Houses of paper and brown cardboard: Neville Chamberlain and the establishment of the Building Research Station at Garston in 1925
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 22; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/02665430701379431
ISSN1466-4518
Autores Tópico(s)Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism
ResumoAbstract Neville Chamberlain’s significance in the history of twentieth‐century planning is well known. One key episode, however, has been overlooked: his role in the 1925 expansion and transfer to permanent premises of the Building Research Station (BRS), later known as the Building Research Establishment (BRE). The BRS had been established originally in 1921 but with temporary staff in temporary premises. In its post‐1925 form, the BRS was to have a world‐wide impact, both as a model for similar organizations in other countries and in the development of building science as a discipline. The paper shows how the espousal of new methods of construction formed a key part of the new approach to housing developed by Chamberlain as part of the ‘New Conservatism’ in 1924; how the promotion of new methods was inserted by Chamberlain into the 1924 Housing Act (Wheatley Act) introduced by the minority Labour government in 1924; and how, following the Conservatives’ return to power in November 1924, the BRS was transformed into something much larger in order to deliver ‘the Chamberlain programme’ of research for municipal housing. As such, the paper suggests that state‐funded building research formed the talisman of the social‐democratic confluence over state housing that emerged for the first time in Britain in the mid‐1920s. Acknowledgement Thanks are due to the many individuals who assisted with this project, especially Nick Clarke and Harry Harrison of the BRE, George Atkinson, Adrian Forty and Simon Pepper. Notes 1. Neville Chamberlain to his sister Ida, 23 May 1924, in R. Self (ed.) The Neville Chamberlain Diary Letters II The Reform Years 1920–1927. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002, p. 225. 2. R. B. White, Prefabrication: A history of its development in Great Britain. London: HMSO, 1965, pp. 42–8; F. M. Lea, Science and Building: A history of the Building Research Station. London: HMSO, 1971, pp. 10–11; M. Swenarton, Homes fit for Heroes. London: Heinemann, 1981, pp. 106–8; M. Swenarton, Breeze blocks and Bolshevism: housing policy and the origins of the Building Research Station 1917–21. Construction History 21 (2005–6) 69–80. 3. F. M. Lea, ibid., p. 17. 4. In their account of the move to Garston neither White nor Lea mention Chamberlain: R. B. White, op. cit. [Footnote2], p. 67; F. M. Lea, ibid. p. 17. A more rounded picture is given in the unpublished history by R. B. White (1966), which formed one of the sources for George Atkinson’s 1971 article on Unwin and the BRS. See Building Research Station, Internal Note IN98/66, Information Division, A short history of Building Research in the United Kingdom from 1917 to 1946–‐ in particular that of the Building Research Station, by R. B. White, with the collaboration of Station Officers, 1966, pp. 70‐5; also G. Atkinson, Raymond Unwin: founding father of BRS. RIBA Journal 78 (October 1971) 446–8. See also D. Hawkes, Garden Cities and New Methods of Construction: Raymond Unwin’s influence on English housing practice, 1919–1939. Transactions of the Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies 1 (1976) 275–96. 5. National Archives (hereafter NA), DSIR 4/65, memorandum to the Lord President from Sir F. Heath, 27 February 1925, p. 2. 6. G. E. Cherry, Introduction: aspects of twentieth‐century planning, in G. E. Cherry (ed.) Shaping an Urban World. London: Mansell, 1980, p. 13. See also G. E. Cherry, The place of Neville Chamberlain in British town planning, in G. E. Cherry (ed.), ibid., pp. 161–79 and P. Hall, The Centenary of Modern Planning, in R. Freestone (ed.) Urban Planning in a Changing World: The Twentieth Century Experience. London: E&FN Spon, 2000, p. 26. See also S. Pepper, Unfit for Heroes: The slum problem and Neville Chamberlain’s Unhealthy Areas Committee, 1919–21. Town Planning Review (forthcoming). 