How Prefabs Came To Be

During the Second World War and the bombing of towns and cities, there became a despairing demand for housing.

Over 200,000 homes were destroyed by aerial bombing attacks. So, it was decided that prefabricated houses, later known as prefabs would be the temporary answer until the country could return to constructing permanent homes with traditional materials.

They were intended to last no more than a decade, but in fact, they survived a lot longer than that, and what’s more the people that lived in them didn’t want to move, they’d made it their home. Had families there and it was a great gathering of people that lived on these estates.

And their progressive designs and modern appliances frequently offered their residents an improved standard of living, resulting in long-lasting affection.

Early interim prefabs were built using a wood structure and asbestos cladding or cement, while some later buildings used aluminium.

However, these buildings were only meant as a temporary fix, but many prefabricated homes lasted far longer than originally intended, and now there are very few of them left because they’ve been bulldozed to make way for more contemporary buildings.

These houses were perfect after the war. They were quick to erect and people who were homeless could move into them quickly.

Not only that, the people that did move into them made these homes their own, and many of them had the most stunning gardens because they were proud of what they’d put into their homes to make them their homes.

It was one big community with street parties and all sorts going on and many of the neighbours all knew each other. It was a community, something we don’t have anymore. Barely anyone knows their neighbours these days. We just live in these rabbit boxes that they’re building, and some of them are extremely colourful on the outside, but so small on the inside you couldn’t swing a cat about in them.

There was simply no reason to pull these prefabs down. They could have all been brought up to spec, and the tenants could have remained in them, and what with the housing crisis that’s going on now, these would have been simply perfect for people having to wait on the housing list for years and years with no light at the end of the tunnel.

After the war we had a housing problem, people had nowhere to live and now 78 years later we are much in the same dilemma. The only difference there’s been no war, but after Margaret Thatcher sold off our social housing we have now nowhere to house people, so more than ever prefabricated housing would be a fantastic solution. Hey, I’d live in one. They were bigger than the rubbish they build these days and yes, they might have been a tad nippy in the winter months, but technology has improved since the war and companies could mass produce these prefabs in warehouses and then erect them on site very cheaply.

According to the Prefab Museum, about 8,000 are left in the United Kingdom, with about 30 of them being listed, and yes, people still live in them today, and if it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough for people desperately needing housing.

In 1944, the Temporary Accommodation Act of 1944 came into effect. This was an act of Parliament that still stands today, so there’s no reason why our Government can’t again enact this to build prefab housing.

Of course, we don’t have any bomb sites to build these houses on, which is a major issue because we don’t have enough green space to build on. It might just be a case of golf courses that are in great demand having to relinquish their recreational pursuit and allow for homes to be built. Imagine how many prefab houses could be built on this green land, add all that and it would be immense.