Two-up two-down is a type of small house with two rooms on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. There are many types of

terraced houses in the United Kingdom Terraced houses have been popular in the United Kingdom, particularly England and Wales, since the 17th century. They were originally built as desirable properties, such as the townhouses for the nobility around Regent's Park in central London, ...

, and these are among the most modest. Those built before 1875, the pre-regulation terraces, shared one toilet between several households. Those built after the passage of the

Public Health Act 1875 The Public Health Act 1875c 55 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, one of the Public Health Acts, and a significant step in the advancement of public health in England. Its purpose was to codify previous measures aimed at combatin ...

, the so-called

byelaw terraced house A byelaw terraced house is a type of dwelling built to comply with the Public Health Act 1875. It is a type of British terraced house at the opposite end of the social scale from the aristocratic townhouse, but a marked improvement on the pre ...

s, each had its own toilet, usually outside. The rapid urbanisation of Britain during the Industrial Revolution meant that these small cheap terraces were widespread in towns and cities. In the 20th century, and early in the 21st, areas of this type of dwelling were often targeted for demolition and redevelopment, under a

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

programme, but in some areas local community groups campaigned to save them, such as Toxteth Street in

Openshaw Openshaw is a suburb of Manchester, England, about three miles east of the city centre. Historically part of Lancashire, Openshaw was incorporated into the city of Manchester in 1890. Its name derives from the Old English ''Opinschawe'', which me ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

References

{{Housing in the United Kingdom Architectural design House types in the United Kingdom