Edinburgh Recollections - Prefab Housing

Recollections Prefab Housing 1940s
Background	Neil Lawrence Fountainbridge, Edinburgh	- Recollections - Britain - Edinburgh - Edinburgh Today
1.	Bob Henderson Burdiehouse, Edinburgh with reply from Neil Lawrence Fountainbridge, Edinburgh	- Burdiehouse - Greendykes
2.	Bryan Gourlay Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland	- Burdiehouse - Delivery - North Berwick and Biggar
3.	Douglas Beath Tasmania, Australia with reply from Neil Lawrence Fountainbridge, Edinburgh	- Good Old Prefabs - Crewe Road and East Pilton
4.	Bob Henderson Burdiehouse, Edinburgh	- Swedish Design
5.	Liz Black California, USA	- Greendykes - Holyrood
6.	Betty Campbell Northfield, Edinburgh	- Craigour Drive - Countryside
7.	Liz Taylor (nee LAMB) Edinburgh	- Craigour Road - Golf Balls

Background

Recollections

The 'Recollections' section of this web sites include comments and photos of prefab housing in Edinburgh.

Gilmerton - c.1950

Greendykes - 1957

Greendykes - 1961

Britain

In order to meet the housing shortage as World War II was coming to an end, Wilson Churchill announced a Temporary Housing Programme in 1944.

The program planned to build 500,000 prefab bungalows in Britain over the next four years. They were expected to last for fifteen years. In fact just over 150,000 were built, including about 4,000 in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh

Thank you to Neil Lawrence, Edinburgh for giving me the details of the Edinburgh prefabs below. I don't know how many, if any, have survived.

There were four types of prefab in Edinburgh:

- Aluminium 1792

- Arcon 757

- Seco 815

- Tarran 636

Area	Number Built
Brunstane	16
Coillesdene	69
Craigmillar 1	41
Craigmillar 2	48
Craigmillar 3 (Greendykes)	267
Crewe Road North	38
Drylaw Mains North (Pennywell)	200
Ferniehill	233
Gilmerton (Hyvots)	226
Longstone	135
Moredun	565
Muirhouse	193
Northfield	229
Oxgangs	123
Redhall	218
Saughton Mains	158
Sighthill (Calders)	537
Southfield (Bingham)	100
Southhouse	240
West Pilton	364

After the initial 4000 above were built, Edinburgh purchased an additional 166 Permanent Aluminium houses, 145 for Craigour and 21 for Muirhouse.

Edinburgh Today

A few of the 1940s prefab bungalows in Edinburgh have survived to today (January 2008). They still appear to be in good condition. Most have been modernised, but a few still retain many of their original features.

In January 2008, I visited many of the areas in the table above. I found and photographed several prefab bungalows in the Moredun (Craigour) area:

Acknowledgements

(1) Thank you to Neil Lawrence, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh for providing the details above. Neil tells me:

- The numbers of the individual types of prefabs were taken from Edinburgh Council Minutes.

- The numbers built by each scheme have been worked out from various sources: City drainage records, old OS maps and more Edinburgh Council Minutes. There seems to be very little in the way of proper documented information on Prefabs in general. They were built under special war-time powers and didn’t require formal planning or building warrant permissions.

(2) Thank you to Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse Edinburgh for telling me that there were still some prefab bungalows to be found around Moredun. I found some at:

- Craigour Avenue

- Craigour Crescent

- Craigour Drive

- Craigour Grove

- Moredun Park

- Moredun Park Court

There may well be others.

Recollections

Bob Henderson

Burdiehouse, Edinburgh

Referring to the comments above, Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse sent me the photo below. Please click on the photo to enlarge it.

Bob wrote:

Burdiehouse

"Here's another type of prefab. This photo shows the houses in their old and metamorphosed state. These are BISF houses and were made in huge numbers all over the UK.

I have lived in one of these in Burdiehouse for the last 35 years. The conversion has turned them into very snug and fuel efficient homes."

Neil Lawrence wrote:

BISF Houses

"I was reading your page on the prefabs with interest. The BISF 2-storey houses that Bob Henderson refers to were in fact permanent houses. BISF stands for British Iron & Steel Federation.

We have a good number of these houses at both Southhouse / Burdiehouse and at Moredun.

All of these apart from the one in your photograph have been overclad and re-roofed to give them an additional lifespan."

Fabrication

"These houses were not pre-fabricated that much. They were erected pretty much as a steel frame with building element fitted much in the same way you would build a house on site, not like the Aluminium prefabs that were built in the Blackburn aircraft factory and delivered to the sight in two parts."

Neil Lawrence, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh: July 26, 2008

Bob Henderson replied:

BISF Houses

"The BISF houses were in most of their component parts prefabricated. Because the metal frames were made to a pretty exact spec, all of the timbers for the internal walls, ceilings etc. were able to be precut in the factory.

