Ideal Homes, 1918–39: Domestic Design and Suburban Modernism, by Deborah Sugg Ryan

Abstract

Housing was a key issue in inter-war Britain. The Government’s promise to provide homes that would be ‘fit for heroes’ to live in prompted large-scale slum clearance and mass building programmes. New homes were not restricted to council or private rental sectors; home-ownership rose threefold between the wars, helped by an increase in affordable mortgages from building societies. Many of those who took advantage of these used them to support the purchase of new houses in developing suburbs, fuelling a rise in suburbanisation—a loaded term that remains in use today. This rich book is less concerned with the external landscapes of suburban Britain than the interiors of these new homes and how these both shaped and reflected the identities of their inhabitants. Deborah Sugg Ryan demonstrates that the newly-built semi-detached houses which made up the majority of inter-war suburban developments were perfectly placed to act as conduits for Modernism by...