Industrial Revolution and Early Works
– Abraham Darby I transformed Coalbrookdale into the focus of the Industrial Revolution with the production of cast iron goods.
– Abraham Darby III constructed The Iron Bridge, the first large cast iron structure, across the Coalbrookdale Gorge.
– The Iron Bridge influenced engineers and architects around the world.
– Abraham Darby’s Bedlam Furnaces in Coalbrookdale were depicted in Philip de Loutherbourg’s painting ‘Coalbrookdale by Night.’
– The Iron Bridge is now a World Heritage site.
– Coalbrookdale by Night is a famous painting depicting the industrial landscape.
– The Iron Bridge was designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard and built using iron sections cast at Coalbrookdale.
– Britain’s economy was transformed by industrialization and the growth in trade.
– The Industrial Revolution brought advancements such as large-scale iron smelting, steam engines, and machine production of textiles.
– Industries like steelmaking and textile manufacture left substantial surviving buildings.
Growth and Transport Network
– Britain’s working population grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution.
– Industrialization brought advancements in iron smelting, steam engines, and machine production of textiles.
– Industries like steelmaking and textile manufacture left substantial surviving buildings.
– Agricultural processing used advanced techniques but did not create many large buildings.
– Murrays Mills in Manchester, built in 1798, formed the longest mill range in the world.
– The rapid development of a nationwide canal network supported industrial growth.
– Canals connected producers to customers, facilitating industrialization in regions like the South Wales Valleys.
– Engineer Thomas Telford undertook major canal works, including the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the Caledonian Canal.
– The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct enabled the Llangollen Canal to cross the River Dee.
– The Caledonian Canal linked a chain of freshwater lochs across Scotland.
Shipbuilding and Designed to Impress
– Chatham Dockyard in Kent constructed and equipped ships of the Royal Navy for over 400 years.
– Chatham Dockyard used advanced technology for its ships and industrial buildings.
– The dockyard had various buildings and facilities, including shipbuilding slips and dry docks.
– The covered slips in Chatham Dockyard allowed for construction in dry and controlled environments.
– Chatham Dockyard played a significant role in the maritime history of Britain.
– Wealth generated by new industries enabled mill-owners to build impressive structures.
– Eccles Shorrock commissioned Ernest Bates to design India Mill with a tall Italianate campanile-style chimney.
– India Mill was built with red, white, and black brick, ornamental urns, and over 300 pieces of cast iron.
– Showy design aimed to make a statement and showcase wealth and success.
– Ornate cresting added to the grandeur of the building.
Cathedrals of Progress and Experimenting with Styles
– Railways transformed ordinary life and industry with rapid transport.
– Railway stations referred to the past and celebrated the future in their architecture.
– Newcastle Central station had the earliest surviving fully-covered roof in the country.
– Bristol Temple Meads railway station had a cathedral-like exterior with Gothic arches and a pinnacled tower.
– Isambard Kingdom Brunel described London Paddington station as a cathedral to the iron horse.
– Industrial architects freely experimented with non-industrial styles.
– Temple Works flax mill offices in Leeds were designed in Egyptian Revival style.
– Metropolitan Water Boards engine house in Stoke Newington resembled a medieval castle.
– Ryhope pumping station in Sunderland had a Jacobean style with curving Dutch gables.
– Bliss Tweed Mill in Chipping Norton resembled a Charles Barry type English country house.
Landmark Structures and Moving Towards the Modern
– Ribblehead Viaduct in North Yorkshire is a landmark carrying the Settle-Carlisle railway.
– Limestone-faced viaduct with almost semicircular red brick arches.
– Gasometers, such as the Bromley-by-Bow or Oval gasholders, serve as memorials to long-vanished industry.
– Ribblehead Viaduct is now a Grade II*-listed structure.
– Gasholders were used to store gas for domestic heating and had iron cage frames.
– The Power House in Chiswick is an electricity generating station with a monumental free Baroque brick and stone composition.
– Power House features stone figures representing Electricity and Locomotion.
– Arthur Sanderson & Sons wallpaper printing works in Chiswick is an important Arts and Crafts factory building.
– Charles Voysey designed the modernist wallpaper printing works using white glazed brick and Staffordshire blue bricks.
– Charles Holdens modernist station buildings for the London Underground combined cylinders with flat planes.
– Partnership of architecture and engineering seen in Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 building.
– Opened in 2008, the largest free-standing building in Britain.
– Roof supported on exposed hinged trusses.
– Designed by Richard Rogers Partnership and Pascall+Watson.
– Engineers: Arup (above-ground works) and Mott MacDonald (substructures). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_industrial_architecture
British industrial architecture has been created, mainly from 1700 onwards, to house industries of many kinds in Britain, home of the Industrial Revolution in this period. Both the new industrial technologies and industrial architecture soon spread worldwide. As such, the architecture of surviving industrial buildings records part of the history of the modern world.
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Some industries were immediately recognisable by the functional shapes of their buildings, as with glass cones and the bottle kilns of potteries. The transport industry was supported first by the growth of a network of canals, then of a network of railways, contributing landmark structures such as the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and the Ribblehead Viaduct.
New materials made available in large quantities by the newly-developed industries enabled novel types of construction, including reinforced concrete and steel. Industrial architects freely explored a variety of styles for their buildings, from Egyptian Revival to medieval castle, English country house to Venetian Gothic. Others sought to impress with scale, such as with tall chimneys as at the India Mill, Darwen. Some directly celebrated the modern, as with the "heroic" Power House, Chiswick, complete with statues of "Electricity" and "Locomotion". In the 20th century, long white "By-pass modern" company headquarters such as the Art Deco Hoover Building were conspicuously placed beside major roads out of London.
