I looked at these photographs. I thought the terraces I grew up in were grim, but I can't remember them being as grim as that. There were some back to backs on one side of our street, and I remember they were very cramped inside and shared outside toilets. Although we had a "two up, two down" at least we had our own toilet, even if it was outside and froze up in the winter! No bathroom. We were always in and out of each other's houses; everyone in the street knew each other and no-one had a lot but I can't ever remember going into a house that wasn't clean and warm. We went to school clean, fed and, as I remember, most of us keen to learn, and woe betide anyone whose bad behaviour elicited a beating, followed by a note to parents. We liked and respected (most of) our teachers, and revered our headmaster. Our parents wanted us to do better than they did, and I think most of us did. There is a park where our street used to be, and a tree on almost the spot where our house was. We didn't even have a garden. I found an old photograph of our street in a book, with our house on it in its sooty terraced row. I showed it to my children. They were shocked.
