Data of Alteration: A Databased Exploration of the Terraced House Alterations

In the past century, many terraced houses, the standard housing typology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, were extended and converted, and their interiors were changed in response to changing domestic practices. This paper investigates how contemporary spatial norms were reproduced within the Victorian terraced house, drawing upon multiple types of sources: quantitative data derived from floor plans of terraced houses available in online planning systems and qualitative data collected from London’s residents. The findings of this exploratory study contribute to our understanding of contemporary spatial norms, while also studying the design features that allowed the continuing use of terraced houses for more than a century to be possible.