The front approach of a 'modern' working class house in the early 1900s

The approach to the house where I lived in the early 1900s (one of the Victorian-style terraces on the Huxley Estate) was more or less typical of the approaches to all the other houses on the estate.

The path up to the front door was made of dark red and dark grey diamond-shaped tiles. The front door I had two panels of patterned frosted glass. On the inside of the door was a string, attached to the knob and draped along just below the letter box to a hook so that we children who hadn't a door key could just put our hand inside the letterbox and pull the string to open the door – a device no-one would and dare to have in later years.

The front garden was very small with an evergreen shrub round the window, a creeper that reached up to the bedroom window and a privet hedge that faced the road. Keeping it in good shape was one of the jobs that my father allowed me to take over when I was able to manage the shears.

All the front doors along the road were grained and varnished and the paintwork was kept in good repair. This gave a pleasing uniformity to the road and was thanks to the owner of the estate, as the houses were rented, making the external upkeep the responsibility of the landlord.

Just inside the front door was the the hall, known as the passage. There was a rack there to hang coats and a small umbrella stand. There was also a very nice hall lantern.

The street was a cul-de-sac because at the end of the road was a nursery owned by the people who lived in the last house. The nursery ended in Windmill Road where remained the lower part of an old windmill.

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.