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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Evans and Doyle's The 1940s Home is an excellent and well-researched introduction to domestic architecture and design from two experts in the field of twentieth-century British social history. Note that it is a book on the home, and as such covers not just buildings, but also furniture, textiles and wallpaper, and domestic appliances. An unexpectedly rich period for study of this range of material, the decade embraced, in building, the existing housing stock, air-raid shelters, the range of prefabs available from 1944, and the new house and flat designs quickly constructed after the end of the War; and in internal design, Ercol, Utility Furniture, and designs by Race, Spence and Heal. Many of these are instantly recognisable - such as the Boomerang table by Liberty's, the Bush bakelite DAC90 radio, and the Murphy baffle radio.
The information is detailed and extensive - prefabs, as can still be seen, lasted much longer than expected: all had a refrigerator from the start, and some were assembled on site by German and Italian prisoners of war, but they cost not much less than permanent homes. The range of building quickly put up after 1945 included blocks of flats which stand side by side with the best in twentieth century architecture - Churchill Gardens, Pimlico, for example - while other developments were not much different from Victorian tenement buildings. The authors point out the compromise between the need to supply housing with limited supply of building materials for a populace which expressed a preference for individual houses. This led to a continuation of the curious British pattern for blocks of flats which were in effect piles of streets of independent dwellings each with an outside entry, rather than the continental pattern of dwellings coming off a central core, with janitors and a formal entry point (which was already in use for mansion blocks).
So, a fine book, with a wealth of excellent photographs, showing how the 1940s, far from being a drab decade of austerity and shortages, displayed ingenuity and vitality in design and architecture.
The information is detailed and extensive - prefabs, as can still be seen, lasted much longer than expected: all had a refrigerator from the start, and some were assembled on site by German and Italian prisoners of war, but they cost not much less than permanent homes. The range of building quickly put up after 1945 included blocks of flats which stand side by side with the best in twentieth century architecture - Churchill Gardens, Pimlico, for example - while other developments were not much different from Victorian tenement buildings. The authors point out the compromise between the need to supply housing with limited supply of building materials for a populace which expressed a preference for individual houses. This led to a continuation of the curious British pattern for blocks of flats which were in effect piles of streets of independent dwellings each with an outside entry, rather than the continental pattern of dwellings coming off a central core, with janitors and a formal entry point (which was already in use for mansion blocks).
So, a fine book, with a wealth of excellent photographs, showing how the 1940s, far from being a drab decade of austerity and shortages, displayed ingenuity and vitality in design and architecture.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you want to know what everyday Deco was like, between the wars style, normal household items, this book is perfect. No the usual glossy tome, but a really good research item. I've been making miniatures in this 1930's style, and this book has been an invaluable resource thoughout my project.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Buildings from bombsites
10 Nov 2009
Format:Paperback
Considering the small number of pages and book size (check out the Product Details) I thought The 1940s Home packed quite a punch. Evans and Doyle have managed to sum up quite succinctly the hardships of home owner's in Britain during and after the Second World War. The Product Description above is good summing up of the contents.
Despite the size the photo content is impressive. There are well chosen photos of houses and excellent ones of furniture and electrical appliances, though the few ads included are rather too small to read the copy.
Any book about British social life of the period will mention 'prefabs'. Over 150,00 of these wonderful prefabricated single story homes were build between 1945 and 1949 and the best book I've found about them is Palaces for the People, with lots of photos and personal reminisces from the folk who lived in them, sometime for decades.
Both books do a good job of summing up British housing in the 1940s for the non-technical reader. If you just want to get a feel of life on the Home Front in Britain Robert Opies Wartime Scrapbook: From Blitz to Victory 1939-1945 can't be beat.
***SEE INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
Despite the size the photo content is impressive. There are well chosen photos of houses and excellent ones of furniture and electrical appliances, though the few ads included are rather too small to read the copy.
Any book about British social life of the period will mention 'prefabs'. Over 150,00 of these wonderful prefabricated single story homes were build between 1945 and 1949 and the best book I've found about them is Palaces for the People, with lots of photos and personal reminisces from the folk who lived in them, sometime for decades.
Both books do a good job of summing up British housing in the 1940s for the non-technical reader. If you just want to get a feel of life on the Home Front in Britain Robert Opies Wartime Scrapbook: From Blitz to Victory 1939-1945 can't be beat.
***SEE INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
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