BL COLEGIO DE Usa, APARTMENT STORIES City ond Home in Nineteenth Century Paris and London SHARON MARCUS Univers of aor Pas Bereley Lot Angels LaThe Haunted London House, 1840-1880 sooress ho THE ROMA TTUTE OF ate ARTE nr, the aeci- fect Willa H. White uaed his eure “On Midl-clase Hoos in Pats and Censal London" to make 4 contovsrsa,idonyoctati and tkimatelyinetiectve argument that Londons acchiecte, developers, sand residents should sop building the “inteninable lines of thorooghe fares bordered with equally interminable lies of house. each in Inabted by one and the same family," which hav Hourshed in London sinc the 18308 ao should instead mare so const apartment hoses inthe Parisian ple? White plea for the apartrent bling assumed Knowledge of fact tha hit anience would indeed have taken for ‘ranted: the enormous incresees in London's population rinse the be- ‘inning ofthe nictenth century did no trast nro parpose bale garment hooes bu instead no she urban aed suburban expansion of Single-family housing ck, Jt a mos acs in the Sst al ofthe ineceth century took the aparment boat fr gested as de basic bnitof he urban endseape ce chapters one and wo), sodid most Lo doners accept without ueston the pervsieacs ofthe single-family howe inthis mezopol. Considerable else! work was necessary te prodace such seemingly elforess acepstice ofthe singe fail house asthe Victorian archtectral ideal, a acceptance 20 powerfl thar ic persisted even i the face of ever cours hat protested he ‘tual deviation of London's homes fom that Sl 86 The Haute Londen Howse Whit’ eee pies wr a valuable point ofdopaztce fran aah ‘oF Londosen devotion to the single-family house bosaus in the process of aguing against that atachment he had to enamerat ts erm Sek ingto persuade islistenesthat partment buildings werethe best urban residenors, White began by demfyingconnon Bish Hess about howe Pasian apartment ie inverted proper domes egines. When he explind that in Persian aparunents"[iimacy berween superposed neighbors not only doesnot gen, edocs no grow” cas the ile nt occapants of bulding rarely mee,” or when he assed his ai toes that Paria ding oome were taco fr dining, White was eosin that se Parisian aparment building didnot violate wo chit tenets of Bris domestic artecture, which we examine below the Separation of dileven howscholds ino noncommanising buildings, tnd the seporation of diferent howto menbes and functions into deine ros ‘White eudaciousy went on to aggue that Parsan parent bul ings, nor Londan's private hovse, bet cealed the Bris residential idenl—bu he quid his advocacy of aparanent hous as pagina by eaneeding the theoretial superior the singly house =A system which pve to each fami moony the supericalare of» plot ‘of land bu also the whole eae of space above reaching, were pos Sibe co the neazest heaven muschea Hightsysiem. Aagone.-- wil resp ‘admit the advantages of syste that gant othe bea of» household the parly poe cease of breathing his native ai on his own house hold" White made her common claim: spi structure that exe sted autonomy by horiontlly oating a fry on town “plo of Tad shold iesly abo mark i isolation from oer fame vert cally, by means ofthe oid shove the hoa, whose cmpines made pe a the absence of other household. Because that cube of space aso linked the fanilys male "head of. howsehol” to the sul ofthe Shon by granting hin unobstrsted acces t0 “native air,” that empty space dimvlancovsly defied is membership inthe nation and demar- ‘ted his separation from the oter member of tht nation, White a ‘culated here wha we wil se tobe a peste pos: Eopland as aaion whore ollestive deny consid in the secre lation of ‘member rm onc another "White allegiance to dhe singe family home ae an indisputable ideal ay scem to challenge his advocacy ofthe aparment oust n which aces tothe open areas above nd below one hovsehol'sani mst pass The Hasta London Howse 5 trough spaces occupied by other household. White, however reson ‘the apartnent house tothe Bits ideal by aceping that seal ‘nent (soltion of families fom one anotber while sifting bis dis ‘usin tothe question of which aecitcurl stature would es ap proximate that dea within the constrains of Londons urban sein [No inetentrcenary city could consist solely of singefamily homes, tecupying their own plots of land; and when White compared the Selig peatice of Parisian aparamenedvelr with hore of London fi living in teraced houses, concluded that in 3c ike Losin the Siogl-fanly house considered emblematcly Engtk departed fom te domestic ideal even mote than the apsrment building deemed ie revocably French, "To prox his pont, White cited topographical and tatnical maps showing that although London's homes displayed the facades of private touses internally they were divided int sparen: within cea