THE WORKING-CLASS OWNER-OCCUPIED HOUSE OF THE 1930s

The Evolution of the Speculative Semi.

The speculative builder of any age in England is faced with three main problems. The first is finance. In the 1930s this problem was easily overcome, as was shown in a previous chapters. The second is the supply of materials. In the 1920s and 1930s there was no general shortage of materials, although price-fixing cartels were operating to control the supply and cost of materials. An adequate supply of heavy items to the site, such as bricks and cement, was only restricted by the inadequencies of the transport system and the low carrying capacity of the lorries which were used. Price-fixing rings were in operation among certain supply industries such as cement and bricks but the aggressive attitudes of the speculative house-builder and the desire to reduce the price of the finished home broke most of the rings. The third problem was the supply of labour. The speculative builder collected his labour where he could, and above all he deskilled the work so that untrained labour and non-craftsmen could be used to build the houses.

Of importance to the burgeoning housing market and the evolution of the speculatively-built semi, was the lack of a relationship between the architect and the speculative developer. It will be shown how the developer of speculative houses for the working classes was able to design and build the houses with very limited technical assistance. The speculative developer copied styles of vernacular architecture, and incorporated what was known as 'domestic revivalism' in the design of the houses, possibly without fully realising what it was he was doing. A brief mention will be made of the flirtation between the speculative builder and the moderné movement, and the reasons for the movement's rapid rise and fall in the field of speculative house-building for the working classes. The influence of the Tudor Walters Report on the building of the speculative house will be discussed, as will the different approaches taken by the garden city developers and the municipal house builders in providing homes for the working classes (3).

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Committee appointed to Consider Questions of Building Construction in Connection with the Provision of Dwellings for the Working Classes in England and Wales, and Scotland and Report upon Methods of Securing Economy and Despatch in the Provision of Such Dwellings,(1918).The Tudor Walter Report , Cd 9191, 391-491.