Excalibur Estate, Nos 1-7 (Odd), No 25 And No 39

Excalibur Estate, Nos 1-7 (Odd), No 25 and No 39

Six prefabricated houses built in 1945–46 using the Uni-Seco system, with minor late 20th-century alterations.

The Uni-Seco system comprises a resin-bonded plywood or light timber frame clad in flat asbestos cement sheeting with a wood wool core. Loose timber tongue strips were inserted at vertical joints between units and subsequently filled with mastic and covered with asbestos cement. Internal walls are of the same construction, with ceilings of plasterboard nailed to roof beams.

The single-storey buildings have a barely perceptibly pitched roof and a chimney, and are based on a 4-foot by 3-foot 6-inch grid pattern in footprint. The windows are standard steel casements in timber frames; of the two to the frontage, one wraps around the corner of the building. This corner window, combined with the perception of a flat roof, lends the prefabs a distinctly modernist appearance which differs from the pre-war trend for neo-Georgian social housing. The prefabs are a mixture of Mark 2 and Mark 3 types. Nos 1–7 (odd) are Mark 2 prefabs, each with a side entrance; Nos 25 and 39 are Mark 3 types with a central entrance and small canopy. All prefabs appear to have new front doors but are otherwise largely as built.

In the Mark 2 prefabs, the bathroom and kitchen are positioned back to back in a small space towards the rear of the house. In the Mark 3 prefabs, they are situated to the right of the hall with two bedrooms to the left. Some prefabs are known to have surviving fitted cupboards and shelving.

The Excalibur Estate comprises 187 houses and a prefab church, St Mark's on Baudwin Road, built between 1945 and 1946 on land formerly intended as an open space amenity for the adjacent Downham Estate, a London County Council initiative begun in 1924. Residents recall that the prefab estate was constructed by Italian and German prisoners of war. The roads were named after the Knights of the Round Table, continuing the theme of the neighbouring Downham Estate: Baudwin, Mordred, Pelinore, Ector, Wentland, Meliot and Persant.

By November 1940, 1,647 homes had been destroyed in the London Borough of Lewisham, a total exceeded by only two other areas, Stepney and Lambeth. Lewisham also suffered when rocket bombs began to fall in June 1944 and was the second-most bombarded borough for V1s and the third for V2s. The virtual cessation of house building during the Second World War, combined with bomb damage and dramatic population growth, resulted in an enormous housing shortage. The Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act of 1944 authorised the Government to spend up to £150 million on temporary houses. An exhibition held at the Tate Gallery in May 1944 displayed the Ministry of Works prototype, known as the 'Churchill House' or 'Portal's Palace' (after Lord Portal, the Minister of Works), and three other prototypes by private manufacturers: the Arcon, Uni-Seco and Tarran bungalows.

The bungalows were delivered as flat kits to be assembled on site, except for the kitchen and bathroom unit which arrived ready assembled. In total, 156,623 bungalows were built between 1945 and 1949; by 1975 around 10,000 were still standing, though many have since been demolished. In London, only 300 of the 10,000 originals survived in 1991, with the majority on the Excalibur Estate, which is the largest surviving estate of prefabs in England.

Uni-Secos were produced by the Selection Engineering Company Ltd and predominantly erected in London and the South East. The Uni-Seco was the third most common type of prefab built as part of the Temporary Housing Programme, with approximately 29,000 units erected nationally. Prefabs were largely popular with their new inhabitants, offering modern conveniences such as fitted kitchens with refrigerators, a compact plan and built-in shelves and cupboards for storage. They were detached dwellings on large plots offering spacious gardens and a 'country cottage' ideal to former residents of tenements and terraces. The Excalibur Estate contains some of the best-preserved Uni-Secos in the country.