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Back to Back houses today

pmcdermott

Every time I hear the tale by Billy Connolly about one of the neighbours children being bathed and being tucked up in bed with the rest of his siblings it makes me laugh because I think about the time when my mother found a neighbours child in one of our beds asleep.

In those days the kids just wandered in and out of each others houses as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Phil
 
pmcdermott

Every time I hear the tale by Billy Connolly about one of the neighbours children being bathed and being tucked up in bed with the rest of his siblings it makes me laugh because I think about the time when my mother found a neighbours child in one of our beds asleep.

In those days the kids just wandered in and out of each others houses as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Phil
everybody's house was open house to everybody else then,i'm afraid that community spirit has almost disappeared now, mores the pity:(
 
My Father in law lived at 4/128 Vicarage Rd, Aston, one of 12 houses sharing 4 toilets 2 Brew houses (for washing) but they all had their individual small gardens. His garden was a picture, it wa his pride and joy. He was a gardener for Ansells Brewery and I think he "borrowed" a few of their plants. My Wife and I lived at 1/128 for a few years when I came out the RAF until we had saved a deposit to buy our first house in Erdington. Eric
 
Eric

Not many gardens round by me in Francis St even the parks were surfaced with black clinker ash.

Phil
 
I feel sure that my Nan used to live in a Back House,because I can never remember her having a back garden.
It was in Kensington Gardens off Balsall Heath Road,and one of my Aunts lived next door to my Nan.
It was in the 1940s
Jemina
 
The heeling and toeing mentioned in previous posts, was also known as topping and toeing, and involved having new roofs and floors to prolong the life of the houses. This happened to the house I lived in at Burlington Street, Aston, we had bought the house but it was compulsory purchased and we had £20.00 compensation from the Council plus a "sympathetic rent" of 14 shilings and two pence per week. This was in 1961 and about 1965 we had workmen come in a few days before Christmas and the floors downstairs were covered in some sort black plastic - the roof was also repaired but not a new roof, by August 1967 we were moved out and the street was demolished. What a waste of the rates.
 
Sylviasayer

It wasn't a waste of rates though was it? You paid for these repairs yourself. Your house was compulsory purchased for the sum of £20 you were then then asked to pay a sympathetic rent of 14/- a week. Amounting to in excess of over a £140 over the next four years.

Out of the £120 profit the Council made they could more than afford to pay for the repairs made in those days.

Phil
 
Found this link on the net about the hurst St back to backs

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-birmingham_backtobacks

Phil at £5.70 a head bet you wished you'd have kept yours now lol,made a packet showing the inquisitive middle classes round.

Nice shot I found on the web.William Street 1905,courtesy of Chris Upton.

backtoback.jpg
 
HI, does anyone have any pictures or photographs of Claremont Road, Sparkhill. I was brought up there during the 1950s. Sadly all my Aunts and Uncles have died who were also born there, and I know nothing of the history of Claremont Road all I can remember is my Grandmother taking me along to the Salvation Army of which she was a member, the Salvation Army premises were just up the road.
 
HI, does anyone have any pictures or photographs of Claremont Road, Sparkhill. I was brought up there during the 1950s. Sadly all my Aunts and Uncles have died who were also born there, and I know nothing of the history of Claremont Road all I can remember is my Grandmother taking me along to the Salvation Army of which she was a member, the Salvation Army premises were just up the road.
I would dearly love some information because I am doing my Family history on the Surname White Ancestory tree and the Surname Wignell, Family tree.
 
I was born and grew up in a back to back in William Edward St Balsall Heath,all the houses pretty much in the surrounding areas were back to back,i have noticed some people refer to the area as Highgate,it was never known as Highgate when i was there,Highgate started on the far side of Leopold St went up on to Mosely Rd,the houses op the top end of Balsall Heath were nice houses at one time,but where i lived and Dymoke St, Hope St, Sherlock St, Conybere St, Hick St,Vaughton St, Bishop St,all back to backs always known as Balsall Heath
 
Hi Bernard

Thanks for putting me straight, your back to backs in Hick St are the first that I have heard of. If anybody knows of anymore please let me know. Bernard the house I lived in in Nechells had two bedrooms and one room downstairs with shared toilets up the yard.

There was my mother and stepfather and three brothers and three sisters making nine in all. When my stepfather moved his three sisters in as well it was time for me to move back to my grandmothers in Balsall Heath. I have to say compared to some we were not overcrowded.

Mike

It looks like your interpretation of your map is correct.

Phil
I was born and grew up in a back to back in William Edward St Balsall Heath,all the houses pretty much in the surrounding areas were back to back,i have noticed some people refer to the area as Highgate,it was never known as Highgate when i was there,Highgate started on the far side of Leopold St went up on to Mosely Rd,the houses op the top end of Balsall Heath were nice houses at one time,but where i lived and Dymoke St, Hope St, Sherlock St, Conybere St, Hick St,Vaughton St, Bishop St,almost all back to backs always known as Balsall Heath​
 
Please can anyone help me with any knowledge of past years on Claremont Road,Sparkhill,Birmingham. Some people classed it as Aston rather than Sparkhill,
Many Thanks Bryce.
 
I lived in a back to back house in Yardley in 1957 in Milton Crescent. The back to backs I think belonged to Hardings Bakery, we all shared the brew house and my dad plastered it out and we used it as a bathroom, he used to fill up the bolier and then put the water into a tin bath, all the families in our row used it as well as a place to do the washing. The toilets were at the end of the block a we had a big garden and the people on the front had a small garden. At the time my father worked for Hardings as a delivery man. I think we moved out in the early 1960's
 
Thank you Adele, for your information I am trying to look at some pictures of Lawden Road, Small Heath,Birmingham also Claremont Road,Sparkhill,Birmingham. From Bryce
 
Has anyone seen the houses attached to the Wellington hotel on the corner of Bromsgrove St and Bristol Road, It's now a row of shops called The Diskery, they look very similar to the ones on Hurst St, but without the court at the back.
I've looked on the birds eye view on the net and they look like they could be old enough to be old back to backs.

Have a Look and let me know, what you think.

Phill.
 
Is this the last blind back still standing in Birmingham ?


looks like an old back house to me, the front of it is converted into a garage workshop, what do you think ?20131102_124833.jpg20131102_124705.jpg
 
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