My mum's side of the family are from Leicester and many of them lived in the slum courts like this. Nearly all of them were employed by the hosiery industry in Leicester. Between 1840-1860 there was huge depression in the industry which lead to a slump in wages, poor standard of living and starvation due to many of them not being able to feed themselves or their children. Likewise the slums were built with little to no drainage and as Leicester sits in a dip, they were often knee high in flood water when it rained hard and then paddling about in the sludge once the waters receded. Many of them lived in St Margaret's which was the poorest area of the city and I read that many of the court slums were little more than converted pig stys. Similarly the land they were built on were previous rubbish dumps and often the houses were slung up on top them before it had even rotted down. The area itself was known for being quite seedy with lots of knocking shops, pubs and beer shops. There was a lot of violent crime, domestic violence and arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct. Public health wasn't much better as the city was struck by regular outbreaks of summer diarrhea and deaths in infants were particularly high as a result. Leicester also refused to implement the smallpox vaccine until the 1853 vaccination act was brought in mandating that all infants under three were to be inoculated. This was due to a widespread belief that the vaccine would cause skin diseases in children. One of my relatives was actually banged up and fined for refusing to vaccinate their child as a result of the legislation.
This is fantastic information, thank you. Makes me feel very lucky to live how I do and makes me check myself when I go to moan about something trivial ❤️
I lived in a home like this and brought up two children it's not long ago I knew people who wore clogs too I could write a book on the way things were I. Now in my 70s
@@throughlucyslens Just found your channel and subscribed. Your ethos is exactly like mine. The living and lives of the vast majority of British people are the true history of this country. I quite like a stately home now and again but, at the back of my mind, is always the saying, "behind every Great Home is a Great Crime." Much prefer the vernacular social lives and places of the people who really made Britain what it was and is. I wrote my own autobiography of growing up on a council house estate in the '60s and published it on Kindle eBooks but am in the process of writing my growing up into teenage and adulthood and remembered that my first 'proper' job was working in a Textile Dyehouse Mill where I was given a choice of clogs or safety boots. Must write that bit in.
My dad lived in one of these in the 1920s in Icknield Street. He remembered as a child being bathed standing up in the sink in the communal washhouse (I think it was known as a brewhouse) - from what he explained, a metal sink with a coal fire below - the metal was a bit too hot for comfort - so he had to continuously swap from standing on one leg to the other to keep his feet from being burnt.
Gosh, can you imagine! The poor kids bathing in pretty much a caldron! Yes, it was called a brewhouse, I meant to say that in the video because I believe they also brewed up beer in there in the very early days. Thanks for your comment Mike x
@@throughlucyslens he also told me there was a kind of snobbery - people who lived in front houses regarded themselves as superior to those who lived in back houses. My dad also referred to dustbins as 'miskins', and to the sink drain as 'the suff'. Not sure of the spellings on miskins and suff.
@@mikebashford8198 Yes they did mention people facing the street thought they were superior, I guess because your front door went onto the street - still had to go around the back to use the loo though ;)
I have an outdoor bathtub that I use very frequently. The fire surely heats the iron red hot and I use two pillows not to burn my bum. But it's outdoor, with real fire,I'm loving it everytime.
@@throughlucyslens Yes, I thought at first that the back might be a better choice as you were closer to the outhouses! But it does make sense that the street had a better view and fresher air, as well as a proper front door.
@@throughlucyslens They are more important than castles. While I love English gardens, the people who lived in those cramped corners had none. No trees, no flowers, and hardly a chance to survive.
@IoanaMoldovanu ..........if you can travel while in UK..........visit BEAMISH (near Durham/Newcastle).........clips on here if you search.......i was there last weekend - brilliant place........and if youre ever in Glasgow/Scotland there is the TENEMENT MUSEUM (clips on here too.
Yes there are but they all face on to a street on either side, these are the last back to backs court houses with one side on the street and another in a court yard through an alley for access. I’d love to see the ones up north x
Yes I grew up in something similar until about 1972 in Bradford, Yorkshire. Our house was the middle one and was a through terrace. Either side were back to backs, the front ones looked out on the street, the rear ones onto a small courtyard, where the communal toilets were.
Loved this. My late partner was from Brum and I have been hearing about these for years. Nothing is more important than the lives of our working class ancestors! Backs to backs were great but you made them come alive for us !
We visited the Back to Backs when we visited our friends in Birmingham, we're from the US. Wow, it was so interesting, filled with history, AND i found my maternal grandfathers name there!! Dont miss this wonderful site.
Fascinating, and thanks so much for sharing your tour. My grandparents, born in Victorian times, had an outside loo (flushing) complete with cut-up newspaper on a hook/nail. My grandmother also used a mangle, which cracked shirt etc buttons if one forgot to widen the space between the rollers - most likely distracted by another essential household task. Some installations, eg fireplaces and kitchen range, would now be classed much-sought-after or quirky 'period features'; other fitments, not least the doors, appear superior to anything found in today's new builds. Everything about your video induced in me a deep feeling of sadness mixed with nostalgia, despite not having experienced any of it. How much easier we have it today, yet we still find plenty to complain about.
Thank you for your lovely comment. Nothing makes me sadder than original features being taken out 🥹 we are hoping to buy our Victorian 2 up 2 down one day and they are going straight back in 😂
Great vid. TYSM for sharing ❤ My great-nan was raised in a 2 up 2 town terrace. No garden, just a tiny yard with space for a small outside loo & coal shed. She was one of 15 children. As soon as the children became old enough, they had to go into service, to make room. Only the two youngest siblings remained in their hometown because there was enough space for them not to have to move out, and because their parents needed their help around the home as they got older. Love your jacket x
It’s amazing how many kids were shipped out to make room! When my Moms brother was born he was sent to live with his grandmother .. my Mom still has a few sour grapes she was left in “that damp house” her grandmother had been given a new shiny council house in the suburbs! 15 children though, my oh my. My jacket is from a brand called Lazy Oaf, I love quirky clothes :) ❤️
I'm only 56 but lived in one of those terraces as a small child, bathing in the kitchen sink, no bathroom. They were demolished before I started school, the last ones in my home town I think.
@@stuartchapman5171 I can remember when I had my first son in 1977, bathing him in the sink, my mother, who came from humble stock was horrified, but dad who came from a middle class background thought it was a very practical idea, much more sensible than a baby bath.
I was born in a 1up 1 down back to back house in Leeds. The shared toilet was at the end of the street. And we had a tin bath in the front of the fire. This brought back so many memories
Hi, love your channel! Like you I'm a massive fan of social history. How ordinary people lived, ate, dressed etc. I never get bored hearing their stories . Thanks for sharing glimpses of history x
I was brought up in a 2up2down built in the 1840s? Weaver St Openshaw east Manchester. 18 houses on one side of the street Mill wall on the other, Mill yard and canal at the bottom. I look back at my childhood with only happy memories
I lived in a back to back house ...2 rooms up, 2 rooms down in Birmingham ... with my mum, dad and brother and sister .. we had a tin bath that hung up on the wall and the toilet that we shared with the front house was up the garden and ive just turned 60 yrs old ... still remember it very well ... especially in the winter we would all sleep in the 1 bed room to keep warm ... mad now I think back but makes me appreciate what I have now ... and khan and bell ...lol i had a few clothes from there and went to " The Rum Runner " ... so many good memories
I visited True's Yard Museum in Kings Lynn last year. Same thing. Tiny steep stairs and back to back court. The laundry room was a brew room too. There was fish gutting, cleaning and net repairs all in the courtyard. A smell that never left. The family tree history was on display, and an art gallery showing local artists from back then and now. I stumbled across it while on holiday from Oz. Thanks for your vid ❤
Buying the coffee probably made you feel almost as poor as the residents of the back to backs. LOL. Absolutely fascinating tour. Thank you for uploading. I will have to pay a visit.
I remember Kahn and Bell from my student days. Also we all shared these back to back houses, there was no heating except one gas fire in one room. We thought it was normal.
