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Concept
Byelaw terraced house
Summary
A byelaw terraced house is a type of dwelling built to comply with the Public Health Act 1875. It is a type of British terraced house at the opposite end of the social scale from the aristocratic townhouse but a marked improvement on the pre-regulation house built as cheap accommodation for the urban poor of the Industrial Revolution. The term usually refers to houses built between 1875 and 1918.
The 1875 act imposed a duty on local authorities to regulate housing by the use of byelaws, and subsequently all byelaw terraced housing was required to have its own toilet. At first a "privy" or outhouse was built in the yard behind the house, relying on a pail closet system, with access for the municipal collection of the night soil. As universal town sewerage advanced, flush toilets (water closets) were built but often still outside the house. The houses had to meet minimum standards of build quality, ventilation, sanitation and population density.
Despite a century of slum clearances, byelaw terraced houses made up over 15% of the United Kingdom's housing stock in 2011.
Between 1801 and 1901 the UK's population increased fourfold; there was a migration from the land into towns, as the nature of work changed. The urban population increased tenfold, and they needed housing. Employers built rows of houses (terraces) on whatever ground was available; some of these were back-to-back (i.e. with only one door), but many were through houses, i.e. with both front and back doors. In older towns they were constrained by the mediaeval street patterns and the need to fit as many houses as possible on the traditional long plots. The less fortunate lived in single-roomed houses facing onto a communal courtyard where there were privies, a cesspit, a standpipe, and high infant mortality, typhus and cholera were common. Edwin Chadwick's report on The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population (1842), researched and published at his own expense, highlighted the problems.
Action was taken to introduce building control regulations.
Official source
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