Prefabs sprout

Here's a beautifully shot sequence of silent colour footage shot around London in 1945–6. The cameraman has recorded the building of some of the first Orlit prefab houses. It's unusual for many reasons, not least because Orlit houses were built mostly in Scotland. Although prefabricated, they were not temporary houses, like the single storey Uni Seco prefabs in the Excalibur Estate in Catford. These were made from precast reinforced concrete and built to last – although in recent years structural defects have been found in them.



The film is a wonderful piece of history, and well worth a watch.