Hi Everyone

Can anyone explain this address to me please...

9ct 2h duke st (also transcribed as 9ct 2 duke st)

Is/was it a block of flats? A house of multiple occupation?

And does anyone know if it still exists?

Thanks

Jo

Hi Jo

Here are a couple of pictures of other Courts on Duke Street so you'll get the general idea of 'courts', at the time. Generally a number of small dwellings around a small shared 'yard'. So 2 house would have been just that - house number 2 in that particular 'yard'. 1 picture shows Court 9 in the background but its not too clear.

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u00209&pos=18&action=zoom&id=35684

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u00210&pos=19&action=zoom&id=35685

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u00216&pos=20&action=zoom&id=35691

https://www.picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;u00167&pos=15&action=zoom&id=35646

As you can see it was poor quality (but very common) housing and often overcrowded. All demolished now.

Denise

Fab. Thanks Denise, that is so interesting...

Really appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Thanks again

Regards

Jo

Hi Jo, A further description is Back to Back Houses , it was as if the terrace of houses were split in two the front of the house facing the road and whilst joined the back of the house was to the yard. They had a communal central wall but no doors making it two houses in one. The toilet facilities were in the yard and shared ten houses to 5 toilets the houses at the front entering via a passageway between the houses.
This was a common situation in industrial areas in the 1930"s.
Hope this helps and does not confuse you further.
Regards Barry Green

Thanks Barry

Terraced and semi-detached! It sounds very crowded...

5 toilets for 10 houses! It doesn't sound very sanitary either...

Thanks for the extra information, really does help paint a picture of home life in industrial areas at that time.

Regards

Jo

Jo,
As Denise said it is unfortunate that the court pictures at Duke Street are not very clear.
Following on from Barry’s excellent description you may get an even better picture of how it worked from these pictures from another part of Sheffield (Addy Street ).
The first shows Court 1 Addy Street, houses 2,3,4. You can clearly see right through the access passage (ginnel or Jinnel) to Addy Street. House 1 on the left has been incorporated into the Whitby Hotel and walled off from the other 3. The top of the toilet block is on the right foreground

https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s12885&pos=11&action=zoom&id=15786

The second shows a view from the other side of those buildings on Addy Street, Whitby Hotel on right shops to the left. The ginnel entrance is clearly visible, as is the part which has been incorporated into the Hotel.

https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s12884&action=zoom&pos=3&id=15785&continueUrl=

The third shows another court in the area with a clear view of the toilet block

https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s12879&pos=2&action=zoom&id=15780

The fourth is marked as unidentified but is clearly a later view of the first one above only from a vantage point on Arthur street after demolition of houses there exposed the view to that court. The derelict houses and toilet block are clearly visible just before demolition .

https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s28716&pos=59&action=zoom&id=89902

A picture paints a thousand words!
Dave

Dave

Great photo's, I certainly get the picture now :grinning:

The houses look tall, narrow and small. Do you have any idea of how they were laid out internally?

Ginnel, only ever heard that term used in Coronation Street. I guess it's a Northern term.

Thanks for taking the time to enlighten me... once again. I am really enjoying learning about how my ancestors lived...

Regards

Jo

My mum came from Newhall Road which was back to back and we would visit old friends down there in the 1950s so I was able to go in the one she and my grandparents lived in until mid 1930s, though my memory is a bit vague.
They lived in the back of the house so you entered into a kitchen type place which was like a single storey off shoot. Then there was the sitting/dining room which was full to bursting with necessary furniture. There was one bedroom upstairs and an attic bedroom. All very cramped when you think of how many children they often had. I expect the front part of the house would have been less roomy having only the sitting room/cum kitchen all in one room with one bedroom and an attic bedroom.
Lyn

Hi Jo et al,
A FIRST HAND ACCOUNT-A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE
I spent the first twenty years of my life living in the front facing home of a back to back, terraced housing neighborhood. The layout of front facing houses was the reverse of the back ones that Lynn described.
There was a very small paved area in front of the house surrounded by a small brick wall, this area was used to hang out the washing.
The front door led straight into a square, living/dining room with a coal burning fireplace which housed an oven and a hob. Next to the fireplace was a floor to ceiling storage cupboard with shelves (the bottom cupboard was where the cat went to have her kittens)
Just off this room was a tiny kitchen with sink, boiler, wash tub and mangle. There was no running hot water, no bathroom.
Stone steps led down from the kitchen, into a cellar which was used to store and receive coal via an outside grate, plus there were a few other odds and ends down there.

A door from the living area opened up to the first flight of stairs leading to the first bedroom, which also had a fireplace. There was a landing with a small storage area, just before the second flight of stairs leading to the attic. All three main rooms were about equal in size.
We did have electric lights but my grans house across the road started out with gas mantle lighting. The radio ran on tubes.

We were a family of six and we shared our outside toilet with a family of ten, we would lay in wait in the 'gennel' and make a mad dash across the yard, we were always grateful we had a couple of back-up toilets across the road at grans and an aunts house, who also lived in terraced, Georgian, but not back to back houses which came with their own outside toilets.
Also housed in the back yards were the dust bins, so described because they contained mainly the cold ashes from the daily fires. Kids played in the back yards as well as the streets.
The people who lived in the backs, hung out their washing in the yards. Bonfires were held there on November 5th and we all had chestnuts and roast potatoes.
Regardless of (the what we now consider) harsh living conditions, they were, for the most part, happy times.
HAPPY HUNTING:sleuth_or_spy:

Thanks everyone for painting such a vivid picture of life in these houses.

I can imagine that life was hard at times with so little space and such big families but there definitely seems to have been a sense of community... something that I feel is very rare these days.

Would these houses have been owned by the local authority?

Hi Jo,
The one I lived in, were at first, privately owned and a rent collector came around every week. Later the City Council bought them and did a few minor upgrades. Then I left in the mid sixties and after that, at some point they were demolished, probably in the early seventies.

HAPPY HUNTING:sleuth_or_spy:

Thanks once again Wendy

I really appreciate your help :grinning:

Regards

Jo