Slums
Slums
At the beginning of the 20th century, although overcrowding levels in Leicester were low compared to other urban areas in the country, there were areas which were described by Councillor Hallam, writing in 1926, as having 'mean and overcrowded houses in narrow, gloomy streets, discouraging every attempt at a decent mode of living'. He also mentioned the difficulty people had finding housing which they could afford.
"Our house where we lived, that's been demolished years ago. So that was a slum, no question about it, it was a slum. There was about six houses in a yard, and they had two toilets, outside toilets to be shared by the six tenants, and then there was one tap, one cold water tap in the middle of the yard, there was no other water at all in the houses. And they were slums, no question about it. And anybody would be very hard put to try and improve them, which we did against all sorts of odds."
"It was really terrible, I mean you always, you paid for what you could get but it used to be that damp paper come off, and the floors were all uneven and if you put lino down - which we couldn't afford carpet - that used to break because the floor was so uneven. Dark. Our kiddies were always ill weren't they when, through the dampness. And then they had chimneys what were, used to smoke. Sometimes we slept in one room, sometimes the other, because all depends which way the wind went, you know, because of the fumes coming into the room."
Indoors
Conditions varied hugely in red brick terraced housing. A lot depended on whether the house was built before the Public Acts of the 1850s and 1870s. After the 1870s building standards improved and these are the houses that survived the slum clearances.
The following exchange is from EMOHA82/17 'Housing the People'
It was really terrible, I mean you always, you paid for what you could get but it used to be that damp paper come off, and the floors were all uneven and if you put lino down - which we couldn't afford carpet - that used to break because the floor was so uneven. Dark. Our kiddies were always ill weren't they when, through the dampness. And then they had chimneys what were, used to smoke. Sometimes we slept in one room, sometimes the other, because all depends which way the wind went, you know, because of the fumes coming into the room.
And don't forget the cockroaches.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah, absolutely infested with them, all those houses around there.
Because we had a big factory next door didn't we, and they used to come from there.
And there used to be rats in that factory too, because you could see them, you know, from where we lived. There was a, this factory had a basement, and they had a sort of iron grill into the basement and you could actually see the rats, you know, going backwards and forward. In fact sometimes the cat used to catch them and lay them in the yard there you know and be right proud of its catch."
Amenities
Slums lacked many internal amenities which we take for granted today such as internal plumbing, hot water, and bathrooms. Therefore, it was common for several households to share amenities such as taps and toilets in a shared yard.
Decor
Residents would do their best to keep their houses looking the best they could, whether that meant keeping things tidy or painting furniture. Sometimes, this would be done as a persuasive method to convince the housing inspector that they were "fit" enough to occupy a council house.
This picture shows nos 2-26 Lower Grove Street Leicester. It was taken from the back bedroom of 19 Grovesnor Street and buildings in Belgrave Gate can be seen in the background. These houses shared back yards and three communal toilets. The families in this photo were rehoused on Hand Avenue and Gallards Hill on the newly built Braunstone Estate in 1938 and the houses were demolished. In the map below, the red arrow points to Lower Grove Street.
Maps of Leicester city centre showing where the 2-26 Lower Grove Street was (red arrow). The first one is an 1885 OS map, the other two are screen grabs from Google maps showing satellite and map views from the present day. The comparisons demonstrate the fall in city centre density with houses being replaced by commercial buildings and arterial roads. Many streets have remained (Garden Street, Gower Street, Orchard Street boxed in yellow) whereas others have been demolished (Lower Grove Street, Bow Street, Eaton Street).
What happened next?
The slum clearance programme started in the 1930s, but was halted by WW2. It started again in the 1950s and, gradually, the worst housing was demolished and people were moved into new, better, homes. It was a long haul though. Local newspapers were still reporting on slum conditions in the 1950s and, as late as 1981-84, a survey revealed that a third of housing in the Belgrave Ward didn't have indoor toilets, a quarter didn't have a wash basin and a fifth had no bath or hot water.
This page was compiled by Carter Buckingham.
Sources
The Slums of Leicester by Ned Newitt
Leicester in the 20th Century edited by Nash & Reeder, chapters one and four.