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A semi-detached house (often abbreviated to semi) is a single family
duplex Duplex (Latin, 'double') may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Duplex'' (film), or ''Our House'', a 2003 American black comedy film * Duplex (band), a Dutch electronic music duo * Duplex (Norwegian duo) * Duplex!, a Canadian children's music ...
dwelling house that shares one common wall with the next house. The name distinguishes this style of house from detached houses, with no shared walls, and terraced houses, with a shared wall on both sides. Often, semi-detached houses are built in pairs in which each house's layout is a mirror image of the other's. Semi-detached houses are the most common property type in the United Kingdom (UK). They accounted for 32% of UK housing transactions and 32% of the English housing stock in 2008. Between 1945 and 1964, 41% of all properties built were semis. After 1980, the proportion of semis built fell to 15%.


History of the semi-detached house in the United Kingdom


Housing the rural working classes

Housing for the farm labourer in 1815 typically had one downstairs room with an extension for a scullery and pantry, and two bedrooms upstairs. The house would be of brick, stone if it occurred locally, or cob on a wooden frame. These houses were unsanitary, but the biggest problem was that there were simply too few of them. Population was increasing rapidly (see table), and after the Enclosure Acts labourers could not find spare land to build their own homes. Homebuilding was thus the responsibility of a landowner or speculative builder. In the late 18th century, estate villages followed local architectural styles. This later changed as landowners adopted model designs from pattern books. By the early 19th century, landowners were typically using a "picturesque" style, and building double cottages as a way to reduce cost. In 1834 Smith wrote "this species of cottage can be built cheaper than two single ones, and, in general, these double cottages are found to be warmer and fully as comfortable as single ones".


Housing the urban working classes

At the same time as the huge increase in the population of the rural counties there was an even greater shift in population from the impoverished land to the large towns and to cities. Society was restructuring, with the labouring classes dividing into artisans and labourers. In the cities, labourers were housed in overcrowded tenement blocks, rookeries and lodging houses, and philanthropic societies aimed to improve conditions. The rural Labourers' Friend Society expanded in 1844 and was reconstituted as the
Society for Improving the Condition of the Labouring Classes The Labourer's Friend Society was a society founded by Lord Shaftesbury in the United Kingdom in 1830 for the improvement of working class conditions. This included the promotion of allotment of land to labourers for "cottage husbandry" that later ...
. In their 1850 publication ''The Dwellings of the Labouring Classes'', written by Henry Roberts, the society laid out plans for model 'semi-detached' cottages for workers in towns and the city. However, the first properties they built were tenements and lodging houses. In 1866 the
Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes In London, the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes (MAIDIC) was a Victorian-era, philanthropically-motivated model dwellings company. The association, established in 1841, was fore-runner of the mode ...
built Alexander Cottages at Beckenham in Kent, on land provided by the Duke of Westminster. The development initially comprised 16 pairs of semis. By 1868, they had built 164 semis. In Birmingham, Wolverhampton and
the Potteries The Staffordshire Potteries is the industrial area encompassing the six towns Burslem, Fenton, Hanley, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall, which is now the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. North Staffordshire became a centre of cera ...
there was a tradition dating from the 1790s of artisans saving through mutual funds and Friendly Societies. In the 1840s, the permanent building society model was adopted. The Woolwich Equitable was founded in 1847, the Leeds Permanent in 1848 and Bradford Equitable in 1851. Artisans could invest and then borrow a sum for a mortgage on their own property.


