Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

BRUNSWICK. 133 height of 29 feet 6 inches when the street is not more than 29 feet 6 inches wide, but when the street exceeds this measurement, the height of adjacent buildings must not exceed its width. Most of the working-class dwellings in the new town were erected in the eighties and the nineties of last century and have fronts of bare pressed brick. Occasional blocks of older date betray themselves by the rough and grimy surface of their brick fronts, whilst their internal arrangements resemble those prevailing in the old town, except in the case of a few houses erected by employers of labour in the vicinity of their factories. Here the kitchen assumes the appearance and the proportions of a room, and the dimensions of the other parts of the dwelling are also on a more generous scale. Abundance of air and light is also a feature of these dwellings, which have at the back small gardens or a large court for use as a drying ground or a playground. The dominant type in the new town, however, is the double-house of from three to four storeys, the entrance, staircase and landings being in the centre of the block and the tenements situated to right and left of these. Streets of such houses present the appearance of a series of small barracks, as neither balconies nor decorations of any kind relieve the monotony of the house fronts, and the house doors are invariably behind. The entrance is reached by way of the side passage between two blocks and from the courtyard, where in many cases the closets are situated. Inside the entrance to the right is a short flight of steps leading down to the cellars where there is a wash-house for the whole block, with store places for wood and coal attached to the various tenements, whilst to the left is a short lobby. The doors opening into the ground-floor tenements are situated at the back of this lobby to right and left. Two flights of stairs lead to the first landing where the tenements are entered by doors to right and left, with sometimes a third small tenement in the centre. The same general arrangement holds good for all the upper storeys. In some of the more modern houses a closet is situated on the small landing midway between two floors and serves for two tenements, whilst in others there is a closet for each tenement. Entering one of these typical dwellings the visitor passes directly from the landing into the kitchen or living room, as the case may be, which com municates with the other rooms belonging to the tenement. When a tenement consists of four rooms it is usual to find a short corridor running from the landing door, having two rooms on one side, and one on the other, and the fourth at the end. In this class of tenements the kitchen is not only spacious and well lighted but is tolerably well furnished, and the family meals can be taken in it. The bedrooms, even in this class of dwelling, rarely contain more than the beds and one or two chairs. The following are typical dimensions of the various rooms comprised in working-class tenements in the older part of the town The living room varies from 9 feet 9 inches to 12 feet 9 inches in length, and from 7 feet 9 inches to 9 feet 9 inches in breadth, the bedroom from 9 feet 9 inches to lo feet in length, and from 5 feet to 8 feet 5 inches in width, whilst the dimensions of the kitchen are from 6 feet 6 inches to 9 feet 9 inches in length, and from 5 feet to 8 feet 2 inches in breadth. The height of a dwelling is usually from 7 to 9 feet, but it is not unusual to find rooms in the upper storeys only 6 feet 2 inches, and even 5 feet 10 inches high. In the newer part of the town the living room measures as a rule 13 feet by 9 feet 9 inches to 11 feet 4 inches, the bedroom 9 feet 9 inches to 13 feet by 8 feet 2 inches to 11 feet 4 inches, and the kitchen 8 feet 2 inches to 9 feet 9 inches by 6 feet 6 inches to 9 feet 9 inches. Ihe height of rooms varies from 8 feet 9 inches to iO feet. A " Public Utility " Building Society has erected some 254 dwellings which are let at rents little less than those belonging to private owners, though, on the other hand, the accommodation is superior, ihe rents are as follows : Two rooms, and kitchen, 3a, 3d. to 3a. 5d. per week ; three rooms, and kitchen, 3s. 4d. to 4s. 4d. per week ; and four rooms, and kitchen, os. to os. ha. this society is able to obtain loans amounting to 8o per cent, of the value of the land and property from the State Insurance Society at the low rate of 3 per cent. It has also"received easy loans from the Imperial Home Ofhcein return for an undertaking that workmen and minor officials in the Imperial sei vice should have a certain number of dwellings allotted to them, formerly the tenants

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation