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Back-to-back Houses

silhouette53

silhouette53

master brummie
I'm proud of the fact that I grew up in a 'back to back' house with an outside lavatory ( yes, it had squares of newspaper on a nail behind the door ! ) and a 'brewus'. 
I have such happy memories of my formative years - I wouldn't change it for 'all the tea in China'

I could ramble on for ages with all manner of recollections re those days but I guess it's all been said before so here's simply a picture of yours truly in the garden of our house at 1/51 William Street, Lozells, Birmingham 19
Taken in 1956 when I was two and a half.  Wish I still had that Triang trike !! It'd be a bit on the small side for me now, granted, but nice to look at all the same.  Where did all that hair go ? LOL

Cheers !

Colin
 
Colin, what a lovely picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!ah bless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I remember the squares of paper too, and Dad used to put a small paraffin lamp in the loo in the winter ti help the old rags w rapped around the water pipes to help them stop freezing up!Jackie
 
Nice one Postie !! O0  though I can't say I recognise the yard, but then William Street was a long one and I didn't get to go up every entry though I went up a good few!

Rowan : I got even cuter as the hair grew LOL check the attached pics taken at St Leonards on Sea where my Grandparents had a guest house. Wonder where that baby girl is now ?? would she remember me ???

Anthony & Jackie :  Yes, the pipes were lagged - with sacking I think it was.  And at night there was a candle to light. 
 
postie said:
One for Colin. O0
Click to expand...
As an Ex-william st tenant. That photo was taken not long before they were demolished. We were the last but one family to move out in 1968
 
Although I didn't grow up in a back-to-back, most of my ancestors seem to have.

I've noticed that as well as back-to-backs, Birmingham had a good number of "blind-back" houses in spaces where there was not room for a back-to-back. Presumably they could have put windows at the back of the house if they wanted to, but they chose not to.

Does this mean that people preferred the feel of a back-to-back, so much that they even tried to make other types of house feel similar from the inside?

Regards

Paul
 
My thoughts are that they were built very cheap, small and overcrowded in the 1840's to serve the large influx of unskilled and semi skilled workers that came into Birmingham. They were built on every scrape of land that would take them as much as they are done today.
 
PaulE said:
Although I didn't grow up in a back-to-back, most of my ancestors seem to have.

I've noticed that as well as back-to-backs, Birmingham had a good number of "blind-back" houses in spaces where there was not room for a back-to-back. Presumably they could have put windows at the back of the house if they wanted to, but they chose not to.

Does this mean that people preferred the feel of a back-to-back, so much that they even tried to make other types of house feel similar from the inside?

Regards

Paul
Click to expand...

I was born in a back to back houses there was no way to put window in the back of the houses as this would then look into the rooms of the houses that backed onto, the toilet was shared with other famlies and was outside in the yard a swine in the cold weather, we were glad to get out of the back to back even then the new house still had an ouside loo but at least you only sharde it with your own family not others
 
I agree with Ger22Van - cost would have stopped them putting a window at the rear. Note: this is not about true 'Back to Back' but the front half of such.
 
I was born in a front back to back and agree with Bammot..don't think the neighbours at the back would have liked us watching them ..as he said to put a window in the back of the house you would only have seen into the neighbours:D
 
The back to back's,were also side by side,the main problem seems to be,a back and front is needed,otherwise there is no air circulation,and they beome very damp.
Our house used to have water,running down the back wall.
However,that's not has bad as the house where my mother grew up,they had suds oil,from the factory behind...seeping through the wall.
Nah,I am nostalgic for the old end,but we were well rid of the houses we lived in.:).
 
Our first two addresses were prefixed 'Back' i.e. Back Blake St. & Back Oliver Street.
Would they have been this type of housing ?
It was more than 60 years ago and I can't remember.
Pete
 
The address,would have been thus: 5/106 Clifton Rd,Aston,B'ham.6.
That was mine,don't try to contact me there,it was bulldozed and used for hardcore on the Aston Expressway 40 years ago.:).
And yes, Oliver St was similar,used to go that way when fetching coke from Avenue Rd,gasworks.:rolleyes:.
 
Thanks for the replies, and apologies if my original post wasn't clear.

If I lived in a blind-back house, I would want to put some windows in the back. Even small windows (e.g. porthole size) would make a huge difference to the ventilation, and they wouldn't be hard to fit. Even a DIYer could do it, I expect. And it wouldn't cost a lot ...

So why didn't our Victorian/Edwardian ancestors do it?

I can't help thinking people must have liked the idea of a house with doors and windows on only one side (i.e. like a back-to-back). After all, they might have said, it stops a draught blowing through the house, doesn't it?

Regards

Paul
 
Ray Barrett said:
The back to back's,were also side by side,the main problem seems to be,a back and front is needed,otherwise there is no air circulation,and they beome very damp.
Our house used to have water,running down the back wall.
However,that's not has bad as the house where my mother grew up,they had suds oil,from the factory behind...seeping through the wall.
Nah,I am nostalgic for the old end,but we were well rid of the houses we lived in.:).
Click to expand...

Here Here to that Ray. We were on the front of a back to back, and side by side, we had snails walking on the soap every day in the so called scullery, nasty!
 