Model villages

In the wool towns of Yorkshire three families built villages for their workers. In each, there was a hierarchy of houses: long terraces for the workers, larger houses in shorter terraces for the overlookers, semi-detached houses for the junior managers, and detached houses for the elite. The first such village was built by Colonel Edward Ackroyd, at
Copley, West Yorkshire Copley is a village in the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England, south of Halifax and east of Sowerby Bridge. It is situated by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation canal. Facilities I ...
, between 1849 and 1853, the second by
Sir Titus Salt Sir Titus Salt, 1st Baronet (20 September 1803 in Morley – 29 December 1876 in Lightcliffe), was a manufacturer, politician and philanthropist in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, who is best known for having built Salt's Mill, a la ...
at
Saltaire Saltaire is a Victorian era, Victorian model village in Shipley, West Yorkshire, Shipley, part of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District, in West Yorkshire, England. The Victorian era Salt's Mill and associated residential district locate ...
(1851–1861), and the third was the West Hill Park Estate in Halifax built by John Crossley. Model villages in Lancashire followed, with developments like Houldsworth Village. Semi-detached housing in colliery villages was rare; status here was determined by the length of the terrace. The development of Port Sunlight and
Bournville Bournville () is a model village on the southwest side of Birmingham, England, founded by the Quaker Cadbury family for employees at its Cadbury's factory, and designed to be a "garden" (or "model") village where the sale of alcohol was forbidd ...
was important. The Port Sunlight model village was begun in 1887. William Lever used architects William Owen and his son Segar Owen and stated in 1888 that:

It is my and my brother's hope, some day, to build houses in which our work-people will be able to live and be comfortable – semi-detached houses with gardens back and front, in which they will be able to know more about the science of life than they can in a back-to-back slum.

At Bournville in 1879 the
Cadbury Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company fully owned by Mondelez International (originally Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second largest confectionery brand in the world after Mar ...
development started with a detached house for the manager and six pairs of semis with large gardens for key workers. By 1895 the village was made up of semis and short terraces, showing that a low density layout could be a practical possibility even for the working classes. The examples of Bournville and Port Sunlight were seized on by Ebenezer Howard, and they became key models for the Garden City movement.


Housing the middle classes

The middle class became an important and expanding group in the 19th century. With industrialisation came material gain to the capitalist entrepreneur. New professions came into existence to serve their needs: insurers, engineers, designers. The growth in the population required more architects, lawyers, teachers, doctors, dentists and shopkeepers. Hierarchical tiers emerged within the middle class, each watching each other's status. According to ''A New system of Practical Domestic Economy'' (1820–1840), being middle class required an income of £150 p.a. or more. In 1851, 3 million out of a total population of 18 million in the UK would have been considered to be middle class. Semi-detached houses for the middle class began to be planned systematically in late 18th-century
Georgian architecture Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Georg ...
, as a
suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...
an compromise between the terraced houses close to the city centre, and the detached " villas" further out, where land was cheaper. There are occasional examples of such houses in town centres going back to medieval times. Most early examples are in areas such as
Blackheath Blackheath may refer to: Places England *Blackheath, London, England ** Blackheath railway station **Hundred of Blackheath, Kent, an ancient hundred in the north west of the county of Kent, England *Blackheath, Surrey, England ** Hundred of Blackh ...
, Chalk Farm and St John's Wood, now the outer fringes of Central London. Sir
John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...
considered the origin of the semi-detached house to be the Eyre Estate of St John's Wood. He commented that in a plan for the estate dated 1794 "the whole development consists of ''pairs of semi-detached houses''. So far as I know, this is the first recorded scheme of the kind." The estate was not built at that time due to the French Revolutionary Wars, but when it was finally built it retained the semi-detached form, "a revolution of striking significance and far-reaching effect". In these early years a common style was a row of houses in which several pairs of semi-detached houses are linked by a wall along the frontage. An example is The Paragon in Blackheath, where a blank colonnade runs between the houses. Most early examples were relatively large houses with access at the rear. During the 19th century, a father and son architectural partnership,
John Shaw Sr. John Shaw Sr. (1776–1832) was an English architect. He was architect to Christ's Hospital in London, and to the Port of Ramsgate. Many of his works, including the church of St Dunstan-in-the-West in Fleet Street, London, were in a Gothic Revi ...
and
John Shaw Jr. John Shaw Jr. (1803–1870) was an English architect of the 19th century who was complimented as a designer in the "Manner of Wren". He designed buildings in the classical Jacobean fashion and designed some of London's first semi-detached ...
, drew up designs for semi-detached housing in London. Examples of their work can be seen in Chalk Farm, North London. John Nash, better known for his Regency terraces, built some semi-detached villas either side of the Regent's Canal. These were styled to appear as substantial single detached villas with the entrances to the side. Similarly, the landscape gardener John Claudius Loudon built a pair of semi-detached villas fashioned to appear as a single house in Porchester Terrace in 1825. In his 1838 book ''The'' ''Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion'' he gives advice on how to disguise the join between the houses by using false windows.


