Saltaire cottage

Here's a well-kept little cottage. Although only two storeys, it's one of the 'better' village houses, as you can see from its four-panelled door and little front garden. It was built for an 'overlooker' and family, in the late 1850's. When it was built, it would have had a parlour (sitting room), scullery kitchen, three bedrooms and a cellar, with a backyard and private outside lavatory (as did all the Saltaire houses - a considerable improvement from the overcrowded and insanitory conditions in the city of Bradford at the time.) It's hard to tell now whether the doors and windows are original or not, but they are in the original style. You can just see from the photo that, although part of a terrace, the house next door is different, being three storeys high. This is typical of many of the streets, which contain a mix of housing.

All the streets in Saltaire were built over a period of about 15 years from 1854. The building work started at the lower end of the village beside the railway line and spread southwards in phases (going up the hillside, away from the railway and canal). It's clear from the layout that, right from its beginning, Saltaire was conceived, planned and developed as a whole.