Prefabs - Palaces for the People

[@FromaTwistedMind]

My Nan lived in one in the mid 60's & it was the best home she ever had. Such a shame they had to demolish it & built flats on it in the 70's. 😢

[@livvymunro1929]

I moved into a prefab with my mum and dad in 1952. They were paradise after the two rooms we rented in postwar Britain. It had an electric cooker, a bathroom and separate toilet, loads of cleverly designed storage, and -almost unheard of in those days- a fridge. It was so well designed with a fold away table in the kitchen which could also be used as an ironing board. My parents were heartbroken when the council decided to tear them down in the 60s and move them to a much less appealing council semi.

[@greentorm5467]

My Mother tells it like this, her and her parents lived happily in Seaforth, Merseyside...Chesnut rd (without the T). After renting rooms and staying with family, they suddenly had a triple aspect garden which they made beautiful. Everyone was upset to be told to leave.

[@lisajustvisiting9953]

I purchased my 1950 prefab in 2020. They are brilliant. I love living here. I rented it before I bought it (from the council) and the council contacted me and asked if I wanted to take up right to buy. I said yes. I still get people knocking on my door asking if I want to sell it. I can't if course, and won't! Ha ha. But yes this is the best place I've lived. I was worried about insuring it but no problem!

[@VinylToVideo]

I don't understand.. you bought it but can't sell it?

[@juliepowell5941]

​@@VinylToVideoprobably a condition of the Right-to-buy scheme....can't sell it on for x years, or something.

[@beverlygannon4141]

Sounds great. Where abouts are U, just what part of country that's all as in in London. ,none here now.

[@RedheadLondon]

Can you keep it warm? The look hard to in the winter.

[@pamela235]

Brilliant film. A good lesson for today's urban planners. Who wants to live in a flat when you can have a great detached house with a garden. I hope they start a petition - if they do, I'll sign it!

[@AnneAndersonFoxiepaws]

I loved the prefabs in Aberdeen and I miss them! I think they took the Aberdeen ones down in the 80's...shame they were really pretty and really well kept! These ones are bloody beautiful too... people took pride in them and I think it was terrible giving people houses because they had been bombed then taking them away because Royal Dutch Shell wanted the land to build offices! It's outrageous...they went through enough and the land was donated and I think they should have been given the freeholds!

[@petec3241]

Memories. I was born at 1 Meiiot Road in 1947, we were the first occupants. I tell people that my first home was built by Italian craftsmen. They were prisoners of war!

[@katiemuir315]

great video!!!

[@christineroseman5820]

why do they have to pull these down. I lived at no.3 Baudwin rd, for nearly 20yrs from 1952 and loved every minute of it! I would love to have the opportunity to go or live there again, it would be a great way to remember the 'Prefab Estate'. we kids then, all grew up and played, schooled and even got married to another Prefab Person. oh! happy days!

[@andrewgage6942]

I think it's a shame, not only are they nice little places, the people have taken immense pride and looked after these places, they are their palaces, their castles, their little piece of the country, and they've built up a wonderful community, the ladies at the start of the video talking about where they lived and moved to, who was there before, it's nice to see, that type of community is dying out in the UK with the new generations, that's your old style British community spirit

[@heatherhill5174]

So many interesting people, especially the interesting chap speaking at 0.37

[@terencebarrett2897]

We have them in north east England ,and they look wonderful, and as this man says" land is valuable, just like council houses,

[@RedheadLondon]

Ours in the north east were chopped down in the sixties to make room for factories. We did not want to, but got moved to a council house.

[@victorsilvester78]

My God that's Ted, I knew him well. A lovely man. RIP Ted.

[@Liberté-bell]

I was born in the bedroom of a prefab in 1958.

[@christianbrother4724]

Decades ago a solution for affordable housing was created. It was abandoned. The solution is here, we just need to bring back to life again.

[@moviladaniel6010]

what about the land usage which is way higher for detached homes than highrise?

