Back-to-back houses

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An illustration of two units in a Back-to-back housing development

Back-to-back houses are a form of terraced house in which two houses share a rear wall (or in which the rear wall of a house directly abuts a factory or other building).

Usually of low quality (sometimes with only two rooms, one on each floor) and high density, they were built for working class people and because three of the four walls of the house were shared with other buildings and therefore contained no doors or windows, back-to-back houses were notoriously ill-lit and poorly ventilated and sanitation was of a poor standard.

1 History
2 Blind-backs
3 Usage
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

These had become common in Victorian English inner city areas, such as Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham. In Leeds, this style of terrace continued to be built right up until the 1930s.

Many were demolished during the early and middle years of the 20th century when council housing became more widespread and councils engaged in organised programmes of slum clearances which were all part of post-war redevelopment programmes.

[edit] Blind-backs

Back-to-back properties can also be known as blind-backs particularly when built up against factory walls, or occasionally as a terrace of houses standing on its own (from the end elevation this looks like a terrace that had been sliced in half and then one half demolished).

[edit] Usage

In recent years the term "back-to-back" has become a general catch-all term applied (erroneously) by the media, to "through" terraced houses too (whose backs only face each other, being separated by an alleyway, and thus not contiguous like a true "back-to-back").