blonde sandstone.
Edinburgh and Glasgow Glasgow tenements were generally built no taller than the width of the street on which they were located; therefore, most are about 3–5 storeys high. Virtually all Glasgow tenements were constructed using red or blonde sandstone, which has become distinctive.
What were tenements made out of?
Apartments contained just three rooms; a windowless bedroom, a kitchen and a front room with windows. A contemporary magazine described tenements as, “great prison-like structures of brick, with narrow doors and windows, cramped passages and steep rickety stairs. . . .
What was typical of tenement buildings?
Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings–many of them concentrated in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood–were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation.
What were the inside of tenements like?
While the average tenement building’s exterior specs could easily make you feel claustrophobic (most were just 25 feet wide and 100 feet long) their interiors were just as jarring. Original tenements lacked toilets, showers, baths, and even flowing water.
What is a tenement block?
According to Scottish law, a tenement is defined as being “two or more related but separate flats divided from each other horizontally”. This generally means a block of several flats, which all share a communal stairway, and are usually found along a whole street or in a square with a communal green in the middle.
What is an Edinburgh tenement?
In the medieval Old Town, in Edinburgh, tenements were developed with each apartment treated as a separate house, built on top of each other (such as Gladstone’s Land).
What is the difference between an apartment and a tenement?
Legally, the term “tenement” refers to an apartment building with multiple dwellings, usually with a few apartments on each floor that all share an entry staircase. However, some people refer to tenements as a reference to low-income housing.
How old are Edinburgh tenements?
His proposals respected the scale and nature of existing buildings and retained much of the original fabric of the buildings. Today, these tenements represent nearly 1000 years of Scotland’s history.
Why did tenements have windows inside?
They were mandated by a 19th century city law requiring that tenements have cross ventilation to help reduce the spread of diseases like tuberculosis—the deadly “white plague” not uncommon in poor neighborhoods.
What was one of the dangers of living in a tenement?
Cramped, poorly lit, under ventilated, and usually without indoor plumbing, the tenements were hotbeds of vermin and disease, and were frequently swept by cholera, typhus, and tuberculosis.
Did tenements have bathrooms?
Tenement life improved somewhat after 1901, when new-law tenements were mandated by the city: These were required to have bathroom facilities and running water in each apartment, and a window in every room. A major improvement, but not for the thousands of people still stuck in hot, stinky, firetrap old-law units.
Why was tenement living so difficult?
Tenements were grossly overcrowded. Families had to share basic facilities such as outside toilets and limited washing and laundry facilities. There would have been no hot water or indeed running water, and within each family living space there was also severe overcrowding.
Who lived in Edinburgh tenements?
Mrs Christina Alexander was perhaps the only resident owner in the tenement. She occupied one flat with two windows, and rented another flat to Alexander Hailstones, a watchman. In 1891 she had lost her husband James Walker, an attendant at the Museum of Science and Art in Chambers Street, and she died in 1898.
Are tenement flats cold?
Tenements are often draughtier than newer homes, which can increase heating costs as well as making your home feel chilly. Although you do want a level of ventilation, sealing draughts around windows, under doors, between floorboards and in unused chimneys can make a big difference.
Are tenement flats noisy?
Noise Issues & Neighbourhoods
Of course, many tenements are in lively neighbourhoods, on main roads or near pubs so it can be super noisy – especially in summer when you want the windows open.
How tall is a tenement?
Tenements are characteristically of traditional construction, with stone outer walls and brick inner walls and party walls, typically four storeys high, but this can extend up to eight storeys.
What were tenement apartments?
Tenements were low-rise buildings with multiple apartments, which were narrow and typically made up of three rooms. Because rents were low, tenement housing was the common choice for new immigrants in New York City. It was common for a family of 10 to live in a 325-square-foot apartment.
What are dumbbell tenements?
Definition of dumbbell tenement
: a tenement building formerly common in New York City and having a long narrow plan characterized by two narrow air wells at each side.
Is tenement a Scottish word?
In Scotland the term tenement is used simply to define any multiple occupancy property, in particular the buildings built in Glasgow in the 19th and early 20th century when there was a huge spike in demand for housing as a result of the industrial revolution and in Edinburgh some date back to the 17th century similarly
Why did people have to live in tenements?
During 1850 to 1920, people immigrating to America needed a place to live. Many were poor and needed jobs. The jobs people found paid low wages so many people had to live together. Therefore, tenements were the only places new immigrants could afford.
What is the oldest building in Edinburgh?
St Margaret’s Chapel
The 12th century, St Margaret’s Chapel within the Castle compound, is Edinburgh’s earliest surviving building.