Ministry of Works

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The Ministry of Works was a department of the UK Government formed in 1943, during World War II, to organise the requisitioning of property for wartime use. After the war, the Ministry retained responsibility for Government building projects. In 1962 it was renamed to the Ministry of Public Building and Works, and acquired the extra responsibility of monitoring the building industry. In 1970 the Ministry was absorbed into the Department of the Environment that was absorbed in about 1999 into Defra. The tradition of building specific structures for military or governmental use began to break down at the time of World War I, when the unprecedented need for armaments prompted the rapid construction of factories manufacturing guns, shells, aeroplanes, torpedoes and suchlike in diverse English locations where a skilled workforce was not easily recruited.

Frank Baines (1877-1933), the architect heading Her Majesty's Office of Works, guided the rapid development of estates of houses, mainly in a terraced style, for workers and their families in places sited close to the required factories and depots. Examples included the Well Hall garden suburb south of the Woolwich Arsenal between Eltham and Shooters Hill, Aeroville near the Grahame-White aeroplane factory at Hendon, the Roe Green estate at Stag Lane in the London Borough of Brent. Considering the pace of their construction, these estates were surprisingly picturesque and were subsequently considered superior in scenic terms to many estates of municipal housing that followed in the peacetime of the 1920's, guided by the Tudor-Walters report of 1919. The styling of these housing estates owed much to the English garden suburb tradition as had been seen before at Bournville, Letchworth, Saltaire, Port Sunlight and Welwyn Garden City and garden areas and front boundaries became generally more varied than on contemporary estates actually within military bases where state ownership endured over a longer period. By the late 20th Century the Well Hall example had become known as the Progress Estate and legend has it that no two houses there are built to the same plan.

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Origins

The Ministry of Works descended from a long line of offices with responsibilities for managing Royal and then Governmental property. These are summarised below.

  • 1378-1832 Office of Works. This office was established to oversee the building of the King's castles and residences.
  • 1832-1851 Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings. The Office of Works continued to operate as the Works Department within the larger Office.
  • 1851-1940 Office of Works. The Office was given a separate identity in order to bring it under the direct control of Parliament.
  • 1940-1942 Ministry of Works and Buildings. The Ministry was formed during World War II as the Government's need for new buildings and the conversion of existing buildings became more urgent.
  • 1942-1943 Ministry of Works and Planning.
  • 1943-1962 Ministry of Works. See above.
  • 1962-1970 Ministry of Public Building and Works. See above.
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