Victorian Houses

A mixture of Victorian houses as they look today and how they looked when they were first in use, over 100 years ago. Check out our Teaching Activity What was housing like for the Victorian middle classes?

Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of Oxfordshire County Council New Villas, Goring, Oxfordshire A bird's-eye view of the new villas built in the village at the end of the 19th century. The village was relatively small until this time, but its situation on the banks of the river Thames greatly increased its popularity.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of Oxfordshire County Council Divinity Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire Looking along Divinity Road lined with new Victorian houses, taken from the tower of St Mary and St John's Church.
Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Mr Duncan Ferguson Collingwood Villas, Plymouth A pair of villas, built as part of a planned development in a Classical style. They are shown on the 1867 map for this area, so must have been built before this date.	Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Market Court, Kensington High Street, London An early photograph of Market Court on the south side of Kensington High Street, three years before the site was demolished. The inhabitants pose for the camera. Courts such as this one were frequently over-crowded with cramped and insanitary conditions.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Worker's housing, Port Sunlight, Merseyside Children outside half-timbered worker's housing built as part of the model village for the Tudor Company in Port Sunlight.	Add to My Favourites Copyright Crown copyright.NMR Workers' housing, Robinwood Mill, Todmorden, West Yorkshire These regular streets of terraced houses were constructed in 1864 for the workers at Robinwood Mill. The larger houses would have been for the overlookers (foremen) in the mill, and were built to a high standard. A toilet and coal cupboard was situated in an outhouse adjoining the kitchen.
Add to My Favourites Crown copyright.NMR Arkwright Town, Duckmanton, Derbyshire Arkwright Towns was built in the mid-19th century to house the workers of the local mine. The town was laid out in a grid pattern, with wider streets than often seen in Victorian terraces, although the houses still open onto the street. It was demolished and a new settlement built in the mid-1990s.	Add to My Favourites Crown copyright.NMR 20 Victoria Street, Shildon, Durham These 19th-century worker's houses were built by the Stockton and Darlington Railway Co. Many companies built their workers houses, with larger and better properties going to managers and more senior workers. The quality of houses varied considerably.
Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Mr CJ Wright LRPS Parade Street, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria A typical row of Victorian red brick terraced houses fronting directly onto the street	Add to My Favourites Crown copyright.NMR Edward Street, Saltaire, Shipley, West Yorkshire The housing in Saltaire reflected the status of the workers. Most of the workers occupied small houses consisting of 4 rooms and cellar-pantry. The larger corner houses were for managers and supervisors. Mill owner Titus Salt spent 20 years planning and building this model town.
Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Dr Robert Slade Terrace of 24 cottages, Railway Village, Swindon One of the streets in the development built for the Great Western Railway Company workforce. These are two storey buildings with a separate dwelling on each floor, all two rooms deep. The downstairs houses were reached through a passage on the front, upstairs by lean-to stairs from the walled rear yard. Toilets were in the rear yard.	Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Lorna Freeman Church Road, Kemble, Gloucestershire Two pairs of semi-detached cottages built in the late 19th century from local Cotswold Stone.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Reading Road, Lower Basildon, Berkshire This row of five smart, gabled, timber-framed cottages were built in 1865 as estate cottages for a Charles Morrison.	Add to My Favourites Crown copyright.NMR New Bolsover Post Office, Old Bolsover, Derbyshire The Post Office at Bolsover was built 1888-93 as part of the model village that served the nearby mine run by the Bolsover Colliery Company. By providing facilities and housing companies could both attract workers and have power over their conduct.
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR Myrtle Villas, 22-24 Ravenscourt Gardens, Hammersmith, Greater London View from the street, a board for M E E Roberts, architect and surveyor is by the gate of No 22.	Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Ms Alison Lee LRPS Cadogan Square, Chelsea, Greater London Built c1890 these smart town houses have four storeys of living space, an attic and a basement. They are a good example of the Queen Anne (Dutch) style of architecture
Add to My Favourites Reproduced by permission of English Heritage.NMR 29 Fernhead Road, West Kilburn, Greater London Houses like this one, with several bay windows jutting out, became popular from around 1870. This photograph was taken in 1889.	Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Dr Robert Slade Bath Road, Swindon, Swindon A terrace of five houses for middle class, white collar, workers set in a row of Victorian houses in varying materials and styles. Decorative features based on those designed for large country houses were mass produced for local builders from a set of stock patterns
Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Mr Keith Suddaby FRPS Manchester Road, Southport, Merseyside A pair of semi detached villas in classical style built for wealthy middle class families and generally found in the suburbs.	Add to My Favourites English Heritage.NMR/Mr Nick Jarvis FDPS, ARPS Bletchley Park House, Buckinghamshire A Large country house built in 1860, now used as offices. It was also used by the government to house code breakers during World War Two.