page_title: Back-to-back house
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Back-to-back house / History / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: English: A typical day Aviary Place, Armley, Leeds. Clean washing drying on the line.
context_page_description: Back-to-backs are a form of terraced houses in the United Kingdom, built from the late 18th century through to the early 20th century in various guises. Many thousands of these dwellings were built during the Industrial Revolution for the rapidly increasing population of expanding factory towns. Back-to-backs share party walls on three of their four sides, with the front wall having the only door and windows.
  As back-to-backs were built as the cheapest possible housing for the impoverished working class. Their construction was usually sub-standard. Their configuration did not allow for sufficient ventilation or sanitation. Toilets and water supplies were shared with multiple households in enclosed courtyards. Back-to-backs gained an unfavourable reputation for poor levels of health and hygiene.
  Around the mid-19th century, this form of housing was deemed unsatisfactory and a hazard to health. The passage of the Public Health Act 1875 permitted municipal corporations to ban new back-to-backs, replaced in the next phase of building by byelaw terraced houses.
caption: With no rear yard, across-street washing lines were employed with a pulley operated from street level.
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