423, Wake Green Road

This is a 1945 "prefab" constructed under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act by the Ministry of Works, with the City Council providing the site and foundations. The design, known as "Phoenix," features a welded steel tube frame clad in cream-painted corrugated asbestos sheeting, with timber internal lining and partitions. It has a shallow-pitched, felt-covered corrugated asbestos roof with a central apex and a low chimney. The building is single-story.

The dimensions of the prototype Portal house of 1944 were adopted, measuring 32 feet 4 inches by 21 feet 3 inches. The layout mirrored the Portal prototype's design, with two bedrooms to the left of the hall, a living room to the right, and a standard Portal kitchen and bathroom unit delivered ready assembled. Timber windows with metal opening casements and toplights are present, with the living rooms featuring distinctive double casements mirrored around a central mullion. A central door has an arched fanlight and is sheltered by a curved metal porch, a unique feature of the Phoenix design. Similar casement windows are found at the rear.

The interior was designed to be fully fitted, reflecting the post-war shortage of furniture and kitchen fixtures. The living room has fitted shelving, while the principal bedroom at the rear includes fitted cupboards. The kitchen, bathroom, and separate WC were originally fitted as a single unit, designed by the Ministry of Works, and some original features remain.

Part of a national Temporary Housing Programme, approximately 2,428 Phoenix prefabs were erected in the United Kingdom between 1944 and 1948 to alleviate the post-war housing shortage. It is one of the rarest of the eleven approved prefab types, yet notable for being substantially built, modeled on the Portal prototype bungalow shown at the Tate Gallery in 1944.

The Wake Green Road prefabs represent an unusual and well-preserved example of this rare Portal bungalow variant, notable for its rarity, state of preservation, and few alterations.