What Are The Defining Characteristics Of A Post-war House?

After World War II there was a great deal of cleaning up to do, particularly in the industrial cities where bomb damage had left swathes of housing destroyed or unsafe. This period of renewal was driven by publicly funded housing as well as private development.

With an urgent need to replace the damage housing, many 'pre-fabs' (short for pre-fabricated house) were built and although they had an expected 15 year life-span, many still exist today. The need for speed and low cost, in a time of great raw material shortages, meant that the characteristics of public housing tended to be red-brick built, not particularly ornamental, and arranged in terraces on estates. Windows were plain and square or rectangular and front doors plain, sometimes with obscured glass insets. Many blocks of flats were also built, although not as high as those which were to emerge in the Sixties, as it was a faster way of getting more people housed. Private developers continued the styles of the 1930's but with less ornamentation. They also featured smaller gardens than public housing as the middle classes were seen as being less likely to grow their own food, and it increased the profit from a given area being built on.