During the interwar period (1918 to 1939), semi-detached homes like these were built en masse as part of urban expansion in the UK. Most new 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 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.

Discover life in the 1940s with these incredible retro images