FLATS GOING OUT OF FAVOUR

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1891, 28 October 1913, Page 8

FLATS GOING OUT OF FAVOUR

■ 9 POPULARITY OF MODERN ART HOUSE. Is the flat going out of favour in London? The "Standard" has been investigating the matter, and prints the following interview witE a West End house agent, who declares that the tide is now ebbing steadily back from flats to houses:— "This change is traceable to a number of causes. Flats first became popular in London because they wero novel and had the reputation of being more convenient and entailing less domestio work than houses. Then, again, at the timo the 'boom' began the new style of house was just in its infancy, and flats compared very favourably with tho old stylo of house, which was and is now, of course, gloomy \and ugly, with a basement and long passages and steep fights of Btairs. Naturally enough people welcomed the flat, very bright and cosy, clean and convenient in comparison, and the early pioneers run up block after block, charged higher rents, and found no lack of tenants. But while this expansion of the flat life was going 011 another movement was in progress—tho now art- house movement, closely associated with tho garden city schemes. This has meant not only the development of entirely new sites in tho outer suburbs, but the gradual substitution of streets of ugly old houses for charmingly picturesque new houses. "It is these now art houses which are largely responsible for the growing exodus from flats. The speculative builder has shown remarkable' foresight in abandoning tho building of flats and reverting to tho building of houses in the; new style, and that foresight is now being justified. As the flat was in overy way superior to the old style of house, so tho now style of house is in every way superior to the flat. There is a new creative spirit abroad among architects and builderß alike. A group of enthusiastic young architects has como forward with very original designs for houses, and the builder is allowing them a free. hand. As a rule the new art house combines the picturesque with the practical. High attics and low basements are no longer permitted; nor are long, steep flights of stairs, •or narrow and unnecessary passages, or equally supererogatory lumber and box rooms. ''2Je new house is smaller than the old, becaus3 more compact. To shorten the stairs the ceilings are made lower, but this is compensated for by a profusion of windows Tho downstairs rooms usually open out of a lounge entrance hall direct, thus avoiding an unsightly passage, and very often there is 110 third story at all.. Added to this the new house is beautifully finished, with tiled open fireplaces, and copper door plates, and elect»o l'£ht fittings, distempered " walls, and handsomo oak mantelpieces, casement windows, ajid all kinds of natty bevelling and decoration and white enamel work. Add 10 this, finally, the attraction of a garden, and you will understand how thei flat is ' being vanquished. There is practically just as much house work to do in the flat as in the new house, and Londoners have soon found that there is more nuisanco than novelty about a flat. It lacks quietness and feeling of privacy that fielong to the house; it is usually crampcd as to space; and there is either 110 garden at all or ono stretch of lawn common to all tho tenants. Then, again, blocks of flats at best are unsightly. "There is no' doubt at all that the fascination of tho flat for Londoners is going, and this in spite of the fact that house rents in outer London are going up, while flat rents are going down. The extension and speeding up of the tube railway and motor omnibus systems is making it more and more easy to livo a good distance outside, London, in tho almost rural belt where the building of the new art house is proceeding most actively. Here the rents vary from £40 to £120, excluding rates and taxes, and builders cannot put the houses up fast enough. In outer North London houses are let before they ire built, and in centres like tho Hampstead Garden Suburb prospective tenants are on tho books for two or three years ahead. Another point is that now that tho speculative builder 110 longer pruts up dreary rows of villas all of the mo design, but practically builds each bouse different, he' is willing to put up louses at a reasonable price in accon nice with designs chosen or commi sioned by the individual tenants then selves, and even where a tenant tak( 1 now house as it stands ho is give 'rcedom of choice as to tho kind an ;olour of tho tiles 110 wants in the firi places, of the mantelpieces, and of tli lainting of tho stairs ana doors, nn 3 also allowed to choose tho place vhere ho wants his cupboards an sholves and his electric light fittingsittlo 'things winch often make all th lilference between comfort and discom brt. "Tho only areas where the flat real y continues to hold its own are in Con ral' and South London, where maniconic to-day find it essential for soeia ir business reasons to bo 'on tin pot.' "