THE WORKING-CLASS OWNER-OCCUPIED HOUSE OF THE 1930s

The Tudor Walters Report and its Lack of Influence on the Speculative Builder.

The post-1919 houses were influenced by the work contained in the Tudor Walters Report which was commissioned by the government in 1917 to set standards and to produce model plans and specifications for the building industry pending the house building programme which was to start at the end of hostilities. The 'Report was sensitive and all-embracing, and at the same time responsible. It displayed an informed awareness of rising building costs and the lack of skilled labour' (53). Almost all of the recommendations in the Report were adopted by the Local Government Board in its Housing Manual published in 1919. Dr. Christopher Addison was the President of the Board and later the first Health Minister whose responsibilities included housing. 'If any man can be described as the father of the council house' then it was Addison (54). The Tudor Walters Report, which was practical and detailed and contained plans and illustrations of approved building construction methods. It dealt with problems of site layout and also aesthetic considerations. As laid down by Tudor Walters, the new houses should be 'Two-storied cottages, built in groups of four or six, with medium or low-pitched roofs and little exterior decoration, set amongst gardens, trees...and often laid out in cul-de-sacs...have such a distinct character that it is hard to mistake them for anything else' (55). Such homes were to be built following the recommendations of the Report but they were not the standards used by the speculative builder. Donninison has said that 'Since,[1919] there have been improvements in the equipment of new houses-particularly their bathrooms and kitchens-but their structure and the space allocated to them have changed comparatively little' (56). This was still true of the houses being built by local authorities in the 1920s and 1930s but not for the homes provided by private developers. When building the smaller cheaper house for the working class the speculative developer took the basic design and dimensions of the house built to Tudor Walters standards, reduced it in size and simplified the arrangement so that it could be produced cheaply.

Much importance was attached in the Report to the clear layout of streets, sunny living-rooms and an avoidance of rear projections. Unwin - the dominant design influence in the Tudor Walters Report - argued against the building of rear extensions, since they 'effectively shade the rooms from sunshine...impede the free access of air...and present an open and fair surface to sun and air' (57). The speculative builder would have been against building rear extensions because of cost considerations, and he reduced the floor-to-ceiling height to eight feet, which seemed appropriate to both builder and buyer. It also produced a more proportioned appearance for rooms as the floor areas in the 1930s houses were less than in the homes built in the previous decades. In addition to savings made by a reduction in both the gross floor areas and cubic capacity of the 1930s semi, fewer internal walls were built. Omitting as far as possible internal walls avoided extra footings, brickwork, plastering and doors. The lack of internal walls led to fewer built-in cupboards as free standing units could be substituted which were thought to be more moderné and cheaper for the builder to supply (58). It also became more usual and convenient for the builder, though not necessarily for the occupier, to combine bathrooms with w.c's., further reducing the need for internal partitioning, doors and tiled finishes.

(53) P. Nuttgens, The Home Front (London, 1989), p. 52.
(54) P. Hennessy, Never Again Britain 1945-51 (London, 1992), p. 167.
(55) M. Swenarton, Homes Fit for Heroes: The Political and Architecture of Early State Housing in Britain (London, 1981), p. 1.
(56) D. Donnison, Housing Policy Since the War in Occasional Papers on Social Administration, (Hitchin, 1960), p. 10.
(57) R. Unwin, Cottage Plans and Common Sense (London, 1902), p. 3.
(58) From an advertisement for kitchen cupboards which folded out to provide a table and two benches in the June 1936 issue of Illustrated Carpenter and Builder.