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Before World War One, homes were similar to those around in the Victorian times. There was a big difference between those for the middle class and the working class. Most middle class homes had a bathroom and a toilet, although it could take up to an hour to heat the water for a bath. The houses were either detached or semi-detached. Working class homes were still in terraces, that is many homes all joined together. Toilets were often shared and almost always away from the actual home in the back garden or in a block. However at the start of this period a new type of larger terraced house appeared. They were still terraced but had better-sized rooms and a bathroom on the first floor. Working class homes had now got a small cooker in the kitchen. These homes were also fitted with gas lighting throughout the house. The introduction of the penny-in-the slot meter allowed poorer families to pay for the gas in small affordable sums as they went along. Few working class homes had proper running water. Usually it was just one cold water tap in the kitchen. During the First World War, house building came to a stop. When it restarted in 1919, with the construction of the first council estates a whole new period of types of homes began
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