Tudor Walters Report

The committee

Tudor Walters as the chairman, Raymond Unwin was a member

The background

In 1912 Raymond Unwin, published a pamphlet Nothing gained by Overcrowding.

The Local Government Board in 1912 had recommended that:

Cottages for the working classes should be built with wider frontages and grouped around open spaces which would become recreation grounds, they should have three bedrooms, a large living room, a scullery fitted with a bath and a separate WC to each house with access under cover

The published five model plans. Two had an additional parlour, four were terraced and one was semi detached with a room for a big cat. They had an area 820 square feet (76 m²) to 1,230 square feet (114 m²).

The First World War indirectly provided a new impetus, when the poor physical health and condition of many urban recruits to the army was noted with alarm. This led to a campaign known as Homes fit for heroes. Also the Office for Works built the Well Hall Estate in Eltham for workers at the Royal Ordnance Factory, at Woolwich. This had been built on Garden City principles, with fine Arts and Craft details.

The recommendations

The committee expected to

Profoundly influence the general standard of housing in this country and to encourage the building of houses of such quality that they would remain above the acceptable minimum standards for at least sixty years

We regard it essential that each house should contain a minimum of three rooms on the ground floor (living-room, parlour, scullery) and three bedrooms above, two of these capable of containing two beds. A larder and a bathroom are essential.

Housing in short terraces, spaced at 70 feet (21 m) at a density of 12 per acre (30/ha) in town or 8 per acre (20/ha) in the county. This was to allow the penetration of sunlight even in winter. There was to be secondary access to the sides of semi-detached houses and by ground floor passages through larger terraces. These terraces should be a maximum of eight houses long. The advantages of cul de sacs were noted as cheap method of providing services and preventing through traffic. The Committee noted the advantages of a varied provision of housing types and not restricting an estate to one social class.

Deep narrow fronted Byelaw terraced houses were to be avoided as the rear projection reduced air flow and light to the back of the house. (The middle-room problem). Wider frontages were preferred. A Tudor Walters house had an average frontage of 22 feet 6 inches (6.86 m). The living room should be a light room and ideally a through room.

Three basic plans were suggested, based on cost and where the cooking would be done:

In addition it was suggested that superior houses would have a parlour- as this was a reasonable expectation for the artisan class.

A parlour house was to be 1,055 square feet (98.0 m²) and a non parlour house to be 855 square feet (79.4 m²). In the climate of 1918, 85% of the houses needed to be 3 bedroom and 15% to be smaller or bigger. Pre war the divide had been 40%/60%. The bedrooms should be 150 square feet (14 m²),100 square feet (9.3 m²) and 65 square feet (6.0 m²). A parlour of 120 square feet (11 m²) was seen to be adequate- in effect 12 by 10 feet (3.7 m × 3.0 m).- it was a quiet room for reading, writing a sick relative or formal entertaining of non-family visitors.

It also suggested the use of district heating using waste heat from power-stations, the use of standardised components the positioning of community facilities and integration with public transport and phasing the construction of both.

The legacy

In 1919 the Government required councils to provide housing, helping them to do so through the provision of subsidies, under The Addison Act (Housing Act 1919). The Housing Act 1890 had merely permitted them to do so. They were to be built to the Tudor Walters standards.