Reading the Regency

Property - The Town House part 1

"You have a house in town, I conclude?'' Mr. Darcy bowed. "I had once some thoughts of fixing in town myself -- for I am fond of superior society; but I did not feel quite certain that the air of London would agree with Lady Lucas."
[Chapter 6, Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen]

Anyone who has read Regency-set romances will have come across many a gentle heroine, sallying forth from her parent's town house to enter glittering London society.

Houses built in the centre of towns frequently sat on narrow building plots. To make the most of the space available, they would be built in rows and joined to similar houses on either side. The accommodation was therefore spread over more storeys, creating a terrace of tall thin houses, rather than the broader design of a country house.

They were not generally called "townhouses" until at least 1825. Prior to that, they were town houses (also written as "town-houses") to separate them from country houses. They might also be referred to as a "house in town" or a "town residence", to differentiate it from any other properties the family might own. The terrace design was so common that House Agents would advertise a town house as either a "town residence" a "family house" or even just a house.

Construction

Although this type of property was a common sight in all British towns, there was a great deal of variety in their size, shape and build quality. Some of the best examples outside London can still be seen in the popular Regency resorts of Bath, Scarborough, Leamington, Cheltenham, Buxton, Harrogate and Brighton.

When a row of houses was constructed at the same time by one builder, each house was separated by one thickness of wall, known as a party wall. Regulations put in place following the Great Fire of London specified that all house walls should be of brick or stone, to reduce the spread of fire. The cheapest houses were built of brick, with more stone added as the properties became more expensive. Sometimes cheap brick was covered with stucco, finished to look like stone. The facades of the largest houses could be fronted in Portland stone, which offered a finer finish.

The width of a house was described by the number of Bays. So if there were four windows on the first floor, or three windows and a door on the ground floor, it would be described as a four-bay house.

You can recognise a design for a town house because the windows face the street or the garden with solid walls on either side. They could only add side windows where a plot stood at the end of a terrace, often on a corner.

Many houses were individually designed and built, separate but still adjoining the neighbouring properties. Others were designed as a whole row by one architect and built to a common plan. One example of this is the south and east sides of Fitzroy Square, which were designed by Robert Adam and built by his brothers James and William Adam. From a distance, they give the impression of two large, very grand stately homes, when the south side of the square was actually eight separate houses, while the east side consisted of eleven slightly larger properties. These Palace Facades echoed an earlier project by the Adam brothers at Adelphi Terrace, overlooking the Thames. Other rows of town houses built with a palace facade included the south side of Queen's Square, Bath, and Charlotte Square in Edinburgh.

The 1774 London Building Act specified that all new houses should be built to conform to set standards, which were grouped into four ratings, based on their size and quality of construction.

Fourth Rate Houses

The smallest type of town house was usually occupied by skilled mechanics and other well-paid workers. They tended to be built in the least sought after areas of London and were the cheapest to buy and rent.