427, Wake Green Road
427, WAKE GREEN ROAD, BIRMINGHAM, B13 0BJ
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1022587
- Date first listed:
- 05-Jan-1998
- List Entry Name:
- 427, Wake Green Road
- Statutory Address:
- 427, WAKE GREEN ROAD, BIRMINGHAM, B13 0BJ
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-08-28
- Reference:
- IOE01/04351/22
- Rights:
- © Mr Geoff Dowling. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1022587
- Date first listed:
- 05-Jan-1998
- List Entry Name:
- 427, Wake Green Road
- Statutory Address 1:
- 427, WAKE GREEN ROAD, BIRMINGHAM, B13 0BJ
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- 427, WAKE GREEN ROAD, BIRMINGHAM, B13 0BJ
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Birmingham (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SP 09777 81291
Details
SP 27 NE
997/12/10164
BIRMINGHAM
WAKE GREEN ROAD (east side)
Number 427 (odd)
GV
II
DESCRIPTION
Prefab with shed. Erected in 1945 under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act by the Ministry of Works, the City Council supplying the site and foundations, Phoenix design, a welded steel tube frame clad in cream-painted corrugated asbestos sheeting with internal timber lining and partitions.
Shallow-pitched corrugated asbestos roof, with central apex and low chimney. One storey. The dimensions of the prototype Portal house of 1944 were adopted (32'4" by 21'3"), as were its provision of two bedrooms to left of hall, living room to right and the standard Portal kitchen and bathroom unit, which was delivered ready assembled to site. Timber windows with metal opening casements and toplights, the living rooms to right with distinctive double casements mirrored around central mullion. Central door (renewed) under curved metal porch that is an idiosyncratic feature of the Phoenix design.
Similar casement windows to rear. Shed at rear of identical date and construction. The kitchen was designed to be fully fitted at a time when furniture and kitchen fixtures were unavailable. Living room with fitted shelving, principal bedroom (at rear) with fitted cupboards. Kitchen, bathroom and separate WC fitted as a single unit, designed by the Ministry of Works, and some features remain.
HISTORY
Some 2,428 Phoenix prefabs were erected in the United Kingdom as part of the Temporary Housing Programme, which erected about 156,623 temporary bungalows across Britain between 1944 and 1948. This was a scheme devised by Lord Portal, Minister of Works, to relieve the post-war housing shortage at a time when conventional materials were unavailable and wartime industries needed a new peacetime function. It is one of the rarest of the eleven approved types, though one of the most substantially built. Modelled on the Portal prototype bungalow exhibited at the Tate Gallery in 1944 they are notable for their fully fitted interiors, which from the first included fitted kitchens with "washing machines and refrigerators (then still novelties), and careful layout". The bungalows erected under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act stand out from the other prefabricated housing of the period because of their more carefully planned design, internal fixtures, their great historical interest and by being detached.
ASSESSMENT
The group of prefabs in Wake Green Road is an unusual surviving example of a rare variant of the Portal bungalow, that is still more remarkable for its exceptional state of preservation with few alterations.
Listing NGR: SP0977781291
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 466957
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 10-Jun-2026 at 19:58:05.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.