I lived in a post-war ‘flatpack’ home – prefabs were built for heroes

You can spot them dotted around the UK: single storey houses, made of timber, steel and aluminium.

Unassuming, you could walk past a prefab home without giving it a second glance, unaware of the unique place they hold in British history.

Prefab homes were the answer to the housing crisis that came after the Second World War, when more than 200,000 homes were destroyed by bombing raids.

Almost like flatpack furniture, they were built in factories, before being transported and assembled on site. A staggering 156,623 prefab bungalows were constructed between 1945 and 1949.

They were expected to survive just 10 years – yet many of them accidentally stood the test of time, occupied by tenants long after their proposed sell-by date. Now, 80 years on, around 8,000 are still standing, a relic of a time gone by.

As the country celebrates VE day, Metro speaks to the people that grew up in these unusual homes — and why they’re still so important today.

History of the prefab home

In 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill set up a committee to address the housing crisis.

‘Bricklayers, plasterers, electricians and plumbers had all been called up to fight in the war, so there was a very small workforce left to maintain and repair houses, some of which couldn’t be repaired at all,’ Jane Hearn, founder of the Prefab Museum, tells Metro.

Inspired by similar homes built in the USA, prefabrication was the solution. Each two-bed bungalow took from eight hours to three days to build – one was finished in as little as 42 minutes, earning a Guinness World Record.

Prefabs were social housing, and rent was paid to local councils. They came with luxuries many weren’t afforded at the time – indoor toilets, heated airing cupboards and fitted kitchens, as well as amenities like hot running water.

Having been hit hardest by the Blitz, London saw the most extensive prefab construction, but they appeared in other major cities too, including Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff and Glasgow.

Eventually however, the Government stopped supporting prefabs. Many were sold on to councils, but as local authorities realised that prefabs – typically with large gardens and plenty of space between them – were taking up too much space, they were demolished in favour of tower blocks.

‘There are still some big estates in the East and the North of England, but they look just like bungalows now because they’ve got brick cladding around them,’ Jane adds. ‘It’s very hard to tell they’re prefabs.’

What was it like living in a prefab home?

‘Dad seemed relaxed at the prefab despite the rigors of war’

David Thompson, 64, grew up in a prefab in Dudley until the age of six.

‘My mum loved it as they were quite spacious for the day,’ he tells Metro. ‘Two young lads had somewhere to run around, and dad could grow his vegetables and keep his pigeons and Spot the dog.

‘It was in a cul-de-sac and had a real community feel about it,’ he adds, noting that his gran lived just up the road in another prefab.

David says the houses were built for ‘working class heroes’ and ‘soldiers coming back from WWII’ – just like his dad.

He says: ‘Dad’s campaign saw him land in southern Italy and he was part of the liberation that then moved north throughout the country.

‘I know he saw many things and sometimes talked about the poverty he saw in Naples. But to me, he seemed relaxed and comfortable at the prefab, despite the rigors of the war.

‘It was a strong community forged in a common experience, something that couldn’t be generated in high-rise flats and concrete new builds.’

However, David admits it wasn’t always an easy place to live. ‘They could be very cold and the windows would frost up on the inside of the pane.’

In the mid-1960s, the family home started to be impacted by ‘damp and other maintenance issues,’ and the family were forced to move.

‘Dudley Council managed to find us a semi nearby with a large garden,’ David says.

‘There was a strong sense of community’

John Wilson’s parents moved into their prefab in Cambridge in 1946, a year before he was born.

He has fond memories of growing up the prefab – and recalls his dad planting a garden with a ‘neat privet hedge, and neat flower beds.’

Inside, they had a fitted kitchen, and his dad decorated the sitting room with wallpaper – a features visitors were always curious about: ‘Even into the early 1950s, wallpaper was hard to come by,’ says John.

‘For many the idea of an indoor toilet and bath must have seemed like luxury, as well as a modern cooker and fridge,’ John tells Metro. ‘There was even a shed with each prefab, for bicycles and garden tools.’

One of the most poignant recollections he has of his childhood at the prefab was hosting a party for Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.

‘Dad went completely over the top in decorating,’ he says. ‘He lashed garden canes together to make a flagpole, and with mum, spent hours making bunting from red, white and blue crepe paper.’

John and his family left the estate in 1955, but he still remembers the ‘strong sense of community’ on Gilbert Close – where now, new houses stand in place of the demolished prefabs.

‘Families watched out for each other, and kept an eye on each other’s children,’ he concludes. ‘If you were walking home at dusk, you said “goodnight” to your neighbours’.

‘People were poor but very happy’

Andrew Lester, 75, was born in his parents’ prefab in Catford, London, which they’d moved into three years earlier, in 1946.

‘My life was amazing, growing up in a very safe and caring community,’ Andrew, who now lives in Kent, tells Metro.

‘Everyone helped each other, and most residents were ex-forces. My father served in North Africa in the army.’

The home Andrew was born and raised in had two large bedrooms, a lounge, kitchen, bathroom and an indoor toilet.

‘Our heating was a coal fire, and [we had] an immersion water heater in the summer,’ he adds.

He moved out when he left home in 1979 – he followed in his dad’s footsteps and joined the army, and then the police – but though his dad died in 1986, Andrew’s mum ended up living there for almost 50 years, until she moved out in 1995, relocating to Beckenham.

‘Prefabs were meant to be lived in for 10 years, but look how long they actually lasted,’ he says.

Andrew says the communities fostered in prefab developments were ‘amazing’.

‘People were poor but very happy, and eager to help each other,’ he adds.

‘Sadly the estate has been demolished and is now rebuilt, [but] I hope people will live as happily as we did. I feel very fortunate to have been born there.’

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