Late 19th century and 20th century

The
Public Health Act 1875 The Public Health Act 1875c 55 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, one of the Public Health Acts, and a significant step in the advancement of public health in England. Its purpose was to codify previous measures aimed at combatin ...
described the structure and required minimum size of
terraced houses In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...
and the street pattern that towns had to adopt. This made it difficult to place a semi in a large garden. The law stated that the building lines should be 11m apart, and that there should be rear access to allow the removal of
nightsoil Night soil is a historically used euphemism for human excreta collected from cesspools, privies, pail closets, pit latrines, privy middens, septic tanks, etc. This material was removed from the immediate area, usually at night, by workers emplo ...
. In 1875, it was thought that having a privy inside the house was unhealthy. Cold water came from a stand pipe in the yard, and lighting was by candle or by
gas mantles A Coleman white gas lantern mantle glowing at full brightness An incandescent gas mantle, gas mantle or Welsbach mantle is a device for generating incandescent bright white light when heated by a flame. The name refers to its original heat sou ...
. Heating and cooking was done by coal, and hot water was boiled in kettles on the living room range. Kitchens were rare – the wet activities were done outside or in the
scullery A scullery is a room in a house, traditionally used for washing up dishes and laundering clothes, or as an overflow kitchen. Tasks performed in the scullery include cleaning dishes and cooking utensils (or storing them), occasional kitchen work, ...
. Later, water was piped to the house, and some living room fires had a
back boiler A back boiler is a device which is fitted to a residential heating stove or open fireplace to enable it to provide both room heat and domestic hot water or central heating. The device is a water filled heat exchanger enclosed at the rear of the burn ...
for heating. During the First World War the Tudor Walters Report was published, setting standards for the accommodations needed for returning soldiers, dubbed "
homes fit for heroes A council house is a form of British public housing built by local authorities. A council estate is a building complex containing a number of council houses and other amenities like schools and shops. Construction took place mainly from 1919 a ...
". The Housing, Town Planning, &c. Act 1919 (Addison Act) incorporated those recommendations including one that allowed for housing based on the
Radburn design Radburn design housing (also called Radburn housing, Radburn design'', ''Radburn principle, or Radburn concept) is a concept for planned housing estates, based on a design that was originally used in Radburn, New Jersey, United States. History ...
. In this design, small clusters of up to 15 houses would circle small
cul-de-sac A dead end, also known as a cul-de-sac (, from French for 'bag-bottom'), no through road or no exit road, is a street with only one inlet or outlet. The term "dead end" is understood in all varieties of English, but the official terminology ...
s of a district feeder road. This tipped the balance away from short terraces towards pairs of semi-detached houses. The housing density was initially generous, but was reduced in 1923 after a change of government from the Liberal Party to the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
. After the Second World War, there was a chronic shortage of houses. In the short term this was relieved by the construction of
prefabricated houses Prefabrication is the practice of assembling components of a structure in a factory or other manufacturing site, and transporting complete assemblies or sub-assemblies to the construction site where the structure is to be located. The term is u ...
with a ten-year life. The successor was the pre-cast reinforced concrete semi-detached house. Although the frame was concrete the exterior panels were often traditional brick, so the final building was visually indistinguishable from a traditionally built house. The recommendations of the
Parker Morris Committee The Parker Morris Committee drew up an influential 1961 report on housing space standards in public housing in the United Kingdom titled ''Homes for Today and Tomorrow''. The committee was led by Sir Parker Morris. Its report concluded that the q ...
became mandatory for all public housing from 1967 till 1980. Initially the private sector adopted them too, but gradually lowered their standards.


