Back-to-Backs, Courts and Cellars: Working-Class Housing

Most industrial workers rented housing built cheaply and quickly by speculative builders. In towns such as Leeds and Birmingham, 'back-to-back' houses shared a rear wall with another row, so they had windows on only one side and no through ventilation. In Liverpool and Manchester many families lived in enclosed courts or damp cellars, sharing a few privies and a single water pump with dozens of neighbors. Overcrowding spread disease, and rubbish and sewage often collected in streets.

Reformers, journalists and doctors documented these conditions, and some employers built model villages, such as Saltaire, founded by Titus Salt in the 1850s. Local laws gradually set building standards, and new back-to-backs were banned nationally in 1909. Historians note that conditions varied widely, and that some workers valued being close to work, family and community despite the hardships.