415, Wake Green Road

This is a prefabricated house with a shed, built in 1945 under the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act by the Ministry of Works. The city council provided the site and foundations. The house is a "Phoenix" design, featuring a welded steel tube frame clad in cream-painted corrugated asbestos sheeting with internal timber lining and partitions. It has a shallow-pitched, felt-covered corrugated asbestos roof with a central apex and a low chimney. The house is one storey high and measures 32 feet 4 inches by 21 feet 3 inches, mirroring the dimensions of the 1944 Portal prototype house. It includes two bedrooms to the left of the hall, a living room to the right, and a standard Portal kitchen and bathroom unit, which was delivered ready assembled.

Windows are timber with metal opening casements and toplights. The living room on the right features distinctive double casements mirrored around a central mullion. A central, glazed door is sheltered by a curved metal porch, a unique feature of the Phoenix design. Similar casement windows are found at the rear. The shed at the rear is of identical date and construction.

The interior was designed to be fully fitted, due to the post-war shortage of furniture and kitchen fixtures. Original fitted cupboards remain. The living room has fitted shelving, and the principal bathroom includes fitted cupboards. The kitchen, bathroom, and separate WC were fitted as a single unit, designed by the Ministry of Works, and some original features are still present.

Approximately 2,428 Phoenix prefabs were erected across the United Kingdom as part of the Temporary Housing Programme, intended to relieve the post-war housing shortage. This program, devised by Lord Portal, Minister of Works, utilized wartime industries and resulted in about 156,623 temporary bungalows being built between 1944 and 1948. The Phoenix prefabs are notably well-built and include features such as fitted kitchens with washing machines and refrigerators. They are detached and more carefully planned than other prefabricated housing of the period.

The group of prefabs on Wake Green Road represents an unusual and well-preserved example of this rare Portal bungalow variant, notable for its exceptional state of preservation and minimal alterations.