What's going on here?

[StephenW]

I was just reading this article about a collapsed wall...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-17607605
... and I thought the construction looked a bit strange. Is it just a double brick wall with a cavity? I assume the chimney stacks spanned the walls. And what's that feature in the corner - a bricked up doorway?
I then found it on Google Street View...
http://g.co/maps/3tgr9
... and it looks like that wall had been rebuilt previously (and also noticed the house was for sale at that time).
Just struck me as unusual.

 

[JohnD]

I have seen something similar when a terrace of houses has been shortened for road-widening. They take away the end house, leaving stub walls as buttresses, then build a curtain wall to hide what used to be the inside wall of the demolished house. The new wall would give weather protection and a bit of insulation with a cavity before the old wall.

In this example I think they removed the chimneys and chimneybreasts from the demolished house, which is why it looks like we can see the insides of the chimneys.

The new wall looks as if it may not have been properly tied-in.

On the googlepic there does not seem to be any sign of chimneys.

But the brickwork round the corner feature looks older and original, and seems to be aligned, so perhaps that's not it.

Maybe the outer leaf collapsed or was replaced before (there is lot of black, possibly soot staining, on the exposed face, perhaps there was fire damage)

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Often seen in this area, we had a lot of boot and shoe factories built in the Victorian era, where terraced homes of the same vintage were built 'butted up' to the factories. With the demise of the boot and shoe trade over the last 25 years many of the factories have been demolished to be replaced by housing. To protect/strengthen the gable wall of the terraced house after the factory has been removed an additional skin of brickwork is added.

I often wonder how much noise filtered through into the adjacent home when the factory was in full swing. They were (and still are, the few that are left....), noisy and smelly places. (Also a major fire hazard, with the solvents and chemicals used soaking into the factory over the years, when they go up they burn rather well!) Certainly wouldnt want to be next to a factory myself.