Overview
[image: The Prefab at St Fagans]
The Prefab at St Fagans, 2010
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Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales
Prefabricated bungalow
The prefabricated bungalow, or prefab as it became popularly known, was designed as a means of providing large numbers of houses quickly after the Second World War, to replace some of those lost through bombing.
Each dwelling contained two bedrooms with built-in wardrobes, a living room, entrance hallway, fitted kitchen and bathroom. It boasted hot and cold running water, a cooker (gas or electric), a 'copper' for washing, as well as a built-in refrigerator.
In all, more than 153,000 prefabs were manufactured, as well as prefabricated two-storeyed houses. Four different versions were produced, all using more or less the same layout, but made of different materials. The aluminium bungalows, like the version at the Museum (the 'Type B2'), were made in factories that had produced aircraft during the War.
This was one of forty such prefabs that were built in Llandinam Crescent in 1948. Designed with a life-expectancy of about 10 years, very few still survive today. This building may be the only aluminium prefab left in Britain.
[image: Prefab Map Plot]
Building facts:
- Original Location: Llandinam Crescent, Gabalfa, Cardiff (Glamorgan)
- Date originally built: 1948
- Furnished: 1950
- Dismantled & rebuilt at St. Fagans: 1998
- Opened to the public: 2001
- 39th building to be opened to the public
- Visiting information
Image archive: Prefab
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Related information
Article: From Blitz to Prefab - How the Second World War altered housing in Wales
26 April 2007[image: A Type B2 aluminium bungalow, built in 1947]
By the mid 1930s, Britain was recovering from the General Strike of 1926 and the Depression years of 1929-33. One sign of this recovery was the number of new houses being built.
Article: Aluminium Palaces - life in a prefab
19 February 2007Mrs Ann Owens' account of when she first moved into her new prefab in Cefn-Coed-y-Cymmer, near Merthyr Tydfil, in April 1947.Article: A permanent home for a temporary house - the prefab at St Fagans
18 January 2007Thousands of British homes were destroyed by bombing during the Second World War (1939-45). They could not be replaced immediately because of the shortage of builders and materials. In 1944 Winston Churchill announced the Temporary Housing Programme as part of Britain's post-war reconstruction. The aim was to provide half a million 'prefabricated or emergency houses', with a lifespan of fifteen years.