Living Conditions

[Ponytail]

Tent constructed in a recess of a Court Yard and housing a man, his pregnant wife and their two boys aged 2 and 1. 31st August 1950.u01688

This photograph is of a tent constructed of tarpaulin sheets, in a recess in a court yard in August 1950. The tent measured 13'10 long x 8'7 broad and the height was 5'8. There was no light or ventilation to the tent and water was obtained from houses in the court yard. The tent was occupied by a man and wife and their two boys aged 2 years and 1 year respectively. The wife was in an advanced state of pregnancy. The family had previously occupied part of a house as sub-tenants but had been evicted on account of arrears of rent. The two children were later removed from the tent by the N.S.P.C.C. The woman was admitted to hospital for the purpose of confinement and later both herself and the baby returned to live in the tent. The husband was constantly in trouble with the Police and was abusive and threatening to the Medical Officer of Health and the Sanitary Inspector and refused to quit the tent. The family eventually left the tent, which they demolished, and by some means obtained a house which they arranged to purchase. The family are still of a poor type and the husband is still in trouble with the Police.

 

[Ponytail]

Ex-Railway type van in a deplorable condition, placed on waste land and housing a man and wife and their child aged 1 year and 9 months, and another adult female, both females were pregnant. 31st August 1950.

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Photograph shows an ex-railway type van placed on waste land in June 1950. The van measured 8' 9 long, 5' 0 wide and was 5'7 high. The van was in a poor condition and there was no sanitary accommodation or water supply, lighting was by candles and there was a coal fired, metal stove inside the van. The van was generally in a deplorable condition, and the site around was littered with refuse. The occupants were a man and wife and their child aged 1 year and 9 months, and another adult female. Both adult females were expectant and both had other children, either with foster parents or in childrens homes. The occupants were eventually found accommodation by the Social Care Department.

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[Ponytail]

Tent on waste land housing a woman, her child, a man and a dog. 31st August 1950.

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Small tent erected on waste land in August 1950. The tent was found to be occupied by a woman and her child and a man, who were sleeping on a ground sheet. The child was suffering from Whooping Cough and there was also a dog in the tent. The woman was expecting to be confined in the near future. The tent was 6'9 long, 6'3 broad and 3'6 high. There was no water supply or sanitary accommodation and no light or ventilation to the tent. The child was later removed to an isolation hospital. Other children of the woman were in the Childrens Homes. These people finally filtered away to whereabouts unknown. Information with Photograph: No. 4 District. 

 

[Ponytail]

Residential Hut at Meadowhead Allotments, picture took by Environmental Health to show squalid living conditions. 1950.

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[Lysanderix]

Immediately post war the national housing stock was at a very low level and many lived in shared accommodation often in war damaged housing but I have never realised just how desperate was the situation for some.

[Ponytail]

6 hours ago, Lysanderix said:

Immediately post war the national housing stock was at a very low level and many lived in shared accommodation often in war damaged housing but I have never realised just how desperate was the situation for some.

 

When I first saw those photographs a few years ago, couldn't believe the squalid conditions some people were living in; it made me extremely sad for the children. Those "fortunate" to be living in "slum clearance areas" stuck it out in overcrowded properties to be rehoused sometimes for housing with a garden (a relative with a large family moved from Cuthbert Bank Road to Ecclesfield late 1960's/early 1970's), others were equally delighted to be living in the various high rise flats being built. What a lot missed was the togetherness of their old community; although I was told by someone; many who moved to the High Rise often still had their old neighbours living around them. 

[Ponytail]

The housing may have been substandard but the washing still had to be done somehow and hung out to dry. Drier? That was the luxury at the Launderette or Wash House.

Court 7, Hanover Street, right, toilets in foreground belong to Ecclesall Tavern, properties in background front onto Moore Street. 26th August 1958.

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Photographer: Medical Officer of Health Llewelyn Roberts. 

 

Lynn Auty using neighbour's "Washing Machine" Dolly Tub and Wringer, Old Hall Road, Attercliffe, c.1952. v05055

 

Rear of Nos. 34-40 Bennett Street, April 1975.s25206

 

Court No 2, off Duke Street/Rhodes Street, Park, Nos 1 and 2, right (back to backs fronting Rhodes Street), No 11, left. u01787

Photographer: SCC Environmental Health Department

 

Outside toilet in the yard of Victoria Villas, off Upperthorpe. u03267

 

Many didn't have or space for a washing machine. 

Banish wash day drudgery - advertisement for Wash Houses. 1939.y09925

Image from The City of Sheffield Commercial Handbook and Illustrated Guide, 1939 (Local Studies 914.274 S)

 

Interior of typical Public Wash-House, 1955.y04645

From Sheffield City Council Public Baths and Wash-Houses, arrangements, times of opening and charges , [1955]. Local Studies. 

 

[Lysanderix]

Born in 1943 and spending my formative years in Council housing , I have always had running hot and cold water, a bathroom, an inside toilet,a garden, a local park, a local school, local shops,a local doctor and good local transport. I therefore count my blessings and a caring Council.

[Andrew]

Born in 1951, and, luckily coming from a middle class back ground, tonight I shall count my blessings.