London “the reat mas ofthe eens ae lodges. The neighbourhood tf he Strand almost erly ened by tents and sub-enans, who ‘occupy sory a set of rooms, ora sage rom" ofa balding that “orginally peat house" Those subvided London houses rear the ery problems of social and spatial lending tha he Bris eco: ‘esl attdbuted to Parisian apartments "in och a lodging howe he Aieen romps areal day and holy encountering eachother: and he ‘len perfor mix The ndings ae not et by ors or even by et ‘of rooms they are dovetailed ito each other." Where Pasian bul. Ings ad “slid vera divisions” separaing each unit the walls that Separate London bins only appeared dsine from the outside but swere ia fact “sham party wall pieced and mutlated."* White’ de ‘expion of the wall confsingly dzected is auizws both to pty the svallsbecase cei organic unity had bee violated ("pieced and ma Tad") and to misrost tem for being “sham prey wale mperonat {ng eal ons the conuadctions ia his anguageabout the walls reflected the material nstbiies he ascribed ro he wl themselves. "Whites siggeion that Londoners renpanc the sngle fay house ‘the ideal bling type contradict decades of wong 0 the co ‘eary—in housckeeping manuals goverment document architec journalism, and socal commentary. To be Englsh wasoliveina house, nd olive ins house was English In thei Encylopedia of Domestic Economy a8}, Thomas Webster and Mrs Parks insted that “i Englaud iis enealy che desie of everyone whose Sraness can aor6 “The Haunted London Howse ‘x tohave a house of his own... This eling i peclaly character ‘i of England.” In hie inroduction ro the 181 cess the rgitrar everal wrote that “ee possesion ofan ene houses. stonglyde- Fired by every Englishman; fori theows a sharp, well deed cele ound his fly and heacth,”* The 18 cesus ad recorded extreme ‘bxpaides in housing condition among Bish nationals but the regi tear generals comment ofeed to equalize thse diferences by posting that atthe very least, the deste wo own and occupy a self-contained house linked all Englishmen The Builder, England’ leading areiec ‘ural periodical fom the 1408 on, published an signed atl owe years before White Ica hat astertd, “it may be a once conceded thatthe sentiment of ndependence and of peronal responsi, which insomarked fear inthe character ofthe Englishman st home bet fer expressed architecturally by the separate residence than by the a s)tem.” For that autor, the rks ofthe apartment wore the isk | of standardization: “at time when individual characteris more and not in danger of being merged and lon in the complistd social ms chinery of moder ile," the English coal not “aor to acep neon Sideratey any mode of tiving which may seem to tend towards its ur ther efacement." According to this paradosial loi, Eagishmen vere both diferented and conjoined by thesharedallanceoiden- tia forms of personal individuality (“independence”) and achtectral individuation (the separate residence") “The Englishresidencealso beat a powefl symbol of aticnalien tity in architectural discourse when weer singled out English houses 15 the only branch of architectre that embodied distinct national ple. A scrion of lcrres om arcitecrte published in 1843 in The Buaderarged tha the wl, the common term for 4 sal fully de ‘ached singlefamay house wt a garden, “ay besa tobe pect Englands” dente che words over foreign provenance! Architects sesponded to those who complained "Classe ene day, “Gobi’ next ‘when shall we hae exctisi by pointing oo thatthe national char scr attaches el fr more to domes architecture han eo. public bailing, cecesisical orcs" ‘White was a5 singular in his psise ofthe aparen blding 2 he ‘was in his erin ofthe private house, fri the English house signi English nationality, decades of English discourse about the home had consisenly marke the partment hour as Freeh alie,immorsl and {ron to eval), Pain arban, commopolisn, commer) o simply fowsgn.® For example, when the public health inspector Hector Gain “Toe Hauoted London Howe ” ocated legislation in +850 that would bring stout “the possession by {he industrial population of the modest comfort of an Enh home,” he specified thar he didnot mean "hows. hilt inthe French fash ton, [in whic). 