We were very interested to see a story on the front page of one of the national newspapers this week suggesting the current Government is considering building prefabs to help tackle the housing shortage.
Prefabs were constructed across Britain in the years after the Second World War, Brigg having two estates of differing styles.
There was one group down Cadney Road and another on Woodbine Grove - now the site of the play area between Hawthorn Avenue and South View.
We lived on the latter estate in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
It should be stressed that prefabricated homes in 2016 will not look anything like these.
Prefab = pre-fabricated.
ReplyDeleteThe post-war units were an emergency response to the housing
shortage.
They were well insulated and
space was a premium - they even had a fridge...a state of the art white goods, at the time.
Houses were still being built with pantries, often with a sunken floor, to keep foodstuffs cool. The simple idea was that warm air rises and cold air settles at floor level - so the sunken floor would enable the pantry to become relatively cooler.
In London, in Greenwich, near the Dome there is 'Container City' - converted containers to become comparatively inexpensive housing in the capital.
Meanwhile, in Japan, stacks of sleeping tubes have been about for years. They offer cheap sleeping arrangements for their city workers working away from home.
.....and in Staffordshire, we have the Kinver rock houses....lived in until the 1960's.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the Peggoty family in Dickens lived inside an up-turned boat....and not forgetting the Borrowers....they lived beneath the floorboards.
Is that an Anderson shelter in pic 2, Nige.....another type of temporary housing?
ReplyDeleteI lived around the roundabout in the cycle area is now
ReplyDelete