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-regulation house built as cheap accommodation for the urban poor of the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

. The term usually refers to houses built between 1875 and 1918. The 1875 Act imposed a duty on local authorities to regulate housing by the use of

byelaw A by-law (bye-law, by(e)law, by(e) law), or as it is most commonly known in the United States bylaws, is a set of rules or law established by an organization or community so as to regulate itself, as allowed or provided for by some higher authorit ...

s, and subsequently all byelaw terraced housing was required to have its own toilet. At first a "privy" or

outhouse An outhouse is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket toilet, but other forms of dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may also be used ...

was built in the yard behind the house, relying on a

pail closet A pail closet or pail privy was a room used for the disposal of Human waste, human excreta, under the "pail system" (or Rochdale system) of waste removal. The "closet" (a word which had long meant "toilet" in one usage) was a small outhouse (pri ...

system, with access for the municipal collection of the

night soil Night soil is a historically used euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by workers em ...

. As universal town sewerage advanced, flush toilets (

water closet A flush toilet (also known as a flushing toilet, water closet (WC) – see also Toilet#Names, toilet names) is a toilet that disposes of human waste (principally urine and feces) by using the force of water to ''flush'' it through a drainpipe to ...

s) were built, but often still outside the house. The houses had to meet minimum standards of build quality, ventilation, sanitation and population density. Despite a century of

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; ...

s, byelaw terraced houses made up over 15% of the United Kingdom's housing stock in 2011.

History

Between 1801 and 1901 the UK's population increased fourfold; there was a migration from the land into towns, as the nature of work changed. The urban population increased tenfold, and they needed housing. Employers built rows of houses ( terraces) on whatever ground was available; some of these were

back-to-back Back to Back or back-to-back may refer to: Music Songs * "Back to Back" (Drake song), 2015 * "Back to Back" (Jeanne Pruett song), 1979 *"Back to Back", a song by Pretty Maids from the 1984 album ''Red Hot and Heavy'' *"Back to Back", a song by ...

(i.e. with only one door) but many were through houses, i.e. with both front and back doors. In older towns they were constrained by the mediaeval street patterns, and the need to fit as many houses as possible on the traditional long plots. The less fortunate lived in single-roomed houses facing onto a communal courtyard where there were privies, a cesspit, a standpipe, high infant mortality,

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

and cholera. Edwin Chadwick's report on ''The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population'' (1842), researched and published at his own expense, highlighted the problems. Action was taken to introduce

building control Building automation (BAS), also known as building management system (BMS) or building energy management system (BEMS), is the automatic centralized control of a building's HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), electrical, lighting, ...

regulations. Specific boards of health were given the power to regulate housing standard in the

Public health Act 1848 Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environment ...

and the

Local Government Act 1858 Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environmenta ...

. These culminated in the Public Health Act 1875. This Act remained in force until 1919 when they were superseded by the Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919 with its aim of fulfilling the promise to returning soldiers, " homes fit for heroes".

Public Health Act 1875

In 1875, the

Public Health Act Public Health Act is a stock short title used in the United Kingdom for legislation relating to public health. List *The Public Health Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vict c 63) *The Sanitary Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict c 90) is sometimes called the Public Health A ...

was introduced. It required urban authorities to make byelaws for new streets, to ensure structural stability of houses and prevent fires, and to provide for the drainage of buildings and the provision of air-space around buildings. Section 57 determined that all houses must be through houses – no more back-to-back housing. Three years later the Building Act 1878 provided more detail with constructions, defining foundations, damp-proof courses, thickness of walls, ceiling heights, space between dwellings, under-floor ventilation, ventilation of rooms and size of windows. The

Local Government Board The Local Government Board (LGB) was a British Government supervisory body overseeing local administration in England and Wales from 1871 to 1919. The LGB was created by the Local Government Board Act 1871 (C. 70) and took over the public health a ...