2 famly only occupiss one of many rooms,” but “houses. chil built im what may be er the Els fashion, that is small houses, with two, thre, or four toons." Articles in The Buide denied living sn sparen as “he Pacxan mode of ile" andthe journalist T. HS. Escort, commenting in #879 onthe are set flay fsb at Qacen Anne's Gate wot hat “(no arrangement fan be imagined mote diametrically anagonisic to she tases with ‘which Engismen are general redid” In Esco’ hyperbolic for ‘mulation the apart balding was ot merely incisal un English, bar ese at-Engsh, i addon to condemning dhe apartment hoose a deviation from rational standards, writers on ban housing arid the dite moral ffctsaparomens bad on tei inbabitants, Whle Whit’ speech ted to neue that warning, other writers expresed thee fears of the apartment house il effects in increasingly stong ers ver the course fhe nineteenth centary. At ex, dueling bat wo house more than fone family were perceived as "not - satactry ideal” and viewed ‘ith “general distaste and suspicion” ar worst chy were seen as morally ‘comupting influences or monstrous, unspeakae stirs posssting the characteristics that the hatoran Nichols Tylor, paraphrasing Ed mun Burke, aunbuts to che “afl subliniy” of the Vict ciy seu, terror, powes. In 1843» 8 group of “lndowners, hous holier, an bulders” commented na pein to Palament that “he stem of erecting Inrge tenements or barack, ad af leting hem ot inflors..[was highly reads, noe ony tthe health and eomfor, Dutothe morals theinhabians.”"” Octavia ila pilsathcopst and investor who parchased several house in London inne to enorate {he buildings nd reform ther tenants, strongly advocated all bud ings over Inge aparemene blocks. In "The Influence of Model Dvelings| ‘Upon Character, writen in 2892, when lange Bosks had bocome more ommon than they had ben in previous decades, Hil agued tha “he Mock becomes a sort of pandemonium and watned thot "what ite in Docks ist Tess selFcontlled [tenants hdl any words of mine sre strong enough to describe" The daring and futlity of Whites appeal fr apartientbldngs in London become eve clearer when we rumto the eden fhe bl en ‘iconment Als ne purpose bul aparment hoses wereconsraced" “The aud Landon House {in London before the 1880s there were ses of chambers for sale men, ‘Trnoerte nuber of "mael dwelings forthe working clases," and few than ten baldings fering “hsary fa." which were usally rented ony forthe duration of he London social season. * No only id tchtets build almost no apartment hoses, whether fo the ich othe oor in theirs fr the few tat they i bul, achitcts dies Sly eradicated the clments that disiguished apartment buildings from single fanily hoor shazed entrance, sass, landings, a oursyand oc chapter one). Architects of xury Hat od of housing forthe poor dies apartnnt blocks wth several all etrances ater than a single cena ne and even developed exteroa staieways that pro ‘ded each uni ich an individual dor leading dey 0 the exten, “isonnesting the aparmens” from one anoter and “rendering the tenements comoltl tine” (12). Thus, far from antpaing or reaping to hits 178 exhortation obi more apartments n the Parsi syle, anhitects made ute cha he ew Hats they be departed tr mach as posible from the Parisian rpe advocated by White ‘Why di Whi esoramendation fa? Toput tbe question postivey, why di Loni achitet, eal tate speculators and inhabitant pond to incsarng urban density and sing land costs by promoting the single-family howe Boh within she cea city an throughout it ‘api expantingsubuche? To answer these questions bein by mak ing exlic he definiion ofthe bouse within domestic delay, then tale Sesh cite? comin o reszing that ideology in bul form the particular ease of Landon from the late 18305 through the 1705, when sores of public health reform and urban observation [gant purcy daily Victorian eprescarations ofthe iy analye the tens in which those dicoages ile out the hore ofthe Lon {don poor ade vatng, arhitecstally and moral from the middleclass dlomestic non, Those discourses consent ocladed the housing eon tions of th mle clases of London, be no because midllnclas howe elie she deal ap hus reqired ao commentary. Rater, 8 ‘wes lend in White's desriprion of central London a a neighbor- Ihod reat lodging howses masquerading a private singly Touses, and in what sall the dicoure of domestic complaing, the mid says hose i London filed lp ways to embody the do tet “he hil ston ofthe chaptr sacs how the discrepancy beoween domestic dclugy and the dvelingpracces of Londoners came co be inser within the tera subgame of thehaunted-house sor whick “The Haste London Howse » ‘ila Yong rj for ode ts othe mide is, ‘The Badr 7, m0. 396 (Dsmr 149) The proleraton i dors en cry sry ofthe aparnen baking els Siw gece ra wey foarshed fom the 18595 through the 1870. That form’ combioation| of supematral content and reali form alowed te authors and a ce to represent fe in London's houses, and, at the same ine, de fee hoth the coatent apd formal procedures hei naraives. con ‘lade by tring briely to che meal and popula Inerstuce on burial ‘reform, in which the movement of dead bodes fom the cental cyto ‘he London suburbs resolved the problems of urban housing, making SS eer Set ey ered aes eee etd “An Englshmor’s Home Is His Caso ‘he Domestic dea ond is Architecurl Realization The cena ect of Bish domestic deology ia familia one—the cl