423, Wake Green Road is a Grade II listed building in the Birmingham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 5 January 1998. Prefabricated house. 2 related planning applications.
423, Wake Green Road
- WRENN ID
- heavy-beam-meadow
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Birmingham
- Constituency
- Birmingham Selly Oak MP: Al Carns (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 5 January 1998
- Type
- Prefabricated house
- Address
- 423, Wake Green Road, B13 0BJ
- OS grid reference
- SP 097 813
- Coordinates
- 52.42973, -1.85757
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
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.
Local climate
423, Wake Green Road receives an average of 770 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 63% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 76% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 39 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 75% of listed buildings. Of these, 19 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 2 applications
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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