Terraced Houses/Terraced Streets

Vast areas of Liverpool consist of terraced houses which are entirely uninhabited. Meanwhile the city grows outwards in redbrick development after redbrick development. this story is repeated in the vast majority of British cities. The regeneration of terraced areas would do more for urban revival than anything else I can think of.
N.B Mary I love the look and feel of terraced areas, and I mourn their passing.

Someone defined "terraced" in this context for me, I'm curious.

Terraced housing is that where each house abuts another on each side. Most of the traditional urban terraced areas fronted straight onto the street and had a little yard space to the rear (Often only a small alley seperates one terrace from another). For many years they were the most affordable housing available and thus became the poorest areas (this is a slack generalisation I know). Despite being relatively efficient in terms of space they have become abandoned for larger developments of semi-detached and detached housing with gardens, hence the inner cities dying.

I think the American equivalent is the row house.

large parts of melbourne and sydney are full of terrace houses. i like the way they look but they suck if you have noisy neighbours

This

They say I pretend or lie
All I write. No such thing.
It simply is that I
Feel by imagining.
I don't use the heart-string.

All that I dream or lose,
That falls short or dies on me,
Is like a terrace which looks
On another thing beyond.
It's that thing leads me on.

And so I write in the middle
Of things not next one's feet,
Free from my own muddle,
Concerned for what is not.
Feel? Let the reader feel!

Oh, okay. It's pretty much all terraced housing here in Montreal, well not all, but there's tons and tons.

Its funny to think in the UK it is all being abandoned - in Melbourne and Sydney it all gets bought up by rich bastards and developers for millions, and done up to the nines. I'd love to live in a 2 storey fancy terrace.

They are so, so dud in Sydney. Completely inappropriate for the weather, and can't have a party without inviting the police. I spurn them as I would spurn a rapid dog. I will never, ever live in a wretched terrace again.

Rapid dog = greyhound. Rabid dog = spurnworthy dog.

i dont know about them being abandoned in the uk, they are sought after, especially in london. in the 60s many were knocked down to make way for local authority blocks, hackney borough in particular was quite vigorous in this policy

Yes I was going to say. I live in one and there doesn't seem to be a shortage of them in london.

i currently live in a terraced house. It's not so bad, but it does make for quite a dark house & noisy neighbours! There are alot of old ex-council, large, terraced houses in Cambridge.

They are far from being abandoned. Most of the most desirable property in London is Georgian or Victorian terraces . OK so these aren't terraces in the Alan Stilitoe sense but they are there in droves in cities all over the country. The smaller two up two down type are the bulk of the housing stock anywhere vaguely central in most British cities.

Although abandonment is not exclusive to Liverpool, Liverpool is a weird example to take as far as the vitality of the terrace house goes; Liverpool still has empty spaces in streets where second world war bombs took down buildings. What's more its the British city least constrained, everything is around it is flat so it has some of the widest thrown suburbs I know of in the UK.

The majority of inner-city Portsmouth is made of Victorian-era terraces. The narrow fronts often quite deceptive - many have rear extensions and are large enough to comfortably accomodate five people.

I grew up in a 60s-built former council terrace before spending much of student/adult life in Victorian terraces. The main difference you notice is the ceiling height.

Tell me about terrraces in the Sillitoe sense.

I live in a terraced house. I have quite noisy neighbours on one side and very quiet neighbours on the other. I have got used to the noisy ones.

One thing you don't see any more is back-to-back terraced housing. I remember going on a tour of central Birmingham (the Digbeth Trail) which included visiting the very last two back-to-back houses in Birmingham, which unsurprisingly were in a derelict state.

**Most of the most desirable property in London is Georgian or Victorian terraces **

And Edwardian too. Prices for a two-up, two down Victorian/Edwardian terrace round my manor would make yr eyes water. Yuppies!

Actually the first wave of '1930's' semis in the suburbs, in other words those built in the mid/late 20's right at the start of the expansion of London, are v. popular now. They're more solid than the 'real' 1930's houses - built with thicker, pre-cavity walls. The only problem is the front to back size is too short in comparison with the width, but you usually got a biggish garden so extending backwards is no problem. I did this. You also get a huge loft space -next project will be to extend up there I think.

Righto, the terraced house is alive and kicking in London and lots of other places. Liverpool is not a weird example though, I have seen the same thing happening in Burnley, Plymouth, Swansea, Blackburn, even on a micro scale in places like Camborne and Redruth where the primary economy has moved slowly and inexorably to a tertiary one.

I guess so but the more hilly the city and surroundings the more stable the terraces because there's less room to spread, also immigrants and students help too, so Sheffield is a prime example of a city where the terraced areas have far from been abandoned.

There are loads of back to backs left in Leeds.

do ppl still live in them?

Yes

There are also back-to-backs in Gateshead; you can see them from the train when heading south from Newcastle.

I've only ever lived in an end of terrace house...so I don't think I'd like having neighbours so close. But, now I live in a semi.

I grew up in terraced back-to-backs - well, two. The first had no bathroom, no inside lavatory and the kitchen seemed to be something my dad had knocked up in an afternoon. From 1979 we were round the corner in another place that seemed vast by comparison and actually had hot running water upstairs (something our elderly neighbours - rehoused at the same time - had difficulty with. "Do I have to carry a kettle upstairs if I want a bath?").

Last I checked you could buy a place on my old street for £24k. I daren't tell my parents how much I paid for my London flat.

mary:
>Tell me about terrraces in the Sillitoe sense.

see if you can get hold of copies of the stillitoe (and similar) films from somewhere. mostly shot in places like nottingham and sheffield, there are lots in there.

some titles from the top of my head:
...long distance runner
saturday night and sunday morning
taste of honey
kes (maybe)
look back in anger

all those 60's kitchen sink dramas that morrisey is so fond of.

andy

We tend to call them townhouses and they aren't very popular with anyone in English Canada it seems.

I recently watched Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and A Taste of Honey. However, my favorite terraced houses spotting was in the film Wetherby, when the train is going through the countryside and there is nothing but rolling hills and red brick terraces.

What have they done to my hometown?
They've pulled the terraced houses down
And put the people in the sky
In towers twenty stories high
It's very hard now to relate
To meet with folk, communicate

What have they done to my hometown?
They've pulled the terraced houses down
Although they seemed so out of date
I find it hard now to relate
The feeling there's not quite the same
I know it only by it's (sic) name
What have they done to my hometown?
What have they done to my hometown?
I hardly know my old hometown

Ladies and gentleman, Motown recording artist Albert Finney.

The London Terrace Gardens Chelsea, New York.