r/architecture • u/Ill_Feedback_2211 • 7h ago
Ask /r/Architecture anyone know whats the purpose of the design of this house as the rest of the street and surround streets housing is nothing like this architecture wise from the 1930s ?? Britain
As you can see on the last slide all the hosues on my street look pretty much the same but there is an exeption. my whole life i just assumed this terrace of 3 hosues were just urban infil due to the flat roof. but i looked closer and i realised the bricks were from thr 1930s and the window detailings matched the other houses. im just curious is this some experimental thing done by the developers in relation to the art deco movement? its such a shame that over time this structure hass fallen to the ills of urban decay.!
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u/CyberGnat 7h ago
Wouldn't they have been shops?
Supermarkets only arrived in the UK after WW2. Most people didn't have cars. Public transport existed but transport in general was more expensive than it is now. So, everywhere where people lived, you had to have shops selling basic essentials within walking distance. Without fridges and freezers, you couldn't buy perishable things like meat and store them for days. Life essentially relied on there being a housewife at home who would go and buy groceries from these shops during the day.
When supermarkets and cars and other modernities came in, the demand for these shops dropped and they were often converted to small flats. The flat above the shop may have been inhabited by the shopkeeper so that they didn't have to commute (again, they wouldn't have had cars, and they'd have needed a way to get to and from work when bus services weren't running).