RIBA South Conservation Group: Concrete Cottages & Housing Methods

This talk explores how concrete was adopted as a briefly fashionable material for house-building in the 1860s.  As well as a medium for large architect-designed country houses, concrete was seen as a cheap means of providing sanitary accommodation for the rural workforce and the new methods of building were taken up for a while by landed proprietors for use on their estates.

This online lecture will examine the hesitant early use of concrete in house-building during the mid-nineteenth century and trace how it moved from experimentation to wider adoption. It will explore the testing and eventual acceptance of Portland cement as a binder superior to hydraulic lime and Roman cement, alongside the impact of Joseph Tall’s patented formwork system of 1865 in enabling in situ concrete construction.

The talk will consider the key influences that accelerated this shift, including the patronage of Napoleon III at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the influence of Edwin Chadwick’s report on housing for the poor, and the widespread professional interest generated by The Builder’s coverage of a concrete housing exemplar at Selling near Faversham. These accounts were reported nationally and contributed to a surge of interest in concrete as an economical and sanitary alternative to brickwork, particularly among landed proprietors seeking improved rural workforce housing.

It will go on to discuss how, for a brief period, in situ concrete construction became a preferred method for rural housing by private commission, receiving aristocratic support and sustained press attention for over a decade. The session will conclude by examining the point at which concrete housing ceased to be a novelty, as it became accepted within influential London by-laws and alternative construction methods emerged, including block and precast systems developed by figures such as Robert McAlpine and William Henry Lascelles. By the late 1870s, concrete housing had moved from fashionable experiment to established practice.

This talk is open to anyone with an interest in historic construction methods, housing reform, and the conservation of nineteenth-century building fabric.

About the Speaker

Edwin started working in the concrete sector in 1995, firstly for the British Cement Association, his role transferring to the Concrete Society in 2006. He also acts as Executive Officer for the Institute of Concrete Technology. With responsibility for the Society’s library – established in 1937 – Edwin developed in interest in early concrete construction and the history of the cement and concrete industries, on which he has given talks and written articles for periodicals, including Construction History and The Construction Historian. He wrote a monthly column in Concrete magazine for several years and has contributed chapters to four books, including Lea’s Chemistry of Cement and Concrete (2019) and An introduction to the history of structural concrete (2023). His own books include Some writers on concrete (2013) and Traditional milling technology in the English cement industry (2015).

Find out more about our Group: RIBA South Conservation Group

Important event information

Event Format: The 40 to 45 minute presentation by the guest speaker is followed by a brief opportunity for the audience to ask questions via chat messages or voice.

Accessibility: We strive to ensure our events are accessible. If you have any questions on how to join or participate in this event, please email riba.south@riba.org before the event date and time.

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Images:

credit - Edwin A.R. Trout