The Tudor Walters Report on housing was produced by the Tudor Walters Committee of the United Kingdom Parliament in October 1918. Its recommendations set the standards for council house design and location for the next 90 years.

The committee

Tudor Walters was the chairman.

Raymond Unwin Sir Raymond Unwin (2 November 1863 – 29 June 1940) was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing. Early years Raymond Unwin was born in Rotherham, Yor ...

, architect to Letchworth Garden City and Hamstead Garden Suburb, was a member.

The background

In 1912 Raymond Unwin published a pamphlet, ''Nothing gained by Overcrowding'', outlining the principles of the Garden City. The Local Government Board in 1912 recommended that:

Cottages for the working classes should be built with wider frontages and grouped around open spaces which would become recreation grounds. They should have three bedrooms, a large living room, a scullery fitted with a bath and a separate WC to each house with under cover access

They published five model plans. Two had an additional parlour, four were terraced and one was semi detached. They had an area to . The

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

indirectly provided a new impetus. The poor physical health and condition of many urban recruits to the

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

was noted with alarm. This led to a campaign known as "Homes fit for heroes". The Office for Works built the Well Hall Estate in

Eltham Eltham ( ) is a district of South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three ...

for workers at the Royal Ordnance Factory in Woolwich. This had been built on Garden City principles with fine

Arts and Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the Decorative arts, decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and ...

details.

The recommendations

The committee expected to

Profoundly influence the general standard of housing in this country and to encourage the building of houses of such quality that they would remain above the acceptable minimum standards for at least sixty years.

We regard it essential that each house should contain a minimum of three rooms on the ground floor (living-room, parlour, scullery) and three bedrooms above, two of these capable of containing two beds. A larder and a bathroom are essential.

Housing was to be in short terraces, spaced at at a density of in town or in the country. This was to allow the penetration of sunlight even in winter. There was to be secondary access to the sides of semi-detached houses and by ground floor passages through larger terraces. These terraces should be a maximum of eight houses long. The advantages of cul de sacs were noted as cheap method of providing services and preventing through traffic. The Committee noted the advantages of a varied provision of housing types and not restricting an estate to one social class. Deep narrow-fronted byelaw terraced houses were to be avoided as the rear projection reduced air flow and light to the back of the house. (The middle-room problem). Wider frontages were preferred. A Tudor Walters house had an average frontage of . The living room should be a light room and ideally a through room. Three basic plans were suggested, based on cost and where the cooking would be done: *Living room with range where most of the cooking would be done, scullery with copper to heat the water, a bath and a gas cooker for occasional use. *A separate bathroom, cooking done in the scullery and the living room fire suitable only for occasional cooking *A separated upstairs bathroom, cooking done exclusively in the scullery. Meals would be eaten in the living room. In addition it was suggested that superior houses would have a parlour. This was a reasonable expectation for the artisan class. A parlour house was to be and a non parlour house to be . In the climate of 1918, 85% of the houses needed to be three-bedroom and 15% to be smaller or bigger. Pre-war the divide had been 40%/60%. The bedrooms should be , and . A parlour of was seen to be adequate, in effect . It was a quiet room for reading, writing, a sick relative or formal entertaining of non-family visitors. It also suggested the use of district heating using waste heat from power-stations, the use of standardised components, the positioning of community facilities, integration with public transport and phasing the construction of both.

Table

{, class="wikitable" , +Tudor Walters Committee Recommendations !House with out a parlour !Area sq ft (m²) !Volume cu ft (m³) !House with a parlour !Area sq ft (m²) !Volume cu ft (m³) , - , , , , Parlour , , , - , Living Room , , , Living Room , , , - , Scullery , , , Scullery , , , - , Larder , , - , Larder , , - , - , Bedroom No. 1 , , , Bedroom No. 1 , , , - , Bedroom No. 2 , , , Bedroom No. 2 , , , - , Bedroom No. 3 , , , Bedroom No. 3 , , , - , Total , , , , , , - , colspan="6" , Desirable Minimum sizes- Tudor Walters Committee

The legacy

In 1919 the Government required councils to provide housing, helping them to do so through the provision of subsidies under The Addison Act (Housing Act 1919). The Housing Act 1890 had merely permitted them to do so. They were to be built to the Tudor Walters standards.

References