Hello a fellow Brummie here although now living in Bedford. I lived in Summer lane and Vyse street in these type of houses. In Summer Lane the dads built a gate at the entrance to the corridor between the house at the front and the chip shop so us kids could play in the court yard safely. Ahhhhhhh the memories built
Very interesting! Thank you for showing us these historical homes. I find working class history more interesting than castles or grand homes because it is reflective of how the majority of people lived.
Im an American whose ancestry is rooted in Great Britain....your video was really interesting....thank you for showing the "real" way people lived... not just Downton.....
@@throughlucyslens Another American of English descent here, loved this tour! As a modern person who thinks England is one of the coolest countries anywhere I have always had a hard time imagining why my ancestors would've wanted to leave, but then you see how hard life was around the time they left and you can at least empathize that maybe someone living in a crowded back to back style house would want to chase their dreams. The sad reality is that they often ended up in major US cities and found themselves in worse living conditions while also being far from home and community support network they grew up with. It truly was a hard life. Preserving working class houses is so important!
@@Rye_Toast I grew up thinking the USA was the coolest place in the world .. thanks for Ferris Bueler and Adventures in Babysitting! We always want we can't access don't we? Humans are such complex beings. and yes, it's so sad how they often just went somewhere just as terrible, if not worse, the same went for the "£10 poms" who ventured over to Australia too x
In Sydney Australia there is a preserved set of homes like this. They are kept to show how people lived in tenements during the Great Depression period. It's visceral.
Gosh I would LOVE to visit Australia! My Mom lived in Sydney for several years but I never got the pennies to visit. I would be all over a visit to that museum too!
first off what a lovely well presented video you made .i do have interest in this kind of history too i like the exhibition and the different date settings when you went to the window you remind me of me i think exactly the same who looked out of this window or who locked a door at night i get a image in my mind of a person from the time i like this vid nice work .
Thank you so much!! I love looking out of windows. I also find a pair of glasses equally evocative - like a whole life is lived through a pair of glasses.
I’m so glad these houses remain. It’s years since I visited them, with my Husband. How little people had but fabulously rich in love and pride in their homes and families! Thank you for this… ❤
That's what I absolutely love about them too. You can have "nothing" but have everything compared with someone who doesn't have love. I think they are wonderful and think about them a lot 🤣
It's great to preserve historical buildings and their activities. More youngsters should visit such places and learn some gratitude for what they have today. When I was born, there was still food rationing after WW2, no bath, wash down in the sink, outside toilet in the basement. Dad even decorated a wall in the lounge with newspaper and made curtains from bamboo that he tied together. He was a bit of a bohemian, my military dad sung and played the spoons to entertain us. There was a courtyard behind us below, but only the pub next door had access to it for storing their beer barrels. The house had three storey's, the main rooms were a decent size but the kitchen was tiny.
@@throughlucyslens I loved history at school, we worked on some great projects. I particularly liked the history of fashion projects. Had mum not dragged me out of school at age 15, I might have gone into theatre or costume design. Although dad had high hopes that I would go to University and become a journalist. So well done you. We spent some of our school holidays at Coram Fields in London, if you ever visit. It was an orphanage were people left their babies outside in Victorian times. It is right opposite Great Ormand Street Children's hospital and a short walk from Charles Dickens house. I used to love walking around London looking at all of the blue plaques to see who lived there in times gone by. Loved swanning around all of the historic sites, museums, and galleries. Best regards to you and your channel. x
Seeing this reminds me of how things were. I was lucky as I was brought up in a detached 3 bed, later turned into a 4 bed house with plenty of space. Makes you appreciate what you had. Love the video Lucy xxx
Thanks for all your videos on the social history of Birmingham. I have had many family members who moved to Birmingham from my home of northern Ireland, during pre and post war years for work and stayed there. As I love social history too, it's brilliant to see where they may have lived. I'm planning to holiday family this year and will definitely be visiting places you have featured on your videos.
Oh thank you! Hello from Birmingham - it's hot hot hot out there right now? I still have Florida weather on my phone from my last visit out there in 2022 ❤️
Wow! That "modern" toilet was *exactly* like the ones at one of my schools (first opened in 1958). Looks like a fascinating place to visit. I think they had these in London too, because I've seen period dramas set in Victorian and 20th century London that had this kind of setup. I never realised that they were essentially two rows of houses stuck together though.
Yeah, they were all over the UK, there's still some in long rows with a road either side in Yorkshire & Lancashire, some are still back to backs & some have been knocked through. These are the only court ones left though x
My mum's parents lived in a back-to-back house in Gosta Green (Aston), Birmingham, and brought up four children there. I used to visit with my mum when I was little, and it brought back lots of memories to see this, so thank you.
Hi...I didn't even know back to back houses existed until watching You Tube. I feel so spoilt at 60 as my parents always bought new build properties! Loved the video!
@@throughlucyslensI remember we had bright orange wallpaper late 60's but everything else was just my normal I guess! This is all stuff out of history books for me, like wash houses and outside loos It's all so interesting though. I'll look forward to your next videos. ❤
"my parents always bought new build properties!" My parents bought a bew build a few years before I was born. I can still recall my surprise as a four or five year old when I discovered that some people bought second hand houses. :)
In the mid 1970s I lived in Dukinfield (Greater Manchester) in a 2-up-2-down back to back. There was a kitchen downstairs at the back, and a livingroom at the front, into which the front door opened. Upstairs there were 2 bedrooms, and you had to pass through one to get to the other. There was a tiny yard at the back, containing a coal bunker, and the privy (outdoor toilet). No bathroom, just the bathroom sink. There was a back wall with a door in it, then a tiny "ginnel" (alleyway) with a gutter running down the middle, running along the row of houses, and then the back wall of the next row of houses. Every so often there would be an archway between 2 of the houses, and another dinner running through as a shortcut between one street and the parallel one behind.
It sounds more like a terrace if there was a backyard. I might have read your comment wrong, though.. Did you have a back door to the backyard? Yeah, I've just read it again, and it was a terraced house. A back to back is like a terraced house split in half. One family in the front room, and another family in the back room. They're literally living back to back.
I loved this video. We visited the Back to Backs a few years ago and loved every minute of it. I could not believe that people actually lived like that. Our tour guide was amazing too. I have now subscribed to your channel. Thank you for the great video.
Cadbury's workers initially lived in similar housing, when they were on the High Street. As it was impossible to have cleanliness in food production, they upped sticks to the countryside at Bourneville, creating the first New Town village, with many similar houses, but spread out as cottages. When I left the company to work in Brussels, I settled in Watermael, which with the neighbouring village of Boistfort forms one of the City's boroughs (one my circle now manage!). Going for an explore, I immediately found myself on familiar territory, as they'd copied the Bourneville estate houses.
@@throughlucyslens i was actually quite close to the Cadbury Brothers, to the point where my face no longer fitted once they retired. That, however, came at the same time I was under pressure to move into defence diplomacy, so I landed well - with a certain amount of divine intervention! That became important later on.
I'm 100% going to get that book tonight! If you like books like that there's a great author called Annie Murray that writes a similar series set in Birmingham x
my family lived in a two up two down, one sitting room and one bedroom, a single gas ring in the pantry at the top of the stairs, mum & dad slept in the front room, the kids in the back room, No toilet, it was a cold water flat but it had an Ascot water heater on the wall, fill up buckets and fill a tin bath in front of the coal fire, after 25 years of living in that they moved into a newly built council house with a kitchen, three bedrooms and bathroom with hot water on tap, they only got that because I was born and the old flat was classed as severely overcrowded, did I get any gratitude, what you think?
My family the Cosiers lived in Barford Street when they came to the midlands during the mid 1800's looking for work at the time of the industrial revolution. They left the Cotswolds when sheep farming collapsed.
This vid popped up in my feed…oh my gosh! I’m an American who’s been OBSESSED with with British working class social history (mainly 20th century) for a few years now and I cannot tell you how thrilled I am by this! I NEED to see this tour! Have been planning our next trip to the UK with a focus on York/Manchester/Liverpool, clearly will have to make time for Birmingham as well!
