The making of the modern British home : the suburban semi and family life between the wars / Peter Scott.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scott, Peter, 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Suburban life--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Suburban life.

Suburban homes--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Suburban homes.

History.

Great Britain--Social conditions--20th century.

Great Britain.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xvi, 270 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Summary:

The Making of the Modern British Home explores the impact of the modern suburban semi-detached house on British family life during the 1920s and 1930s - focusing primarily on working-class households who moved from cramped inner-urban accommodation to new suburban council or owner-occupied housing estates. Migration to suburbia is shown to have initiated a dramatic transformation in lifestyles - from a 'traditional' working-class mode of living, based around long-established tightly-knit urban communities, to a recognisably 'modern' mode, centred around the home, the nuclear family, and building a better future for the next generation. This process had far-reaching impacts on family life, entailing a change in household priorities to meet the higher costs of suburban living, which in turn impacted on many aspects of household behaviour, including family size. This volume also constitutes a general history of the development of both owner-occupied and municipal suburban housing estates in interwar Britain, including the evolution of housing policy; the housing development process; housing and estate design, lay-outs, and architectural features; marketing owner-occupation and consumer durables to a mass market; furnishing the new suburban home; making ends meet; suburban gardens; social filtering and conflict on the new estates; and problems of 'mis-selling' and 'Jerry building'. Peter Scott integrates the social history of the interwar suburbs with their economic, business, marketing, and architectural/planning histories, demonstrating how these elements interacted to produce a new model of working-class lifestyles and 'respectability' which marked a fundamental break with pre-1914 working-class urban communities. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The New Suburban World 1

Introduction 1

Suburban migration and social change 7

Marketing suburbia to the masses 12

Reconstructing interwar suburbia 13

The structure of this book 14

2 The Road to 'Homes Fit for Heroes' 18

Introduction 18

The Victorian housing legacy 18

Scotland: a different country 25

Crisis and reform in Edwardian Britain 29

War accelerates change 34

The life and death of 'homes fit for heroes' 36

Conclusion 42

3 Municipal Suburbia 43

Introduction 43

Post-Addison council house development in the 1920s 43

From general needs housing to slum clearance 46

The characteristics of municipal housing 48

Communities without amenities 52

The joy of suburbia 57

Rents, affordability, and making ends meet 61

Conclusion 67

4 Developing Owner-Occupied Suburbia 69

Introduction 69

The speculative suburban house 69

The interwar speculative house-builder 76

Scotland-still a different country 83

Development finance 88

The development process 90

'Building down' to a working-class market 94

Conclusion 97

5 Marketing Owner Occupation to the Masses 98

Introduction 98

A transformation in housing tenure 99

Making houses affordable-the introduction of 'easy terms' 102

The marketing process 108

Marketing house-hunting as a leisure activity 116

Lifestyle marketing 120

Conclusion 127

6 Life in Owner-Occupied Suburbia 128

Introduction 128

The suburban house purchaser 128

'Keeping ourselves to ourselves' and 'keeping up with the Joneses' 135

Making ends meet in owner-occupied suburbia 140

Smaller, 'better' families 142

Conclusion 151

7 Equipping the Suburban Home 152

Introduction 152

Marketing furniture to new suburban families 153

Hire purchase 156

Furniture acquisition strategies and costs 160

Labour-saving appliances in labour-saving homes 166

Conclusion 173

8 The Suburban Garden 175

Introduction 175

Gardens in municipal suburbia 179

Gardening in owner-occupied suburbia 181

Sources of information, advice, and equipment 184

Garden styles, designs, and functions 188

Conclusion 192

9 Visible and Invisible Walls: Social Differentiation and Conflict in Interwar Suburbia 194

Introduction 194

The affluent worker thesis 195

Communities and social norms 196

Suburbia as social segregation 205

Conclusion 212

10 A Crisis Averted by War? Mis-selling, Consumer Protest, and the Borders Case 213

Introduction 213

Building society growth and the mortgage pool system 213

Attempts to control competition 217

Caveat emptor 218

Arrears and defaults 222

The Borders case 224

Was there a looming housing market crisis in 1939? 228

Conclusion 232

11 The Legacy of the Interwar Semi 233

The interwar housing achievement 233

From ideal home to tower block 238

The end of affordable and desirable suburban housing? 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [251]-264) and index.

ISBN:

0199677204

9780199677207

019166488X

9780191664885

OCLC:

862437760