There are different ways to approach the subject of housing in Victorian cities but, however you look at it, housing was important to people at the time and it is important now in terms of understanding how towns and cities grew. Providing enough houses for the growing population was one of the most intractable urban problems of the nineteenth century, but unlike the equally pressing problem of public health it was left almost entirely to local communities and local housing markets: housebuilders were overwhelmingly small enterprises, operating not just in one town but often in just one part of town. From the point of view of individuals and families in the rapidly growing working class, the problem was how to obtain a decent home at an affordable price, preferably in a respectable area. Housing costs were generally the second-largest item in household budgets (after food) and the amount that could be afforded was reflected in the size, quality and location of the dwelling, which in turn had a direct impact on both everyday wellbeing and overall life chances. For the middle-class minority, whose housing is discussed in Chapter 4, these problems were less acute and more easily resolved. They were in a better position to take advantage of the way the housing system reflected inequalities in the labour market, distributing people across the city according to their spending power, thereby reinforcing social differences between one area and another. From the perspective of the supply side of the housing market, the demand for accommodation represented a business opportunity, a significant source of employment and the prospect of capital accumulation. But it was a business opportunity beset with difficulties, arising from the nature of housing as a commodity that is expensive in relation to incomes, takes a long time to produce and is fixed in location.

Little has been written about housing in Bristol. Roger Leech's book is essential reading in relation to the medieval and early modern periods, and several works on architectural history make reference to the houses of the wealthy and the people who designed them, but the housing of the working class has been largely neglected. Chapter 2 referred to evidence of the poor quality of much existing housing in the central area, and Chapter 8 will refer to the impact of street improvement schemes on some of the worst of the remaining courts and alleys.