Hey Alex, you really must! Birmingham has so much history due to being a power house in the Industrial Revolution, there's more canals than Venice (in length), the best collection of Pre-raf art in our art gallery - even a coffin museum .. the company made the pieces for many of the royal families coffins - plus we are really friendly :)
Hi Lucy I have stumbled across your channel by chance and I am so glad I did. I also love social history too. I look forward to watching more of your videos. Thank you.
Thank you for a fascinating video. Watching the video certainly brought back some memories for me. I'm now 81 years, but still remember as a baby living for a short time in Latimer street, Ladywood B'ham before we moved house. I can still see the wash houses in the communial long back yard . It was open and made of brick with several big round wash tubs spaced a few feet apart that had a large wheel which my mum turned round to do her laundry.Either that or the wehel was used for wringing the the clothes after washing. . I also remember my big sister taking me for a walk in my push chair where I saw rows and rows of terraced houses on the journey.. I remember from one street I coud hear a tune being played which I now presume was someones radio. The tune was green sleeves, and though a baby it made me feel sad and nostelgic. Also I remeber being in the house and hearing the sirens followed by airoplanes flying over head and sounds of explosions in the distance. I was a baby yet knew a war was going on and understood everything my parents said. Dear old Latimer street I hear its no longer there and replaced with newer buildings.
Thanks for sharing that lovely and poignant memory. I had tears in my eyes reading that - particularly remembering the radio. A sound or a smell can take you back somewhere immediately can't it and when it's nice memory it's precious ❤️
Thanks for the terrific video! My Grandfather's family was from Birmingham before coming out to Australia as ten-pound-poms in the '50s. Great to get a bit of an idea of what life might have been like for everyday people around time that he was growing up.
Working class history is very interesting. Wonder how many standard amenities these types of dwelling were lacking when there were built. Incredible that people lived there tillthe 1960s
I usually “stalk” content creators to see if the first video I see is not just a fluke before I subscribed but you had me a the go! LOVE your accent, your knowledge and the passion to learn even more, the comments after seeing the exhibition, the looking through the windows (I do the same), not liking guided tours, respecting the people who sacrificed so much when living here. I could keep on but I will just subscribe. Thank you for sharing your work. Hello from sunny San Diego, California. ☀️
Hey! Thank you so much. That means a lot, when I'm making videos it's not about me, it's about the subject. I just want to represent and stand up for the people I've researched: so much love .. and jealous of the sun! It's freezing and raining here today .. Spring is really struggling to spring in the UK this year ❤️
@@throughlucyslensits because some people think caucasians had it easy. When in fact the working class of Britain spent hours and hours working and living in crowded homes. A lot in a bad state of disrepair and diseases. She means it sarcastically as in there was no white privilege for the poor. Miners for example.
I immediately recognized those types of houses from the TV series Call the Midwife. especially when they were in the 1950s and early 60s Some of the neighborhoods in the east end of London are portrayed similarly, Not always hygienic but I do admire the sense of community those places had. Also, the first few episodes of the current season of All Creatures Great and Small, had a few of those houses, when James Harriot helps the Young boy Wesley Binks and his dog Duke. if i ever come to Brittian I'll definitely check it out 🙂🙏
Seeing those houses with a wee crowd is probably the best way to experience them - those children didn't stay children, and the ones that didn't get accommodation with their jobs would have stayed.
Yes, it gives you a real sense of how little space there is. Made me reflect how I would have coped being so crowd adverse back then, I suppose I wouldn't have known any different x
Your enthusiasm is infectious. Go for it girl. When I was a child, I thought all my schoolfriends lived in a 5 bedroom dethatched house in its own gardens. It wasn't until I went to friends' birthday parties that I saw a different word. I felt humbled and enthralled in equal measure. Suddenly, my grandparents' home didn't feel quite so small. My grandparents' downsized in the 1960s from a lovely home in a nearby village, to be closer to my parents' home.
Honestly, this really rung true to me. I was lucky, my parents had a lovely home, albeit it a 3 bedroomed semi, but like you, you just exist in the world you live in don't you? I had a friend that lived in a tower block and it was like a different world to me, and I think it was at that point I fell in love with social housing, I thought it was so exciting and "different" without really looking at the realities but they were so happy with their lives and I sucked it all in.
Hi Lucy, so happy to find your channel! The wash house took me straight back to my great grans little end terrace. Built on the side was the wash house complete with the brick boiler and wash board. She thought she was lucky to have it all to herself. My gran only ever washed on a Monday and used the boiler and the mangle until the early 1980's. Thank you for giving me some lovely memories x
I did something similar in Berlin some time ago, the tour was called “Hidden Backyards”. It also showed how the little workers and poor people had to live back then. Feel free to google it. Back around 1880, these huge workers' quarters were built in Berlin. One house behind the other, all around a small courtyard. If I remember correctly, the courtyard had a diameter of 5.34 meters. When asked what this strange measurement was? The tour guide explained to us that it was the turning circle that the fire brigade needed to turn around with their fire engine. People were not given more space.(And only because it was required by law) There weren't many of us and most of these courtyards were nice and green, but back then these small courtyards were teeming with children because the small apartments often only consisted of two rooms, it was often dirty and not at all green.
Oh my gosh I would love that! I went to the Stasi museum in Berlin and was taken around by an ex inmate, it was utterly unforgettable! Next time I go (I am lucky to have family there) I will check out this tour. Right up my street! X
How have I not come across your channel before now ? I love what you do, I've watched 4 vids so far and I have subscribed. I don't live to far away from Birmingham and love the Back to Backs. Keep doing what you do and I'll keep watching. Best wishes Dave x
I have read many books that had this type of house as part of the setting. It was great to see what I had only imagined. What I, as someone who lives in the US, can barely imagine is how incredibly crowded those houses were. Those residents must have had incredibly resilient immune systems.
Absolutely! My Mom was born in one and she had a bad chest all of her childhood and still suffers today. We are so lucky to be living in a time where we take clean water and a private bathroom for granted: I can't even imagine! Thanks so much for your lovely comment - I love those types of books too! Can recommend a local author called Annie Murray, her books based in Birmingham are fantastic :)
Hi Lucy, I came across your videos by chance and what a find!!!!!! Thank you so much as I have gone back in time to my own childhood. I'm 60 and where I lived was in a row of old houses which ended up being pulled down due to the condition of the buildings. We had an out side toilet and 1 tap in the back kitchen. There was no hot water. The back yards were white washed and seemed very cheerful. I have enjoyed watching your trips and I am really interested in life during WW2. It fascinates me the fact that people had so little food and belongings yet they were happy to share what they did have. We are so lucky that we don't have to go through what these people did and it's nice to have a reminder of how far we have come. Many, many thanks, Diane x
Hey Diane, thanks for your lovely comment, I'm glad it sparked some happy memories for you, that's the thing about places like this. As poor as people were most only remember love and community. It's sad we have lost that. ❤️
Hi Lucy! I'm a new subscriber from Canada! Thank your for this amazing video. It makes all the films and TV shows about this era come to life. My Mom went to Birmingham in 1995 for the Women's World Netball Championships. I've been obsessed with the UK since then.ive now watched several of your videos, beginning with your Mum's dollhouse one which was recommended to me because I am a doll collector. In saying that, don't give up. You never know what is going to get views. Dolls and miniatures are big right now. Canada even has a show Called Make It Mini challenge and people from all over-including UK are contestants. Travel vlogging with you feels like a friend and local showing me around. You're amazing. I'd love to see more!! Lots of Love from a Canadian fan!
Hey Connie, how lovely to wake up to your comment! So happy to hear from you, I've visited Canada once, only made it to Toronto for a few nights but would love to go back & explore more - which I'm sure could take years!
Both sets of my grandparents lived in back to backs at some point, eventually cleared to make way for modern brutalist 1960’s housing estates. So common place in all cities, what you would call head living, aren’t we lucky these days with central heating, private bathrooms, gardens etc but good to remind ourselves how our predecessors lived.
