Evening star., 1936-08-08
ENGLAND SHOWN
IN BUILDING LEAD
1.a1s,000 Dwellings Built in
Five Years, Against Third
as Many in U. S.

As The promised United States
building boom OF 1896 takes its time
in getting under way and newspaper
and magazine writers wax eloquent on
the shortage Of houses, Sir Kingsley
Wood, minister Of health to His
Majesty King Edward, calmly an
nounced few weeks ago that the
number Of dwellings built in England
and Wales since January /, 1919, had
passed the magnificent total Of s.
o0o 900.
The Architectural Forum, in the
August issue, devotes its leading arti-
Gle to a full exposition of Britain's
building boom and to a survey Of the
startling news contained in Sir Kings
leys announcement.
I'm January, 1919," says the Forum,
"there were standing in England and
Wales 100000 dwellings. Therefore,
the 300,000.00 postwar homes repre-
sent more than quarter Of all dwell
ings now standing in England. OF
the 100000, $4,000 were built
within the last five years. During the
same period the United States, with
a population three times as great,
built only one-third as many"
100000 Homes Cost.
Ninety per cent of these 5000, 900
homes, the Forum points out, cost,
with land, less than $4,000: so per
cent of them less than $2,500. None
of them has fewer than four rooms,
and about 100000 Of them have
gardens.
Private enterprise built over half
Of the new dwellings, without any
assistance; another 1000 it erected
with the help of a government sub
sidy. The government itself, through
local authorities. built and owns the
remaining 861 ,000."
You can go on indefinitely dazzling
yourself with Sir Kirgsley's figures
and yet the most dramatic implica-
tion Of them lies not in the numbers
but in the visible brick and wood
fact of the homes themselves.
The houses" says the Forum,
Consists of a good many two, three
and four family dwellings; of less
er number of free standing single
houses and OF relatively negligible
number of apartments They have
changed the face of the land. which
is now subtly informed by the fact
that every new house is almost GER
tainly within reach of the average
income. Today any skilled laborer
or any alpaca-coated accountant can
own q home in England.
"And then there is greenery. Walk
In the older part of any English city
and you walk in the gray and suf-
locating retangulation of row houses
packed tight against sun, air and
grass. Walk in most of the BOOM
built area and your road follows the
curves Of old meadows, comes on sud-
den parks and commons. Most of the
houses you see are the two-fanily
type and you won't often find more
than eight or ten of them to the
acre. There are 81 million acres of
land in England and on II million of
them there is already imposed the
restriction of not building more than
eight dwellings to the rural acres,
IL to the urban.
Half of Two Family Home.
"The average of the 100000 new
dwellings IS one-half of a two-family
house, occupying both first and Sec
ond floors. 1t has three bed rooms, a
parlor, a kitchen, a bath and a gar
den and yet most Americans would
consider it below their American
standard for new housing. But last
year Englishmen established an all
time record by making their down
payments on $4,000 of them"
To understand the boom, the Forum
points out. you must ponder the fact
that the British Government has con-
tributed partial-subsidy toward the
building of nearly half of the postwar
houses-it has helped city govern
ments build $751; 900 homes and pri-
vate enterprise to build 425,O0O homes,
a total of more than 100000 of the
100000 built.
Most of these homes are in de-
tached houses, in row houses and in
apartment buildings. With only one
exception, they are all for rent rather
than for sale and they constitute
major part Of all postwar building
up to the year 1880. Before 1880
two subsidized houses were built for
every one by private enterprise; after
1880 two houses were built by private
enterprise for every one built with
subsidy.
The Forum gives the case history
on one house which $2,500 will buy
and illustrates it with floor plans, and
exterior and interior photographs. 1t
is a prototype of the boom and is
only slightly better or worse than the
other 1,388.000 urlsubsidized houses
which private enterprise built to sell
below the $1,000 mark. 1t is repre-
sentative of the English standard of
new housing in the second and third
decades of the present century.
The house is one-half of a two
family house and it has a garden in
front and back. 1t has three bed
rooms. kitchen, living room, dining
room and bath. There is no base
ment and no central heating, but to
ansulate it, it has felt under the roof
tiles, while the pipes and water tanks
n