in a back to back, she said 'What do you mean? Back to back gardens?' - she
had no idea of the concept. Still makes me smile!

 

[D1537]

Are those genuine back to back houses?

I only ask as there is often confusion since genuine back to backs are very rare to have survived as I understand it - by 'genuine I mean where the two houses share a party wall at the rear - ie no back door, and no windows at the back of the house. So a terrace of back to backs have only one exterior wall, the front wall, as the other three walls (apart from the houses at the ends of the rows of course) are all party wall. Most demolished because the lack of windows and doors on the back elevation considered insanitary in terms of space and fresh air requirements for occupiers.

Not possible to see from that picture if that is the case design wise in the Hebden Bridge example, but if course it may well be.

I have often heard people describe adjacent rows of terraces as 'back to back houses' but I believe that is not the same thing and is an incorrect description.

There are still a significant amount in Leeds. The ones I am familiar with - having walked past them many times on the way to football - are near Leeds United's ground in Holbeck.

Holbeck back-to-backs on Google Street View

 

[Kaliwax]

I live in terraced housing now, our house never had a toilet originally, at some point, probably in the 1960s when they got sold off for the first time, a bathroom was put in, they took space of one of the bedrooms, and their old outhouses are still there, which we use as storage for things.

Our houses was built in the late early 1900s for the miners and was rented to the miners up until the person who owned the houses and land where the houses was built died in the early 1960s and each one got sold in auction individually

 

[WesternLancer]

They probably were geniune back to back, but whether they still are is unlikely.
In the mid 1970's after finishing University I moved to Cornholme (nr Todmorden) and purchased a back to back end terraced house for £100. My brother had purchased a similar property around the front for £75
a couple of years earlier. The reason they were so cheap was because they were due to be demolished within two years, however they are still there and have been 'knocked through' to create a decent sized property - currently I think it is a holiday home.
My house had three floors - a room on each - and an outside loo. My brother's house had a cellar in which he installed a toilet and shower - when he moved away I bought his house and the couple who owned the house mine backed on to purchased mine.
I thoroughly enjoyed living there, many houses in Cornholme at the time were back to back, it was the poor relation to Todmorden which itself was definitely not as 'upmarket' as Hebden Bridge (even in the 1970's)

Incidentally, after four years I moved to Cambridge, living in an NHS rented house (luxury!), explaining to a female colleague that I used to live in a back to back, she said 'What do you mean? Back to back gardens?' - she
had no idea of the concept. Still makes me smile!

V interesting post. Didn’t know that knocking them through had happened in some places. Fascinating.

A bit tough to have a garden backing on to another garden and not open country I guess

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

There are still a significant amount in Leeds.

Several streets of back-to-backs clearly visible from Harrogate line trains in the Burley Park area.

 

[MP33]

There were in the 1980s quarter houses built. This was a square building divided into four smaller squares. They had an open wall at the front or to the left or right. Downstairs there was the lounge and kitchen. Upstairs was the bedroom and bathroom. The bedroom had no door or internal wall.

 

[D1537]

Several streets of back-to-backs clearly visible from Harrogate line trains in the Burley Park area.

Correct, though some of those (indeed, the majority of those to the East side of the line) have been knocked through to make one house. Just down the road, most of the streets around the Brudenell Social Club are still original back-to-backs.

 

[MP33]

When the property market collapsed in the early 90s. The prices of the quarter houses, even in and around London, started to resemble that for properties in Northern towns

 

[Andrew S]

Are those genuine back to back houses?

I only ask as there is often confusion since genuine back to backs are very rare to have survived as I understand it - by 'genuine I mean where the two houses share a party wall at the rear - ie no back door, and no windows at the back of the house. So a terrace of back to backs have only one exterior wall, the front wall, as the other three walls (apart from the houses at the ends of the rows of course) are all party wall. Most demolished because the lack of windows and doors on the back elevation considered insanitary in terms of space and fresh air requirements for occupiers.

Not possible to see from that picture if that is the case design wise in the Hebden Bridge example, but if course it may well be.

I have often heard people describe adjacent rows of terraces as 'back to back houses' but I believe that is not the same thing and is an incorrect description.

There are still plenty of genuine back to back houses across Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, and the rest of the Calder Valley.

 

[WesternLancer]

There are still plenty of genuine back to back houses across Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, and the rest of the Calder Valley.

Thanks. Interesting to hear that.

 

[D6130]

There are still plenty of genuine back to back houses across Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, and the rest of the Calder Valley.

True....including a few streets in Hebden Bridge and Todmorden. Also in Hebden we have that Upper Calder Valley specialty....the 'upstairs downstairs' terraces. Because of the narrow, steep-sided valley there was not enough room to build sufficient housing for the influx of mill workers in the valley bottom....therefore from the mid-19th century onwards terraces of double-decker houses were built on the hillsides with the lower 'under dwellings' built back to earth with their entrances on one street and the upper 'over dwellings' having their entrances on the street above and on the other side of the building. Many of the over dwellings were originally split into two back-to-backs - with access to the front houses via a balcony stretching from one end of the terrace to the other - but most of these were eventually knocked-through to form a single upper house. When the time came for the mill owners to sell-off these houses there were some legal difficulties to be sorted out regarding responsibility for maintenance....so the 'flying freehold' was devised, whereby the owners of an under dwelling are responsible for the maintenance of both their ceiling and the floor of the over dwelling above.

 

[E27007]

Are those genuine back to back houses?

