399 Wake Green Road, Birmingham, West Midlands
A prefab(ricated) house, built in 1945 under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act by the government. This Act led to the building of 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 more usual materials such as brick were unavailable and wartime industries needed a new peacetime function. Portal bungalows were notable for their fully fitted interiors, which from the first included fitted kitchen with washing machines and refrigerators (then still novelties), and careful layout. The group of prefabs in Wake Green Road is an unusual surviving example of a rare version of the Portal bungalow. It is also remarkable for its exceptional state of preservation with few alterations.