Birmingham Back-to-Backs

[gary_crutchley]

Hi all,

My observation may have been noted previously on this forum. Yesterday my wife and I enjoyed a couple of hours touring the National Trust's Back-to-Back houses in Birmingham. I can highly recommend a visit, if you are in Brum. However, in the 1930's house there was something of a radio blooper! They had a Bush DAC10 proudly displayed.

Regards,

Gary

[teetoon]

Hi Gary, I can't help but notice the twin 13amp socket either !

David.

[gary_crutchley]

Yes, I noticed that! Why didn't they hide it?

[Heatercathodeshort]

This happens all the time I'm afraid. Odd to have candle holders and a mains radio complete with 13 amp socket.

The correct radio would have at the least been a wood battery model preferably with external HT and 2v accumulator.

Maybe a donation of a suitable radio and advice about the 13amp socket might be a nice gesture. I doubt if the 'Back to Backs' had electricity in the 1930's.

Probably a 25 year old set it up and you can understand the bloomers. John.

[M0FYA Andy]

The 13A socket could be disguised in five minutes and still be useable by gluing a piece of matching wallpaper over the front.

Andy

[rontech]

Probably right about no electricity.

My uncle lived with my grandparents in the 1930's in a house from the 1895 period. They had no electricity although it was available ( 1936 ish ).
My uncle bought an HMV radiogram, had it delivered and thus forced my grandparents to have electricity installed. ( Big row though! so my mother told me )

[barrymagrec]

Just so, my grandparents lived in a house in Vauxhall Bridge Road, barely a stones throw from Buck House and Parliament and yet they had no electricity until the mid thirties - it helps to explain the long popularity of battery radios.

[paulsherwin]

Originally Posted by teetoon

Hi Gary, I can't help but notice the twin 13amp socket either !

David.

Personally I find the exposed 13A sockets much more glaring than the out of period radio. There may be a technical or H&S reason why the sockets have to be there, but it's sloppy curating of what is supposed to be a historically accurate recreation.

Working class housing was often electrified purely for lighting in the 20s and 30s, as poor people simply didn't own electrical appliances. My maternal grandparents lived in a 2 up / 2 down which only had a power circuit installed in the 50s, and then only downstairs. My mother remembered taking the family radio accumulator to the local bike shop to be charged as a child in the 40s.

[ms660]

The Mackintosh's sweetie tin looks about right.

Lawrence.

[Dave757]

Hi,

I lived in a Brum back to back in the late 60s. It did have modern sockets
but was very damp.

It was in Tilton Road at the back of the Blues Ground , and TV reception
from Granada was as good as that from Sutton, presumably due to its
elevated position at the top of Garrison Lane, and presumably reflection
from the lighting masts in the ground.

I wonder if the display house has a key on a cotton reel behind the door
for the shared toilet across the yard. We all did!

Kind regards
Dave G0ELJ

[dave walsh]

I often think that this sort of criticism can be a little pedantic, especially in film or TV Drama * where they do employ people to get the "look" right but there can be some flexibility around "artistic license" v total accuracy in that context. As Paul said though, this is a museum recreation and a lot of people will think that 13 amp sockets were common place.

How difficult would it be to find the age of a DAC10 even without technical skills and to just place a 1930's tea tray or photo propped up against the skirting to hide the glaring MK sockets. Even if they'd fitted the brass types it would be an anomaly and misleading but not so "in yer face". Much better to illustrate Paul's point re power for lighting only, with an iron fed from a ceiling light adaptor perhaps -a light bulb moment

Dave W

* One of the best examples was the Beatles "Free As A bird" Video where the Radio Set wasn't quite in period but seemed to "fit" anyway.

[paulsherwin]

It was commonplace to power electric blankets from the lighting socket as late as the 60s. There was a burst of frenzied rewiring in the mid 60s as 1930s rubber wiring was ripped out and proper ring mains installed, after which using the lighting circuit in bedrooms became unnecessary.

My parents' mid market 1935 semi had power sockets in the bedrooms, but it retained the original BS73 2 pin plugs and associated wiring until 1967, which made the use of kitchen appliances 'interesting'.

[Station X]

It always surprises me that when looking at a 19XX's museum exhibit of a room from that period, everything dates from that decade and perhaps a few years before.

In real life a room would contain objects spanning a much longer period. People didn't replace everything at once and even if they moved into their first home they'd have several items passed on to them by relatives.

[paulsherwin]

That is very true. My maternal gran was still using downright archaic items as late as the 70s - I remember her using an iron that was heated up on an open coal fire, and a tub and dolly peg for the washing.

[Radio Wrangler]

If you're a bit further North, there is a terrace of houses at the big Summerlee museum near Coatbrige. It has canals, coal mine, factories, sawmill.

The terraces are restored as workers homes, one as it would have been in each decade. There are appropriate TVs, radios, record players etc in each.

David

[paulsherwin]

The Blists Hill Victorian Town at Ironbridge is a similar sort of thing, though it's a bit pricey to go in. The pub is absolutely wonderful.

https://www.ironbridge.org.uk/explor...ictorian-town/

[dseymo1]

As regards the mains sockets (which may be there for cleaning equipment etc.), if they had used brown surface sockets on wooden pattresses they would at least have been less conspicuous, and more 'period looking'.
The Black Country Museum is another well worth visiting in this area.

[emeritus]

Leeds still has a number of roads of back-to-back houses. When my daughter was at university there, in her final year she lived in what had been two back-to-back houses knocked into one and renovated, with windows to both streets but only one front door. Most of the other houses in the road seemed to be original

[julie_m]

Birmingham's motto is "Forward", and I would not be surprised if the Hurst Street area was electrified quite early on. (Side thought: How far back do the Mail archives go? The wiring-up of a street probably would have been a newsworthy event.)

I'd think a single brown Bakelite 15A switched socket, with its wall-mounting box screwed to a piece of wood, would not spoil the illusion.

People lived in those houses until the 1960s, when they were forcibly moved into modern (oh, how quickly they dated!) high-rise blocks to the North of the city. BS1363 sockets are not totally implausible; but then why would anyone have spent good money rewiring a property from which they might be evicted anytime soon -- to a posh new flat with all new electrics, probably good for another 20 years?

[terrybull]

I was born in a working class area of Nottingham and there was only 1 power point upstairs and the entire house had 4. One in the front bedroom, two in the main living room and one in the front room. The kitchen had none. It was still like this when we moved in 1971. I had a long extension lead running down the corridor to my room for my radio and an electric heater which I managed to knock over spilling the wire elements onto the carpet wrecking both the fire and rug.