I only ask as there is often confusion since genuine back to backs are very rare to have survived as I understand it - by 'genuine I mean where the two houses share a party wall at the rear - ie no back door, and no windows at the back of the house. So a terrace of back to backs have only one exterior wall, the front wall, as the other three walls (apart from the houses at the ends of the rows of course) are all party wall. Most demolished because the lack of windows and doors on the back elevation considered insanitary in terms of space and fresh air requirements for occupiers.

Not possible to see from that picture if that is the case design wise in the Hebden Bridge example, but if course it may well be.

I have often heard people describe adjacent rows of terraces as 'back to back houses' but I believe that is not the same thing and is an incorrect description.

I am aware of the definition , and yes Hebden Bridge has several rows of back-to-backs, in some rows I have seen, the houses do not even have a defined pavement/road, you step from the door out onto the road. The Calder Valley towns such as Hebden has a number of unusual methods of housing, "Flying Freeholds" where houses are "stacked" in pairs, the lower house being the foundation for the upper house. Due to the steep valleys of the terrain, Calder Valley towns , has modest areas suitable for housing, housing tends to be small and cramped, living at the bottom of a valley with steep sides and limited hours of daylight and sunshine together with cramped living conditions may be a reason for the mental illness, claustrophobia, known in Hebden as "Valley-Fever"

 

[WelshBluebird]

Worth saying that lots of new houses are still terraces, especially in cities and more urban areas. Of course totally different to the old victorian ones - very well insulated and generally much better in terms of noise too.

 

[WesternLancer]

I am aware of the definition , and yes Hebden Bridge has several rows of back-to-backs, in some rows I have seen, the houses do not even have a defined pavement/road, you step from the door out onto the road. The Calder Valley towns such as Hebden has a number of unusual methods of housing, "Flying Freeholds" where houses are "stacked" in pairs, the lower house being the foundation for the upper house. Due to the steep valleys of the terrain, Calder Valley towns , has modest areas suitable for housing, housing tends to be small and cramped, living at the bottom of a valley with steep sides and limited hours of daylight and sunshine together with cramped living conditions may be a reason for the mental illness, claustrophobia, known in Hebden as "Valley-Fever"

Thanks for this information. Interesting to read

 

[Kaliwax]

The only downside of living in my terraced house is the communal backgarden, and because we have a horrible neighbour on the street, they spy on us everytime we go in the back yard so we cant go out there and relax

 

[E27007]

Thanks for this information. Interesting to read

In the Calder Valley you can find not only back-to-backs and there are post-WW2 Pre-fabs, I think they are found in Sowerby Bridge or Mythomroyd, they must be some of the last surviving examples in England

 

[WesternLancer]

In the Calder Valley you can find not only back-to-backs and there are post-WW2 Pre-fabs, I think they are found in Sowerby Bridge or Mythomroyd, they must be some of the last surviving examples in England

Sounds like Cadler Valley is a hot bed of the housing types recently featured on the forum!

 

[D6130]

In the Calder Valley you can find not only back-to-backs and there are post-WW2 Pre-fabs, I think they are found in Sowerby Bridge or Mythomroyd, they must be some of the last surviving examples in England

....and Walsden. This has already been discussed at length in the Prefabs thread.

 

[railfan99]

I think where I used to live in Altofts had the longest row of terraced houses in Europe at one time. Of course the houses had been knocked down for years now

https://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10465501 Here's a picture of them in 1975. The housing was built in the 1865 and knocked down in 1978. Used mainly for miners, but the mine near there was shut in 1966.

Impressive.

 

[Cletus]

I remember it being said on Homes Under The Hammer (or a similar programme) the Clarendon Place in Dover was the longest unbroken row of terraced houses in the country.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

 

[Irascible]

I live in a grade 2 listed terrace block built circa 1800 ( I think ) - you can do, and the residents/landlords here have done, what you want internally, there's a lot of red tape with the outside though. I've lived in a variety of terrace houses over the years & never had to share facilities other than the times of just renting a room. My mum's stories of 1960s London didn't include sharing across properties either.

 

[PeterC]

I live in a grade 2 listed terrace block built circa 1800 ( I think ) - you can do, and the residents/landlords here have done, what you want internally, there's a lot of red tape with the outside though. I've lived in a variety of terrace houses over the years & never had to share facilities other than the times of just renting a room. My mum's stories of 1960s London didn't include sharing across properties either.

Every late 19th century terrace that I have been in in London and the Home Counties was built with its own facilties in a wing, single story in cheaper houses, or separate outhouse in its own back yard / garden.

The types of area that might have been built with communal privies were largely cleared courtesy of the Luftwaffe.

 

[WesternLancer]

Every late 19th century terrace that I have been in in London and the Home Counties was built with its own facilties in a wing, single story in cheaper houses, or separate outhouse in its own back yard / garden.

The types of area that might have been built with communal privies were largely cleared courtesy of the Luftwaffe.

Indeed. And pre war slum clearance legislation and government funding did focus on demolishing them. Can’t recall the name of the Act at time of writing.

 

[bspahh]

I remember it being said on Homes Under The Hammer (or a similar programme) the Clarendon Place in Dover was the longest unbroken row of terraced houses in the country.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

This Clarendon Place is from a 25 inch map. From Google Earth the row of houses to the North of the street is 410m long.


This is Silkstone Row, Altofts. The annotation of the image says its the "longest row of three-storeyed cottages in Europe". From the scale it looks to be 240m long.

 

[AY1975]

I've just come across this YouTube video of the UK's last remaining true back-to-back in Birmingham, which has been preserved by the National Trust: