On Thursday 30th April, members of the ACS attended a fascinating talk about the history of Prefabs, by local expert Jane Hearn.

Jane explained that around 156,000 prefabs were built in in Britain between 1945 and 1948, at a cost of about £150 million. They were designed as a temporary answer to the acute housing shortage, and the idea was that they would be easy to construct: this was important given that most of the skilled bricklayers, carpenters and so on were off fighting the war.

They were built all over the country, from the Western Isles to Penzance, and were very popular in spite of the lack of insulation, because they had ‘all mod cons’ in the kitchens and internal bathrooms. When government funding ran out they became the responsibility of local councils, who charged low rents. Contrary to what you might think, they were actually quite expensive to build, even though the original steel construction was replaced by wood and concrete/asbestos because of a scarcity of raw materials. The average prefab cost about £1130, as opposed to a brick built house at £600!

We’re lucky to still have a large collection of prefabs on the nearby Excalibur Estate, 6 of which are listed. They were erected with the assistance of Italian and German POW’s. The council plan to demolish the remaining unlisted ones, which are currently lived in by property guardians (including ACS member Vicky), which seems a great shame given the amazing history they represent. In the UK as a whole around 6,000 – 8,000 prefabs are still standing.

With thanks to Jane Hearn and Lewisham Local History Society. Jane runs a website at https://www.prefabmuseum.uk/