Absolutely lucky! Both my parents were born in Back to Back houses too, I think that's why I feel such an infinity with them I used to love hearing my Nan talk about it and I think almost made it romantic in my head - the reality of course was totally different. My Mom still has a scar on her head from a piece of coal that flew out of the fire as they were all packed in like sardines trying to get warm.
What a wonderful channel!! I'm so glad this was recommended to me! Please do more history related content, but either way I'm subscribed with notifications on!!! 😄
My Nan had an outside loo until the early 80s, and her yard was wonky brick cobbles, so you can imagine how slippery they got when it rained or was frosty. The landlord refused to update it - despite her living there for over 50 years! My b-in-law was a builder so he went and knocked through without telling the landlord (the ‘outhouse’ was attached by an outside wall), and the landlord tried to put the rent up when he found out. The ‘bath’ was a tin one in the ‘kitchen’ with a piece of Formica over it to act as kitchen table. No hot water at all. I looked at zoopla and the 2up2down last sold for £365000 - mind you, it now has a bathroom and an actual kitchen!
My gran and grandad lived in one of those, when I was a kid it was great going to the end of the street to use the wc, what a novelty! Outside the road was still dirt! Good times, all gone now. Rochdale in Lancashire.
I grew up in the midlands in the 60s (26 miles from Birmingham) and my friend lived in the back to back houses near our street, there was one room down stairs with a sofa a table and chairs then a small kitchen area, communal toilet and wash house were out back. I never thought about it at the time but they lived in awfulpoverty and it makes me so sad to remember it. The back to backs were converted into terraced houses in the 70s with running water etc.
Thanks so much for sharing. My Dad always said he didn’t know he was poor until he visited friends houses and they drank out of mugs not jam jars 🥹 amazing how we can reflect on things later and they hit us x
I find the contrasts so striking - between the small spaces (that must have been packed, even if all 11 children weren't at home at the same time!) - and the attention to detail, in the firegrates, the stairs (but wow, how steep!), the proportions. Everything seems to be of a good quality, but not much of anything. (The opposite of today.) I would have expected the smell to be a mix of cabbage and dust. Your filming is excellent!
Thank you. I really appreciate that - yes cabbage and must .. with some animal fat;'you know that strong smell when you cook a lamb chop? That's from the candles that were made from animal tallow 🤢 .. I live in similar sized house and there are only 2 of us, we are always in each others way! I can't even imagine 11... no wonder Dad was always down the pub!
My grampy was from Moseley I believe his house still stands.. when he married my granny in 1942 everyone was at work when they arrived, so he knew he could get into the house through coal shed, and my granny always believed the coal bought luck to their marriage ❤
I am from Birmingham born and bred and all of my family lived in these and the stairs omg!!, you needed a ladder they were that steep!. I remember outside toilets etc
I must be attracted to these stairs because the stairs in my 2 up 2 down are like a ladder too - everyone that comes round is terrified of the stairs, you get used to them but some days my knees are crying out!
Great little exhibition. As soon as you mentioned Kahn & Bell I went “Boy George!” 😂 Those stairs gave me anxiety! Really interesting to see the houses as they’d have been though. I’ve only ever seen them in my grandparents and great aunts’ photos before
Leeds still has some back-to-back houses in Beeston. A lot of them were knocked down but a small number still survive. He owns the one he lives in but quite a few are rented and some of the others are being converted into HMOs. It is over 4 floors...a cellar/basement underneath, a living room and galley kitchen on the ground floor, a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor and a bedroom and boxroom on the top floor. The stairs are quite steep but he loves it.
My mum's side of the family are from Leicester and many of them lived in the slum courts like this. Nearly all of them were employed by the hosiery industry in Leicester. Between 1840-1860 there was huge depression in the industry which lead to a slump in wages, poor standard of living and starvation due to many of them not being able to feed themselves or their children.
Likewise the slums were built with little to no drainage and as Leicester sits in a dip, they were often knee high in flood water when it rained hard and then paddling about in the sludge once the waters receded. Many of them lived in St Margaret's which was the poorest area of the city and I read that many of the court slums were little more than converted pig stys. Similarly the land they were built on were previous rubbish dumps and often the houses were slung up on top them before it had even rotted down.
The area itself was known for being quite seedy with lots of knocking shops, pubs and beer shops. There was a lot of violent crime, domestic violence and arrests for drunk and disorderly conduct. Public health wasn't much better as the city was struck by regular outbreaks of summer diarrhea and deaths in infants were particularly high as a result. Leicester also refused to implement the smallpox vaccine until the 1853 vaccination act was brought in mandating that all infants under three were to be inoculated. This was due to a widespread belief that the vaccine would cause skin diseases in children. One of my relatives was actually banged up and fined for refusing to vaccinate their child as a result of the legislation.
This is fantastic information, thank you. Makes me feel very lucky to live how I do and makes me check myself when I go to moan about something trivial ❤️
Fascinating information!
Translation for non-Brits: A knocking shop is a brothel. (I had to look it up.)
@nosmallo Sadly Leicester is an Asian slum now.
I lived in a home like this and brought up two children it's not long ago I knew people who wore clogs too I could write a book on the way things were I. Now in my 70s
Oh Alan please write it down! I have a pair of clogs, they were my grandmothers, we restored them and use them to grow plants now - they look great.
@@throughlucyslens Just found your channel and subscribed. Your ethos is exactly like mine. The living and lives of the vast majority of British people are the true history of this country. I quite like a stately home now and again but, at the back of my mind, is always the saying, "behind every Great Home is a Great Crime." Much prefer the vernacular social lives and places of the people who really made Britain what it was and is. I wrote my own autobiography of growing up on a council house estate in the '60s and published it on Kindle eBooks but am in the process of writing my growing up into teenage and adulthood and remembered that my first 'proper' job was working in a Textile Dyehouse Mill where I was given a choice of clogs or safety boots. Must write that bit in.
My dad lived in one of these in the 1920s in Icknield Street. He remembered as a child being bathed standing up in the sink in the communal washhouse (I think it was known as a brewhouse) - from what he explained, a metal sink with a coal fire below - the metal was a bit too hot for comfort - so he had to continuously swap from standing on one leg to the other to keep his feet from being burnt.
Gosh, can you imagine! The poor kids bathing in pretty much a caldron! Yes, it was called a brewhouse, I meant to say that in the video because I believe they also brewed up beer in there in the very early days. Thanks for your comment Mike x
@@throughlucyslens he also told me there was a kind of snobbery - people who lived in front houses regarded themselves as superior to those who lived in back houses. My dad also referred to dustbins as 'miskins', and to the sink drain as 'the suff'.
Not sure of the spellings on miskins and suff.
@@mikebashford8198 Yes they did mention people facing the street thought they were superior, I guess because your front door went onto the street - still had to go around the back to use the loo though ;)
I have an outdoor bathtub that I use very frequently.
The fire surely heats the iron red hot and I use two pillows not to burn my bum.
But it's outdoor, with real fire,I'm loving it everytime.
@@throughlucyslens Yes, I thought at first that the back might be a better choice as you were closer to the outhouses! But it does make sense that the street had a better view and fresher air, as well as a proper front door.
These houses are as important as palaces an castles! Thank you for showing us!
Yes they are to me too and you are so welcome ❤️
@@throughlucyslens They are more important than castles. While I love English gardens, the people who lived in those cramped corners had none. No trees, no flowers, and hardly a chance to survive.
I am in England for a month and after this video I want to see this museum so I purchased a full tour ticket. Thank you very much!
Aww this is amazing! I hope you have the best time in my home city x
@IoanaMoldovanu ..........if you can travel while in UK..........visit BEAMISH (near Durham/Newcastle).........clips on here if you search.......i was there last weekend - brilliant place........and if youre ever in Glasgow/Scotland there is the TENEMENT MUSEUM (clips on here too.
There are still back to back houses in east Lancashire where people still live!
