When looking at the outside of a historic property you might wonder why there sometimes appears to be a recess in the brickwork or rendering where a window opening would seemingly once have been located.
In some properties, including modern homes, a “blocked up” window might have been added to give a property interest or to balance the appearance of the building. In other houses, particularly older properties located in exposed areas, having fewer windows may have been an attempt to conserve energy, or simply be due to aesthetic tastes being different from today.
However, in houses that existed between 1696 and 1851, there may be financial reasons for having fewer windows.
Window tax was a property tax that was based on the number of windows in a house. Window tax existed in different measures in England and Wales, Scotland, France and Ireland.
It was initially imposed in 1696, in England and Wales. At that time, houses with up to ten windows were subject to a house tax of two shillings but did not attract a window tax. Houses with more than ten windows were required to pay an additional tax, which reflected the number of windows in the property. In this way, the poorest people would, in theory, pay less tax as they were less likely to live in a house with lots of windows.
In rural areas, the theory generally worked. However, those living in urban areas did not fare so well. These usually working class people rarely lived in individual homes but were more likely to live in large tenement buildings. In whatever way these properties had been divided, they were classed as a single dwelling house and the property owner, therefore, was subject to high levels of the tax.
The owner of a tenement building would usually be a landlord, who would board up the windows to avoid the tax. Fewer window openings were built in new buildings, and those provided were often insufficient in number for the building or its occupants.
Window tax gained the reputation for being a tax on “light and air” and is purported to be behind the saying “daylight robbery”.
In legislation, there was no clear definition of a window, so it was generally interpreted as the smallest opening in the wall. The tax would therefore even be incurred on air vents, such as those commonly found in a domestic larder.
Some rooms, including dairies and cheese rooms, were exempt from window tax as long as they were clearly labelled, which is why you might see the purpose of such rooms carved on the lintel or wall.
Tenants were often required to share the cost of window tax, even though their own rooms were inadequately ventilated and lacked natural light.
In 1766, the tax was extended to homes with seven or more windows, which resulted in the number of houses in England and Wales with exactly seven windows reducing by almost two thirds.
There was a significant negative impact on the health of those living in such properties, who became subject to epidemics of typhus, cholera and smallpox. A sanitary report published in 1845 concerning Sunderland reported that the local Health Committee “witnessed the very evil effect and operation of the window tax; and they do not hesitate to declare that it is their unanimous opinion that the blocking up of the numerous windows caused by the anxiety of their owners to escape the payment of the tax, has, in very many instances, greatly aggravated, and has even … in some cases been the primary cause of much sickness and mortality.”
Window tax was deeply unpopular but, despite a national campaign supported by medical professionals and others who argued that it was largely responsible for increasing ill health, the tax was only repealed in 1851.