Firstly, the vast majority of homes - certainly in urban areas - are brick-built. The roof is usually tiled, although depending on the area, quite a few are slate. There are also a lot of cottages made from various stonework, some with the traditional thatched roof. The only wooden structures tend to be historic places from several hundred years back, and are usually well preserved.
Concentrating on the cities and towns, many houses are what we call "terraced", which means that there are maybe eight or ten (sometimes more) houses all connected; in fact, it is basically one long brick structure that is divided into several dwellings. A lot of these were built and owned by the city - or as we call it, the "local council". Council houses were usually solidly built, but small and rather plain. Families would just rent them.
English street under the snow by Patrick Mayon is licensed under CC BY NC 2.0
The early 20th Century saw a lot of these homes built, including many on new housing estates (the equivalent of the American sub-division). However, these estates were often a lot larger than sub-divisions, and because of the size of the buildings, and the smaller gardens, you could get many more properties on the estate.
These houses were often "two-up, two-down", which indicates that there are two bedrooms upstairs, and two rooms downstairs - the living-room and kitchen. I know what you are wondering, but they would often have a bath-tub in the kitchen, and an outhouse in the back garden. Corner houses (or "end-of-terrace") would often be larger, having three bedrooms.
A lot of these homes have now been modernised, with indoor bathrooms and toilets (they are usually separate in the UK. Where I lived, instead of redoing the inside of the houses to add bathrooms, pre-fabricated bathrooms were just attached to the rear of the house.
Gardens were usually small, and particularly in Central London, or in the industrial centres in the North of England, were actually non-existent. The front doors would open straight out on to the pavement (the British name for the sidewalk). Some would have a small lawn at the back, while others would just have a small concrete or brick yard.
During the Second World War, with food rationing in operation, the government allotted a small space for each resident/family (without a garden) where they could grow vegetables. These were known - unsurprisingly - as "allotments". Many of these allotments are still in use today, and controlled by the local councils.
Great memories for people like me...
No comments:
Post a Comment