A Plan for the City

Following the widespread destruction in Hull during the Second World War, the services of two town planners, Sir Edwin Lutyens and Sir Patrick Abercrombie, were secured to draw up a reconstruction plan for the city. A plan for the City and County of Kingston upon Hull, better known as the Abercrombie plan, held community planning at the heart of its proposals, putting forward the concept of creating subdivided communities with the intention to reduce the population in the city’s centre by moving 54,000 from inner-city slums to modern estates, complete with local amenities’ and schools. 

Hull's central area development, 1945 showing the then present-day road system with proposed system superimposed

Proposed changes to Hull's Old Town: Note Hull's Holy Trinity Church (centre), the inner-ring road following the line of the River Hull and Hull's medieval High Street and the Guild Hall (top right)

Drawing of inner-ring road and Wilberforce House, 1945

Opposed by politicians and local business figures and with contributing factors including a lack of funding and a shortage of building materials after the war, the majority of the Abercrombie plan was not implemented. If the Abercrombie plan had gone ahead the City would look very different today.

After the Second World War, Hull, like other heavily bombed cities, was desperately short of housing and the labour to build permanent homes. Before the end of the war the Government realised that an urgent solution had to be found. Envisaged by war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 aimed to provide large numbers of houses quickly and economically. The Ministry of Works designed a prototype which was not developed but invited competitive designs based upon it and eleven manufacturers received official approval.

The Tarran (Marks 3 & 4) 
The most prevalent design in the City totaling 1314 examples, Robert G Tarran’s patented design was manufactured in Hull by Tarran Industries Ltd. The first 1015 were of a timber frame design with a cast concrete exterior of narrow wall panels faced with an exposed gravel aggregate surface giving the well known “pebble-dash” finish. The remaining 299 examples were of a simplified design dispensing with the timber framing, the units being of reinforced concrete only but with the same exterior finish and could not be distinguished externally from the earlier design. A further distinguishing feature was the living room corner window.

The Arcon (Mark V) 
Made of a double skin of ribbed asbestos cement sheeting on a light steel frame, the Arcon had a distinctive roll-topped ridge to its roof and also stood apart from its peers due to its distinct layout. It was the only prefab to have the living room at the rear of the property with a picture window and a French door to the back garden. 418 Arcon prefabs were erected in the City.

The prefab design was a triumph of space planning and for most would have seemed like a luxury compared with the poor housing conditions still in existence at that time. Each bungalow had two bedrooms; a living room; hallway; fitted kitchen, with hot and cold running water, cooker (gas or electric) and built-in refrigerator; a fitted bathroom, including an indoor lavatory; and had a generous private garden.

Did You Know?
The average cost of building a prefab was £1100, which was more than the cost of a permanent brick built house at the time.

Prefabricated ‘permanent’ houses, like the bungalow prefabs, were built by non-traditional methods but unlike the bungalow prefabs they were expected to last for at least 60 years. Designs varied and in Hull three main manufacturers erected non-traditional permanent houses in the City during the immediate post-war period 

Tarran Industries 
Tarran Industries, even prior to designing prefabricated temporary housing, had designed a prototype two-storey semi-detached house. On 28th May 1946 Tarran Industries constructed an example Newland-Tarran house on site at the corner of Prospect Street and Spencer Street to demonstrate the speed and ease with which the prefabricated permanent house could be erected. Building commenced at 8am and was completed within the day, with testing taking place on the following two days. Generally, however, construction took two days and all internal work carried out within five days, making a total of 1 week for the completion of the house.

Interior of Newland House

Spooner 
The Spooner ‘Dri-Built’ system was designed to follow traditional lines and was advertised as having a “traditional exterior … factory built interior”. Although the company was based in Hull relatively few Spooner houses were built within the City boundaries. Early builds included fifty houses on East Mount Avenue, which from the outside looked very similar to British Iron and Steel Federation houses, due to sheet steel cladding to the upper storey; later builds did not include steel cladding.

At the close of hostilities Hull City Council formulated two major points of policy: 
1) to provide homes for the people 
2)  to assist in every way the rehabilitation of industry to provide work for its citizens. 
  
In the early stages of post-war planning the new industrial zones for the city were identified so that industrial rehabilitation, reconstruction and new development could proceed as rapidly as possible.  

After the War, many businesses had to wait a number of years before new permanent premises were built and ready to move into. It took five years of negotiations before the way was cleared for Hammonds Ltd. to rebuild their city centre store, which before the war employed nearly 800 staff and had a rateable value of £5,000. Operating from temporary premises the store provided 47 of their departments but with only 20% of the former floor space. A £400,000 development saw Hammonds’ move back to the old premises on Paragon Square    

Did You Know? 
The last of Hull's temporary shops on Ferensway remained occupied into the 21st century before finally demolished in 2013