HOUSES AND GARDENS 



sacrificed to a convention which decrees that the kitchens must be placed at 

 the back. 



If there is any rational excuse for the semi-detached house it is that the 

 unattached side should be utilised for light, but in the class of houses which 

 gain their title with the least expenditure of frontage this excuse cannot be 

 urged. But there is a secondary class of semi-detached houses with more 

 ample frontages, which seem to have all but realised the dream of complete 

 detachment, and it is this type which has some degree of reason for its 

 existence. In such houses light can be obtained from three sides, although this is 

 not in all plans essential or desirable. On the other hand, the lack of privacy 



DINING ROOM 

 2.0'x. 12.' 



DRAWING 

 ROOM 



16'x. 15' 



which is inevitable in the open parts of the garden of the terrace house is 

 equally felt in the semi-detached one, while for those who appreciate the 

 isolation of the detached house the enforced attachment to one other 

 establishment is more felt than if they were merely one in a row. The 

 houses represent a series of families arranged tete-a-tete, and neighbours 

 can hardly be ignored as in the terrace. Under these circumstances it 

 is doubtful whether the slight reduction in the cost of the houses caused 

 by the common wall between them is sufficient compensation for these 

 disadvantages. 



From the artistic point ot view the semi-detached house presents 

 the advantage of an extended frontage which enables the designer to gain 

 that long, low proportion which is specially desirable in country buildings, 

 and this may be noted in the examples of semi-detached houses illustrated. 

 But while special conditions of site and demands of occupants may make the 

 semi-detached house suitable in exceptional cases, ; as a rule it is better to avoid 

 the compromise it affords and to build either terraces or detached houses. 



107 