7. C. Macintyre, Policy Reform and the Politics of Housing in the British Conservative Party 1924–1929. Australian Journal of Politics and History 45, 3 (1999) 418. 8. See S. Merrett, State Housing in Britain. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979, pp. 42–3; S. Lowe and D. Hughes (eds) A New Century of Social Housing. Leicester: Leicester UP, 1991, pp. 6–7. 9. A. J. P. Taylor, English History 1914–1945. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1970, p. 303. 10. Building Research Station Golden Jubilee Congress, Proceedings 9–15 June 1971. London: HMSO, 1972, p. 211. 11. Ibid., T. L. Webb, p. 225. 12. J. Dick, Foreword, in D. A. G. Reid, Construction Principles I Function. London: George Godwin, 1973, p. 1. See also Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Principles of Modern Building I Walls, Partitions and Chimneys by R. Fitzmaurice. London: HMSO, 1938; Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (Building Research Station), Principles of Modern Building I, 3rd edition. London: HMSO, 1959 and Principles of Modern Building II Floors and Roofs. London: HMSO, 1961; S. Groák, The Idea of Building. London: Spon, 1992, pp. xiv, xvi–xvii. 13. See F. M. Lea and C. H. Desch, The Chemistry of Cement and Concrete. London: Edward Arnold, 1935; P. C. Hewlett (ed.), Lea’s Chemistry of Cement and Concrete, 4th edition. London: Edward Arnold, 1998. 14. Chamberlain to Hilda, 18 May1924, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 223. 15. Ibid., p. 9. 16. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 1924–5 179 col. 846, 16 December 1924, N. Chamberlain. Public General Acts 13 & 14 Geo 5, ch 24, Housing etc. Act 1923. 17. Chamberlain to Hilda, 18 May 1924, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 222; J. Ramsden, The Age of Balfour and Baldwin 1902–1940. London: Longman, 1978, pp. 188–217; J. Charnley, A History of Conservative Politics 1900–1996. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, pp. 69–75. 18. Chamberlain to Ida, 1 April 1922, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 105. 19. R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 19. See also D. Dilks, Neville Chamberlain I Pioneering and Reform 1869–1929. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984, p. 407; M. Cowling, The Impact of Labour 1920–1924. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1971, p. 405. 20. The Times (June 20, 1924) 9. 21. R. S. Hayward, Housing by Committee: Some aspects of municipal housing in the first decade after the Great War, with special reference to the City of Liverpool. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool, 1983, pp. 22–9. 22. Parliamentary Papers 1924 vii Cmd 2104, Report on the Present Position in the Building Industry, with regard to the carrying out of a full Housing Programme, having particular reference to the means of providing an adequate supply of labour and materials, p. 10. 23. Parliamentary Papers 1924–5 xiii Cmd 2450, Sixth Annual Report of the Ministry of Health 1924–25, p. 53. 24. Chamberlain to Ida, 18 May 1924, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 227. 25. Chamberlain to Ida, 19 July 1924, in ibid., pp. 238–239. 26. J. Cornes, Modern Housing in Town and Country. London: Batsford, 1935; M. Swenarton, Homes fit for Heroes: The Policy and Design of the State Housing Programe of 1919. PhD thesis, University of London, 1979, chapter 11, pp. 302–29; M. Swenarton, Rammed earth revival: technological innovation and government policy in Britain, 1905–1925. Construction History 19 (2003) 113. 27. Parliamentary Papers 1913 Cd 6708 xv, Report of the Departmental Committee appointed by the President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries to inquire into and report as to Buildings for Small Holdings in England and Wales, p. 3. 28. S. Pepper and M. Swenarton, Home Front: Garden Suburbs for Munition Workers, 1915–1918. Architectural Review clxiii, 976 (June 1976) 366–75. 