Yes there are but they all face on to a street on either side, these are the last back to backs court houses with one side on the street and another in a court yard through an alley for access. I’d love to see the ones up north x
We still have back to back houses in Yorkshire too and they do not all face into streets!
Still back to back streets in Leeds but I’ve not seen these court types.
Yes I grew up in something similar until about 1972 in Bradford, Yorkshire. Our house was the middle one and was a through terrace. Either side were back to backs, the front ones looked out on the street, the rear ones onto a small courtyard, where the communal toilets were.
Wonderful stuff. I now live in a one bedroom back-to-back near the appropriately named 'Littlevillage'. I love my little home.
It's great that these important examples are preserved.
Loved this. My late partner was from Brum and I have been hearing about these for years. Nothing is more important than the lives of our working class ancestors! Backs to backs were great but you made them come alive for us !
Thank you so much for your lovely comment. That means lot. There's nothing quite like seeing something is there? ❤️
We visited the Back to Backs when we visited our friends in Birmingham, we're from the US. Wow, it was so interesting, filled with history, AND i found my maternal grandfathers name there!! Dont miss this wonderful site.
No way!!! That's incredible. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Fascinating, and thanks so much for sharing your tour. My grandparents, born in Victorian times, had an outside loo (flushing) complete with cut-up newspaper on a hook/nail. My grandmother also used a mangle, which cracked shirt etc buttons if one forgot to widen the space between the rollers - most likely distracted by another essential household task. Some installations, eg fireplaces and kitchen range, would now be classed much-sought-after or quirky 'period features'; other fitments, not least the doors, appear superior to anything found in today's new builds. Everything about your video induced in me a deep feeling of sadness mixed with nostalgia, despite not having experienced any of it. How much easier we have it today, yet we still find plenty to complain about.
Thank you for your lovely comment. Nothing makes me sadder than original features being taken out 🥹 we are hoping to buy our Victorian 2 up 2 down one day and they are going straight back in 😂
Great vid. TYSM for sharing ❤
My great-nan was raised in a 2 up 2 town terrace. No garden, just a tiny yard with space for a small outside loo & coal shed. She was one of 15 children. As soon as the children became old enough, they had to go into service, to make room. Only the two youngest siblings remained in their hometown because there was enough space for them not to have to move out, and because their parents needed their help around the home as they got older.
Love your jacket x
It’s amazing how many kids were shipped out to make room! When my Moms brother was born he was sent to live with his grandmother .. my Mom still has a few sour grapes she was left in “that damp house” her grandmother had been given a new shiny council house in the suburbs! 15 children though, my oh my. My jacket is from a brand called Lazy Oaf, I love quirky clothes :) ❤️
my family 14 two up in yard one romm dowen and kitchen out side loo and breaw house
Some of these houses had only one room plus a cellar.
I'm only 56 but lived in one of those terraces as a small child, bathing in the kitchen sink, no bathroom. They were demolished before I started school, the last ones in my home town I think.
@@stuartchapman5171 I can remember when I had my first son in 1977, bathing him in the sink, my mother, who came from humble stock was horrified, but dad who came from a middle class background thought it was a very practical idea, much more sensible than a baby bath.
While not in a little courtyard like these ones, there are heaps of back to back houses left in Yorkshire. Xx
I was born in a 1up 1 down back to back house in Leeds. The shared toilet was at the end of the street. And we had a tin bath in the front of the fire. This brought back so many memories
Thanks so much for your comment Susan, I love sparking memories for people x
Hi, love your channel! Like you I'm a massive fan of social history. How ordinary people lived, ate, dressed etc. I never get bored hearing their stories . Thanks for sharing glimpses of history x
Thank you, I appreciate that so much. I love it too ❤️
This is so beautifully put together. Thank you very much for sharing this.
Glad you enjoyed it! and my pleasure.
I was brought up in a 2up2down built in the 1840s? Weaver St Openshaw east Manchester. 18 houses on one side of the street Mill wall on the other, Mill yard and canal at the bottom. I look back at my childhood with only happy memories
That's so lovely to hear, thank you for sharing.
I lived in a back to back house ...2 rooms up, 2 rooms down in Birmingham ... with my mum, dad and brother and sister .. we had a tin bath that hung up on the wall and the toilet that we shared with the front house was up the garden and ive just turned 60 yrs old ... still remember it very well ... especially in the winter we would all sleep in the 1 bed room to keep warm ... mad now I think back but makes me appreciate what I have now ... and khan and bell ...lol i had a few clothes from there and went to " The Rum Runner " ... so many good memories
I would have LOVED to have shopped at Kahn & Bell! About 10 years too late unfortunately. Thanks for your sharing your memories x
You had a garden? Luxury, we have to step out directly onto the street.
I visited True's Yard Museum in Kings Lynn last year. Same thing. Tiny steep stairs and back to back court. The laundry room was a brew room too. There was fish gutting, cleaning and net repairs all in the courtyard. A smell that never left. The family tree history was on display, and an art gallery showing local artists from back then and now. I stumbled across it while on holiday from Oz. Thanks for your vid ❤
Very welcome and im going to look up that museum, sounds great!
Buying the coffee probably made you feel almost as poor as the residents of the back to backs. LOL. Absolutely fascinating tour. Thank you for uploading. I will have to pay a visit.
Glad you enjoyed it and let me know if you go! It’s a great place x
I remember Kahn and Bell from my student days. Also we all shared these back to back houses, there was no heating except one gas fire in one room. We thought it was normal.
Happy memories! We only had one gas fire until I was about 11.. all crowding around it red faced. I never remember being cold though.
Chilblains
Hello a fellow Brummie here although now living in Bedford. I lived in Summer lane and Vyse street in these type of houses. In Summer Lane the dads built a gate at the entrance to the corridor between the house at the front and the chip shop so us kids could play in the court yard safely.
Ahhhhhhh the memories
built
I love this!
Very interesting! Thank you for showing us these historical homes. I find working class history more interesting than castles or grand homes because it is reflective of how the majority of people lived.
I'm exactly the same Anna, and honestly i've never wished I was a "princess" or living in a castle so they leave me cold.
Im an American whose ancestry is rooted in Great Britain....your video was really interesting....thank you for showing the "real" way people lived... not just Downton.....
Thank you. There are far more Anna Smiths than Lady Mary’s x
@@throughlucyslens Another American of English descent here, loved this tour! As a modern person who thinks England is one of the coolest countries anywhere I have always had a hard time imagining why my ancestors would've wanted to leave, but then you see how hard life was around the time they left and you can at least empathize that maybe someone living in a crowded back to back style house would want to chase their dreams. The sad reality is that they often ended up in major US cities and found themselves in worse living conditions while also being far from home and community support network they grew up with. It truly was a hard life. Preserving working class houses is so important!
@@Rye_Toast I grew up thinking the USA was the coolest place in the world .. thanks for Ferris Bueler and Adventures in Babysitting! We always want we can't access don't we? Humans are such complex beings. and yes, it's so sad how they often just went somewhere just as terrible, if not worse, the same went for the "£10 poms" who ventured over to Australia too x
In Sydney Australia there is a preserved set of homes like this. They are kept to show how people lived in tenements during the Great Depression period. It's visceral.
Gosh I would LOVE to visit Australia! My Mom lived in Sydney for several years but I never got the pennies to visit. I would be all over a visit to that museum too!
@@throughlucyslensstart saving!
Where is this?
@@amyb1116Birmingham city center.
@@alexac3098 sorry I meant where the similar one is in Sydney!
first off what a lovely well presented video you made .i do have interest in this kind of history too i like the exhibition and the different date settings when you went to the window you remind me of me i think exactly the same who looked out of this window or who locked a door at night i get a image in my mind of a person from the time i like this vid nice work .
Thank you so much!! I love looking out of windows. I also find a pair of glasses equally evocative - like a whole life is lived through a pair of glasses.
Absolutely love these videos and love you, Lucy! You're giving me the chance to see and experience things I wouldn't get a chance to.
