The suburban house mid-20th Century

Why 'modern' mid-20th century
housing estates were 1930s-built

The typical 'modern' suburban family home of the mid-20th Century was actually built in the 1930s.

This is because no house-building of any significance took place during the Second World War or in the years of austerity which followed. So there is no such thing as a typical newly-built 1940s house - at least not on a large suburban housing estate.

In contrast, though, in the years just before the Second World War, there was a boom in house-building. It was on the outskirts of towns and cities and was in a fairly uniform style. It created what became known as 'suburbs' or 'suburban housing', ie road upon road of rows of houses which were identical on any one estate, apart of course from minor titivations made by the occupiers.

So a modern 1940s suburban house was essentially a 1930s one, adapted to meet the needs of the war with windows taped against bomb blast, blackout material, etc., all of which are considered elsewhere on this site. Of course many families were still living in older houses - for example in Victorian terraces and in even earlier accommodation.

Similarly there was no such thing as up-to-date 1940s furnishings because the shops could not get stock to sell during the war or in the years of austerity afterwards.

My parents were married in 1938. Their house in Edgware, at 9 Brook Avenue, was one of the new suburban houses in the London suburbs, and its furnishings were either bought shortly after they married or in the first year of the war when shops still had 1930s stock; or they were hand-me-downs. I was born in 1939, so my recollections are very much of the house in the 1940s.

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