28 CONTEXT 181 : SEPTEMBER 2024 KATRIONA BYRNE A pocket of prefab fabulousness The conservation of a row of Grade II-listed prefabs at Wake Green Road in Moseley, Birmingham, highlights the challenges of dealing with this popular type of housing. Prefabs seem to have an appeal that is universal. Architecture without architects, yet highly designed, cottages based on advanced technology, small yet roomy, simple but clever, built with unskilled labour on leftover land, imbued with the hopes and dreams of their first occupants, and carrying the nostalgia and memories of subsequent residents and passersby, national narratives made local, a perfect blend of the tangible and intangible. This article looks at the current conservation of a row of them in Birmingham. The 16 prefabs at Wake Green Road in a southern suburb of Birmingham were built in 1945, to the Phoenix design. This was one of a number of design options applied to the challenge of creating a two-roomed bungalow with an inbuilt unit of kitchen and bathroom. The Ministry of Works held a competition, and an innovative housing unit called the ‘Portal’, or ‘Portal’s Palace’, named after the minister, Lord Portal, was the result. Its core was a heating and water unit, flanked by a bathroom on one side and a kitchen on the other, with two bedrooms to the left of the front hall and a living room to the right. Many wartime industries proposed their own designs for the standard size, switching their existing processes and materials from military to peacetime endeavours. Eleven types were approved. In total, about 156,623 bungalows were built in the country between 1945 and 1949. A prototype cottage went on display in the Tate Gallery in May 1944, welcoming thousands of visitors. They marvelled at the indoor bathroom, running hot water, central heating, fitted kitchen (with washing machine, cooker and refrigerator) and inbuilt furniture. This was the height of modernity at the time, and luxury in the face of the scarcity of materials and furniture. Local authorities were required to order The Phoenix was a rare type of prefab, only 2,428 being erected nationwide. (All photos by Katriona Byrne)
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