I am doubtful if many of these houses had any long use as the residences
of single families if from the very first almost their tenants did not
makeshift and take lodgers and sublet. They were built with basements,
in which their servants worked and lived--servants of a more submissive
and troglodytic generation who did not mind stairs. The dining-room
(with folding doors) was a little above the ground level, and in that
the wholesome boiled and roast with damp boiled potatoes and then pie
to follow, was consumed and the numerous family read and worked in the
evening, and above was the drawing-room (also with folding doors), where
the infrequent callers were received. That was the vision at which those
industrious builders aimed. Even while these houses were being run up,
the threads upon the loom of fate were shaping to abolish altogether
the type of household that would have fitted them. Means of transit were
developing to carry the moderately prosperous middle-class families out
of London, education and factory employment were whittling away at
the supply of rough, hardworking, obedient girls who would stand
the subterranean drudgery of these places, new classes of hard-up
middle-class people such as my uncle, employees of various types, were
coming into existence, for whom no homes were provided.
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