![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.kommiekomiks.com\/Blog\/terrace.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nFan service for the piggy and doggie lovers!<\/p>\n
And now we realise at last that Willie and her dad speak Czech with each other …<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
I had lots of drama with the first panel … V`(oo)\u00b4;V<\/p>\n
At first, I sketched Willie and Sophie about to enter one of the houses on the left side of the street. I wanted to check some reference photos before inking the background of panel 1, so I\u00a0inked everything else in this page first. As I then looked at photos and floor plans of terraced houses, I realised that if they had the living room\/parlour on their left side when entering, the house would have to be on the right side of the street!!<\/p>\n
That’s because victorian terraced houses all look like this:<\/p>\n
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(Sketch borrowed from the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society<\/a> …)<\/p>\n When terraces were built on a slope, they would have the back rooms above the yards. So terraces on opposite sides of a street that goes up a hill are mirrored.<\/p>\n Since I had already inked panel 2, it would be a pain in the arse to redraw it.\u00a0I briefly considered drawing panel 1 looking up towards the top of the hill, but that wouldn’t look as nice, so I just flipped Willie and Sophie so that they now go into a house on the right side of the street. Phew!<\/p>\n Anyway, unlike in the sketch above, many terraced houses are divided into two flats – one downstairs and one upstairs, with separate entrances. * * *<\/p>\n Fun links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Dene Terrace and its neighbouring streets in Benwell, over in Newcastle, are mostly abandoned today. If you, like me, have a perverse fascination for such things, you can visit the area in Google street view<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nThat is also the case with Sophie’s squat. It’s loosely based on the terraces in Bensham<\/a>, but there are lots and lots of streets like this all over Gateshead, and I’m guessing that at least one of them was totally abandoned in 1998.<\/p>\n