[Ponytail]

Canal Cottages, Tinsley Park Road (demolished 1958) showing the Electricity Sub Station (right) and Sheffield and SYK Navigation from Broughton Lane Bridge. Photographs taken 8th May 1957 by Kodak Medical, Medical Officer of Health. Llewellyn Roberts. Properties demolished 1958. s24779

Mr. Vincent Lawrence Bryan with his children Stephen John; Kathleen and Pauline Mary in front of Nos. 7-12, Canal Cottages, Tinsley Park Road with the Sheffield and SYK Navigation right. s24778

The Bryan Family children who lived at No. 5 showing Nos. 6-1, Canal Cottages, Tinsley Park Road, looking towards Electric Sub Station and Chemical Works.t00515

Information from Stephen Bryan who can be seen, aged around 18 months, with his sister Kathleen aged about 4 years. Stephen loved to play with the brush in the puddle that frequently gathered in the yard.

 

Mr. Vincent Lawrence Bryan in the doorway of No. 12 and Nos.11-7, Canal Cottages, looking towards Broughton Lane Bridge. t00514

 

[Bikeman]

On 08/01/2024 at 19:51, Lysanderix said:

Born in 1943 and spending my formative years in Council housing , I have always had running hot and cold water, a bathroom, an inside toilet,a garden, a local park, a local school, local shops,a local doctor and good local transport. I therefore count my blessings and a caring Council.

Same here, although I was born in the 50s and the caring council still existed, but my mum gave me the key of the door age 7, whilst she went out to work and next doors kept an eye on me when I came home from school. Both parents hard work and saving up got them into their own house - sadly they are no longer with us.

[Ponytail]

Court 22, Marcus Street, 4th March 1959. t00416

Court 22, Marcus Street, properties on Neville Street, in background. t00417

 

Nos. 108 - 110 Marcus Street, from Oborne Street. 4th March 1959. Photographer: Llewelyn Roberts, Medical Officer of Health. t00418

In the book 'Knotted String' (in) 'Steel-Makers and Knotted String', autobiography of a steel worker, by Harry Brearley, Cat. No. 669.1 SST, he describes his home on Marcus Street where he would sit against the gable end of the house and watch workmen building the boundary wall of the old MSL Railway. This wall was still there many years later and ran along what was known the Old Hill which was part of Marcus Street that had not been paved and ran to Brunswick Road, the part known locally as Champs Hill. The workmen would get hot water for tea from Brearley's mother. These cottages fit the description, however, there is no information to support this.

 

Court No. 2, Nos. 7, 8 and 9, Denholme Street, Burngreave. 4th March 1959.t00506

Note with photograph taken by Medical Officer of Health "Patched and Mended" 

 

Nos. 5 - 7, Cross Macro Street, 21st October 1957. Demolished July, 1960. t00484

Note with photograph taken by Medical Officer of Health. "Showing Cracks and Settlement" 

 

[boginspro]

When I was born after the war my parents and brother were living in a little caravan on a field at Holmsfield and that was my house until it burnt down one winter.  My birth certificate has on it an address of a relatives house where we never lived.

We then moved into my Gran's house at Heeley, a bit crowded but lovely place to live, pulled down "because of flooding" , they then built on the same site.

Not all the houses that were cleared were unfit, we lost two good houses that were demolished in the councils mass demolition. One problem was that many of the landlords ( some were councilors ) would not do repairs. This could have been enforced or they could have been compulsorily  purchased by the council and renovated or offered for sale. 

I would sooner live in the terraced houses ( outside toilet and all ) that we lived in than the rabbit hutches that some people are forced to live in now.  People are too fond of showing pictures of Sheffield houses when they were already empty, derelict, and ready for demolition though my memory is of scrubbed steps, cleaned windows and front room kept spotless with us kids not even allowed in.

We lost whole communities because of mass demolition/destruction and modern Sheffield shows the results.

 

[Ponytail]

The photographs in earlier posts of housing due for demolition or in need of urgent repair you can see where donkey stoning the steps had been carried out. Even living in the shadow of the steelworks etc. and all the dirt and noise that was generated around them, they were still proud of their own home and kept it clean the best they could. 

Rear of No. 1 Wood Fold and back doorway of No. 175, Woodside Lane, 26th June 1957. demolished January 1960. s20695

 

It's unfortunate there isn't many photographs of interiors of the houses. 

Most of the photographs I've seen have been taken by the Council, Engineers & Surveyors Dept. or the Medical Officer of Health when reports have been needed to support the need for repair or demolition some through bomb damage but often through neglect by the Landlord. 

These photographs are often the only image there is of the house where they or their family lived. Sometimes only being able to say that space or the pile of bricks is all they have; or in my case the outside toilets of the neighbours. I only found that out because the City Engineers had written on the photograph identifying the derelict workshop they were attached to. 

From a map, discovered they were the outside toilets at the rear of Nos.1,3,5 & 7 Goulder Place, the houses were demolished some years before. 

"Goulder Place, workshop fronting Broughton Lane, taken 1st December 1962 by the City Engineers and Surveyors Office."

The site is now part of Sheffield Arena Car Park. 

 

1970, I took some photographs for a College project in the Carbrook area where my Grandmother had lived for a time. Demolition was well under way but there were some houses still occupied and even while demolition was going on around them, those steps were still being donkey stoned and the windows cleaned. Two ladies about their task thought I was from the Council but soon became friendlier when they discovered I wasn't. They hadn't wanted to move at first but were now looking forward to moving, and were missing their neighbours who'd already moved away.