29. Ministry of Health, Standardisation and New Methods of Construction Committee, Report on the First Year’s Work of the Committee, April 1919–April 1920. London: HMSO, 1920, Appendix 6; S. Marriner, Cash and concrete. Liquidity problems in the mass production of ‘homes for heroes’. Business History xviii, 2 (1976) 152–89; M. Swenarton, Homes fit for Heroes …, op. cit. [Footnote26], pp. 321–9. 30. R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 24. For the ‘mass production’ techniques used in the manufacture of the Weir house, see Parliamentary Papers 1924–5 xiii Cmd 2392, Report by a Court of Inquiry concerning Steel Houses, pp. 17–18. 31. Chamberlain to Hilda, 24 March 1923, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 155. See also NA, DSIR 4/69, Ministry of Health, Committee on New Methods of House Construction, ‘Inquiry by the Committee on New Methods of House Construction held at Messrs G. & J. Weir’s Works, Cathcart, Glasgow, on Saturday 4th October 1924’, p. 2.; and K. Middlemas (ed.), Thomas Jones Whitehall Diary I 1916–1925. London: Oxford UP, 1969, p. 229. 32. NA, DSIR 4/69, ibid., p. 3. 33. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 1924–5 179 cols. 858–60, 16 December 1924, N. Chamberlain. 34. The attempt by local authorities to build Weir houses without observing union rates triggered a conflict with the NFBTO, to which Chamberlain responded with a Court of Inquiry (March–April 1925) and a subsequent announcement that the government would build 2000 steel (Weir, Atholl and Cowieson) houses in Scotland without involving local authorities. See R. B. White,op. cit. [Footnote2], pp. 73–7; R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], pp. 25, 272–3 et seq.; Parliamentary Papers, op. cit. [Footnote30]. 35. D. Dilks, op. cit. [Footnote19], p. 263; D. Jarvis, Mrs Maggs and Betty: the Conservative Appeal to Women Voters in the 1920s. Twentieth Century British History 5, 2 (1994) 129–52. 36. Chamberlain to Ida, 8 February 1925, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], pp. 269–70. 37. R. S. Hayward, op. cit. [Footnote21], p. 31. See also I. S. Wood, John Wheatley. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1990, pp. 136–7. 38. Bills Public, Session 8 January 1924 – 9 October 1924, II, Bill 167, Housing (Financial Provisions), 5 June 1924. 39. Public General Acts 14 & 15 Geo 5 ch 35, Housing (Financial Provisions) Act, 1924, cl 10 and cl 2. See also Parliamentary Debates 1924 176, Housing (Financial Provisions) Bill in Committee, 21 July 1924 cols 1044 (J. Wheatley) and 1045 (N. Chamberlain); Bills Public 1924 ii, Bill 248, Lords Amendments to the Housing (Financial Provisions) Bill, 5 August 1924, p. 353. 40. Parliamentary Papers 1924–5 xiii, Sixth Annual Report of the Ministry of Health, p. 49. 41. NA, DSIR 4/69, Ministry of Health Committee on New Methods of House Construction, minutes of 4th meeting, 10 October 1924; Interim Report, 4 November 1924. Parliamentary Papers 1924–25 xiii Cmd 2310, Second Interim Report of the Committee on New Methods of House Construction, 7 January 1925. At the first meeting of the committee, Col Levita of the London County Council warned that, due to ‘the prejudice which existed in the mind of the ordinary tenant against new methods’, the houses would not command the same rent as ordinary houses, so there would be no saving for the local authority: NA, DSIR 4/69, Ministry of Health Committee on New Methods of House Construction, minutes of first meeting, 24 September 1924. 42. NA, DSIR 4/1, Building Research Board, E. R. Forber to Sir F. Heath, 22 October 1924; M. Swenarton, Breeze blocks and Bolshevism …, op. cit. [Footnote2], 76. 43. K. Middlemas (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote31], p. 303, 8 November 1924. 44. K. Feiling, The Life of Neville Chamberlain. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 459–62; C. Macintyre, op. cit. [Footnote7], 411. 45. I. Dale (ed.), Conservative Party General Election Manifestos. London: Routledge, 2000, p. 34. 