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Back to Back addresses

maggie may

proper brummie kid
Please can anybody explain something to this dunce.
The court system of housing I can understand-I think
Number# at back of# also makes some sort of sense but when you get a mixture of both on one street how on earth do they all fit in?
:confused:
 
maggie may

The idea was very simple, you would have the numbers of the street houses. The back house, courts or terraces would be at the rear or a terrace that ran off the street. Sometimes a terrace would have a name or a number which simplified things.

1/180 Inkerman St would be house No 1 at the rear of no 180 Inkerman St.

1 Ruben Place, Inkerman St would be No 1 in a Terrace off Inkerman St.
Or number 1 court, Inkerman St would be the same thing.

180 Inkerman Street would have frontage on Inkerman St.

Sometimes access to these houses were wide openings, sometimes they were through tunnel entry's

Does this help.

Phil
 
Hi celia,

Chris Upton's book is very good and tries to show how back to back housing, and back housing was.

If you you are talking about the Hurst St back to backs, which I think you must be then will be a nice day out for you.

If you are thinking what you will see will represent what back to back living as really like then I am afraid you will be disappointed. What they show there is a much sanitised version of the real thing. While I understand that they can't show the filth and the squalor of those days. no attempt has been made to do so.

My granddaughter after returning from a school visit to there said to me " I don't know what you go on about granddad, there is nothing wrong with them other than being a bit small"

This is the history we are teaching our children.

I must stress that this is only my opinion, and that if you have no idea what back to back living was like, then you will glean a little knowledge from your visit, and you will be able to form your own opinion, instead of listening to an old grouch like myself.

Phil
 
hi phill
yes i am talking about the backs to backs on hurst street
and i do understand that its only a musium and like all the musiums in the country that can only try and recreat history
fourtanly i have relatives still alive that have lived in back to backs and im always told what they were like to live it constantly lol
how ever i would rather listen to memorys of those who haved lived in them than rely on a musium that can only ofer so much
but i still wont to visit them just to see how small they really are

celia
 
Hi Celia,

I was fortunate enough NOT to live in Back to Backs but the rest of my maternal and paternal family did.

I remember staying at various cousins homes in Newtown, Aston, Hockley and Ladywood , they all lived in Back to Backs... there was a shared toilet ... no sanitaton, no hot running water, a rickety spiral staircase leading up to the two (if you were really lucky) bedrooms, bedrooms damp, cold and even had holes knocked through walls to next door so cousin (could hold hands with boy next door!!) . The Friday night bath was a tin bath put in front of living room/lounge/dining room (there are only two rooms downstairs - kitchen /scullery and living room) .. if you were really lucky then there was enough money to light the coal fire so you could keep warm while you had your bath .

The back to backs in Inge Street do not reflect the poverty, deprevation and general unsanitary conditions endured by many people living in back to backs... It was not just an early 1900 problem... I am talking about my cousins living in Back to Backs in the mid 1960.s !!!!
 
Yes Celia the last post was right-on. The coal fireplace was the central feature of one of these places and this unit had a cast iron oven to the side of it that was heated by the fire. which was a somewhat rised up affair as I recall. Must have been hard to do any cooking on a thing like that. Must have been like camping...all your life. A single lead pipe with a tap on the end, delivering cold water, was over a longish sink and washing oneself and preparing food and floating paper boats was all done there. Latterly there was gas for stoves and some electricity. This did indeed last into the sixties...through times when one could go to the pictures and see Holywood movies that had kitchens in them that were bigger than ones whole house. I don't know about the Hurst Street replicas but there are many photo's on here that are very representative. Is that your dog on the avitar.
 
I lived in a back to for quite a few years, do you know I never lived in squalor or unsanitary conditions yes we shared two toilets kept spotlessy clean by the sharing tenants, yes the rooms were small but all ways clean and tidy, I can't remember having to have a cold bath because of no fire in the grate, and yes we were poor by some peoples standards but better of with love from our parents,


"poverty, deprevation and general unsanitary conditions endured by many people living in back to backs"

Unsanitary means no way of disposal for drainage and sewage
Deprevation what was we deprived of it could not of been much as all my family survived these alleged allegations. all seven of us.
Remember there are still people out there who lived the experiance of Back to Backs
 
John

I also lived through some of the 50's into the 60's in a back to back one down and two up with a family of seven when we reached nine we were given a terraced house half a mile away. Which was much better and of which I have no complaints.

When I refer to filth and squalor, I am of course talking about the surroundings and not the houses themselves. Some were little palaces on the inside. No carpets, no refrigerators, in fact not a lot of anything (no room). but clean and tidy. I must add not all by a long means. These two photo's demonstrate my meanings.

Celia

I doubt when you visit Hurst St, you will see anything like these two photo's. The one is actually of a back court in Hurst St, and the other is of a back court on Great Lister St, Nechells niot a stones throw fom where I used to live.

Phil
 

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Hi! Folks,

Thank you. I think perhaps I have lived up north for too long (since 1978)

Many of my friends lived in these houses in the Aston/Hockley area. and most in conditions such as those described by Diane as late as the 1970s.

When I lived in Birmingham I didn't think much about house numbers or courts, I just knew where my friends lived when I visited.

Up here in Yorkshire we have many back to back houses but I can't recall any that have seperate numbers. They are all numbered one to whatever with some street facing and some round the back.

