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England's Living History
The 1930s House Explained
The English have a love affair with the period house. We find the intoxicating blend of rustication and detailed styling more appealing than the plain and synthetic houses of recent years. The house-building boom of the late 1920s and the 1930s put home ownership within the reach of many for the first time. These were families with modest means but with high aspirations. Modern flat roofed Art Deco villas grew up alongside detached and semidetached mock Tudor styles. Many had both front and rear gardens. Interiors were required to be fashionable and to take advantage of new domestic inventions like the wireless and vacuum cleaner. They were light, clean family homes that were both practical and sexy, blending into a suburban splendor. Metro land had arrived. Using his own drawings, diagrams and photographs, author Trevor Yorke explains in an easy to understand manner, all aspects of the 1930s house, but particularly its style. The book provides a definitive guide for those who are renovating, tracing the history of their own house, or simply interested in this notable and ever popular period. As with other titles in this series, The 1930s House Explained is profusely illustrated with drawings of the period details which can help date them and there is a glossary of the more unfamiliar architectural terms. Trevor Yorke lives on the edge of the Peak District and is a full-time artist and designer. His books include Tracing the History of Villages, The Country House Explained, The Victorian House Explained and The Edwardian House Explained.
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 22, 2016
When a book is only 128 pages long, you can not expect a miracle. But in a way, "The 1930s Home", which I have previosly read, and which has only 40 pages, is more helpful and informative, than this book. It's very dry, goes in to extreme details, in fields that did not interest me what so ever. Like materials, construction, walls... Not until page 49 did it start to pick up, when it discussed different housing types and then moved over to the most fascinating part, the interiors, how floor plans changed drastically and a lot of other things, thanks to smaller families and no servants to do all chores. On page 110, it is all over and the author moves over to post-war times and on page 118, the book is basically over.
I learned quite a lot from the book but at the same time, not a lot that I can use when I create a dollhouse set at the beginning of WWII. This book tries to cover everything, but it really concentrate on the well to-do middle class who bought the Tudor-replica houses. A little bit is said about Hercules Poirot-houses or the modern style, and very, very little about the houses which were rented, but still were newly built in this decade. If one is going to focus THAT much on one kind of house and social class, the title of the book ought to reflect this.
It should also clearly state that all drawings and photographs are in black and white. It really makes for a drole book when there is no colour in it and when they try to explain how colour was used and so forth, an then show a black and white illustration, well then it looses it's point.
In other words, I have read two books on the subject and I am still hunting for the perfect book on the subject.
I learned quite a lot from the book but at the same time, not a lot that I can use when I create a dollhouse set at the beginning of WWII. This book tries to cover everything, but it really concentrate on the well to-do middle class who bought the Tudor-replica houses. A little bit is said about Hercules Poirot-houses or the modern style, and very, very little about the houses which were rented, but still were newly built in this decade. If one is going to focus THAT much on one kind of house and social class, the title of the book ought to reflect this.
It should also clearly state that all drawings and photographs are in black and white. It really makes for a drole book when there is no colour in it and when they try to explain how colour was used and so forth, an then show a black and white illustration, well then it looses it's point.
In other words, I have read two books on the subject and I am still hunting for the perfect book on the subject.
January 31, 2022
Interesting topic; however, the text is broken up on every page by photos with long captions. A separate photo section at the end of each chapter would have made it a more enjoyable read. I would have liked more depth of information and some color photographs.
April 11, 2020
Great book, I do live in a 1930s house
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October 9, 2016I bought this book ages ago when we bought our 1930's house and, 7 years later as we are moving out, I thought I'd better read it!
I agree with some of the other reviews that it is a mixture of very interesting points, and then sections that are quite dry. It does seem ridiculous that in a book that goes on about the fantastic colours of the period, the entire book is in black and white! None of the pictures resembled the look of my house that much but I suppose there were still a lot of styles within the period. An interesting read but could be better, particularly with colour photos and pictures!
I agree with some of the other reviews that it is a mixture of very interesting points, and then sections that are quite dry. It does seem ridiculous that in a book that goes on about the fantastic colours of the period, the entire book is in black and white! None of the pictures resembled the look of my house that much but I suppose there were still a lot of styles within the period. An interesting read but could be better, particularly with colour photos and pictures!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews