exploring excalibur prefabs, south london

Posted on January 9 2011 by dan fone

After way too much sitting in the studio this week, I was bouncing off the walls and needing to get out. Stuart had a bee in his bonnet to visit the Excalibur prefab estate in Catford, so we jumped on our bicycles and headed over there. He’d read a couple articles, one by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian and the other in Lewisham Life about the community, Britain’s largest surviving 1940’s prefab estate, which is under threat of demolition by the council. Prefabricated houses were a quick-fix housing solution after WW2, and were only intended to last ten years or so, but after 60 years, some residents have grown very attached to them.

As we were looping about the maze of streets and taking photos, we were lucky enough to get chatting with a guy who was taking down his Christmas decorations, Jim Blackender. Jim’s become a neighbourhood champion to save Excalibur, and he let me video him talking about it. Here’s the interview and a slide show of some of the photos I took today in this historic area:


Excalibur Prefabs YouTube link

You can find out about the community’s campaign on Jim’s website here.

Jim Blackender and his prefab



The first time I went inside a prefab was in the Imperial War Museum’s 1940’s House exhibition, and Channel 4 made a series about a family who lived there in artificially created 1940’s conditions. When I took Stuart to the museum, he was amazed by how much of the decor he recognised that had stuck around into own childhood in the sixties. Here are some photos I found of the house’s interior on YouTube, with a jolly Alma Cogan soundtrack:


1940s House YouTube link

Some more photos from today.


A noticeboard outside Jim’s house

Edit: Just linked by The Londonist and writer Philip Reeve on his blog The Solitary Bee

18 Responses to exploring excalibur prefabs, south london

  1. Anonymous says:

    Cats write good signs

    Hello Sarah,

    Just wanted to say thanks for posting this, its all really interesting. What an eloquent chap you had the luck to bump into.

    I particularly like the photo of the cat with the sign in the window. I like to think the cat wrote that sign.

    Tom

    Reply
  2. dan fone says:

    Re: Cats write good signs

    Thanks, Tom! Yes, it was a stroke of luck running into Jim! (He’s just commented below!) And I love the cat sign, too. 🙂

    Reply
  3. dan fone says:

    Re: Cats write good signs

    Thanks, Tom! Yes, it was a stroke of luck running into Jim! (He’s just commented below!) And I love the cat sign, too. 🙂

    Reply
  4. dan fone says:

    Re: Excalibur Prefab Estate

    Lovely to meet you, Jim! Thanks so much for letting me film you. I really hope the council listen to the recommendations from the tenants and historical societies. Your community’s such an amazing piece of living history.

    Reply
  5. dan fone says:

    Re: Excalibur Prefab Estate

    Lovely to meet you, Jim! Thanks so much for letting me film you. I really hope the council listen to the recommendations from the tenants and historical societies. Your community’s such an amazing piece of living history.

    Reply
  9. crazycrone says:

    Yes, power to ’em. I love prefabs; think they should start building modern versions.
    When I lived in Barnet, years ago, there was still a small prefab enclave, but I suppose it’s long gone *Sigh*

    Reply
  10. crazycrone says:

    Yes, power to ’em. I love prefabs; think they should start building modern versions.
    When I lived in Barnet, years ago, there was still a small prefab enclave, but I suppose it’s long gone *Sigh*

    Reply
    • dan fone says:

      It’s true, they’re just the right size for maintaining, and don’t have any accessibility issues like so many of these tall Victorian houses, where a staircase is the first thing you see when you walk in.

      Reply
  11. dan fone says:

    It’s true, they’re just the right size for maintaining, and don’t have any accessibility issues like so many of these tall Victorian houses, where a staircase is the first thing you see when you walk in.

    Reply
  13. Anonymous says:

    Re: Excalibur Prefab Estate

    Hi Jim

    good luck with your campaign,
    my uncle and aunt lived in a prefab, and not sure if they still do.

    just wondered by a slim chance that you knew them
    they would be in their 80’s, and their names are
    Vic & Eileen Payn. they also had Eileens sister live with them.sorry dont know the road name either.
    but its so long since i saw them. but had fond memories of visits to them, they even had their wedding reception there, god know how we all fitted in but we did and had dancing as well.

    thanks for reading this
    again good luck, think there should be more of these
    . bet there are thousands out there would give their eye teeth for one.

    all the best
    Glenna Gillman ‘ne Payn
    if you would reply to this
    email addy please. glenna@shelleyengineering.co.uk

    Reply
  14. Anonymous says:

    Re: Excalibur Prefab Estate

    Hi Jim

    good luck with your campaign,
    my uncle and aunt lived in a prefab, and not sure if they still do.

    just wondered by a slim chance that you knew them
    they would be in their 80’s, and their names are
    Vic & Eileen Payn. they also had Eileens sister live with them.sorry dont know the road name either.
    but its so long since i saw them. but had fond memories of visits to them, they even had their wedding reception there, god know how we all fitted in but we did and had dancing as well.

    thanks for reading this
    again good luck, think there should be more of these
    . bet there are thousands out there would give their eye teeth for one.

    all the best
    Glenna Gillman ‘ne Payn
    if you would reply to this
    email addy please. glenna@shelleyengineering.co.uk

    Reply

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