Submitted by WA Contents

The Prefab Museum

United Kingdom Architecture News - Sep 15, 2014 - 11:30   4445 views

The Prefab Museum

It's a new Kickstarter Project:The Prefab Museum is a living museum in a real prefab celebrating post-war prefab life through art and by sharing memories and archive

The Prefab Museum

Jerry, prefab resident, at the opening of the Prefab Museum, March 2014

The prefab Museum is a unique living museum celebrating post-war prefab life through art and by sharing memories and archive. Open in March 2014,  the Prefab Museum has had a resounding success and we extended it first to the end of May then to the end of September for Open House London.

The Prefab Museum

The Prefab Museum, 17 Meliot Road, SE6 1RY

In the short time the Prefab Museum has been open, it has attracted more than 2,500 visitors from all backgrounds and areas across London and the UK. The museum has featured in the national, local and hyperlocal press, on ITV London and BBC Radio London. 

The Prefab Museum has grown to exhibit the work of 17 artists: photographers, film makers, illustrators, writers and objects and memorabilia contributed by residents and visitors. Since the end of March we have been surviving on the generosity of our volunteers and local residents, and the kind donations of visitors. The donations do not cover the costs of opening the museum to the public and publicising but support refreshments which are free, and some cleaning supplies.

The Prefab Museum now has a future beyond September to 2017 thanks to the support and enthusiasm of Whitefoot Ward Lewisham local councillors, the Tenants Association and local residents, the artists involved and the volunteers. This is in the early stages and we ask for your support to help us develop and achieve this vision of a permanent museum of prefab life. We are starting to apply to different public and private money funds. If our applications are successful, we probably won’t be able to get the funds before the New Year 2015. 

Without your support the museum may have to close temporarily at the end of September while we wait for the outcome of funding applications.

This is a part of British history which is disappearing, and which doesn’t have its own archive and building, at the heart of the largest remaining prefab community in which six of the prefabs are listed Grade II by English Heritage. It is unique. 

The Prefab Museum tells a story that resounds today, of housing shortages - and innovative solutions that were embraced by their tenants – and paints a picture of social, domestic, and working class life from 1946 to the present day through artists’ interpretations, memorabilia and artefacts. It is this fusion of history, art and culture that makes the Prefab Museum unique.

Why a Prefab Museum

I started my project on prefabs in 2002 just after I moved to the UK. Fascinated by post-war prefabs and the stories of their residents, I started to document them all over the country. Part of the Temporary Housing Programme, they were built just after WWII to house service men coming back from the war and their families. Supposed to last 10 years, they last much longer! Among the 156,000 erected in 1946 and 1947, there are still a few Hundreds still up lived in and loved today. 

The Prefab Museum

Children on the Excalibur Estate, late 40s

The Excalibur Estate in Catford, South London, is the largest remaining estate of post-war prefabs in Britain. Unfortunately not for long as its demolition started in July 2014. So far, about 40 prefabs (out of 186) have been pulled down and the rest of the estate is scheduled to be demolished from 2019. The local authorities have decided to "regenerate" the estate and build more dwellings on a piece of land which is only 30 minutes away from central London.

The Prefab Museum

Boarded up prefab, ready for demolition, April 2014

For the last 12 years, I have been documenting the Excalibur Estate. The idea of a Prefab Museum came naturally when I started organising guided tours around the estate in 2013. I had then a successful exhibition on prefabs at Photofusion Gallery in Brixton, South London. I thought it would be ideal to use an empty and authentic prefab as a museum so people could look at it, spend some time in it. I thought further and imagined we could set up a living museum showing not only my work and archive on prefabs but also the works of other artists, photographers, film-makers who had done some pieces inspired by prefabs. Moreover, it could become a social and cultural space, where residents and visitors could meet up, chat and have free coffee, tea, refreshments, cakes ... Thanks to the TMO (Tenants Management Organisation) who let me use a prefab for free and the financial support from the Arts Council England, the dream came true!

> via kickstarter.com