Ideal Homes: Uncovering the History and Design of the Interwar House
The interwar housing era famously began with the Homes Fit For Heroes campaign of the Lloyd George government, which saw a million local authority houses built across the nation. The building boom wasn’t just benevolent, and was mirrored by a further 3 million homes built by the private sector. As a consequence, many millions of us in the UK, even subsequent Blitz destruction not-withstanding, will live in an interwar home today.
In her research over the past few decades, series consultant and presenter for TV series ‘A House Through Time’, Professor Deborah Sugg Ryan (Portsmouth University) has immersed herself in the history of the interwar house. Her investigations were sparked by her own purchase of an unmodernised interwar home back in 1995 and in her book she reveals both the bricks and mortar history of these homes, and what this widespread, but unique, era of house building represented to those who first dwelt in them.
With the escape to the suburbs, and the healthier, labour-saving, more modern view of life that these houses so often represented, they were homes that were aspirational and hopeful for the future. No longer was a home simply a roof over your head; it was an investment, as a nation very largely of tenants took up the chance to buy their own homes.
A passionate researcher of the history of design, the ways in which these interwar homes were fitted out, furnished and decorated is covered in detail by Deborah too. She goes beyond the glossy advertisements of the era to deduce how people really lived in their homes at the time, considering their choices of wallpaper, flooring and furniture, both traditional and that more specific to the era, such as the kitchen cabinet, jazz-inspired decor and linoleum.
With an introduction on researching your house history, the book provides a capsule of the information you need to begin metaphorically peeling back the wallpaper and uncovering the history of your (or your parents’ or grandparents’) interwar home. • Published by Manchester University Press in paperback at £12.99. www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk HT