SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Si wrote: Yes, they almost certainly were built that way. Each builder had their standard set of plans for back-to-backs, and just used half for blind-backs when there was limited space/no street. I've often been puzzled by the estate agents' term "through by light."    Would they be a variation of some kind, where perhaps a small window was built into the solid rear wall in one or more rooms ??

BLAKEY wrote: Si wrote: Yes, they almost certainly were built that way. Each builder had their standard set of plans for back-to-backs, and just used half for blind-backs when there was limited space/no street. I've often been puzzled by the estate agents' term "through by light."    Would they be a variation of some kind, where perhaps a small window was built into the solid rear wall in one or more rooms ?? Drapesy gives a description of what a "through-by-light" is halfway down page 1 of this thread, Blakey.

[quotenick="Si"] BLAKEY wrote: Drapesy gives a description of what a "through-by-light" is halfway down page 1 of this thread, Blakey. Many thanks for that Si - I find it most interesting as I had no idea at all about such a "blueprint."    I have lived in two back to back houses and visited many more but have certainly never come across a "through by light." As the saying goes "You learn summat new every day" !!    

Check out the YEP.Says back to backs first built in late 1700's around union street & ebenezer street near the markets. Last back to backs 1937 29 years after they became illegal.Most other cities don't have them. Brum has a few streets they have "preserved".At one time 80% of Leeds people lived in back to backs.......The backs along Ebenezer street are shown on the 1847 map but many had gone by the 1906 map so they were getting pulled down before they became "illegal"

The Parksider wrote: Check out the YEP.Says back to backs first built in late 1700's around union street & ebenezer street near the markets. Last back to backs 1937 29 years after they became illegal.Most other cities don't have them. Brum has a few streets they have "preserved".At one time 80% of Leeds people lived in back to backs.......The backs along Ebenezer street are shown on the 1847 map but many had gone by the 1906 map so they were getting pulled down before they became "illegal" I have the questionable honour of knowing my distant family owned/built someof these in the late 1700's I think, around Quarry Hill, Lumb Court was one group. described before clearance as some of the most insanitary housing in Leeds!

The Parksider wrote: Check out the YEP.Says back to backs first built in late 1700's around union street & ebenezer street near the markets. Last back to backs 1937 29 years after they became illegal.Most other cities don't have them. Brum has a few streets they have "preserved".At one time 80% of Leeds people lived in back to backs.......The backs along Ebenezer street are shown on the 1847 map but many had gone by the 1906 map so they were getting pulled down before they became "illegal" See "Millgarth police station" thread for both these maps of this area.

IIRC Back to backs were prohibited by building regs but you could still build them if you had obtained planning permission before this date. So several plots of land that had planning permission for back to backs weren't built until the 1930's as Parksider says.I thin k B'ham back to backs aren't like ours in that they were through terraces whos yard backed on to the back yard of the next property. Might be wrong about that.In Newcastle there was always a requirement that the houses had through access so they built Tynside Flats, the equivalent of a back to back but split ground floor/first floor and each terrace appearing to have two front doors. This idea seems to have bee revived in recent years in Leeds, splitting terraces into 'duplex apartments'.

Cardiarms wrote: In Newcastle there was always a requirement that the houses had through access so they built Tynside Flats, the equivalent of a back to back but split ground floor/first floor and each terrace appearing to have two front doors. This idea seems to have bee revived in recent years in Leeds, splitting terraces into 'duplex apartments'. I lived in a house like this in Rectory Road, Gateshead, in 1979. The right-hand door led to the ground floor flat, and the left-hand door led directly to a staircase to our flat, which occupied the top two floors. The kitchen was in an extension at the back, with the bathroom beyond. A fire-escape led from the bathroom, down into downstairs's garden.

Does anybody know what's going to replace the back to backs in Holbeck? Just by the park, loads of them earmarked for demolition.

chameleon wrote: The Parksider wrote: Check out the YEP.Says back to backs first built in late 1700's around union street & ebenezer street near the markets. Last back to backs 1937 29 years after they became illegal.Most other cities don't have them. Brum has a few streets they have "preserved".At one time 80% of Leeds people lived in back to backs.......The backs along Ebenezer street are shown on the 1847 map but many had gone by the 1906 map so they were getting pulled down before they became "illegal" I have the questionable honour of knowing my distant family owned/built someof these in the late 1700's I think, around Quarry Hill, Lumb Court was one group. described before clearance as some of the most insanitary housing in Leeds! While trawling the internet for info for my family history I came across a pamphlet by D B Foster published in 1897 "Leeds Slumdom"It must have been printed to accompany a lecture he was giving which was about the fearful conditions of slum life and his recommendations for solving the City's insanitary housing problem. The photographs aren't clear but the text makes interesting reading.If you google "Leeds slumdom" it comes up.Sorry I don't know how to do links. Here's your link lillysmum:http://library-2.lse.ac.uk/collections/ ... 02/doc.pdf