Thank you for your contributions to our pre-fabs project!

Brent Archives has been running a project looking at the borough’s post-war ‘pre-fab’ housing. Not only have we acquired some wonderful new additions to the collections, but we are delighted that the project has helped reunite old friends after nearly 50 years!

Brent’s pre-fabs were amongst tens of thousands of temporary factory-made bungalows, produced to replace buildings destroyed in the Second World War, until sufficient new homes could be constructed.  

There were around 850 of these temporary homes in the former Boroughs of Wembley and Willesden (now both part of Brent), from Kingsbury, Sudbury and Alperton to Gladstone Park, Brondesbury and Harlesden. Through the project we aim to properly record the part played by the pre-fabs in the borough’s history, by collecting memories and photographs of former residents and their lives in their pre-fabricated homes.

There was standing-room only at the ‘Chatbout pre-fabs’ event we held at Kingsbury Library Plus on Friday, where former residents had travelled from as far as Hove to share their memories and hear local historian Philip Grant talk about the history of the pre-fabs.; and at the drop-in day we held at the Archives in March, three old friends who had lived on the Pilgrim’s Way estate in Wembley caught up with each other for the first time in decades. Although one of them now lives in Australia, we hear that they are planning a reunion for his next visit to England!

We have collected some fascinating written reminiscences and oral histories, as well as many photographs of life in the pre-fabs and other memorabilia, which will be added to the Archive collections. Soon you’ll be able to search for them on our online catalogue.

If you lived in one of the pre-fabs and would like to contribute, please do get in touch, or share your memories by leaving a comment below.

Thanks to everyone who’s contributed so far to help us create a proper record of this important time in our local history.

Posted by Kate.