A photographic print of Home & Housing, Post War, Slums & Living Conditions (UK Wide)

DAILY HERALD July 7 1955 Ronald and Pauline Potter look out of their bedroom window. Family in cellar get a house at last - By Betty Crisp I WENT underground at Torquay yesterday to the two rooms and a cupboard where a family of six has lived for five years "under the pavements." The Torquay cave dwellers were happy. They had just heard that they would get the first council house available, instead of waiting til November as the Housing Committee proposed. Mother - Mrs. Doris Potter, aged 40 - telephoned eldest daughter, Jean, 20-year-old shop assistant, with the good news. Then she went off to tell father - Mr. Tim Potter, aged 47 - a chef at a holiday camp. Pauline, 11, and Ron, nine, jumped with joy when they returned from school and heard they would soon have a proper place to keep their two pet hamsters. And Anne, 14, at the technical college, could hardly believe that she and Jean would soon have their own bedroom. I saw the bedroom they have shared with their parents and the younger children at Wellesley-road, for five years. Three beds The 14ft. by 11ft. room was crammed with a single and two double beds, a wardrobe and two chests of drawers. But the furniture could only be seen when the light was on, for this is the room Mr. Gibbings said only got light from "a grating in the pavement." There is a wall up to street level a few inches in front of the only window with iron bars on top. The rain splashes in, for both window and the door into the sitting-room have to be kept open in all weathers so that the Potters can breathe. The Council was told: "It is hardly fitting that the Queen of the English Riviera (Torquay's advertising slogan) should house a family of four children in what you can practically describe as cellars." No window The Potters' sitting-room, 14ft. by 12ft., has a normal window opening on to the sloping ground at the back of the house. Their third "room" is a cupboard under the basement stairs, once the coal hole, where Tim Potter has fitted a gas cooker and a sink. There is no window, or ventilation, and not enough spare space to swing a mouse. "I can hardly believe we are going to get a council house at last," said Jean, a pretty auburn-haired girl. "Mum and Dad were on the Torquay list years ago. Then they had to go to Birmingham to work and when they came back in May, 1950, they were told they must go on the bottom of the list again and wait five years. "It has been so awful having no privacy, especially as we children grow older. Fancy Anne and myself with our own bedroom. A real one with a window that lets in sun and air." Housing - Post War - Slums & Overcrowding