46. K. Middlemas (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote31], p. 303, 8 November 1924. 47. In July 1926, following the failure of the General Strike, Chamberlain announced a reduction from £6 to £4 for the 1923 Act subsidy and from £9 to £7 10s for the 1924 Act subsidy. In 1928 he announced that the 1923 Act subsidy would be abolished and the 1924 Act subsidy further reduced, with effect from September 1929, although this latter was countermanded by the incoming Labour government in 1929. The 1924 Act subsidy was finally abolished by the 1933 Housing Act. See M. Bowley, Housing and the State 1919–1944. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1945, pp. 45–6; S. Merrett, op. cit. [Footnote8], pp. 48–9, 55. 48. See Parliamentary Debates 1924–5 179 col. 927, 16 December 1924. 49. Chamberlain to Hilda, 15 November 1924, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 260. 50. K. Middlemas (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote31], p. 307, 28 November 1924. 51. Churchill to Baldwin, 28 November 1924, quoted in D. Dilks, op. cit. [Footnote19], p. 422. 52. Ibid., p. 415. 53. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 1924–5 180 col. 480, 12 February 1925, Sir K. Wood. Needless to say, the Weir houses cost more to build than Weir had predicted and, with general building costs falling, by the middle of 1926 Chamberlain was losing interest in them. See Chamberlain to Ida, 20 June 1926, in R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 354. 54. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 1924–5 179, col. 853, 16 December 1924, N. Chamberlain. 55. Ibid., cols. 858–60, 16 December 1924, N. Chamberlain. 56. Cmd 2310, Second Interim Report, op. cit. [Footnote41], and Cmd 2334, Third Interim Report of the Committee on New Methods of House Construction, 29 January 1925. 57. Cmd 2310, ibid., p. 1. 58. NA, DSIR 4/65, DSIR Advisory Council 25 February 1925, Memorandum on a Request from the Ministry of Health for Research of Direct Application to the Housing Problem, p. 1. 59. Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 1924–5, 180 col. 487, 12 February 1925, Trevelyan Thompson, and col. 561, 13 February 1925, Lt. Commander C. D. Burney. 60. M. Swenarton, Breeze blocks and Bolshevism …, op. cit. [Footnote2]. 61. NA, DSIR 4/65, memorandum to the Lord President from H. Frank Heath, 27 February 1925, pp. 2–3. For New Delhi see DSIR 4/7, 16th meeting of the Building Research Board, 9 February 1923. 62. NA, DSIR 4/63, Treasury Authority for Appointment of a New Director, 1924; Building Research Station, Internal Note IN98/66, op. cit. [Footnote4], p. 52. 63. NA, DSIR 4/9, Building Research Board, minutes of 27th meeting, 9 January 1925. 64. NA, DSIR 4/65, op. cit. [Footnote58], p. 1. See also Parliamentary Debates, Commons, 1924–5 180 col. 520, 12 February 1925, N. Chamberlain. 65. NA, DSIR 4/65, memorandum, op. cit. [Footnote61], p. 1. 66. NA, DSIR 4/65, op. cit. [Footnote58], Appendix I, letter from E. R. Forber, 18 February 1925. 67. NA, DSIR 4/65, DSIR Advisory Council, Extract of minutes of meeting of 25 February 1925. 68. NA, DSIR 4/65, op. cit. [Footnote58], p. 2. 69. NA, DSIR 4/65, memorandum, op. cit. [Footnote61], p. 4. 70. NA, DSIR 4/1, memorandum by Lord Curzon, 23 April 1919; M. Swenarton, Breeze blocks and Bolshevism …, op. cit. [Footnote2], 73; M. Swenarton, Rammed earth revival …, op. cit. [Footnote26], p. 113. 71. NA, DSIR 4/65, handwritten note by Lord Curzon, 2 March 1925 (erroneously marked ‘2.4.25’). 72. NA, DSIR 4/65, minute of BRB meeting of 24 March 1925. 73. NA, DSIR 4/65, letter from HM Office of Works to the Treasury, 9 May 1925. 74. NA, DSIR 4/65, letter from DSIR to HM Office of Works, 17 November 1925. 75. NA, DSIR 4/98, BRB chairman Sir Gerard Heath to R. E. Stradling, 11 December 1925. 76. NA, DSIR 4/10, BRB, minutes of meeting of 30 April 1926, p. 1. 77. NA, DSIR 4/65, op. cit. [Footnote58], Appendix II, Programme of Special Investigation Work to Assist in the Housing Shortage, pp. 4–5. 