, established in 1871, issued the first model byelaws in 1877/78. Urban authorities either adopted them, or wrote their own versions adapted to local conditions. While local versions were frequently not so rigorous, they could be generous by modern standards as regards ceiling heights. The importance of the act was that it defined building standards for the housing of the working class.

Design

The greatest need at this time was for rental houses for the lowest paid workers. There also developed a need to build appropriate houses for skilled artisans and overseers. Building plots were sold to individuals, building clubs and

building societies A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage lending. Building societies exist in the United Kingdo ...

who would try to minimise the building and land costs. The earlier houses were built in terraces of eight to twelve houses, but as wealth, confidence and the demand for housing grew in the 1880s and 1890s, whole streets would be built together in the form of one long terrace.

Ginnel A ginnel is a fenced or walled alley between residential buildings that provides a pedestrian shortcut to nearby streets.two-storey cottage design but with taller rooms and larger windows, which improved lighting and ventilation. The ground floor contained a front living room and back dining room with the stair column running parallel to the street, in between. Cooking was possible on the dining room fire, usually a kitchen range, a coal-burning enclosed fire with side oven. Upstairs were two bedrooms. The back window had to be least 10 per cent of the floor area, and to obtain the ventilation, the rising sash design was ubiquitous. The houses had a long, narrow private yard (also known as an "

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

"), with the privy (

) containing an earth closet on the back wall. Many tasks such as laundry were performed in the yard, behind which was an

alley An alley or alleyway is a narrow lane, path, or passageway, often reserved for pedestrians, which usually runs between, behind, or within buildings in the older parts of towns and cities. It is also a rear access or service road (back lane ...

(known by various names) to allow access for the nightsoil man. Neighbours, friends, and children usually came into the house through the back door. The first houses were identical to their neighbour, but soon they became 'handed' (i.e. differentiated into right and left) as it was cheaper to build a shared

chimney stack A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typ ...

. Where they existed, rear extensions now shared a wall, and there was less loss of light to the middle room window. An early modification to the basic design shifted the staircase to be perpendicular to the street, sometimes with the addition of a ground floor hallway. A rear adjoined

scullery A scullery is a room in a house, traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils (or storing them), occasional kitchen work, ...

would also be added, generally with a third, smaller bedroom built on top, which modern owners often converted into an upstairs bathroom. The privy would begin to be built adjoining the scullery block, and would start to have a

connected to mains drainage. The byelaws defined the quality of building, not its design. As a result the physical construction of the houses varied dramatically; everything from the width of the street frontage to the spacing of the windows was different from terrace to terrace. Other small differences set some terraces apart from others, such as the presence of a cellar or a small 6 ft deep

front garden On a residential area, a front yard (United States, Canada, Australia) or front garden (United Kingdom, Europe) is the portion of land between the street and the front of the house. If it is covered in grass, it may be referred to as a front law ...

to separate the house from the street. Some were built with

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or ...

s on the ground floor (and occasionally the first floor as well). Larger houses for the overseers were built in the same terraces, with additional cellars and rooms in the roof space. On terraces with an

leading to the back gardens, either one or both houses neighbouring the passage were built over it on the first floor, forming a tunnel and providing marginally more bedroom space.

Comparative features

*Ventilation: It was no longer acceptable to have the ground-floor flooring laid directly on the earth. The timbers had to be at least above the earth, and on rising ground this would be more. *Walls: In areas where brick was used, walls were built using a simple

Flemish bond Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by siz ...

, meaning a single skin 9-inch wall. They all had to have a damp course and foundations. The damp course could be a layer of asphalt in bricks at least below the wooden floor beams; later it would be salt-glazed bricks or slate. The act required a double course of bricks, later concrete would be placed beneath, though the quality was poor, and the requirements changed to two layers of double-width brick. Higher specification concrete had replaced this by 1919. *The ground floor was of simple single planks, nailed with brads into 8-by-2 in softwood joists. The joists ends were treated with bitumen, and sunk half a brick deep into the walls. Later with wider spans, the joist would be supported by stub walls. The floor planks later were tongue and grooved (T&G) to reduce draughts. The scullery was a wet area with a

flagstone Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other co ...

floor slightly lower than the rest of the house. *Oversailing eaves with

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinat ...

