The back garden was a source of genuine pleasure for me in my working class household of the Huxley Estate in the early 1900s. It was reached through the back door in the scullery - see the house plans page. First, though, came the back yard:
If you have an old photo which illustrates anything on this page, I would very much appreciate a copy. Pat Cryer
The area just outside the door was known as the 'yard' and was laid out in blue and dull red tiles. My mother’s mangle was kept there with a sheet of tarpaulin thrown over to protect it from the weather. The various tin baths used on washdays and for Saturday bathnights were kept there too, hung from hooks on the fence.
Our food safe, also known as the 'meat safe', was also there, opposite the back door for easy access. Being outside in the shade it was the coldest and most airy place available and was used for perishable food like meat, milk and butter. It was a small cupboard at eye level on stilts, resting against and probably attached to the dividing fence between us and our neighbours. The safe was made of wood with doors which were open to the air apart from a covering of fine galvanised wire mesh. This allowed the air to circulate while keeping insects out. There was an upper and a lower compartment, both lined with white American cloth, which was a fabric with a wipe-clean surface.
The red and blue tiled path led round to the back of the house to my father's shed which was a lean-to which he had built himself. The path also led through the lean-to to the outside lavatory.
My father's shed had a good working bench and vice. It was well kept and well stocked with tools. The hobbing foot was also kept there. This was to repair shoes – or should I say boots, as that was what we all wore, apart from on Sundays and special occasions. It was cheaper for my father to mend our boots himself than for us to use a cobbler, known as the 'snobs'.
Along the path, away from the house, was the back garden.
The back garden was very well kept with beautiful flowers. Flowers like clothes seem to go by fashion. In our back garden there were ageratum, phlox, tobacco plant, zinnias, heliotrope, asters, roses, pinks and many other old varieties.
The soil was in good condition thanks to my brothers and me, who had to go out with a wheelbarrow, brush and shovel, and collect horse dung from the road as manure. There was quite a lot of it because horses were effectively the only means of transport and no-one thought it at all odd for them to leave their dung on the road. My father put the dung that we collected into a large tin bath and watered it down. Runner beans seemed to do particularly well with this treatment. My brothers and I did not quarrel about the chore. In those days when you were told to do a job, you just did it, no questions asked.
These childhood recollections from around the time of the 1911 census are of the back yard and back garden, of a working class home in north London (then Middlesex).