page_title: Terraced houses in the United Kingdom
section_title: 19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Terraced houses in the United Kingdom / 19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Tylorstown: Brynbedw Road A view of Brynbedw Road, as it climbs steeply the western side of the Rhondda valley, from high up on the eastern side.
context_page_description: Terraced houses have been popular in the United Kingdom, particularly England and Wales, since the 17th century. They were originally built as desirable properties, such as the townhouses for the nobility around Regent's Park in central London, and the Georgian architecture in Bath.
  The design became a popular way to provide high-density accommodation for the working class in the 19th century, when terraced houses were built extensively in urban areas throughout Victorian Britain. Though numerous terraces have been cleared and demolished, many remain and have regained popularity in the 21st century.
context_section_description: Terraced houses were still considered desirable architecture at the start of the 19th century. The architect John Nash included terraced houses when designing Regent's Park in 1811, as it would allow individual tenants to feel as if they owned their own mansion.
  The terraced house reached mass popularity in the mid-19th century as a result of increased migration to urban areas. Between 1841 and 1851, towns in England grew over 25% in size, at which point over half the population lived in urban areas; this increased further to nearly 80% by 1911. Terraced houses became an economical solution to fit large numbers of people into a relatively constricted area. Many terraced houses were built in the South Wales Valleys in the mid to late 19th century owing to the large-scale expansion of coal mining there. In the Rhondda, the population increased from 4,000 in 1861 to 163,000 in 1891. Because of the imposing local geography, containing narrow river valleys surrounded by mountains, terraced houses were the most economic means of providing sufficient accommodation for workers and their families.
  Nationwide legislation for terraced housing began to be introduced during the Victorian era. The 1858 Local Government Act stated that a street containing terraced houses had to be at least 36 feet (11 m) wide with houses having a minimum open area at the rear of 150 square feet (14 m²), and specified the distance between properties should not be less than the height of each. Other building codes inherited from various local councils defined a minimum set of requirements for drainage, lighting and ventilation. The various acts led to a uniform design of terraced houses that was replicated in streets throughout the country. 
  This design was still basic, however; for example, in 1906, only 750 houses out of 10,000 in Rochdale had an indoor WC. Sanitation was handled, imperfectly, by outhouses (privies) shared between several dwellings. These were originally various forms of "earth closet" (such as the Rochdale system of municipal collection) until legislation forced their conversion to "water closet" (flush toilet). 
  Terraced houses were as popular in working-class Northern Ireland as in Britain. The Bogside in Derry is composed mainly of traditional Victorian terraces and their overcrowding in the mid-20th century was a key trigger for the Troubles.
  Though many working-class people lived in terraces, they were also popular with middle classes in some areas, particularly the North of England. In 1914, despite the introduction of newer housing, terraces still catered for 71% of the population in Leeds. In some areas, these terraces contained 70–80 houses per acre. Houses were generally allowed to be used for commercial purposes, with many front rooms being converted to a shop front and giving rise to the corner shop. By the 1890s, larger terraces designed for lower-middle-class families were being built. These contained eight or nine rooms each and included upstairs bathrooms and indoor toilets.
caption: Many terraced houses were built in the Rhondda in the mid to late 19th century, as they could accommodate migrants within the mountainous landscape.
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