REFURBISHMENT

One of several streets of terraced housing near to me which have been purchased by a developer and are in the process of being refurbished to provide affordable rented homes close to the centre of town.

These terraces of "back-to-back" houses - where two rows of houses with small paved yards behind are separated by an alleyway - are typical of the mass housing built in late Victorian times and the early 20th Century to house the workers attracted to rapidly expanding industrial towns and cities. When industry declined and disappeared at the end of the century many of the streets declined as well and the people living in them were beset by problems of unemployment, drink, drugs and crime, with many families moving away and houses becoming derelict. In some cases rows of these houses in this town have been demolished and modern private flats and houses with small gardens and green spaces have replaced them, but these streets have been kept and restored, with the houses gutted and rebuilt from the inside to provide mod cons and be energy efficient, and will be rented out in units of 1 to 3 bedroomed accommodation. A few houses have been knocked down, though, in order to provide communal green space. There are many terraces of older houses in Hartlepool where you can still buy a house for around £50k, sometimes less. It's definitely one of the cheaper areas in the country, although prices of the more modern houses on estates around the outskirts are much more in keeping with the rest of the country.

(My entry for the Blip Community Architecture Challenge.)