We also have cases where there are a few houses behind the back to backs ,these are usually called something place so I guess that these 'places' are equivalent to the courts
 
Hi Jhn,

when I referred to Unsanitary and deprevation etc i was making direct reference to the way people were expected to live by Councils who would not put money into improving housing. .. All my cousins lived in Back to Backs.. every single one of my cousins homes were spotlessly clean (my Aunts and Uncles spent hours and hours keeping them clean and fresh) however it was an uphill struggle for them to cope with the damp and constant struggle of bringing up 4/6/7 children in a two up two down. I do not critisice for one moment ANY person who raised children in those circumstances , I was lucky, I lived in a nice flat in Tile Cross, I had a room of my own (as did my brother) , we had hot running water and an inside toilet and bath ,, never once did I turn my nose up at my cousins homes, In fact I was never happier than when I was running around Tower Street/Summer Lane with my cousins.
 
hi guys
me thinks ive started something here
sorry didnt mean to was merly pointing out a good read was all
however im glad that everyone has replyed to the thread as is gives first hand experiance of how life was like in birmingham back to backs
sometimes not as romantic as hurst street back to backs make out

rupert no sorry hun its not my dog you can see think thats a english or german pointer
i have an otterhound rescue called fred
if i can work out how to put him on my aviatr i will do
celia
 
Ilived in back to backs in Ladywood 3/35 Shakespeare Rd,we were better off than some people as the same as to-days society,we was always warm in the living room thats not saying the bedrooms were freezing in the winter,we had a two bar electric fire,but with three of us in a double bed we soon kept warm

There was three toilets between six families and was always kept clean,the yard was washed down with disinfectant by the people who lived in the yard four houses...i lived there from 1947 till 1963 but i must admit the area was being run down by then....happy days the houses in Hurst St do not reflect a true picture of what it was like to live in back to backs i know from experiance

Mau-reece:)
 
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It would be impossible to re create exactly what the back to backs were really like as now they have people visiting and have to be clean and they are newly renovated. Also don't forget we now have the dreaded health and safety. I think the whole project is to give people an idea of what the dwellings were like. I found the houses in Inge Street well worth the visit. Also the youngsters today can see what it was like. I remember Carl Chinn telling me he took some foreign students there and they couldn't believe British people once lived like this. I think it's educational for youngsters to visit these places as it's living history.......we didn't have this did we.
 
hi all.. i have been reading this thread with great interest...and i must say that i dont think the intention of preserving the hurst st/inge st back to backs was to emulate the exact living conditions of years gone by...surely that would be impossible....it was mearly to give us an idea of the layout...its no different to say the black county museum where buildings have been taken brick by brick and rebuilt there...it is different however in the fact that the back to backs are still there..in the same place as they always were instead of yet another piece of waste ground or another office block never to be used.. and is it not better to have them like this that not to have them at all ? i for one am grateful for that....a lot of hard work...free time and dedication went into this project and included many donations off the public of original artifacts. for myself i found it great to walk down the entry..climb the narrow stairs and stand in the yard that generations had done before....so please dont knock it..this is a good as it gets and i will be visiting again sometime this year...

lyn
 
Ilived in back to backs in Ladywood 3/35 Shakespeare Rd,we were better off than some people as the same as to-days society,we was always warm in the living room thats not saying the bedrooms were freezing in the winter,we had a two bar electric fire,but with three of us in a double bed we soon kept warm

There was three toilets between six families and was always kept clean,the yard was washed down with disinfectant by the people who lived in the yard four houses...i lived there from 1947 till 1963 but i must admit the area was being run down by then....happy days the houses in Hurst St do not reflect a true picture of what it was like to live in back to backs i know from experiance

Mau-reece:)


I lived from 1967 - 1969 at 8 back 69 Tilton Road, and my experience was
similar. Yes, the houses were at the end of their working life, but everyone looked after the yard, the toilets were kept spotless (the one we shared was carpeted), but maybe the best thing of all was the
wonderful sense of community which I have never found anywhere elsewhere to the same degree. I remember the old lady from further down the court crossing the yard in the morning in her dressing gown to empty the chamber pot. And I bet many of you kept your toilet key on a nail by the door! The floor downstairs had obviously seen better days, as bitumen had been poured to give a level surface. The feet of any heavy furniture
and particularly the cooker would sink in after a short while. Happy
and never to be forgotten days.

Dave
 
Imagination............a wonderful word, unless you have none! So Inge Street looks a bit clinical, a bit too clean, it is afterall a museum. I went to the York Railway museum and all of the engines were clean!
A fault with Inge Street in my opinion is that the brickwork looks new. Anyone who lived in or has seen real 'slum' housing knows that the outer appearance of these houses was what made them look so awful.
But inside at Inge Street is a real thrill for youngsters. My grandchildren were amazed that their grandad was bought up in similar housing, even my wife who only ever lived in semi's, was surprised at how small the houses are.
So for anyone wishing to experience back-to-back living, albeit in a somewhat sanitised way, I fully recommend going there, but take your imagination with you!
 
Hello Astoness ,I, like you can remember how clean my Moms 'little house'was.The outside toilet was spotless,we lived at the top of the 'yard'and Mom kept the whole yard clean and tidy,everyone used to thank her.She decorated and made new curtains and cushions whenever she fancied a change .She decorated so many times she said it was only the layers of paper that held the house up.Mary
 
hi mary...we had 3 generations born at the house in paddington st..my nan..my mom and myself....moms dad died when mom was only 10 leaving nan to bring up mom and 2 other daughters by herself...nan never remarried so after that there was no man in the family so she went out to work to keep things going and like so many others they may not have had a lot but what they did have was looked after....

lyn
 
I must admit I'm still a bit baffled by the numbering system. I understand the houses within a court being numbered, so you have Court 1, house 1, 2, 3 etc, but the courts don't always seem to be numbered according to the street number of the "front" house.

Did you sometimes have, for instance, Court 18 situated behind no 18 Something Street; and in another street it would be Court 1 if it was the first court in the street, regardless of the street number of the house that fronted the street?

Also I've seen Back House No X sometimes. Was the "back house" sometimes given a number within the court instead?
 
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