Metal Bridge Cluster Housing 5/1973


Metal Bridge Cluster Housing 5/1973


Metal Bridge Cluster Housing 5/1973

Workers houses that stood here were the only definite example of 'cluster houses', in North-east England, although map evidence suggests that there might have been a few others elsewhere. This method of building may have developed out of an attempt to avoid long, terraced rows, by grouping together units of four houses in a fairly spacious environment. Each block contained four distinct dwellings, in a sense combined 'back-to-backs' and 'side-to-sides'. Each dwelling had only the one access door, from a back yard. There was a total of 32 dwellings in 8 blocks, plus a chapel. Each dwelling was essentially two-roomed: 1-up and 1-down, with a kitchen, coalhouse and closet in the offshoot. Each dwelling had a sizeable garden.
The houses are shown on the 2nd (1890s) to 6th (1960s) editions of Ordnance Survey maps. The site was later cleared.