In 1953, for the first time since 1922, Crittall Manufacturing issued a general catalogue and description of their works, processes and products. It is a glorious volume, at 22 pages, and was designed for them by John Lewis and printed at the noted works of W. S. Cowell in Norwich. In many ways it echoes the fine contemporary catalogues of their rivals, Henry Hope's of Smethwick, with whom they would eventually merge in 1965 bringing together their expertise and markets in windows and associated building ironmongery. Crittall's had their origins in the Essex town of Braintree in 1849 and began to manufacture windows in 1884. They jointly purchased the important German Fenestra patent in 1907 and the following year became established in the US market. After WW1 the company began to manufacture "standard" metal windows, to standardised dimensions as as house building increased, along with a more streamlined aesthetic that favoured minimal steel windows in the 1930s, the company expanded. By 1953 they had manufacturing plants in Braintree, Witham, Maldon, Silver End, Paisley and Colwick as well as works in Darlington. They also had overseas plants in Auckland, Dublin, Dunedin, Düsseldorf, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Port Elizabeth, Salisbury, Toronto and Waukesha.
The catalogue is lavishly illustrated with examples of their products installed since WW2 across a variety of buildings including housing, commercial and industrial structures both in the UK and abroad. Despite various claims for steel framed windows, notably that they did not warp like timber frames nor, if works treated and zinc plated they required less painting, the windows did have drawbacks; most notably in the form of issues around heat loss and condensation and very few 'originals' are now to be found. Later generations of steel framed windows, still manufactured by Crittall, are effectively double glazed units and have overcome many of the original failings.
The photos show three post-WW2 social or 'council' housing schemes constructed at a time of great national demand for new homes; the legacy of condemned Victorian slums, wartime damage and a growing population. The first scheme is in Garston, Hertfordshire, and was for the local authority, Watford Borough Council's Housing Department by architect F. C. Sage. The lower photo shows an example of 'rural' housing this by the Bellingham Rural District Council in Northumberland and that is typical of many such schemes that were constructed in rural locations and villages for the local, agricultural workforce.
The middle photo is of one of the very many schemes undertaken by the Glasgow City Council whose Corporation were, for many decades, one of the largest builders of home and the largest of landlords. This, under the direction of their City Architect Sam Bruton, shows an 'Athol' house; this is, I think, a misprint of "Atholl", a type of steel framed house produced by Atholl Steel Houses Ltd, Cardonald, Glasgow, and that was a modernised version of the original steel house developed in the 1920’s. After the Company put its proposals to the Second Scottish National Housing Company (an offshoot of the first Scottish National Housing Company Ltd. formed in 1926 to built steel framed homes) in October 1944, a programme of steel housing began. Glasgow built over 500 of this type of house to two designs - an earlier '1945' style and a modified '1950s' version. They appear in Garscube and Balornock. The Atholl house was also supplied in some numbers, about 3,400 in total, to other Scottish housing agencies including Clydebank, Dumbarton, Dundee, Stirling and the SSHA.
