jerry-builder

It must be said for painters that they do not spoil a place as other visitors so often do; in fact, all change -- modernising, restoring, destroying -- is opposed to their sense of fitness; they are champions of the picturesque and sworn foes of the jerry-builder.

The Cornwall Coast

The jerry-builder, who just throws his houses together, makes atonement for the flimsy structure by putting in

The Friend on the Road and Other Studies in the Gospels 1817-1893 1922

More than ever that day the suburb had oppressed him; insignificant, detestable, repulsive to body and mind, it was the only hell that a vulgar age could conceive or make, an inferno created not by Dante but by the jerry-builder.

The Hill of Dreams Arthur Machen 1905

A jerry-builder whose houses have been condemned writes anonymously and becomes the

All Things Considered 1905

“Repeatedly” suggests that the jerry-builder was a hard nut to crack then as now.

I. Battling Against Heavy Odds 1902

But though fruit-growing has spread in every direction, we can with ease escape beyond its limits, and even within them we may still find cornfields, rich pasture and woodlands, thriving farms, and villages still unspoiled by the modern "jerry-builder."

Evesham 1901

Towards the end of their journey she had to direct the cabman; and past the last long row or little red-brick villas, in a waste from which the agriculturalist had retired in favour of the jerry-builder, they came to the goal, three dirty, tumble-down cottages.

The Admirable Tinker Child of the World Edgar Jepson 1900

Formerly it had been an unpretentious cottage like the others, but she had added a new wing of red brick built in the most approved style of the jerry-builder, and looking like the villas in the more modern parts of Rexton.

The Secret Passage Fergus Hume 1895

He had begun life as a small jerry-builder at Golder's Green, and had ended it a millionaire and a knight.

Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo William Le Queux 1895

It was on the tip of Hugh's tongue to remark with sarcasm that such ideals might well be expected of the wife of a jerry-builder in Golder's green.

Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo William Le Queux 1895