Volume: Ministry of Works Orlit Houses, Poplar, London

Date:
28 Aug 1946
Location:
5-23 Billson Street, Kingfield Estate, Tower Hamlets, Greater London Authority
Show all locations
10-24 Parsonage Street, Kingfield Estate, Tower Hamlets, Greater London Authority
Reference:
PSA01/04/H00114
Type:
Volume containing Photographic material
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Placeholder image for archive collection

Description

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.

The original Ministry of Works storage envelope lists the operator as “D”.

2 of the 8 images were catalogued and digitised as part of a 2020 project.

Content

This is part of the Sub Series: PSA01/04/H Housing; within the Series: PSA01/04 Negatives; within the Collection: PSA01 Property Services Agency

This Volume is divided into 2 Child Records
This Volume contains the following materials:
Photograph (Negative): 8

Rights

Source: Historic England Archive

People & Organisations

Creator of Archive: Katona, Erwin: Ministry Of Works

Keywords

Concrete, Mid 20th Century Prefabricated House