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Peter A Rushforth
Oct 10, 07 - 10:10 PM |
Back-to-backs
I think back-to-back houses were to be found only in the North. Certainly in Bradford where I was brought up there were thousands creating large populations in compact areas. Although these houses were small and usually had only two bedrooms people seeemed happy enough and quite content. Apart from the bedrooms they had a cellar, useful for keeping food cool, a 'living room' (which had to be used as dining-room, kitchen, lounge and even bathroom when the tin bath was put in front of the fireplace) and a 'cellar-head', where there was a sink and usually a gas oven and hob, at the top of the steps which led down to the cellar. The toilet was at the back of the houses so those living at the front had to walk down the 'tunnel' created by the bedrooms to a toilet block at the back. Here there would be a block of four toilets for the two houses at the front and the two houses at the back. The toilets had a cistern with chain above the toilet. In severe cold weather people would often put a candle or a small paraffin lamp under the supply pipe in the hope that it would not freeze up. I guess I was fortunate because our house, surrounded by back-to-backs, was a gable-end so we had more rooms than the back-to-backs and even a bathroom (though an outside loo!) We also had a shop but as there was a shop at practically every corner the weekly takings must have been quite small. Our loo was at the bottom of the garden but it was on its own. Whereas the back-to-backs had cisterns we had a 'tippler'. The waste water from the house went down to the loo. The loo was like a large diameter pipe, probably three feet deep, with a wooden seat and at the lower front of the pipe, hidden from view, was a bucket hinged off-centre so that when it filled up with the water it would 'tipple' and so flush the waste away. When they demolished the back-to-backs they built high-rise blocks of flats. Then after a number of years decided these had too many problems and demolished them too. Now we find that high-rise blocks of expensive flats are being constructed in city centres ------ plus que ca change! |
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