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===Housing the middle classes=== The middle class became an important and expanding group in the 19th century. With industrialisation came material gain to the capitalist entrepreneur. New professions came into existence to serve their needs: insurers, engineers, designers. The growth in the population required more architects, lawyers, teachers, doctors, dentists and shopkeepers. Hierarchical tiers emerged within the middle class, each watching each other's status. According to ''A New system of Practical Domestic Economy'' (1820β1840), being middle class required an income of Β£150 p.a. or more.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ifdAAQAAMAAJ |title=A new system of practical domestic economy: founded on modern discoveries, and the private communications of persons of experience. |publisher=Colburn and Bentley |year=1831 |location=London}}</ref> In 1851, 3 million out of a total population of 18 million in the UK would have been considered to be middle class.{{sfn|Burnett|1986|pp=98β99}} '''Semi-detached houses''' for the middle class began to be planned systematically in late 18th-century [[Georgian architecture]], as a [[suburb]]an compromise between the [[terraced house]]s close to the city centre, and the detached "[[villa]]s" further out, where land was cheaper. There are occasional examples of such houses in town centres going back to medieval times. Most early examples are in areas such as [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]], [[Chalk Farm]] and [[St John's Wood]], then considered suburbs but now part of [[Inner London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,,-1454,00.html |title=Where, when and by whom were semi-detached houses first built? β Notes and Queries β guardian.co.uk |website=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> Richard Gillow of Lancaster (1734β1811) was designing 'semis' or pairs of houses in that town as early as 1757, in Moor Lane. The earliest identifiable surviving pair is that built in 1759 on Cable Street (now facing the bus station and partly demolished) for Captain Henry Fell and Samuel Simpson. The specification for this building still survives in the Gillow archives. [[File:The Paragon, SE3 - geograph.org.uk - 359588.jpg|thumb|The Paragon in Blackheath]] In these early years a common style was a row of houses in which several pairs of semi-detached houses are linked by a wall along the frontage. An example is The Paragon in Blackheath, where a blank [[colonnade]] runs between the houses. Most early examples were relatively large houses with access at the rear.{{sfn|Lofthouse|2012}} [[File:24 Micheldever Road, Lee - geograph.org.uk - 965712.jpg|thumb|1890s middle-class semis in [[Blackheath, London|Blackheath]], London]] During the 19th century, a father and son architectural partnership, [[John Shaw Sr.]] and [[John Shaw Jr.]], drew up designs for semi-detached housing in London. Examples of their work can be seen in [[Chalk Farm]], North London. [[John Nash (architect)|John Nash]], better known for his [[Regency architecture|Regency terraces]], built some semi-detached villas either side of the [[Regent's Canal]]. These were styled to appear as substantial single detached villas with the entrances to the side. Similarly, the landscape gardener [[John Claudius Loudon]] built a pair of semi-detached villas fashioned to appear as a single house in [[Porchester Terrace]] in 1825. In his 1838 book ''The'' ''Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion'' he gives advice on how to disguise the join between the houses by using false windows.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/suburbangardene00loudgoog |title=The Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion |last=Loudon |first=John Claudius |publisher=Printed for the author and sold by Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans; and W. Black, Edinburgh |year=1838 |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Wainwright |first1=Oliver |title=The grand London 'semi' that spawned a housing revolution β a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 8|url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/01/the-grand-london-semi-that-spawned-a-housing-revolution-a-history-of-cities-in-50-buildings-day-8 |access-date=1 April 2015 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=1 April 2015}}</ref>
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