A collection of 9 black and white negatives showing the completed Orlit prefabricated housing in the Kingfield Estate, Poplar, London. The houses were designed by a Czech architect called Erwin Katona, with around 17,000 built in the UK. The Temporary Housing Act of 1944/5 was intended to alleviate the acute housing shortages of the immediate postwar years. The Ministry of Works was the government department tasked with the organisation and efficiency of the push for housing construction. A number of individual designs and constructions methods for housing were built during the 1940s, of which the Orlit method was one. The prefabricated construction method involved precast concrete frames and panels that were assembled on site. By the 1980s many of the remaining Orlit Houses were showing defects, ensuring that they were classified as defective and in need of repair by the 1984/5 Housing Defects Act. Gaining a mortgage on unmodified Orlit house in the twenty-first century is consequently very difficult.
7 of the 9 images were digitised as part of a 2019 project.
The original Ministry of Works storage envelope lists the images as belonging to the “Development Group” and the operator as being “E”.
This is part of the Sub Series: PSA01/04/H Housing; within the Series: PSA01/04 Negatives; within the Collection: PSA01 Property Services Agency
Source: Historic England Archive
Creator of Archive: Katona, Erwin: Ministry Of Works
Mid 20th Century Prefabricated House, Domestic Interior
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