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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 communicates
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
