Late Victorian Terrace Information

[SamGoddard]

Hello!
I have just moved into a terraced house in Bearwood, built in 1901. I was wondering if anyone knew of any websites or sources where I can learn about what it would have looked like originally? Or just Birmingham terrace designs in general?

Thank you!

 

[pjmburns]

Do you mean in terms of "fixtures and fittings"?
Such as fireplaces in all rooms, no bathroom etc.

 

[Astoness]

hi and welcome...without knowing the address or at least the name of the road or street it could be difficult to help..not all victorian terraces were the same

lyn

 

[Stokkie]

Hello!
I have just moved into a terraced house in Bearwood, built in 1901. I was wondering if anyone knew of any websites or sources where I can learn about what it would have looked like originally? Or just Birmingham terrace designs in general?

Thank you!

Welcome Sam,

I spent my childhood and youth in a terraced house in Bearwood - in Gladys Road. In the 1960s we had an entry with three houses each side. A slate roof, two rooms up and two down. There was no bathroom, but a kitchen with a single cold tap on the Belfast sink, a coal house, an outside toilet and an end house which was a store. At the rear there was a blue-bricked yard and a long garden. Our front door opened directly into the front room - no hall.

But as has been said, tell us your road and we can be more specific as there was more than one type. We had coal fires in the lower rooms, but never used the bedroom fire places. Most houses had a bathroom put in later. At the front there was a wall and a privet hedge. Again, most of the fronts have changed. The front downstairs had a bay window and we had sash windows which opened by raising and lowering them. My mother used to clean the upstairs the old-fashioned way by sliding up the lower pane and sitting on the window ledge with just her legs inside the bedroom. You can manipulate the glass to clean the outer surfaces! Scary!

Derek

 

[superdad3]

Although Bearwood is basically in Smethwick, doesn't it straddle the boundary between Smethwick & Birmingham?

Either way, you might want to check in either Birmingham Central Library/Archives or more likely Smethwick Library to see if they have the appropriate planning application for the terrace which might show the original layout and possibly other details..

 

[rosie]

You might find something here https://www.blackcountryhistory.org/
Put Bearwood in the places searchbox.
rosie.

 

[Stokkie]

Bearwood is an interesting area as the closer you get to Warley Woods the larger the houses become. Many with attics (for servants) and some originally with cellars. Barclay Road has some upmarket terraces. Warley Woods, though outside Birmingham, used to belong to BCC but is now part of Sandwell. Many of the terraces have their original names in the brickwork, so they were constructed in small lots. My neighbour in the 1960s remembered the green fields of Beakes Farm and one of the houses opposite had an entrance drive as it was a coach house and the Victorian terrace was constructed about it.