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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



October, 1905 



The Observer's Note-Book 



The Cheap Cottages Exhibition in England 



OR some time past, almost as far back as the 

 memory of living man extends and perhaps 

 further, the building of cheap cottages for 

 laborers has been one of the most serious 

 problems confronting English landowners. 

 It is a problem that has not yet presented 

 itself in the same way in America. Our living problems are 

 difficult enough, as every one is aware, but the great estate, 

 as it is understood in England, upon which many laborers 

 live and look to the landowner for housing if not for actual 

 employment, has not yet reached us, and doubtless never will. 

 But in England this condition has long been the normal one, 

 and the difficulties of landowners to find a solution for it have 

 puzzled architects and builders for many years. 



Like most architectural problems, matters not architectural 

 were the disturbing elements. 1 he owner desired the modest 

 return of 4 per cent, on his cash outlay; the tenant did not 

 wish to pay more than $50 rent per annum ; often he could not 

 pay as much; frequently he was asked to pay more. On a 

 rental of $50 a total outlay for building of $1,250 has long 

 been regarded as the average. It is easy to see what hap- 

 pened; in most cases nothing at all was done, and the cheap 

 English cottage became a national eyesore. Decay was in- 

 evitable; unsanitary conditions nourished in a hideous way. 

 Then came the natural reaction. Boards of health and sani- 

 tary committees took a hand. District after district adopted 

 stringent sanitary regulations. A public campaign was 

 begun and continued, until the landlords realized its impor- 

 tance and woke up to what it meant. Reformation and prog- 

 ress became the watchwords, and the demand for a cheap 

 cottage became not only insistent, but one of the architectural 

 problems of the day. 



It was long felt, and perhaps rightly, that a typical de- 

 sign could be secured for a cottage built within a certain limit 

 of cost which might be available practically for all purposes 

 and under all similar conditions. The demand was not un- 

 reasonable, for modern industrial conditions are such that a 

 building of average material can generally be duplicated any- 

 where within reasonable limits at a figure not greatly in ex- 

 cess of the original cost. The theory was good enough; the 

 difficulty lay in securing the desired design. 



A most interesting effort to accomplish this purpose has 

 just been made at an exhibition of cheap cottages held at 

 Letchworth in Hertfordshire, near London. More than a 

 hundred cottages were shown in all, and the exhibition and 

 the discussions aroused by it excited very general interest. 

 Prizes were offered for buildings of specified types, and four 

 general classes were arranged for. These comprised ( 1 ) cot- 

 tages costing £150, (2) pairs of five-room cottages costing 

 not more than £300, (3) the best group of three or four cot- 

 tages costing not more than £35 per room, and (4) cottages 

 or pairs of cottages costing not more than £35 per room. 

 The cost in each case was to be calculated exclusive of the 

 architect's fee and the builder's profit. 



The chief interest centered in the £150 cottages, which 

 were conceded to be the class of dwellings most particularly 

 desired. It may be questioned whether, in offering prizes 

 for a house of a specified cost, the best results were obtained. 

 Not a few of the buildings so designated could not, ad- 

 mittedly, have been reproduced elsewhere for the same sum ; 

 the very statements of their builders, as given in the cata- 

 logue, were extremely cautious and many of them were built 

 with such thin walls as to arouse doubts as to their avail- 



ability as winter residences. A different procedure would 

 have been to have offered prizes for the most economically 

 built cottage which would be both comfortable and weather- 

 proof and large enough to accommodate a certain number of 

 persons. In this case the builders would have fixed the cost, 

 the figures might have withstood severer scrutiny, and a 

 really economical design might have been secured. 



This, however, was perhaps less important than the greater 

 fact that a large exhibition of actual cottages, built for ex- 

 hibition and practical purposes, had at last been carried to 

 successful completion. That honest efforts had been made 

 and could be made to build cheap laborers' cottages was now 

 demonstrated in the most complete manner possible. As an 

 exhibition of practical architecture for the people it has not 

 been surpassed, and it marks an effort that must have very 

 great influence in developing the small house of low cost in 

 the future. 



Singular as it may appear, the somewhat predominating 

 note in the whole exhibition is one of affected picturesqueness. 

 A true picturesqueness is the leading quality of the little old 

 English cottage, a quality they were not intended to have, 

 but which they have acquired because they could not help it 

 — because of the mellowing influence of time and of the un- 

 premeditated way in which they have been absorbed into the 

 landscape. This is a quality which could not possibly be 

 acquired by the makeshifts of modern architectural design, 

 by the constant use of the high-pitched roof, by lofty dor- 

 mers and gables, by false half-timbering and other devices, 

 all of which were freely used in the buildings at Letchworth, 

 and all of which, it is needless to say, were entirely out of 

 place. 



Two leading characteristics were immediately apparent. 

 One was the question of design, and the other the use of 

 materials. That a cottage should be pleasant and attractive 

 to look upon was perhaps insisted on with needless reitera- 

 tion. The question invariably presented itself, Can this 

 house be built for the sum designated, or has some cost been 

 added, that it may have a certain beauty which, after all, was 

 more or less forced ? Beauty is a very important part of any 

 household structure, but in dwellings of low cost it must be 

 subordinated to price, to sanitary considerations and to con- 

 venience. If, after these matters have been duly considered 

 and admitted in the treatment, a genuine, even if homely 

 and unpretentious beauty can be given to the house, a very 

 admirable degree of excellence has been secured. The Letch- 

 worth buildings did not always meet these criticisms in as full 

 a manner as it was hoped they would, although it should not, 

 in any sense, be regarded as unproductive of good results. 

 The results did not simply go as far as it was reasonable to 

 hope they would. 



The use of special materials, of patented devices and of 

 other constructive aids to buildings was another special fea- 

 ture of the exhibition. Some of these materials were shown 

 for the first time in practical application. Their use, in a 

 general way, was occasioned by the double desire of reducing 

 the cost of the structures shown and of adding to their utility 

 by bettering their sanitary condition. The really important 

 point made in this connection was that the demand for eco- 

 nomical building and for sanitary homes is stimulating the use 

 of artificial or special preparations which may, if found dur- 

 able and effective, drive out natural materials in many future 

 building operations. It is yet too soon to see how far this 

 will be done. 



