ABSTRACT
At the end of the Second World War, Bristol in common with other big towns was faced with the problem of the housing shortage due to the war-time cessation of building and repairs and to war-damage. 1 By V.E. Day in 1945 the waiting list for Corporation houses had risen from the pre-war figure of 4,000 to 13,000. As more men returned from the forces they and the young wives who had been living with parents or as lodgers or sub-tenants began to clamour for their own homes; there was a further spate of marriages and of applications from families in unfit or overcrowded dwellings. The popular demand was for houses and yet more houses In spite of a careful review the housing register increased rapidly to its peak point of 26,661 in August, 1946. By September 1954, however, it had been reduced by further reviews and by rehousing to 10,492.