78. NA, DSIR 4/65, letter from the Treasury to the DSIR, 7 April 1925. 79. M. Swenarton, Breeze blocks and Bolshevism …, op. cit. [Footnote2]. 80. NA, DSIR 4/70, DSIR, Proposals for Research in Buildings, 6 March 1925. 81. M. Swenarton, Breeze blocks and Bolshevism …, op. cit. [Footnote2], 74. 82. NA, DSIR 4/130, Paper for discussion between representatives of the Ministry of Health, Office of Works and Director of Building Research on suggested expansion of work to assist on housing work, pp. 1–19. 83. NA, DSIR 4/130, Unwin to Stradling, 15 May 1925. For Unwin in New York, see M. Miller, Transatlantic Dialogue: Raymond Unwin and the American Planning Scene. Planning History 22, 2 (2000) 20. The search for an alternative to plaster and, more especially, plasterers remained the top priority for the Ministry throughout 1926, with the BRS investigating both walling boards and plaster guns as possible substitutes. But before a satisfactory solution could be found the shortage of plasterers had become less acute and, by 1928, at Unwin’s instruction, the work was set aside. See NA, DSIR 4/98, Heath to Straddling, 27 January 1926, and Straddling to Heath, 28 January 1926 and 1 October 1926; also NA, DSIR 4/130, Building Research Station, Notes on Progress of Work, nd (August 1929). 84. NA, DSIR 4/130, Memorandum of Discussion at the Ministry of Health on the Housing Research Programme, 22 May 1925. 85. NA, DSIR 4/130, R. Unwin, Notes of informal discussion, 23 May 1925. 86. F. M. Lea, op. cit. [Footnote2], pp. 17–18. 87. DSIR, Report of the Building Research Board for the period ended 31st December 1926. London: HMSO, 1927, p. 8. 88. DSIR, Report of the Building Research Board for the year ended 31st December 1929. London: HMSO, 1930, p. 8; F. M. Lea, op. cit. [Footnote2], p. 30. 89. F. M. Lea, ibid., p. 24. 90. R. Self (ed.), op. cit. [Footnote1], pp. 24–6. In total, about 1700 Weir houses were built between 1925 and 1927, mostly (1552) in Scotland. See R. B. White, op. cit. [Footnote2], p. 77; H. Harrison, S. Mullin, B. Reeves and A. Stevens, Non‐traditional houses: Identifying non‐traditional houses in the UK 1918–1975. Watford: BRE Bookshop, 2004, p. 912; Building Division, Scottish Executive, A Guide to Non‐Traditional Housing in Scotland. Norwich: The Stationery Office, 2001, p. 14. White estimated the overall number of non‐traditional houses built up to 1928 at 50 000, equivalent to just over 12% of the 411 900 local authority houses built in England and Wales in the period. See R. B. White, ibid., p. 88; M. Bowley, op. cit. [Footnote47], p. 272. 91. See B. Finnimore, Houses from the Factory: System Building and the Welfare State 1942–1974. London: Rivers Oram Press, 1989. 92. F. M. Lea, op. cit. [Footnote2], pp. 195–8; Building Research Station Golden Jubilee Congress, Proceedings …, op. cit. [Footnote10], pp. 225–6. For developments in Germany in the second half of the 1920s (which post‐dated the establishment of the BRS at Garston) see S. Fleckner, Reichsforschungsgesellschaft für Wirtschaftlichkeit im Bau‐ und Wohnungswesen 1927–1931: Anspruch und Scheitern. Dissertation, Technische Hochschule Aachen, 1993; also B. Miller Lane, Architecture and Politics in Germany 1918–1945. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard UP, 1968, pp. 122–3. Additional informationNotes on contributorsMark Swenarton Mark Swenarton is the author of Homes fit for Heroes (1981) and Artisans and Architects (1989). From 1977 to 1987 he taught history at the Bartlett School in London, where with Adrian Forty he set up the first Masters programme in architectural history in the UK. From 1989 to 2005 he was publishing editor of Architecture Today, which he set up with Ian Latham and, also, from 2000 to 2005, of EcoTech. He is currently Professor and Head of Department of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University. His historical interests focus on the social and political aspects of architecture and housing.
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