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A typical house on UK Victorian housing estates

Victorian terraced house

This page is presented as a For Sale brochure as the best way of doing justice to the description of a typical 1900s house on what was then a modern housing estate. Based on my mother's childhood home, it outlines the general area, gives typical house plans, descriptions of rooms and facilities.

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Based on the written recollections of the webmaster's mother (1906-2002), more firsthand contributions and additional research, edited by the webmaster

Please imagine that you are back in the early 1900s England, are in regular working class employment and are interested in taking over what was then a modern house on a modern housing estate.

The locality

The house is one of a row of a terrace of houses on an estate of similar houses, close to shops and schools.

The house

The house is shown in the photo. It is compact and terraced with all the modern conveniences expected of a Victorian and Edwardian home.

1900s house

House on a typical housing estate, 1909.

The house has a kitchen, scullery, front parlour and bedrooms. There is also an offroom with a bath, back and front gardens and a flush lavatory outside. There is gas lighting, a copper water heater and a coal-fired kitchen range, all built-in.

The rooms and gardens

When looking over the house, you would see the following areas in the following order. They are detailed on their own pages:

Turning back into the house, you would climb the stairs to the upper floor where you would see the rooms in the following order:

Room plans

For the layout and room plans see the separate page.

Facilities

Running water is plumbed in with a tap in the scullery; gas is laid on for lighting; heating is by open coal fires and coal-fired ranges in the kitchen and scullery; hot water is by a coal-fired copper in the scullery (or by a kettle heated on a range); the outside lavatory flushes.

Rent

The house is for rent which means that normal outside maintenance will not be your responsibility. For an estimate of the rent see the page on rents and incomes.

In practice, these houses were highly desirable at the time for working class families, so no selling was necessary. They changed hands by word of mouth.

John Cole


sources: early 20th century material      sources: ww2 home front and other material     contact
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