By-pass Variegated

By-pass Variegated is a term coined by the cartoonist and architectural historian Osbert Lancaster in his 1938 book Pillar to Post.

Before 1947 there was no systematic legal control of property development in Britain: landowners could in general build as they wished on their land.

[4] In addition to the internal inconveniences and the external aesthetic considerations, Lancaster remarked on "the skill with which the houses are disposed that insures that the largest possible area of countryside is ruined with the minimum of expense".

[4] He also criticised the typical layout that gave each householder "a clear view into the most private offices of his next-door neighbour" and a disregard for natural light in the construction of the principal rooms.

[7] In The New Statesman, Stephen Calloway included "By-pass Variegated" in Lancaster's "pin-point-sharp litany of names still widely used today", along with Kensington Italianate, Municipal Gothic, Pont Street Dutch, Wimbledon Transitional, Pseudish and Stockbrokers' Tudor.