Harwich had always kept touch with architectural styles and fashions because its mariners travelled around and saw what was being built in other seaports and in the rapidly expanding town of the 18th and 19th centuries practical designs that could fit more accommodation into smaller plots were very popular.

41 and 42 West Street are good examples of a pair of semi-detached houses built into the space between two existing houses to offer flexible accommodation options.

The houses were built in the late 18th century of local red brick in Flemish bond. They are of two storeys with basements and attics, of double pile form and have been built up against numbers 40 and 43 West Street. Access to no. 41 is from the frontage but no. 42 has a passageway that runs the length of the house to provide access to the yards at the rear and the entrance door is within the passage.

Inside each house two rooms each on ground and first floor, two attic rooms and a basement. The attics sit in separate roof spaces with a valley through the middle, accessed by their own staircases and with their own dormer windows for light.

The rear yards to both properties have substantial lean-to outbuildings built up against the western boundary wall. The outbuildings have chimney stacks and one has the remnants of a boiler, suggesting that the buildings were originally washhouses and once again showing that the houses were highly specified in the 18th century and built to offer flexible accommodation options.

In 1841 we take an educated guess, based on the census enumerator’s route and the position of the Custom House at the end of West Street, that Daniel Britton and his family are living at 41 and Jesse Warnes is living at 42. Daniel Britton is a Trinity House Pilot and lives with his wife, Sarah and young son William. Jesse Warnes is aged 65 and of independent means, living with Margaret Warnes, aged 25, and Rose Warnes Monger aged 8.

In 1851 we take another educated guess to place William and May Hood at 41 and Richard Pells and his family at 42. William Hood is a retired master mariner living with his wife May who are both Harwich born and bred. Richard Pells is a Trinity House mariner living with his wife and three young sons.

In 1861 the west side of West Street is not numbered by the census enumerator but it looks as if houses contain two families each. 41 has Charlotte Brown and her niece Maryann Puxley in one part and Sarah Meachen in the other. 42 is home to Elizabeth Rack and her son Richard plus Elizabeth Pratt, her two daughters and mother, Elizabeth Manhood.

In 1871 we finally find West Street numbered on the census return and Mary Ann Houghton and her daughter Ellen May are living at 41. Mary is from Dover in Kent and she is listed as “Wife of Ship Steward” so we might deduce that her husband was away at sea when the census was taken. At 42 we find George Mynheer, his wife Rachel, two sons, two daughters and father-in-law Joseph Meachen. George is a shipwright and Joseph Meachen is an ostler.

The 1871 census also reveals more about the packed nature of the town at that time because between 42 and 43 West Street there are three properties marked as 1, 2 and 3 Randfield Yard. This is probably some yard houses associated with the coal yard of the Randfield family and was most likely at the rear of 43 West Street and accessed via the passageway on the right of 42.

In 1881 things get slightly more complicated. The census enumerator notes “41”, “41 Back of”, “Back of 41”, ditto, ditto where 41 and 42 should be so we assume that the houses are divided into two units of three rooms each. In the front of 41 we have James Pipe, his wife Mary and lodger Martin Smith. James Pipe is ship carpenter and Martin Smith is a general labourer. In the back of 41 we have mariner Thomas Whipp and his wife Mary. In 42 we have carter George and Sophia Rose and their three children. In the back of 42 we have mariner William Daniels and his wife Maryan.

In 1891 accommodation arrangements are still complicated at the end of West Street with the enumerator recording “41” with three rooms, “42” with three rooms, “42 West Street (Custom House Passage)” as three units with three, three and two rooms respectively and “42 West Street (Custom House Yard)” with three rooms. There is the same mix of maritime and land-based working trades living in all the houses.

In 1901 we have 41 West Street of four rooms, 42 West Street of four rooms and three units all called “Custom House Yard” with four, three and two rooms. As in previous years a mix of working class families are crammed into the available space.

In 1911 we have William Turner, his wife Adelaide, their two children and a boarder, Dan Dawson, living at 41. William Turner is a coal porter and Dan Dawson is a hawker. At 42 we find Frederick Duble, his wife Sarah and their six children. Between 42 and 43 on the census return we find “Custom House Yard”, suggesting that this is either the rear of 41 and 42 or another dwelling accessed via the passage and yard to the side of 42.

The buildings at 41 and 42 West Street were surveyed and interpreted as part of the Harwich Architectural Survey Project which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

An interpretation of 41 and 42 West Church Street by Brenda and Elphin Watkin is available for download here.