Outside the United Kingdom and Ireland

Although semi-detached housing is built throughout the world, it is generally seen as particularly symbolic of the
suburbanisation Suburbanization is a population shift from central urban areas into suburbs, resulting in the formation of (sub)urban sprawl. As a consequence of the movement of households and businesses out of the city centers, low-density, peripheral urb ...
of the United Kingdom and Ireland, or post-war homes in Canada. In Toronto, the semi-detached house was a major building type during both the pre and post-war periods. In New England, some other parts of the United States, and occasionally in Canada, this style is colloquially called a "
duplex Duplex (Latin, 'double') may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Duplex'' (film), or ''Our House'', a 2003 American black comedy film * Duplex (band), a Dutch electronic music duo * Duplex (Norwegian duo) * Duplex!, a Canadian children's music ...
''"''. Elsewhere, however, "duplex" refers to a building comprising two flats/apartments, one above the other; this is also referred to as a "two-flat'. Semi-detached houses are typically referred to as 'twins' in the Mid-Atlantic region (particularly in Pennsylvania).


Australia

In
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, a semi-detached house is also known as a "duplex". Townhouses may be apparently similar to semi-detached houses, but a semi-detached house sits on a single property, owned in its entirety by the owner of the semi-detached house, whereas townhouses sit on a shared property. The type of real property title held is therefore different: a semi-detached home is generally held as a
Torrens title Torrens title is a land registration and land transfer system, in which a state creates and maintains a register of land holdings, which serves as the conclusive evidence (termed " indefeasibility") of title of the person recorded on the regist ...
d property, while a townhouse is a Strata titled unit. Semi-detached houses come only in pairs, whereas there may be more than two townhouses attached together. In
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, semi-detached houses were briefly popular at the beginning of the 20th century and many examples may be found in inner suburbs such as
Drummoyne Drummoyne is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Drummoyne is six kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative center for the local government area of the City of ...
. However, this style quickly gave way to the 'modern' style of detached housing which allowed better motor vehicle access, amongst other benefits.


Canada

The semi-detached house was seen as a good fit for downtown Toronto's narrow lots early in the city's history. In the late 19th century semis were built in areas such as The Annex and Cabbagetown in assorted styles: Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, Second Empire,
bay-and-gable The bay-and-gable is a distinct residential architectural style that is ubiquitous with the older portions of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The most prominent feature of the style is a large bay window that usually covers more than half the front faç ...
. Semi-detached homes continued to be built in the post-war period, often alongside detached types such as the
bungalow A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...
. They remain popular with developers as they are cheaper to build than detached houses. According to the 2006 census, Toronto had more than 139,000 semis, more than any other Canadian city by a wide margin. Red-brick semis are a common sight throughout downtown and older suburbs.


Cultural references

* "
Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James "Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James" is a song written by songwriters Geoff Stephens and John Carter, recorded by English pop group Manfred Mann in 1966. Stephens and Carter, who were writers for a publishing company on Denmark Street, London, wr ...
", written and performed by Manfred Mann, is a satirical song about a lost love marrying a boring man from semi-detached suburbia. It was released in 1966 and reached No. 2 in the UK charts. * '' Semi-Detached Mock Tudor'' is a
live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by Richard Thompson. * "My Pink Half of The Drainpipe", written and performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, satirises neighbourly relations and ownership of property, referring to the practice of each family painting only one half of the drainpipe that runs down the centre of the dividing line between properties. * “Wisemen” is a song written and performed by British artist James Blunt, and refers to three wise men having a “semi” by the sea.


See also

*
Single-family detached home A stand-alone house (also called a single-detached dwelling, detached residence or detached house) is a free-standing residential building. It is sometimes referred to as a single-family home, as opposed to a multi-family residential dwelling ...


References


Citations


Sources cited

* * * * Sir
John Summerson Sir John Newenham Summerson (25 November 1904 – 10 November 1992) was one of the leading British architectural historians of the 20th century. Early life John Summerson was born at Barnstead, Coniscliffe Road, Darlington. His grandfather wo ...
, ''Georgian London,'' (1945), 1988 revised edition, Barrie & Jenkins, . (Also see revised edition, edited by
Howard Colvin Sir Howard Montagu Colvin (15 October 1919 – 27 December 2007) was a British architectural historian who produced two of the most outstanding works of scholarship in his field: ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600–1840' ...
, 2003) * *


External links


The Semi-Detached House
by Hon. Emily Eden (1797-1869), published London: R. Bentley, 1859. {{Room House types