Living and Working Conditions in the Potteries

• BAD things about living in the city for working people: Smoke, no kitchen or running water, grime, dirty, smell
• GOOD things: shops (particularly corner shops)
• People came to live in the city becase the comfortable suburbs were appealing to the rich and middle-class
• Rich people had an easier life because they could afford better housing and food. They cpild also afford extras, like pottery, or items for their homes. The rich could go to depertment stores and buy nicer/better clothes

• What would be the advantages for the owners in building so many terrced houses?

One of the major advantages of terraced housing is that it is relatively cheaper than house of different styles at the same time. 

• What would be the advantages for the tenants who rented such houses from the owners?

The houses were cheap to rent and were usually in the centre of the city hoever, people who rented could expect to stay with a household of about 8, as families were very large and were all crammed into one room.

• What would be the disadvantages for poor people living in such types of housing?

Families were very large, and there was typically only one room for them all to sleep in. If the family chose to accept lodgers as well, there could be up to 13 in one room! There were few toilets for the block, about 7 for 100 people, often these would be blocked or out of use, that limite d the conditions further.

• Dull, lifeless buildings
• Filthy atomosphere (smoke)
• Walls crumbling away on houses
• Broken windows
• Rats, mice
• Bad smell
• Tin bathtub, 8 people would share
• Many people living there, they accepted lodgers for money
• Mould in cuboards
• Cracked walls on inside
• Makeshift curtains 
• Floor breaking
• Temporary fabric as carpet
• Dirty children - unclean clothes/hair 
• Desperate for money - strangers sleeping in same room as children
• Ceiling falling apart - rain falling in
• No money to fix anything, can never sell house because of state