-shaped cast iron guttering *Elaborate street façades *Patterned salt-glazed moulded bricks, tiles, chimney pots, ridge tiles and finials *Richly patterned joinery: Sash windows. *Windows: The earliest windows were set into opening topped by a low brick arch. Later these were replaced by

cast stone Cast stone or reconstructed stone is a highly refined building material, a form of precast concrete used as masonry intended to simulate natural-cut stone. It is used for architectural features: trim, or ornament; facing buildings or other st ...

lintels that were balanced in the same way as the bricks. The next generation of lintels had square ends and were wider than the window opening, changing the thrust from horizontally to vertically. Cast stone was used for lintels, door and window surrounds, arch sets, bay window sets, cills and quoins with sharp moulds and decoration. Windows lintels often displayed a false keystone. File:Canterbury 8920.JPG, 70° low brick arch File:Canterbury 8918c.JPG, Earlier 70° flat brick lintel in

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

File:Strood Byelaw houses 9008c.JPG, Earlier 70° cast stone lintel on a larger house in Strood File:Strood Byelaw houses 9023.JPG, Decorated openings in

, in style of a Gibbs surround File:Strood Byelaw houses decorative ironwork 9016.JPG, The cast iron decoration of superior houses of 1885, that front onto the church File:Largeterracehouses.JPG, Quality construction a large terraced house in

Moss Side Moss Side is an inner-city area of Manchester, England, south of the city centre, It had a population of 20,745 at the 2021 census. Moss Side is bounded by Hulme to the north, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Rusholme and Fallowfield to the east, W ...

, Manchester

Evolution

Byelaw terraced houses were built over a period of sixty-five years from 1850 to 1916; needless to say, the design evolved. By the 1880s most houses consisted of a front parlour, middle living room and a reasonable sized kitchen to the rear with a third bedroom above. This was reached through the second bedroom: later reversing the run of the stairs allowed a corridor to be constructed to give through access to the third bedroom. Beyond the kitchen was a coal store and a WC.

Adaptation

Many houses were incrementally improved. In the 1920s most were wired for electricity, and in the 1930s the deeper Belfast sink and drainer replaced the shallower cane glazed London sink. The improved damp-proof course arrested water ingress, and with the suspended floors halted wood rot. The overcrowding and deterioration of the pre-regulation terraced houses caused increasing concern. Local authorities were empowered by the

Housing Act 1930 The Housing Act 1930, 20 & 21 George 5 c.39, otherwise known as the Greenwood Act, is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It encouraged mass slum clearance and councils to set to work to demolish poor quality housing and replace it wi ...

to conduct

by purchasing unfit properties compulsorily and demolishing them. This was a lengthy process, as they had to prove the property fell within the meaning of the act, and then compensate the landlord for the value of the land. Hundreds of cottages were cleared before the program was stopped in 1939. It restarted in 1955 on a larger scale. Areas were designated for comprehensive development, and all was demolished – houses, factories, workshops, warehouses and chapels. Byelaw houses survived the slum clearance programmes of the 1960 and 1970s, and though becoming derelict due to depopulation, they provided a solid framework for

urban regeneration Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of bligh ...

. Home improvement grants were used to bring the WC indoors, to provide hot water and bathrooms. In certain inner-city areas these houses became popular again and subject to

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

schemes of the 21st century, such as Chimney Pot Park in Salford.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * *

Primary sources

* *

External links

A tribute to the typical terraced houses of Leicester, UK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Terraced House 19th-century architecture in the United Kingdom 20th-century architecture in the United Kingdom House types House styles House types in the United Kingdom Urban studies and planning terminology