158 Wilbury Road, Letchworth, Hertfordshire
This house was built in 1905 by John A Brodie. It is one of the most significant of the early Letchworth buildings both for its style and its construction. It is built in the International (modern) style of architecture using prefabricated concrete slabs. The catalogue of the 1905 Cheap Cottage Exhibition states "This system of building was originally designed by Mr Brodie with the special object of providing a thoroughly sanitary and economical building, suitable in every way for the housing of the poorest classes displaced owing to the demolition of insanitary areas in Liverpool. The benefits of the system can be most fully obtained where the work to be carried out is on a considerable scale, and where approximate repetition in size of slabs is possible." It is one of the earliest completely prefabricated systems in reinforced concrete in this country and one of the earliest in existence for domestic buildings.