[@VinylToVideo]

@@moviladaniel6010 All you need to do is look at the housing "projects" of highrises in New York and Chicago built the same time as these. Many have been ripped down for a reason; it concentrates hoards of poor people in poorly maintained buildings and they begin to become crime ridden dumps.

[@carolilseanne2175]

There are lots of them in and around Letchworth Garden City

[@eddieday-reilly5144]

I think combined with modern materials, these could be an answer to solving the Housing Crisis.....or at least the ever increasing demand for Social Housing (currently well over 1.5 million people). I'd love to be in one of these rather than Private Renting, where one can't put down roots

[@SusanGeyer-l4k]

Yes, yes, yes!

[@freebornjohn6876]

Of course by today's building standards these prefabs are completely primative, but just imagine if estates of homes similar to these, built to modern ecological and construction standards could be created now. It would mean ordinary working people who currently are forced to live in often substandard and expensive private rented accomodation, perhap scould live with some dignity and peace of mind.

[@hologenics1958]

I have been here. Like a Smurf village. 5:00 I did a job with the bin lorries starting January 1st 2000 and I was absolutely charmed by finding this place in the cold dark of the early morning. It is a village of ethnic sameness, they are one tribe, salt of the earth whites, immune to change.

[@Stella-iy4zf]

Beautiful ❤️

[@weaverinahollygarden109]

I have your book PREFAB HOMES. The pages have been well thumbed.If somebody out there would make some replicas I would be first on the list to rent one. The closet I think we have here in somerset are the to new container village in Bridgwater which people who work in Hinkley point live in at present and when they leave the college will take them over for the students. though they are staked on top of one another.

[@stevejelly3161]

They look so very peaceful 🙂

[@philbowerman3349]

A true lesson from history. Instead of politicians competing with meaningless “promises” to build “more” affordable housing (whatever that means), why don’t they recognise that we have a worse housing crisis than at the end of the Second World War and get off their backsides and actually do something! A determined drive to build thousands of prefabricated houses is truly affordable and can be achieved within months. They need to just get on with it !!

[@5578pedro]

My parents got a prefab after the war. They had priority because my Father was a Captain in the army. They spent his gratuity on furniture . They should have saved it and bought a proper house. They never owned their own home, those who did not qualify for a prefab had to buy a house, which was an investment for the future.

[@samgrainger1554]

What a Wonderfull life it would be

[@mrmountain1683]

2:02 oh golliwog brings me to my childhood

[@joss51ful]

Brilliant - I love prefabs!

[@wearsider]

Make this project happen in Ukraine to get people there through the winter and give them somewhere to live in their own country so they can start to rebuild after the Russian Aggressor has gone.

[@RedheadLondon]

Love the gollywog. I would have bough one if I had known they would be banned. Can't get them now.

[@willbirkett3909]

Hi, when its said they were only meant to be there 10 years, what is the reason for this? due to quality of materials & technology? Thanks I am covering prefabrication and its prospect to assist in the current UK Housing shortage.

[@georginar763]

These were palaces. Nowadays, there is a problem for people who live on their own not being able to afford houses which are too big for one person. With today's technology and our knowledge regarding insulation, it would hardly cost anything to build these now. But as the man says, it's about land and how much it is worth. I hope that one day, someone somewhere builds an estate of newly designed prefabs. Where I grew up, there were lots of them, and they were quiet places, no trouble, just people happy with their lot.

[@Ramblingpete]

You are a character Eddie

[@timcolledge3732]

What a pity....

[@loveisall5520]

What I wonder is why the UK isn't doing this right now! I keep seeing 'housing crisis' with nothing but talk. This could work as it did after the War.

[@CarlosAlberto-ii1li]

These old Birds with their nipples poking through their clothes always get me laughing because in their youth they would not be seen dead like that. Anyway Lewisham is my Manor.

[@BuddyLove-tc2oo]

So true 🤣

[@Stella-iy4zf]

This is one of the things West got right .

[@ruskiryan2398]

Dwellings ?, follow the money trails!