Big gardens of terraced houses

[sarah1230]

Can anyone tell me the reason behind long gardens of many of the working-class terraced houses built late 19th century/turn of the 20th century. The space seems almost wasteful as larger houses at the time could have accommodated more workers and their children. I know they'd have the outer toilet and possibly grew some of their own veg but still seems a lot of space for a garden..
For context I was born in Birmingham but spent years up north in a 2-up 2-down with a backyard which is probably why I can't get my head around it.

 

[Vivienne14]

An interesting question Sarah. It may have been (depending on the date of the building) due to legislation and building requirements

Below is extracted from Wikipedia. For example,

- the Local Government Act 1858 stated that a street containing terraced houses had to be at least 36 feet (11 m) wide with houses having a minimum open area at the rear of 150 square feet (14 m2), and specified the distance between properties should not be less than the height of each.

- other building codes inherited from various local councils defined a minimum set of requirements for drainage, lighting and ventilation.

 

[mw0njm.]

prob becouse there where far less people needing housing/homes and land was far less demanding then.

 

[Vivienne14]

Moving this thread to the Neighbours and Streets section. Edit - done.

 

[sarah1230]

Thank you for your reply Vivienne14

 

[MWS]

The goal of house builders was and still is, is to make money. The welfare of the population (to a certain extent) is irrelevant.

As some people became more well off they probably aspired to a better life style - more rooms, a garden, etc - possibly in imitation of the wealthy and as Birmingham expanded the land was available to build what the people wanted and what (some) could afford. How much thought these people, some of who had themselves came from the crowded inner city, gave to those left behind is anyone's guess.

On the 1901 census the population of Bham, Aston and Kings Norton was 3/4 of a million and if you look at the maps a lot of what is now Bham is still farmland/countryside, which I still find hard to get my head around.