Changing suburban landscapes at the microscale

Focusing on suburban roads developed in the inter-war period in England, this paper explores the external physical changes to owner-occupied houses that have occurred in the second half of the twentieth century. The changes examined include the building of extensions, changes to the layouts of gardens, re-roofing, the construction and alteration of porches, the replacement of doors and windows, and the alteration and removal of chimneys. Roads vary greatly in the amount, timing and nature of the change they have undergone. Influential factors include house type, plot size and shape, changes of occupier, age of household, changes in personal incomes, and pressures to conform. Several of these factors, especially the last, have given rise to the spatial clustering of change.