Byelaw terraced house
A byelaw terraced house is a type of dwelling built to comply with the Public Health Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict.
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.
In older towns they were constrained by the medieval street patterns and the need to fit as many houses as possible on the traditional long plots.
[2] 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),[3] researched and published at his own expense, highlighted the problems.
In interpreting the act, the earliest houses remained the traditional two-storey cottage design but with taller rooms and larger windows, which improved lighting and ventilation.
The houses had a long, narrow private yard (also known as an "area"), with the privy (outhouse) containing an earth closet on the back wall.
[9] An early modification to the basic design shifted the staircase to be perpendicular to the street, sometimes with the addition of a ground floor hallway.
A rear adjoined scullery would also be added, generally with a third, smaller bedroom built on top, which modern owners often converted into an upstairs bathroom.
[10] The privy began to be built adjoining the scullery block, with a water closet connected to mains drainage.
On terraces with an alley leading to the back gardens, either one or both houses neighbouring the passage were built over it on the first floor, forming a tunnel and providing marginally more bedroom space.
Local authorities were empowered by the Housing Act 1930 to conduct slum clearance by purchasing unfit properties compulsorily and demolishing them.
[15] Byelaw houses survived the slum clearance programmes of the 1960 and 1970s, and though becoming derelict because of depopulation, they provided a solid framework for urban regeneration.
[11] In certain inner-city areas these houses became popular again and subject to gentrification schemes of the 21st century, such as Chimney Pot Park in Salford.
