The
building of new houses on the estate commenced in 1926. The area was divided
up and allocated to one of the numerous construction firms who were contracted
to build the homes. All of the contractors used similar designs for the homes,
however, materials they used differed. The majority of the houses on the estate
were brick built, with the notable exception being the concrete Boswell houses
constructed on the now infamous Boot
estate. More information on the Boswell homes can be viewed on the Decline
page.
The two types of houses to be built on the estate were the parlour and the non-parlour type. Almost identical in appearance, they differ in size and number of rooms (the parlour houses has two reception rooms on the ground floor and three bedrooms). Both parlour and non-parlour houses were built in blocks of two, four six and eight and came with front and rear gardens of different shapes and sizes. In order to maintain uniformity of the houses, the Corporation used a colour scheme of green and cream for all woodwork. Something that tenants were prohibited from altering:
"The external woodwork or brick, stone or concrete work shall not be painted, colour-washed, whitened, or scrubbed with sandstone."*
*City of Liverpool Housing Committee, conditions of tenancy
|
Rents where somewhat higher than the non-parlour houses. Typically, rent in 1928, was from 16s 7d (83p) to 19s 6d (97p) for parlour house, compared with 12s 6d (62p) to 14s 4d (72p) for a non-parlour house.* *West Derby and Norris Green. Kay Parrott
|
|
 |
 |
Click on image to enlarge:
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Parlour
in the 1960's
|
Tenancy
Agreement, 1950's
|
Hallway,
1950's
|
|
|
The lack of sufficient kitchen and bathroom amenities in the majority of non-parlour houses on the estate created a number of problems for their inhabitants. The main problem was that the small scullery at the rear of the property not only housed the kitchen but also the tin bath and a WC in a small adjoining space. This may have been acceptable in the 1920's but by the 1950's it was a real problem on the estate. The Corporation sought to solve this problem by building extensions on the rear of these properties to create more space. Between 1970 and 1971, prefabricated 'Gilbury Units', incorporating a bathroom, sink and WC were added to the rear of 550 houses. These flat roofed fibre composite extensions contained one small window and, in solving one problem, they were to create another*. The problem was that the units were unable to cope with the condensation of a bathroom and therefore suffered greatly from damp and mould. The Gilbury units were eventually pulled down and replaced with brick built extensions. *British Corporation Suburbia, Richard Turkington |
|
 |
 |
|
At 144 ft (44m), Langholme Heights is Norris Green's tallest building. It is located on the north eastern tip of the estate at the junction of the East Lancashire Road and Lowerhouse Lane. Built in 1967, the flats are a product of the Liverpool Corporation's post war housing strategy. Langholme Heights are the only high-rise flats in Norris Green and are quite a contrast to the rest of the houses on the estate.
|
 |
|
New houses on Townsend Avenue. Built in the the late 1990's, these homes were built on the site of the old wooden Welfare building which was destroyed in the early 1990's.
|
 |
Parlour
houses were built mainly on the dual carriage ways and the main roads
of the estate. These properties are larger in size to the non-parlour
type. They had a separate living room and parlour (some with bay windows
in the front), 3 bedrooms, a reasonable sized kitchen and an upstairs
toilet and bathroom.
The
majority of houses on the estate are the non-parlour type. Smaller than
the parlour homes, these houses came with either two or three bedrooms
with a small scullery and toilet downstairs.