ALTHOUGH the threat from Nazi bombs had disappeared with the end of the Second World War a year earlier, the legacy the German raids left behind created another national crisis of its own as homeless families in Southampton faced up to the acute shortage of housing.

Right across the country, where so many communities had been destroyed in enemy air raids, affordable homes were scarce and so the new phenomenon, for the 1940s, of squatting started hitting the headlines.

Families desperate for accommodation were taking over empty buildings – and Southampton was no exception.

These Daily Echo photographs, taken in September 1946, reveal how the former military camp on Southampton Common became rich pickings for Southampton’s homeless – mostly couples with young children.

As well as the Common, other huts were taken over in Jacob’s Gutter Lane, at Hounsdown, Yew Tree Camp at Beaulieu, while 135 people occupied the Luzborough Civil Defence camp at Romsey, as well as similar make-shift homes in Nursling and Rownhams.