A collection of 5 black and white negatives showing the exterior of completed Airey Houses in Chingford, London. Airey Houses were a common form of postwar prefabricated housing and were developed by a Leeds based builder, Sir Edwin Airey. The Ministry of Works was the government department tasked with the organisation and efficiency of the push for postwar housing construction. The exterior walls of the Airey house were made of precast concrete and were consequently easy to erect. Around 26,000 were constructed across the country during the late 1940s and early 1950s as part of attempts to alleviate the acute housing shortages of the immediate postwar years. By the 1980s many of the remaining Airey 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 Airey Houses in the twenty-first century is consequently very difficult. The properties in the collection appear to be situated to the south of Chingford around the Friday Hill area. A variety of postwar housing seems to have been erected here and the Airey Houses are arranged in a circular configuration around Hoppett Road and Winslow Grove.
The original Ministry of Works storage envelope lists the division as “press” and the operator as “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: Airey, Edwin: Ministry Of Works
Concrete, Mid 20th Century Prefabricated House
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