During the interwar period (1934 to 1939), semi-detached homes like these were built en masse as part of urban expansion in the UK. Most new UK homes were built on cheap land on the outskirts of cities and it was a great time for social housing with around 214,000 council properties built by 1939.

These homes were often built in estates of cul-de-sacs and characterised by low-hipped rooflines, curved bay windows and some elements of the Arts and Crafts movement, such as pebble-dashed walls, hanging tiles and recessed porches. Tudor-style houses, with their telltale half-timbers, were also popular and the number of private flats surged, with an estimated 56,000 built in London during the decade.

1940s houses: everyday life on the home front