I'm so glad! This means the world to me x
Thank you for sharing history!
I’m so glad these houses remain. It’s years since I visited them, with my Husband. How little people had but fabulously rich in love and pride in their homes and families! Thank you for this… ❤
That's what I absolutely love about them too. You can have "nothing" but have everything compared with someone who doesn't have love. I think they are wonderful and think about them a lot 🤣
It's great to preserve historical buildings and their activities. More youngsters should visit such places and learn some gratitude for what they have today. When I was born, there was still food rationing after WW2, no bath, wash down in the sink, outside toilet in the basement. Dad even decorated a wall in the lounge with newspaper and made curtains from bamboo that he tied together. He was a bit of a bohemian, my military dad sung and played the spoons to entertain us. There was a courtyard behind us below, but only the pub next door had access to it for storing their beer barrels. The house had three storey's, the main rooms were a decent size but the kitchen was tiny.
Sounds like my childhood in the 1980s too to be honest. I’m trying to get my niece and nephew into history but sadly they prefer their tablets 😓
@@throughlucyslens I loved history at school, we worked on some great projects. I particularly liked the history of fashion projects. Had mum not dragged me out of school at age 15, I might have gone into theatre or costume design. Although dad had high hopes that I would go to University and become a journalist.
So well done you.
We spent some of our school holidays at Coram Fields in London, if you ever visit. It was an orphanage were people left their babies outside in Victorian times. It is right opposite Great Ormand Street Children's hospital and a short walk from Charles Dickens house. I used to love walking around London looking at all of the blue plaques to see who lived there in times gone by. Loved swanning around all of the historic sites, museums, and galleries. Best regards to you and your channel. x
My Dad played the spoons, too. Thanks. I hadn't thought of that in years.
@@gryl7471 Lovely memories of singing together. At Christmas, I bought some CD's of old pub songs. The elders loved it.
Seeing this reminds me of how things were. I was lucky as I was brought up in a detached 3 bed, later turned into a 4 bed house with plenty of space. Makes you appreciate what you had. Love the video Lucy xxx
Thank you Karina ❤️
Thanks for all your videos on the social history of Birmingham. I have had many family members who moved to Birmingham from my home of northern Ireland, during pre and post war years for work and stayed there. As I love social history too, it's brilliant to see where they may have lived. I'm planning to holiday family this year and will definitely be visiting places you have featured on your videos.
Have a lovely time! You will be welcomed warmly x
Hello Lucy from Gainesville, Florida. I loved your tour! Thanks so much for sharing! You're awesome 💚💙💜
Oh thank you! Hello from Birmingham - it's hot hot hot out there right now? I still have Florida weather on my phone from my last visit out there in 2022 ❤️
Wow! That "modern" toilet was *exactly* like the ones at one of my schools (first opened in 1958).
Looks like a fascinating place to visit.
I think they had these in London too, because I've seen period dramas set in Victorian and 20th century London that had this kind of setup. I never realised that they were essentially two rows of houses stuck together though.
Yeah, they were all over the UK, there's still some in long rows with a road either side in Yorkshire & Lancashire, some are still back to backs & some have been knocked through. These are the only court ones left though x
Thank you Lucy for a wonderful look into the past, just came across your channel. Looking forward to seeing where else you go. ❤
Thank you so much! I think I need to make some plans don’t I? 🤭x
My mum's parents lived in a back-to-back house in Gosta Green (Aston), Birmingham, and brought up four children there. I used to visit with my mum when I was little, and it brought back lots of memories to see this, so thank you.
You are so welcome. These houses were so prominent in millions of peoples lives I'm glad these ones have been kept and restored ❤️
Absolutely beautiful. Defo need to visit, love history.
Thanks so much! Definately worth the visit!
Hi...I didn't even know back to back houses existed until watching You Tube. I feel so spoilt at 60 as my parents always bought new build properties! Loved the video!
So nice of you, thank you! To be honest I would have loved to see a new build in the 50s and 60s with all the bright colours and “mod cons” 😍
@@throughlucyslensI remember we had bright orange wallpaper late 60's but everything else was just my normal I guess! This is all stuff out of history books for me, like wash houses and outside loos It's all so interesting though. I'll look forward to your next videos. ❤
"my parents always bought new build properties!"
My parents bought a bew build a few years before I was born. I can still recall my surprise as a four or five year old when I discovered that some people bought second hand houses. :)
In the mid 1970s I lived in Dukinfield (Greater Manchester) in a 2-up-2-down back to back. There was a kitchen downstairs at the back, and a livingroom at the front, into which the front door opened. Upstairs there were 2 bedrooms, and you had to pass through one to get to the other. There was a tiny yard at the back, containing a coal bunker, and the privy (outdoor toilet). No bathroom, just the bathroom sink. There was a back wall with a door in it, then a tiny "ginnel" (alleyway) with a gutter running down the middle, running along the row of houses, and then the back wall of the next row of houses. Every so often there would be an archway between 2 of the houses, and another dinner running through as a shortcut between one street and the parallel one behind.
Love this, thank you for sharing!
It sounds more like a terrace if there was a backyard.
I might have read your comment wrong, though..
Did you have a back door to the backyard?
Yeah, I've just read it again, and it was a terraced house. A back to back is like a terraced house split in half. One family in the front room, and another family in the back room.
They're literally living back to back.
I was born in Dukinfield. Are you describing something near Sand Street?
I now live in a back to back in Bradford
@leetaylor13 the house was on the main road that went straight through. I worked at a wood turning mill for a while.
Thank you Lucy for such an awesome tour! 🌺
You are so welcome!
Thank you for the mini tour
Very welcome x
I loved this video. We visited the Back to Backs a few years ago and loved every minute of it. I could not believe that people actually lived like that. Our tour guide was amazing too. I have now subscribed to your channel. Thank you for the great video.
Thank you so much for your kindness Joy x
Cadbury's workers initially lived in similar housing, when they were on the High Street. As it was impossible to have cleanliness in food production, they upped sticks to the countryside at Bourneville, creating the first New Town village, with many similar houses, but spread out as cottages. When I left the company to work in Brussels, I settled in Watermael, which with the neighbouring village of Boistfort forms one of the City's boroughs (one my circle now manage!). Going for an explore, I immediately found myself on familiar territory, as they'd copied the Bourneville estate houses.
Ohhhh now I need to google this place! I live minutes from Bournville Village, it’s still like going back in time.
@@throughlucyslens Look for the Trois Tilleuls neighbourhood.
@@throughlucyslens i was actually quite close to the Cadbury Brothers, to the point where my face no longer fitted once they retired. That, however, came at the same time I was under pressure to move into defence diplomacy, so I landed well - with a certain amount of divine intervention! That became important later on.
Fascinating. I was born and raised in Moseley, Birmingham. Haven't been back since 2018. ❤ Subscribed.
Thank you! I lived in Moseley for a couple of years, just down on the Alcester Road, my first home with my now husband :) .. thanks for subscribing ❤️
Thank you for sharing
My pleasure ❤️
Just finished reading Helen Forrester's book "A Cuppa Tea and an aspririn" based in Liverpool back to back neighbourhood. Thanks for the tour.
I'm 100% going to get that book tonight! If you like books like that there's a great author called Annie Murray that writes a similar series set in Birmingham x
my family lived in a two up two down, one sitting room and one bedroom, a single gas ring in the pantry at the top of the stairs, mum & dad slept in the front room, the kids in the back room, No toilet, it was a cold water flat but it had an Ascot water heater on the wall, fill up buckets and fill a tin bath in front of the coal fire, after 25 years of living in that they moved into a newly built council house with a kitchen, three bedrooms and bathroom with hot water on tap, they only got that because I was born and the old flat was classed as severely overcrowded, did I get any gratitude, what you think?
I bet you didn’t 😂 gosh we had an ascot water heater in my first home! It had two temperatures … freezing or scalding!
My family the Cosiers lived in Barford Street when they came to the midlands during the mid 1800's looking for work at the time of the industrial revolution. They left the Cotswolds when sheep farming collapsed.
