back-2-back houses in London in the 19th century....

[pinksmartie]

Quick question to help with my homework:

Is this true:- The back to back houses in London at that time were built near factories by the factory owners so that the workers wouldn't have far to go to work so they would be working longer hours to keep the money rolling in?

I'm writing about the conditions in London in the late 19th century, and was just wondering if that was right, because that's what i thought but i can't remember exactly what my teacher told me. Help anyone? Thanks xxx

[dot.hawkes]

Back to backs were part of any large industrial town, though there are very few examples surviving. It provided cheap accomodation and as u say, was built by factory owners to provide houses for their workforce. They can often be identified easily on the 6" OS series of maps. They were however, designed in a way that would not pass modern building regs. as there was only one exit and this would be life threatening in the event of a fire.

[pinksmartie]

thanks dot :)

[dot.hawkes]

there is a good book about Whitechapel that has alot of info on the housing, I can't just find it but if u google 19th Century Whitechapel i think u will find it

[pinksmartie]

thanks again

[jno]

I could be completely wrong here but I think back-to-backs were much more common in the industrial towns of the north and Midlands than in London. Getting to work in London was a problem, hence the development of the underground railway as a means for people to get from home to work. This was begun in 1863 - the world's first - and was well advanced by the late 19th century (depending on exactly what period you're covering).

[dot.hawkes]

jno i agree, there were many in the West Yorkshire mill towns like Sowerby Bridge and Halifax, I know there were still some standing in Sowerby bridge in the 1970s, actually there are a set across the road from me but they are more quad houses though they are back to back

[pinksmartie]

i just need it for London in the late 19th century. Basically i just wanted to know if the thing about the factory owners building the back to back houses so that the workers could work longer was right.

[Peter Pedant]

coom up t north !

Back to backs youcan goand look at:

Birmingham Inge Street as a street museum, next the B Hippodrome,Hurst Street

Leeds - some people are still living in them

Manchester - opposite the GPO on Oldham Road, portugal place and butler lane, thought tohavebeen back to backs and converted. I was taken in, i mean God they look like it.

The other way to pack them in - letting and living in cellars was banned by an 1875 Act, I think

[gary baldy]

To answer your question. Factory owners would build houses for workers to a) make sure they werent late for work and b) so they could charge the workers rent and make a profit out of it. It was win-win for the factory owners.
Sometimes you would get nice factory owners who would build pleasant houses for their workers and build parks, churches, meeting halls etc but they were in the minority.

[Fulton]

Not only did the factory owners charge rent, but many of them also ran shops for their workers, taking the money directly from their wages! Anything to get money off them. Here in Preston, in the mid 19th c itinerant Irish workers lived, worked and slept in shifts, with beds never getting cold as there was always somebody in them.