Volume: Ministry of Works, Hill-Orlit House, Watford

Date:: 7 Dec 1945 - 22 Feb 1946

Location:: Bushey, Hertsmere, Hertfordshire

Reference:: PSA01/04/H00037

Type:: Volume containing Photographic material

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Description

A collection of 9 glass plate negatives showing the construction of a Hill- Orlit Housing estate in Bushey, near Watford. The houses were designed by a Czech architect called Erwin Katona, with around 17,000 built in the UK. The Temporary Housing Act of 1944/5 was intended to alleviate the acute housing shortages of the immediate postwar years. The Ministry of Works was the government department tasked with the organisation and efficiency of the push for housing construction. A number of individual designs and constructions methods for housing were built during the 1940s, of which the Orlit method was one. The prefabricated construction method involved precast concrete frames and panels that were assembled on site. By the 1980s many of the remaining Orlit Houses were showing defects, ensuring that they were classified as defective and in need of repair by the 1984/5 Housing Defects Act. Gaining a mortgage on unmodified Orlit house in the twenty-first century is consequently very difficult.

5 of the 9 images have been catalogued and scanned as part of a 2019 project.

The original Ministry of Works storage envelope for these negatives lists the operator as "C".

Content

This is part of the Sub Series: PSA01/04/H Housing; within the Series: PSA01/04 Negatives; within the Collection: PSA01 Property Services Agency

This Volume is divided into 5 Child Records

This Volume contains the following materials:

Photograph (Negative): 9

Rights

Source: Historic England Archive

People & Organisations

Creator of Archive: Katona, Erwin: Ministry Of Works

Keywords

Mid 20th Century Prefabricated House