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    Prefab Homes
    Prefab Homes
    Prefab Homes
    Ebook82 pages49 minutes

    Prefab Homes

    By Elisabeth Blanchet

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    About this ebook

    At the end of the Second World War Winston Churchill promised to manufacture half a million prefabricated bungalows to ease the housing shortage; in the end more than 156,000 temporary 'prefabs' were delivered. Nicknamed 'Palaces for the People', and with convenient kitchens, bathrooms and heating systems, they proved popular and instead of being demolished as intended they were defended by residents who campaigned to keep their family homes and communities. Nearly seventy years later, as the last of these two bedroom homes are being demolished, Elisabeth Blanchet tells the story of these popular dwellings and their gardens and shows the various designs that were produced. Through the stories and memories of residents, she also reveals the communities who were pleased to live in the prefabs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateOct 10, 2014
    ISBN9781784420284
    Prefab Homes
    Author

    Elisabeth Blanchet

    At the end of the Second World War Winston Churchill promised to manufacture half a million prefabricated bungalows to ease the housing shortage; in the end more than 156,000 temporary ‘prefabs’ were delivered. Nicknamed ‘Palaces for the People’, and with convenient kitchens, bathrooms and heating systems, they proved popular and instead of being demolished as intended they were defended by residents who campaigned to keep their family homes and communities. Nearly seventy years later, as the last of these two bedroom homes are being demolished, Elisabeth Blanchet tells the story of these popular dwellings and their gardens and shows the various designs that were produced. Through the stories and memories of residents, she also reveals the communities who were pleased to live in the prefabs.

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      Book preview

      Prefab Homes - Elisabeth Blanchet

      READING

      INTRODUCTION

      THE F IRST W ORLD War provided a new impetus to improve social housing in Britain, when the poor health of many new army recruits was noted with alarm. This led to a campaign known as Homes Fit for Heroes. In 1919 the government requested councils to provide housing, helping them to do so through subsidies. Under the Housing Act 1919, half a million new houses were planned. As the economy weakened in the early 1920s, however, funding had to be cut, and only 213,000 homes were completed under the Act’s provisions.

      The 1919 Act – often known as the ‘Addison Act’ after its author, Dr Christopher Addison, the Minister of Health – was a significant step forward in housing provision. Housing became a national responsibility, and local authorities were given the task of developing new accommodation for working people.

      Many houses were built for artisans, clerks, and the semi-skilled working classes, who could now afford to leave the inner cities. The world’s largest planned suburb was built at Becontree in Essex, while good quality suburban housing was planned around Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield.

      By the 1920s, not much had been done to resolve the problem of inner-city slums. However, this changed with the new Housing Act of 1930, which obliged local councils to clear all slums and provided subsidies to rehouse their inhabitants. This single act led to the building of 700,000 new homes. Under the provisions of the inter-war housing acts, local councils built a total of 1.1 million homes.

      Still, the Homes Fit for Heroes promise failed to materialise entirely, as Grandad, from the BBC’s Only Fools and Horses, points out in his description of the wartime government policy: ‘They promised us homes fit for heroes; we got heroes fit for homes!’ By the end of the Second World War, Winston Churchill and his government had new heroes to welcome back and house, this time in prefabs.

      WINSTON CHURCHILL’S PROMISE OF 500,000 EMERGENCY HOMES

      Sunday 26 March 1944. The end of the Second World War is finally approaching, as Prime Minister Winston Churchill points out in his BBC broadcast speech, ‘Our Greatest Effort is Coming’. In a part of his speech, he anticipates the huge post-war housing shortage and the reconstruction effort: ‘But now about a million homes have been destroyed or grievously damaged by the fire of the enemy. This offers a magnificent opportunity for rebuilding and replanning, and while we are at it we had better make a clean sweep of all those areas of which our civilization should be ashamed.’

      Churchill declared a new war, but this time, on poor housing. Using military words, he unveiled his strategy:

      The first attack must evidently be made upon houses which are damaged, but which can be reconditioned into proper dwellings … The second attack on the housing problem will be made by what are called the prefabricated, or emergency, houses. On this the Minister of Works, Lord Portal, is working wonders. I hope we may make up to half a million of these, and for this purpose not only plans but actual preparations are being made during the war on a nationwide scale. Factories have been assigned, the necessary set-up is being made ready, materials are being ear-marked as far as possible, the most convenient sites will be chosen, the whole business is to be treated as a military evolution handled by the government with private industry harnessed to its service.

      Winston Churchill delivering a speech at the BBC during the Second World War.

      In

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