Victorian streets by the canal
Long Eaton's growth came with the railways from 1839, with lace-making and railway wagon building as the big employers, and by 1900 the town had passed 10,000 people. The floors above the shops on the High Street and Market Place still show how much of the centre is Victorian or early 20th century. Erewash's appraisal of the Long Eaton Mills conservation area describes King Street, Prince Street and Princess Street as mostly high-density Victorian terraces, with Victorian semi-detached houses on Lime Grove.
Ending the walk-through bedroom
In many terraced houses the rooms run one behind another, and upstairs the back bedroom or bathroom can only be reached by walking through the middle bedroom. A stud wall is the classic answer: a partition takes a strip off one side of the middle room to form a short passage, so each room gets its own door.
The passage only needs to be wide enough to walk along comfortably, so the middle bedroom keeps as much space as possible. Plan where the doors open and where the passage light will be switched, and have a qualified electrician wire it while the frame is open. A walk-through bedroom is an awkward layout for escape in a fire, so this change often helps, but check the new arrangement with building control before you start.
Other jobs in older houses
A long back bedroom can sometimes be split into a smaller bedroom and a bathroom. The bathroom side gets moisture-resistant board, a plumber deals with the pipes, and an extractor fan is needed. In houses of this age the frame is fixed into old brick, the head plate goes into joists rather than lath and plaster, and the ends are scribed to walls that are rarely straight. Where the new wall meets an old chimney breast or an uneven corner, it is set out so the finished line looks deliberate rather than squeezed in.
Conservation areas and newer homes
The Long Eaton Mills conservation area, designated in 1983, borders the Town Centre conservation area. Conservation area rules concentrate on the outside of buildings, so an internal partition is normally unaffected, but listed buildings, such as 38 and 40 Market Place, need consent for internal changes. Newer homes, such as the houses and flats on the old speedway stadium site, take stud walls easily too, usually to split open-plan space or form a study.
Long Eaton is in Erewash, so building control questions go to Erewash Borough Council rather than a Nottinghamshire council. To talk about your partition, call 07877 353120 or send the details through the enquiry form. We work seven days a week, 7am to 5pm.
