Product Description

Back-to-backs were once the commonest form of housing in England. Built in rows or courts or blocks, the back-to-back was home to the majority of working people in our Victorian cities. There were once half a million of them - vermin-infested slums, damp, overcrowded and disease-ridden, as Giles Worsley graphically describes them - yet they have almost entirely vanished from our urban landscape. Using a mixture of documentary evidence and oral history, Chris Upton uncovers a fascinating corner of our common past and tells the story of the folk who lived in Court 15 in central Birmingham. Such people are all in our family trees, but are all unique - the glass-eye maker from Birmingham, the Jewish watch-maker from Poland, the tailor from St Kitts. What was it like to live in a house with only one bedroom and no running water? How did 11 families share two toilets? Dr Upton, well-known in the West Midlands as a broadcaster and public speaker, started work on back-to-backs as a research project ready for the restoration of Court 15. He realised that he had 'stumbled upon a gold mine ...too good a story to leave on an office shelf'. The rise and fall of the back-to-back is a sobering tale - an extraordinary microcosm of life in England from the boom years of Victorian expansion through to the Hungry Thirties, and beyond.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #189984 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

A wonderful social history of Birmingham's working class housing
I picked up this book after a visit to the National Trust's back to back house at Inge Street Birmingham. The book partly focuses its attention on the history and occupants of Inge Street, the only remaining back to back court in Birmingham. However, the book also provides a fascinating background as to when and why back to back houses became so prolific in Birmingham and certain other cities (but not in London for example). It also contains anecdotes and words from people who lived in back to back houses together with lots of pictures, which really gives you the impression of what life must have been like for these families.

I bought the book because we have traced our family history back to a number of families that lived in such housing. When people are poor, they do not leave family photos or heirlooms so this book is a great way to find out something about the lives of previous generations.

If you are interested in social history or in Birmingham's past you will find this book fascinating.

Little piece of family history.
This book has much more than a historical meaning to our family, my recently departed nana, lived in Court 15 Inge Street, and having heard many of the stories of her and her vast family growing up there first hand I wanted to see it from another point of view.
A fantastic insight to life, in a busy city.
A fantastic addition to the memories we all have of a lady and family worthy of this regard.
Thank you.