| Evans Terrace in the Gibbett Hill area of Swansea (later renamed North
Hill) is in the middle of an interesting area of Victorian development.
Although you can't see it on the map below, the area is on a very steep
hill with the high ground at the top of the map. This is an area that
had undergone extensive quarrying for hundreds of years because it was
very close to the northern part of the town. In the 1850s the area was
used for building. This was a prime location in the 1850s and successive
small builders needed to squeeze in as many houses as the housing
byelaws would allow. Houses in this area were very popular because it
was a short walk into town. If you look closely you can see that the
streets are not long rows of identical houses but little groups of
similar shapes reflecting the different building shapes and styles used
by the different builders. This high density hillside housing is typical
of South Wales in the mid nineteenth century. In Evans Terrace the
builders have even managed to squeeze in three extra houses in the
gardens of Graig Terrace. |