Back to Backs
Back-to-backs are terraced houses built in pairs sharing a rear wall, so each had windows on one side only; Birmingham's last surviving court of them is preserved by the National Trust. Built cheaply and densely for industrial workers in the nineteenth century, they housed tens of thousands of Birmingham families around shared courtyards with communal toilets and washhouses.
In practice
Most back-to-backs were cleared as slums in the twentieth century. The surviving court, on the corner of Hurst Street and Inge Street near the Chinese Quarter, has been restored by the National Trust, with each house furnished to show a different period in the lives of families who lived there, from the 1840s to the 1970s. Visits are by guided tour, and some of the houses can be rented as holiday accommodation.
Why it matters to newcomers
The Back to Backs are the best place to understand how ordinary Birmingham lived and worked when it was the city of a thousand trades. Tours are small and book up, especially at weekends, so reserve ahead.
Related
- City of a thousand trades - the work done in these houses
- Jewellery Quarter - workshops of the same era
- Peaky Blinders - the street life of the same city