"prefab" houses, Richard Kelly Drive, Liverpool

“Prefab” houses, Richard Kelly Drive / Walton Hall Avenue, Liverpool

(which I have reconstructed from the original architects property plans and the memories of people who lived in them)

“Prefabs” were the result of a British Government initiative to resolve the problem of a severe housing shortage in the immediate post war period. Up and down the country sites were chosen for the installation of small clusters of prefabricated homes with an intended life expectancy of ten years. The prefabs were not all the same design. Around eleven building types in total were produced by the major volume house builders of the time. Companies like Mowlem, Laing, Taylor Woodrow, McAlpine and Henry Boot were awarded contracts to deliver them from 1945 onwards. By the time the last one appeared around 1951, a total 156,000 had been built at an average cost of £1,200 each.

In spite of being relatively small, plain, and of thin construction, “prefabs” proved to be extremely popular with the public. Some of the reasons given are : -

(a) They had a “modern” fitted kitchen including fridge and cooker
(b) They had an internal bathroom and toilet
(c) The rooms were brightly lit with daylight
(d) Many were located in large garden plots with plenty of lawn and hedging
(e) The internal walls and ceilings were straight, dry, and free from mould and peeling wallpaper
(f) There was ample built-in storage cupboards and built-in wardrobes in the bedrooms

Many of the families who were awarded a “prefab” came from damp, gloomy terraced houses with an outside toilet in the yard and no bathroom. They said that living in a “prefab” was like being on holiday or even in a spaceship!

In LIverpool most of the “prefabs” appear to have been variants of the two bedroom single storey type which I illustrate here. These were 65m2 on plan and built of timber and steel with asbestos external cladding and a flat roof. They were located in Walton, Belle Vale, Garston, Toxteth, Dovecot and Kirkdale plus many other locations. This drawing shows the layout of “prefabs” at the corner of Richard Kelly Drive and Walton Hall Avenue, all backing onto the Walton and Clubmoor Recreation Ground. The houses in the foreground were numbered 233 to 239 Richard Kelly Drive. The telegraph pole and trees still exist. The “prefabs” in Richard Kelly lasted between 1946 and 1968. In other districts of Liverpool they survived longer.

(drawing copyright Towner Images 2014)

for "prefab" floor plan, see www.flickr.com/photos/townerassociates/12476573133/in/pho...

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Liverpool / Walton on the Hill (show map)

Taken on: February 12, 2014

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