I only lived in back to back house,(which is different to a back houe - thats a normal house accessed by an entry) for 6 years from when I came out the RAF in 1956 till we bought our own in 1962 and it was terrible, perpetually damp, impossible to get warm in the winter, no kitchen (let alone bathroom) sharing a toilet with 2 other families, cooking in the living room added to the condensation (some had their cookers at the top of the cellar steps but I thought that was dangerous) there was only 2 advantages, cheap rent and good neighbours, this was in Vicarage Rd (1/128) opposite Aston Manor Girls school, they were eventually demolished (good riddance) for the Aston Expressway but we had left for Erdington by then. Eric
 
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Paul,
Fitting a window in these old houses,was not easy.
When I did it,it was remove a course of bricks to fit a lintel,but before I could get the lintel in place,the wall started to crumble,it was rotten.
Finished up making a new window frame to fit the hole,great fun.:rolleyes:.
 
Hi Ray, that about the best thing that could happen to them being bulldozed, they were out and out slums, nowadays the H+Savety wouldn't let you keep pigs in them. Our address was 7 back of 8 Hick Street and boy were we glad to get that council house at Yardley Wood. Yes the loo was outside and the News of the World was in quarters on a nail in the back of the door . Oh Happy Days, not on your nellie, Keep smiling:cool: Bernard,
 
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Bernard,
Our house was "condemned, unfit for human habitation"...in the 1930s,they were demolished in 1969.My mom was so desperate to move she wanted for us to go and squat in the abandoned army Nissan huts at Perry Barr straight after the war.:(.
 
My lovely nan Pemmy lived at 3/36 Franchise street and the houses backed onto a woodyard and her walls were constantly damp. Had an indoor downstairs coal room and outside loos at the top of the yard. A comunial wash house with the works. A dolly, rubbing board and a hand wringer. Plus loads of personal things that were stored in there without the fear of it being stolen. My aunt even kept her bike in there. Loved to stay with nan and go and visit her lovely neighbours. Jean.
 
the national trust back to back houses in birmingham have a sweet shop, a tailors shop, and their reception area in a set of buildings along hurst st Each of these buildings has a door leading out into the back yard but no window in this wall These were blind back houses and many were built in court yards against walls which often had a factory built onto the back!
 
PaulE said:
Although I didn't grow up in a back-to-back, most of my ancestors seem to have.

I've noticed that as well as back-to-backs, Birmingham had a good number of "blind-back" houses in spaces where there was not room for a back-to-back. Presumably they could have put windows at the back of the house if they wanted to, but they chose not to.

Does this mean that people preferred the feel of a back-to-back, so much that they even tried to make other types of house feel similar from the inside?

Regards

Paul
Click to expand...

Re the houses with few windows,don't forget that at one time there was a tax levied according to how many windows were in a house,which is why many houses were seen with bricked up windows.I'm not sure when this tax was abolished,but it is ,incidentally,where the phrase 'daylight robbery' originated,as people were taxed on the amount of daylight they received................Mal.
 
The window tax was abolished in 1851. But even before that a house had , I understand , to have at least seven windows before it was levied, so your average back to back etc wouldn't have qualified
Mike
 
An important reason for developers favouring back-to-back or blind-back houses was yo cram as many dwellings on to the site as possible.
On the issue of dampness, I suspect that the dampness was due more to the shoddy construction than to the lack of through ventilation, which would obviously help dry out a house.
Peter Walker
 
mallyb2 said:
Re the houses with few windows,don't forget that at one time there was a tax levied according to how many windows were in a house,which is why many houses were seen with bricked up windows.I'm not sure when this tax was abolished,but it is ,incidentally,where the phrase 'daylight robbery' originated,as people were taxed on the amount of daylight they received................Mal.
Click to expand...


Hi Mal,

In 1825, according to Wiki, the window tax consisted of 2 parts, a
fixed rate of 2/- (two shillings) for up to 8 windows, and extra if you
had above this number. The tax was abolished in 1851, and replaced
by house duty. My back house 8/69 Tilton Road B9 had 4 windows,
one for each of the 2 bedrooms, 1 for the kitchen and 1 for the
living room. I was in the corner of the yard furthest from the street,
and had 3 adjoining neighbours, 1 next door in my court, 1 behind me
in the next court, and 1 to the other side of me in the next street!
I don't think many back house occupiers would have enjoyed the
luxury of more than eight windows. I lived there from 1967 to 1969,
and the rent was 13/9, and the rates were 6d, a total of just 71p
a week in 'decimal' money!!

Kind regards

Dave
 
Peter,
It wasn't lack of space for the site,they were built with 3 party walls,very cheap.As for the shoddy work,not so,the vaulted ceiling in the cellar of our house was a work of art,bomb damage didn't help,with the dampness.
These houses were built in the 1850s,there was nothing wrong with the work or the bricks,but the mortar was poor.
 
For anyone interested there is an excellent book on Back to Backs by Chris Upton called (strangely enough) "Living Back-to-Back".

Doug
 
Cookie 273uk. The house you lived in sounded identical to the one I lived in. I agree about the stove being at the top of the cellar steps being dangerous. Actually the stove in that house had been moved from the main living room, it originally stood at the bottom of the stairs, so when the stairs door opened it hit the stove. Ours was a cellar, one living room, one bedroom and an attic. Who were the landlords? I know it was such a fight to get any repairs done.:(
 
Maggs, Ours was a private Landlord who spent the legal minimum possible on repairs. They would certainly be classed unfit for habitation nowadays and rightly so. The only advantage was a very low rent, 12/6 a week, meaning we could save the deposit for a house that much quicker (no 100% mortgages in those days). We bought a prewar semi in Hillside Rd backing on to Brookvale Park in 1962, it was like moving to paradise, kitchen , bathroom, indoor toilet, large garden back and front, 3 bedrooms and Garage - pure bliss, over the next 18 months I decorated every room and had central heating put in and we lived there for the next 25 years
Eric
 
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