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The Suburban Box toy building blocks
Maker: Anchor Blocks (1920s)
Source: RIBA British Architectural Library Drawings & Archives Collection

A mother, father, grandfather, and two children pleasantly wile away the hours, constructing their dream houses. The scene tries to prove the claim that these wooden blocks, produced by the German toy manufacturer Anchor, are ‘of absorbing interest to adults as well as children.’ Whether this was really the case, they certainly had something right: Anchor Blocks had a long and successful business, from the later nineteenth century onwards. Many are found in the extensive toy collections of the RIBA Library, including the delightful ‘Suburban Box’, dated around 1920 and number 208 in the series of boxes the firm manufactured.

Escaping to the suburbs was not invented in the twentieth century. Garden suburbs existed in the nineteenth century, the best known being Bedford Park, near Chiswick, promoted as the healthiest place in the world to live. However, it was only in the twentieth century that suburban living became an experience ‘enjoyed’ by the masses. Then huge swathes of land bordering towns and cities became devoted to semi-detached housing, bungalows and the occasional detached residence. All were surrounded by swathes of green hedges, borders and neatly cut lawns, made viable by cheap and fast transport provided by railways, trams and later cars.

This suburbia could be built using the precise instructions and plans enclosed with the many different wooden blocks. The scene pictured could be brought to life but only with a lot of imagination  Young architects would have to wait many more years until the flexible potential of Lego could realise their dream houses – suburban or otherwise!