Cottage Plans.
31. WOOD STREET COTTAGES.
An evidence of the careful economic spirit which has guided the whole enterprise may be found in the plans of the buildings at Port Sunlight. There are here no freaks or features created simply for picturesque effect, nor any serious attempt to give the occupants something they do not want. It will probably be a long time before any great reform in cottage planning can be maintained in face of the varying views of the tenants. Thus the rooms must be big enough, but they must not be so large as to cause needless work. The better class cottages must have parlours, and only those who cannot afford them will go without. Plaster walls seem to be almost always preferred to those lined with boarding, white-washed bricks, or any other healthy or artistic departure from the modern British type. Thus we find that the compact and economic plans in the village are what give the most universal satisfaction. But in the scheme of the planning the juxtaposition of the cottages has been dealt with in a free and varied manner, so that we find rows of houses, or L-shaped blocks, or semi-quads, or curved frontages, or semi-splayed quads. A census of opinion would probably be all in favour of straight rows, and have been dead against the judicious variety which gives so much interest to the place. Theoretically, one would perhaps like those who live in cottages to give up the fetish of the parlour and have one really ample living-room instead. But the inherent yearning for privacy is an English characteristic which closes the door of domestic affairs from the casual visitor. Moreover, the sin of affectation creeps into all our buildings, and thus the cottage apes the little villa, the little villa apes the large one, the large one apes the mansion, and the mansion apes the palace.
32. A GARDEN CORNER.
The cottage reformer would of course say that the cottage tenant would be far happier and healthier as a rule without a parlour, for then he would have a fine living-room which might be free of all incumbrances and free of draughts. But it has to be taken for granted that most who can afford parlours prefer to have them; therefore the plans are of two types, the kitchen cottage and the parlour cottage. Our illustrations show how these are planned, and it is not of little interest to see how varied may be the exterior treatment as developed from these plans.
J. J. Talbot Architect
33. KITCHEN COTTAGES.
Some of the plans which have been found successful we give illustrations of. These (Nos. 33-35) are carefully schemed. There is a bath in each and three bedrooms, each with a fireplace. The W.C.’s are entered from outside. The parlour cottage plan is also given. It shows what a fine living-room might be obtained in a scheme which eliminated the parlour. It is obvious that the question of cost is more or less elusive. The original cost of the smaller cottages was £200, and of the parlour cottages £330 to £350, but this has risen now to £330 for cottages and £550 for parlour houses. At the present time the gross rentals of the kitchen cottages average now 6s. 3d. each, whilst for the parlour cottages the rent would be 7s. 6d., excluding rates and taxes.[1]
34. PARLOUR COTTAGES.
In any estimate of the value of Port Sunlight as a housing scheme it must always be remembered, as Mr. W. L. George has pointed out, that it is an experiment rather in ideal than in cheap housing. This question of ideal was the first point referred to in this record. That it has been largely realised and entirely justified is something for which its founder must feel profoundly glad. All sorts of economies and precautions might have been adopted which have been boldly and generously set aside. The ideal was always kept in view, and if it ever disappears it will be only after the disappearance of the original founder himself! It is a pleasant task to gather together in this little book the evidence of belief that a more real partnership between capitalist and workpeople would work a lasting good. That good is not to be measured in a notation of gold, nor even amongst those who live and thrive under the immediate benefits of Port Sunlight. Its influence goes round the world like the beneficent rays which are symbolised in its own expressive title.
35. KITCHEN COTTAGES.
GRAYSON AND OULD,
Architects.
36. THE BRIDGE INN.
Many of those who scan these pages will never see Port Sunlight itself, and so will not realise how much better is the reality than the printed page. In judging the results it must never be forgotten that the saving grace of common sense has been a constant guide in its ultimate development and expression. No one could pretend that these thousand cottages form the finest possible aggregate of architectural skill in individual design or co-ordinated effect. Here and there one finds perhaps an exaggeration of simplicity on the one hand or of richness on the other; in some cases the restraint may be a little obvious or the picturesqueness a little overstrained, but the balance of effect is that of a well-ordered and varied interest. To realise the value of Port Sunlight as an industrial village one has only to compare it with other enterprises. The architect can read clearly enough from it many lessons in design, a few of what to avoid perhaps, but many that he may emulate. The social reformer sees an object lesson in the value of a pleasant and well-planned community of houses in which individuality is left ample freedom of expression. The projector of industrial enterprise realises the mutual benefits of good and attractive housing. Little, if anything, in this country can be compared to it in its general measure of success. This success should act as a stimulus to an ever-widening effort to make the improved conditions of daily life one of the definite aims of industrial enterprise generally.