The terraced house continues to be popular with architects and residents, and there are many fine post-war and contemporary examples. In the 60s and 70s, Span houses were a radical variation on the theme; the modest proportions make excellent use of open-plan spaces, light, and good materials, and the estates have carefully considered greenery and outdoor spaces. This is the Cator Estate in Blackheath. beautifully described in Joining the Dots: A Woman in her Time (2018) by Juliet Gardiner (who wrote the prefaces to Greengates, The Village and To Bed with Grand Music). And a browse on the Modern House website is bound to unearth more Span exemplars. 

London is full of lovely terraced housing, a variety of which is occupied by characters in our books. See, for example, Greenery Street (actually Walpole Street in Chelsea), The Victorian Chaise-Longue (a hidden Regency house "back of the railways, down by the canal" in Islington), and Bricks and Mortar (a flat in Gray's Inn Square); not forgetting the real Carlyles whose house on Cheyne Row now belongs to the National Trust, and the real Virginia Woolf et al in many still soot-blackened Bloomsbury terraces and squares such as this, Bedford Square. 

Although rows of densely packed Victorian terraces with ginnels, snickets, wynds or alleys - depending on where you are - running between and behind are often referred to as back-to-backs, true back-to-back terraces share side and back walls.This means that, unless you are on a corner, the front door and windows are the only source of light and access. Most have been demolished due to substandard construction and poor ventilation and sanitation, but in West Yorkshire a few survive and are still occupied. This is back-to-back housing in Beeston near Leeds (2021). (The National Trust also owns these back-to-backs in Birmingham.)

Last week on Instagram we wrote, "All Persephone Books titles focus in some way on women’s everyday lives and are linked by the idea of ‘home’". With this is mind, this week on the Post we look at terraced housing, rows of often identical, uniformly designed houses sharing side walls; it is estimated that a quarter of the population of England in lives in a terraced house. They come in many shapes, sizes, and materials, and some of the most beautiful are to be found in Bath. Tall, elegant, built with pale Bath stone, they are the frequent backdrop to Jane Austen's life and novels. From 1801 to 1804 she lived at 4 Sydney Place, the street in the photo.

David Hockney's iPad paintings divide opinion, but there is no doubting his belief that "simple beauty is worth celebrating" (this is No 180, 11 April 2020). During the pandemic he painted in Normandy saying, "they can't cancel the spring", then had a glorious blossom-filled exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2021, and was the subject of Spring Cannot Be Cancelled (2021) by Martin Gayford. And now his 90m frieze, A Year in Normandie, can be seen for free at The Serpentine Galleries in London.