Love this! Thanks for your comment
Just a brilliant video ! Going to try and visit this place in the summer.
Thank you so much and enjoy it, it's a really special place.
This vid popped up in my feed…oh my gosh! I’m an American who’s been OBSESSED with with British working class social history (mainly 20th century) for a few years now and I cannot tell you how thrilled I am by this! I NEED to see this tour! Have been planning our next trip to the UK with a focus on York/Manchester/Liverpool, clearly will have to make time for Birmingham as well!
Hey Alex, you really must! Birmingham has so much history due to being a power house in the Industrial Revolution, there's more canals than Venice (in length), the best collection of Pre-raf art in our art gallery - even a coffin museum .. the company made the pieces for many of the royal families coffins - plus we are really friendly :)
Hi Lucy I have stumbled across your channel by chance and I am so glad I did. I also love social history too. I look forward to watching more of your videos. Thank you.
No, thank you! I really do appreciate it, amazing to link up with other social history lovers ❤️
❤ so interesting my own paternal family lived in same houses in liverpool too
Thank you for a fascinating video. Watching the video certainly brought back some memories for me. I'm now 81 years, but still remember as a baby living for a short time in Latimer street, Ladywood B'ham before we moved house. I can still see the wash houses in the communial long back yard . It was open and made of brick with several big round wash tubs spaced a few feet apart that had a large wheel which my mum turned round to do her laundry.Either that or the wehel was used for wringing the the clothes after washing. . I also remember my big sister taking me for a walk in my push chair where I saw rows and rows of terraced houses on the journey.. I remember from one street I coud hear a tune being played which I now presume was someones radio. The tune was green sleeves, and though a baby it made me feel sad and nostelgic. Also I remeber being in the house and hearing the sirens followed by airoplanes flying over head and sounds of explosions in the distance. I was a baby yet knew a war was going on and understood everything my parents said. Dear old Latimer street I hear its no longer there and replaced with newer buildings.
Thanks for sharing that lovely and poignant memory. I had tears in my eyes reading that - particularly remembering the radio. A sound or a smell can take you back somewhere immediately can't it and when it's nice memory it's precious ❤️
Thanks for the terrific video! My Grandfather's family was from Birmingham before coming out to Australia as ten-pound-poms in the '50s. Great to get a bit of an idea of what life might have been like for everyday people around time that he was growing up.
Glad you enjoyed it and thank you! Enjoy the lovely autumn you will have coming in over there right now :)
Interested in history, thank you for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it and you are so welcome,
One amazing place to visit. The tour guides our amazing.🐞
Aren’t they? So passionate! The lady that took us around was so professional and informative. And to think they are volunteers too it’s amazing!
Working class history is very interesting. Wonder how many standard amenities these types of dwelling were lacking when there were built. Incredible that people lived there tillthe 1960s
I usually “stalk” content creators to see if the first video I see is not just a fluke before I subscribed but you had me a the go!
LOVE your accent, your knowledge and the passion to learn even more, the comments after seeing the exhibition, the looking through the windows (I do the same), not liking guided tours, respecting the people who sacrificed so much when living here. I could keep on but I will just subscribe. Thank you for sharing your work. Hello from sunny San Diego, California. ☀️
Hey! Thank you so much. That means a lot, when I'm making videos it's not about me, it's about the subject. I just want to represent and stand up for the people I've researched: so much love .. and jealous of the sun! It's freezing and raining here today ..
Spring is really struggling to spring in the UK this year ❤️
All that white privilege.
Hey Theresa, please do expand on this comment if you have time, I’m always willing to listen & learn ❤️
@@throughlucyslensits because some people think caucasians had it easy. When in fact the working class of Britain spent hours and hours working and living in crowded homes. A lot in a bad state of disrepair and diseases. She means it sarcastically as in there was no white privilege for the poor. Miners for example.
What an amazing insight into the past!
Thank you :)
I immediately recognized those types of houses from the TV series Call the Midwife. especially when they were in the 1950s and early 60s Some of the neighborhoods in the east end of London are portrayed similarly, Not always hygienic but I do admire the sense of community those places had. Also, the first few episodes of the current season of All Creatures Great and Small, had a few of those houses, when James Harriot helps the Young boy Wesley Binks and his dog Duke. if i ever come to Brittian I'll definitely check it out 🙂🙏
... and you will be so welcome! I absolutely adore Call The Midwife. It's one of my comfort watches! X
Even in the early 70's I rambert tin baths and a loo 20 yards down the garden.
Thats amazing, thanks for doing this video!
My pleasure! Thanks for your comment ❤️
Fascinating. As an American, it really reminds me of the amazing Tenement Museum in Lower Manhattan. If you are ever in NYC, you need to go!
Oh gosh I would love love love to! One day! It's on my bucket list xx
I really enjoyed this tour. Thank you for filming it. It's on my list for a visit!
Glad you enjoyed it and you are very welcome Anne - we share a sirname :)
Seeing those houses with a wee crowd is probably the best way to experience them - those children didn't stay children, and the ones that didn't get accommodation with their jobs would have stayed.
Yes, it gives you a real sense of how little space there is. Made me reflect how I would have coped being so crowd adverse back then, I suppose I wouldn't have known any different x
Your enthusiasm is infectious. Go for it girl. When I was a child, I thought all my schoolfriends lived in a 5 bedroom dethatched house in its own gardens. It wasn't until I went to friends' birthday parties that I saw a different word. I felt humbled and enthralled in equal measure. Suddenly, my grandparents' home didn't feel quite so small. My grandparents' downsized in the 1960s from a lovely home in a nearby village, to be closer to my parents' home.
Honestly, this really rung true to me. I was lucky, my parents had a lovely home, albeit it a 3 bedroomed semi, but like you, you just exist in the world you live in don't you? I had a friend that lived in a tower block and it was like a different world to me, and I think it was at that point I fell in love with social housing, I thought it was so exciting and "different" without really looking at the realities but they were so happy with their lives and I sucked it all in.
Hi Lucy, so happy to find your channel! The wash house took me straight back to my great grans little end terrace. Built on the side was the wash house complete with the brick boiler and wash board. She thought she was lucky to have it all to herself. My gran only ever washed on a Monday and used the boiler and the mangle until the early 1980's. Thank you for giving me some lovely memories x
I’ve always wondered why wash day was always Monday. It was the same in my nans house too x
I did something similar in Berlin some time ago, the tour was called “Hidden Backyards”. It also showed how the little workers and poor people had to live back then.
Feel free to google it.
Back around 1880, these huge workers' quarters were built in Berlin. One house behind the other, all around a small courtyard. If I remember correctly, the courtyard had a diameter of 5.34 meters. When asked what this strange measurement was? The tour guide explained to us that it was the turning circle that the fire brigade needed to turn around with their fire engine. People were not given more space.(And only because it was required by law) There weren't many of us and most of these courtyards were nice and green, but back then these small courtyards were teeming with children because the small apartments often only consisted of two rooms, it was often dirty and not at all green.
Oh my gosh I would love that! I went to the Stasi museum in Berlin and was taken around by an ex inmate, it was utterly unforgettable! Next time I go (I am lucky to have family there) I will check out this tour. Right up my street! X
Thank you for pointing out such an interesting site - it will be on my list of places to see when next I visit the UK.
You are very welcome. It's an amazing place and you will love it x
Absolutely fascinating! If I ever make it to England this and others like it will be on my bucket list! Thank you!!
You are so welcome, and never stop dreaming, you will make it one day x
How have I not come across your channel before now ? I love what you do, I've watched 4 vids so far and I have subscribed. I don't live to far away from Birmingham and love the Back to Backs. Keep doing what you do and I'll keep watching. Best wishes Dave x
You are very kind Dave, I really appreciate you & your support.
