BEDROOM PLAN
In the ascending scale we now come to a block of four, containing houses of two classes. The cost of each is approximately the same, and the advantages are about equal. The outside houses have a side entrance with lobby and outer porch, thereby making the front room quite private, while in the inside ones the front door opens into the room, which has, however, the advantage of being more spacious.
Use of the Ingle Nook in Small Cottages.—The introduction of an ingle nook in this latter secures to it a greater degree of comfort, and privacy from the road is also gained by the extension of the screen. Complete privacy may be secured by attaching a rod from the screen to the outside wall and dropping a curtain. The ingle is lighted by borrowed light from the half-glass door, the light passing through the glazed wooden screen. In this case the ingle nook may be said to be the natural outcome of the plan. The staircase in these inside houses is at the side of the ingle, and affords space beneath for a cupboard, which is reached from the kitchen. The staircase in the outside houses is approached near the window of the living room, and admits of space in like manner for a larder, which is entered from the lobby.
Ventilation.—It will be seen that the larder, in the case of the two middle houses, is arranged within the house, between the coals and the living room. Larders, wherever possible, should have an outside window, but in this case ventilation is very easily obtained in the following manner:—An inlet of a 9-in. pipe enters the larder on the floor level from air bricks in the front wall, while in the coals at the back a concrete division is inserted at a height of 5 ft. 6 ins. or 5 ft. 9 ins. (the ground floor of the house from floor to ceiling being in this instance 8 ft. 6 ins.). Through a fanlight above the outside door of coals not only is light obtained, but, by means of a cord and pulley worked from the larder, through ventilation also, while there is no danger of the invasion of coal dust.
In both houses there is little space wasted. In the outside ones the living rooms are entered immediately from the lobby, and the bedrooms immediately from a small landing, while there is a useful closet over the stairs, entered from the front bedroom.
The projection in this block gives variety to the street, and is the natural outcome of the requirements of the houses. The type is self-contained, and privacy is secured to the householders by the introduction of the side entrance to the outside houses, and by the arrangement of the doorways to the middle ones at the remote ends.
Materials.—Brindled bricks, hand-made tiles, and casement windows of wood are here used, and the brickwork of the kitchen is pointed for whitewashing, with a 4-ft. dado of paint. In these smaller cottages it is advisable to employ papers for interior wall decoration in preference to colour-wash, the latter being very soon soiled where there are children. Picture rails should be used in all cottages, if only to save the plaster.
Accommodation.—The accommodation of the respective houses is as follows:—
Ground Floor.
| Outside Houses. | Inside Houses. | ||
| Living Room | 12 ft. 4 ins. × 13 ft. | 15 ft. × 16 ft. 4 ins. | |
| Kitchen | 10 ft. 6 ins. × 11 ft. | 11 ft. × 11 ft. 3 ins. | |
| Tools, w.c., and Coals. |