Artisans' Dwellings, Turnbridge, Huddersfield

Comprising Violet Street, Rose Street, Hope Street, Lily Street, and Daisy Street, the 160 properties were collectively as known the Artisans' Dwellings and were built by Huddersfield Corporation between 1880 and 1882 under the Artisans' & Labourers' Dwellings Improvement Act 1875.

The properties were designed by the Borough Engineer, R.S. Dugdale, and were built on a site previous used for tenters.

The proposed rental for the houses was between 4s. and 4s. 6d. per week.[1]

By the start of October 1881, around 30 of the completed properties were occupied or let. The Leeds Mercury gave the following description:[2]

Each house contains two rooms on the ground floor. The main or living room is 13 feet by 12 feet inside measurement, and the second room is 13 feet by 7 feet; there are two bedrooms about the same size as the rooms down stairs. There is an attic over the bedrooms. In the front bedroom there is a wardrobe; there is what is known as a mantel sham, and there are gas fittings. In the back room there is a special ventilating apparatus, as there is no fire-place in it. In the attic means are also taken for ventilation, and there are glass-plate windows let into the roof so as to afford light. The whole of the rooms are well lighted. The kitchen is fitted with an improved fire-place, cupboard and drawers, and the floor with concrete with cement skirting "boards." In the back kitchen there is a setpot, and an improved flag stone and sink pan about a foot or more in depth, in which the ordinary process of "washing-up" may be conducted with some degree of comfort. The floors of the cellars are concreted; there are stone shelves fixed, and means are provided for the ventilation of the keeping department. There is ample accommodation for coal. Each house has a yard to itself, and a closet on an improved principal. The houses are fitted up with water, and everything is of so substantial a nature that there will be no fear of them falling down. The houses are built of stone from Crosland Hill; the outer walls are 16in. thick, the division walls of the cellars are 9in. thick, and the division walls in the houses are 6in. thick. The steps leading from the cellars to the ground floor, and those from the kitchen to the bedrooms, are solid stone.

The houses were demolished sometime around the late 1960s and the vacant land later used as a car park.

Extracts

Jubilee History of the Corporation of Huddersfield: 1868 to 1918 (1918) by Owen Balmforth:

The Artisans' Dwellings erected by the Corporation in 1880-2 comprise 160 houses situate at Turnbridge. The rents derived last year reached £2,168, and the expenditure on interest on the capital outlay, ground rent, rates, &c., was £2,113, which left a surplus for the year. The total capital expenditure upon these dwellings is £28,944. The weekly rents range from 3/10 to 6/3. For the past five years there have been no empties and no leakages.

Gallery

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Location

Notes and References

  1. "Huddersfield Parliamentary Debating Society" in Huddersfield Chronicle (12/Jan/1881).
  2. "The Artisans' Dwellings Act in Operation at Huddersfield" in Leeds Mercury (03/Oct/1881).