The top half of the building was sheathed in steel sheet and the bottom half in wire mesh which was then rendered and harled in the scotch manner.

All of the windows and window frames were made by Crittal Hope, also in the factory, and were in fact of the same construction as for the bungalows which we call prefabs.

There was no plaster work inside these houses, all of the walls and ceilings being lined with a low density fibre board. This board was later found to be a fire hazard. I know of at least two houses which were gutted by fire here in the Burdiehouse area."

Renovation

"These houses have been renovated twice that I know of.

The first time was to rewire, remove the fibre board and replace it with plaster board, and to remove the asbestos roofing and replace it with a metal roof.

The second renovation involved the replacement of windows with new double glazed units and doors. Then a skin of two- inch thick polystyrene, a breather barrier, a wire mesh cage and in my case the whole rendered and harled with a red and white chipping."

Survival

"However, most of the houses here had the bottom half clad in a single skin of facing brick. These houses were not built to last any longer than any other prefab.

It says a lot that prefabs of all types are still standing in good order when the supposedly traditionally built houses of the 1960s to 1980s have been demolished and continue to be demolished here in Edinburgh."

Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh: July 26, 2008

Greendykes

"I also lived for a short time in one of the other type, an asbestos one in Greendykes. It was a great wee hoose.

Imagine going from a single-end with no hot water and an outside shared lav. to your own wee bungalow with hot and cold running water and a bath with, wonder of wonders, a gas- operated fridge built in to the fitted kitchen!"

Bob Henderson, Burdiehouse, Edinburgh: January 4, 2007

Recollections

Bryan Gourlay

Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland

After reading the comments above, Brian Gourlay wrote:

Burdiehouse

"It’s been interesting reading Bob Henderson’s recollections and experiences of living in pre-fabs. I never knew they made the two level version in Bob’s photo.

My grandmother moved to one in Burdiehouse Loan in 1947 and lived there for years, but I never realised it was a pre-fab. Her daughter has lived in Burdiehouse Avenue for 50 years, now in one of the upgraded ones in Bob’s photo."

Delivery

"In the late 1940s, I can remember seeing pre-fab houses being delivered, going down Dalkeith Road on the back of low-loader lorries, as I walked to school. They were like small bungalows sliced in half with sinks, bathrooms and lots of other things already fitted.

North Berwick and Biggar

"Pre-fab houses were also to be found in North Berwick, up near the Law, where they were demolished around 1970.

There is a nice prefab development still alive and kicking close to the high school and opposite the golf course in Biggar.

Bryan Gourlay, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland: January 23, 2008

Recollections

Douglas Beath

Tasmania, Australia

Douglas Beath added:

Good Old Prefabs!

"Good old prefabs! History should accord them a round of applause. The postwar radio comedy 'Stand Easy!' with Cheerful Charlie Chester's gang included a weekly current affairs skit as a chant accompanied by tomtoms.

One was

'Down in the jungle,
Lliving in a tent:
Better than a prefab.
No rent !'

Crewe Road and East Pilton

"I remember the bungalows between Crewe Road North and Crewe Road West.

Also, just south of there around Crewe Road Gardens and overlooking the partly-filled railway cutting to East Pilton, there were several Swedish-supplied two-storey prefabs, presumably the type Bryan Gourlay was unaware of because they were not immediately recognizable as prefabs."

Neil Lawrence replied:

"Douglas Beath mentioned the Swedish timber houses at Pilton. There were 2 lots of 50 houses, gifted by the Swedish Government after the war.

50 were built at West Pilton Place and a further 50 at Sighthill Drive, Rise & Crescent. All 100 houses are still standing and are lasting well for their age."

Neil Lawrence, Fountainbridge, Edinburgh: July 26, 2008

Douglas Beath, Tasmania, Australia: January 25, 2007

Recollections

Betty Campbell

Northfield, Edinburgh

Craigour Drive

Here is a view looking to the NW down Craigour Drive, with just one prefab remaining in this photo. It's the low bungalow, No 70, Craigour Drive.

When these houses were erected in the mid-1940s, they had an expected lifetime of about fifteen years, but a few were still standing, and looking good, in the Craigour district of Edinburgh, close to the new Edinburgh Royal Infirmary when I photographed them in January 2008.

Peter Stubbs: July 23, 2008

Betty Campbell lived with her family for nearly five years at Duddingston Camp in the 1940s

before moving to a prefab at Craigour.

Betty wrote:

Countryside

"We lived in 76 Craigour Drive. I loved it there as it was still countryside at that time. There was a farm behind us where the cows came right up to the fence at the back of our home.

The farmer had a pony named 'Trigger' who all us kids loved. When he saw us around, he would come to us for treats etc."

Betty Campbell, Northfield, Edinburgh: July 23, 2008