425, Wake Green Road

This is a 1945 Phoenix prefab, constructed under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act by the Ministry of Works, with the City Council providing the site and foundations. Designed as a welded steel tube frame clad in cream-painted corrugated asbestos sheeting with internal timber lining and partitions, it is a single-story structure with a shallow-pitched, felt-covered corrugated asbestos roof featuring a central apex and a low chimney. The design incorporates dimensions and features of the 1944 Portal prototype house, measuring 32 feet 4 inches by 21 feet 3 inches and including two bedrooms to the left of the hall, a living room to the right, and a standard, ready-assembled Portal kitchen and bathroom unit. The prefab is distinguished by timber windows with metal opening casements and toplights, particularly the living room’s distinctive double casements mirrored around a central mullion. A central door features an arched fanlight and is sheltered by a curved metal porch, an idiosyncratic element of the Phoenix design. Similar casement windows are present at the rear. The interior was designed to be fully fitted, reflecting post-war shortages of furniture and kitchen fixtures, including fitted shelving in the living room and cupboards in the principal bedroom. The kitchen, bathroom, and separate WC are integrated as a single unit designed by the Ministry of Works, with some original features remaining. As part of the Temporary Housing Programme, approximately 2,428 Phoenix prefabs were built across the United Kingdom to address the post-war housing shortage, devised by Lord Portal, Minister of Works. These prefabs are notable for their fitted interiors, which originally included kitchens with washing machines and refrigerators, and are considered one of the rarest of the eleven approved prefab types, and are remarkable for their substantial construction and exceptional state of preservation with few alterations.