page_title: Byelaw terraced house
section_title: Adaptation
hierarchical_section_title: Byelaw terraced house / Design / Adaptation
caption_attribution_description: Boarded up houses on Thursfield Street, Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
context_page_description: A byelaw terraced house is a type of dwelling built to comply with the Public Health Act 1875. It is a type of British terraced house at the opposite end of the social scale from the aristocratic townhouse, but a marked improvement on the pre-regulation house built as cheap accommodation for the urban poor of the Industrial Revolution. The term usually refers to houses built between 1875 and 1918.
  The 1875 Act imposed a duty on local authorities to regulate housing by the use of byelaws, and subsequently all byelaw terraced housing was required to have its own toilet. At first a "privy" or outhouse was built in the yard behind the house, relying on a pail closet system, with access for the municipal collection of the night soil. As universal town sewerage advanced, flush toilets were built, but often still outside the house. The houses had to meet minimum standards of build quality, ventilation, sanitation and population density.
  Despite a century of slum clearances, byelaw terraced houses made up over 15% of the United Kingdom's housing stock in 2011.
context_section_description: Many houses were incrementally improved. In the 1920s most were wired for electricity, and in the 1930s the deeper Belfast sink and drainer replaced the shallower cane glazed London sink. The improved damp-proof course arrested water ingress, and with the suspended floors halted wood rot.
  The overcrowding and deterioration of the pre-regulation terraced houses caused increasing concern. Local authorities were empowered by the Housing Act 1930 to conduct slum clearance by purchasing unfit properties compulsorily and demolishing them. This was a lengthy process, as they had to prove the property fell within the meaning of the act, and then compensate the landlord for the value of the land. Hundreds of cottages were cleared before the program was stopped in 1939. It restarted in 1955 on a larger scale. Areas were designated for comprehensive development, and all was demolished – houses, factories, workshops, warehouses and chapels.
  Byelaw houses survived the slum clearance programmes of the 1960 and 1970s, and though becoming derelict due to depopulation, they provided a solid framework for urban regeneration. Home improvement grants were used to bring the WC indoors, to provide hot water and bathrooms.  In certain inner-city areas these houses became popular again and subject to gentrification schemes of the 21st century, such as Chimney Pot Park in Salford.
caption: Handed houses in Salford, boarded up and awaiting a refit
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