The Road to ‘Homes Fit for Heroes’

Abstract

This chapter outlines the development of British housing prior to 1914, discusses the impact of the First World War on housing policy, and examines the rise and fall of the post-war municipal housing programme. The chapter reviews the Victorian housing legacy, outlining the diversity of housing types and the impact of rising living standards on the evolution of working- and lower-middle-class housing. Housing in Scotland, where tenements were the dominant urban form, is then discussed, together with the impact of tenement living on household behaviour. The nature of the Edwardian housing crisis is explored next. Impacts of the First World War and the short-lived post-war ‘homes for heroes’ policy form the themes of the last two sections. Despite the limitations of this policy, it is argued that the initiative was a success, in providing an enduring blueprint for suburban housing.