Maine,USA...I really enjoyed this. Thank you
Hello! You are so welcome, and what a beautiful place you live. It's on my bucket list to see Maine in the Fall ❤️
That was brilliant! Thank you and keep up the good work 😊🎉😊
You are so welcome. Thank you ❤️
Great, I’ve lived in a few old tenements, always fascinating the past generations that have lived
100% is that in Scotland? I've always been in love with the tenement tiling on the landings.
I have read many books that had this type of house as part of the setting. It was great to see what I had only imagined. What I, as someone who lives in the US, can barely imagine is how incredibly crowded those houses were. Those residents must have had incredibly resilient immune systems.
Absolutely! My Mom was born in one and she had a bad chest all of her childhood and still suffers today. We are so lucky to be living in a time where we take clean water and a private bathroom for granted: I can't even imagine! Thanks so much for your lovely comment - I love those types of books too! Can recommend a local author called Annie Murray, her books based in Birmingham are fantastic :)
@@throughlucyslens Thanks! I will see if I can get any of her books in my area.
Hi Lucy, I came across your videos by chance and what a find!!!!!! Thank you so much as I have gone back in time to my own childhood. I'm 60 and where I lived was in a row of old houses which ended up being pulled down due to the condition of the buildings. We had an out side toilet and 1 tap in the back kitchen. There was no hot water. The back yards were white washed and seemed very cheerful. I have enjoyed watching your trips and I am really interested in life during WW2. It fascinates me the fact that people had so little food and belongings yet they were happy to share what they did have. We are so lucky that we don't have to go through what these people did and it's nice to have a reminder of how far we have come. Many, many thanks, Diane x
Hey Diane, thanks for your lovely comment, I'm glad it sparked some happy memories for you, that's the thing about places like this. As poor as people were most only remember love and community. It's sad we have lost that. ❤️
Hi Lucy! I'm a new subscriber from Canada! Thank your for this amazing video. It makes all the films and TV shows about this era come to life.
My Mom went to Birmingham in 1995 for the Women's World Netball Championships. I've been obsessed with the UK since then.ive now watched several of your videos, beginning with your Mum's dollhouse one which was recommended to me because I am a doll collector.
In saying that, don't give up. You never know what is going to get views. Dolls and miniatures are big right now. Canada even has a show Called Make It Mini challenge and people from all over-including UK are contestants. Travel vlogging with you feels like a friend and local showing me around. You're amazing. I'd love to see more!!
Lots of Love from a Canadian fan!
Hey Connie, how lovely to wake up to your comment! So happy to hear from you, I've visited Canada once, only made it to Toronto for a few nights but would love to go back & explore more - which I'm sure could take years!
Loved watching video, now subscribed so I don't miss any more. Thank you
Thank you so much, very appreciated!
Both sets of my grandparents lived in back to backs at some point, eventually cleared to make way for modern brutalist 1960’s housing estates. So common place in all cities, what you would call head living, aren’t we lucky these days with central heating, private bathrooms, gardens etc but good to remind ourselves how our predecessors lived.
Absolutely lucky! Both my parents were born in Back to Back houses too, I think that's why I feel such an infinity with them I used to love hearing my Nan talk about it and I think almost made it romantic in my head - the reality of course was totally different. My Mom still has a scar on her head from a piece of coal that flew out of the fire as they were all packed in like sardines trying to get warm.
That was absolutely fascinating! Thank you so much, not just for sharing your visit. But also for your informative and insightful commentary.
Glad you enjoyed it and for your lovely comment, really appreciate it ❤️
Another fascinating video Lucy, want to visit soon.
You will love it, such a special place c
What a wonderful channel!! I'm so glad this was recommended to me! Please do more history related content, but either way I'm subscribed with notifications on!!! 😄
Thank you: I’m on it, my folder of ideas is getting very chunky!
I knew under a minute your channel was going to be right up my strasse...really enjoyed it, ty 😊
You are so kind, thank you xx
My Nan had an outside loo until the early 80s, and her yard was wonky brick cobbles, so you can imagine how slippery they got when it rained or was frosty. The landlord refused to update it - despite her living there for over 50 years! My b-in-law was a builder so he went and knocked through without telling the landlord (the ‘outhouse’ was attached by an outside wall), and the landlord tried to put the rent up when he found out. The ‘bath’ was a tin one in the ‘kitchen’ with a piece of Formica over it to act as kitchen table. No hot water at all. I looked at zoopla and the 2up2down last sold for £365000 - mind you, it now has a bathroom and an actual kitchen!
The house I live in used to be an outside loo … they just knocked it through and made it a kitchen area! Good, strong houses even though all the muck!
My gran and grandad lived in one of those, when I was a kid it was great going to the end of the street to use the wc, what a novelty! Outside the road was still dirt! Good times, all gone now. Rochdale in Lancashire.
Thanks for sharing, that's lovely. ❤️
I grew up in the midlands in the 60s (26 miles from Birmingham) and my friend lived in the back to back houses near our street, there was one room down stairs with a sofa a table and chairs then a small kitchen area, communal toilet and wash house were out back. I never thought about it at the time but they lived in awfulpoverty and it makes me so sad to remember it. The back to backs were converted into terraced houses in the 70s with running water etc.
Thanks so much for sharing. My Dad always said he didn’t know he was poor until he visited friends houses and they drank out of mugs not jam jars 🥹 amazing how we can reflect on things later and they hit us x
I find the contrasts so striking - between the small spaces (that must have been packed, even if all 11 children weren't at home at the same time!) - and the attention to detail, in the firegrates, the stairs (but wow, how steep!), the proportions. Everything seems to be of a good quality, but not much of anything. (The opposite of today.) I would have expected the smell to be a mix of cabbage and dust.
Your filming is excellent!
Thank you. I really appreciate that - yes cabbage and must .. with some animal fat;'you know that strong smell when you cook a lamb chop? That's from the candles that were made from animal tallow 🤢 .. I live in similar sized house and there are only 2 of us, we are always in each others way! I can't even imagine 11... no wonder Dad was always down the pub!
A beautiful slice of working class life, thanks Lucy!
Very welcome ❤️
Thank you for sharing. This was so interesting.♥
Verry cool!!
We dont have these in Nova Scotia
Love history 💕
Hello from the UK! Thanks for your lovely comment x
My grampy was from Moseley I believe his house still stands.. when he married my granny in 1942 everyone was at work when they arrived, so he knew he could get into the house through coal shed, and my granny always believed the coal bought luck to their marriage ❤
I love these houses . Would love to visit if I ever go to Birmingham, thank you
You are so welcome and I’m sure you would love it if you went x
George Saunders - my old tailors is now a museum - that makes you feel old !
That's super cool he was your tailor though! Do you still have some of the clothes they made you?
One jacket
He was very popular with mods in the 1980s
Brilliant tour
This was very interesting and I couldn’t help but think how it reminded me of what people on the tv Coronation st live in. 😊
Yeah that's understandable, they are similar really just that they have the back of the house too x
Its great history preserved 😊❤
It's a wonderful place. I hope it remains for many years to come!
I am from Birmingham born and bred and all of my family lived in these and the stairs omg!!, you needed a ladder they were that steep!. I remember outside toilets etc
I must be attracted to these stairs because the stairs in my 2 up 2 down are like a ladder too - everyone that comes round is terrified of the stairs, you get used to them but some days my knees are crying out!
Went here on a school trip in the mid 2000s, sooo interesting!
Glad you enjoyed it
Great little exhibition. As soon as you mentioned Kahn & Bell I went “Boy George!” 😂
Those stairs gave me anxiety! Really interesting to see the houses as they’d have been though. I’ve only ever seen them in my grandparents and great aunts’ photos before
Trust me they gave my knees ISSUES!! They were sore for days afterwards climbing up and down, aghr aint arthritis great?
Leeds still has some back-to-back houses in Beeston. A lot of them were knocked down but a small number still survive. He owns the one he lives in but quite a few are rented and some of the others are being converted into HMOs. It is over 4 floors...a cellar/basement underneath, a living room and galley kitchen on the ground floor, a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor and a bedroom and boxroom on the top floor. The stairs are quite steep but he loves it.
Thank you for sharing ❤️