Prefabricated house, Sunderland
This sitting room is in a prefabricated BISF (British Iron and Steel Federation) steel framed show house. The house was furnished by the Newbottle and District Co-operative Society Ltd. Large numbers of prefabricated houses (prefabs) were built in the years after World War Two. New houses had to be built rapidly due to the housing that was destroyed by bombing during the war. Companies, such as Laing, developed new methods of building that were quick and did not rely on traditional materials such as bricks. Bricks were in short supply at this time. This photograph comes from the John Laing Company Archive.
