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Houses on Villa Street

M

Maryd

Exiled Brummie
Hi, I wonder if anyone can help? I've just been trying to explain to my husband - who was brought up in a country town - what the houses were like in Villa Street. Does anyone know if I can access plans or diagrams. Did they have attics does anyone know? I don't think they were big enough. I only went upstairs once to my knowledge and that was to see my dying Grandad, but it seemed to me I stepped off a very steep staircase, which had started flush with the wall and then one just stepped off either left or right into the bedrooms......

Forgot to say that my grandparents lived at 132, and I can see from a few photos that there seemed to be both two and three floored houses in that road.

Thanks

Mary
 
Hi Mary

There is a thread on the forum entitled Villa Street posted by Lyn (Astoness) unfortunately most of the photo were lost when the forum crashed when it was hacked in 2011. I haven't gotten around to repairing the thread yet, but there is a thread on the forum here that shows pictures of Villa Street also posted by Lyn

https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15539
 
Thank you for your reply Phil. I'll have look through. I was trying to describe the inside of the house to my husband and he finds it hard to believe I think. (Especially the size of the "kitchen" !

Thanks again
Mary
 
I think 'back-to-back' houses were fairly alike all over Birmingham. I was unfortunate enough to live in one in Aston for nearly 6 years.one ground floor living room, gas cooker top of cellar steps, that was our 'kitchen' (health and safety !!!!) steep flight of stairs to 1st floor bedroom, small gas fire if you were lucky (our bedroom) further steep flight to leaky unheated attic (my daughters bedroom), permanent condensation, rotting window and door frames, you decorated and the damp had the paper peeling of in no time, and a landlord who spent as least as possible on the property. Only thing in its favour the rent was cheap enabling us to buy a 'real' house. This was 1956 when I came out the RAF till 1962 when we moved to Erdington, It was paradise. Nowadays they would be classed as unfit for human habitation. Rant over. Eric
 
Hi Eric, Yes that "kitchen" is exactly as I described it to my husband - not much more than the top step going down to the cellar, just room enough for a cooker facing you as you entered, then on the left the sink, 3 paces back from the sink and you were down the cellar steps. How they managed I don't know, especially with 4 children. When one of their daughters (my mother) got her own house, at least she had some workspace (the top of a mangle!!) and about a foot more floor space...progress of a kind.
 
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