The newly restored Holborn Viaduct finally had the rest of the scaffold, etc removed recently and I think it’s absolutely brilliant. You’d never get this amount of awesomeness in a modern bridge

18th October 2013 by -Cheesyfeet-, on Flickr

Bit foggy.

Quite agee – this is inside a Victorian water pumping station. Now I am quite sure a modern pumping station would not have quite the same lavish detail in it…

There’s a reason that they don’t build stuff like the used to. It’s because it’s too expensive. The reason they could do it back then is that the rich were disgustingly rich, from exploiting the poor and keeping them down. That meant that labour and consequently raw materials were cheap.

Now, this stuff is prohibitively expensive because the rich are less so and the poor are richer. This is a very good thing. So remember that next time you get all nostalgic for a nice old building 🙂

The thing is, though, Moly, those are public utility structures, not a private mansion… 🙄

That meant that labour and consequently raw materials were cheap.

They were cheap because they were using a new, and relatively cheap material; cast iron.
I shouldn’t need to tell you that using cast iron meant that construction of complicated buildings and structures, along with ornate detailing, could be carried out easily and cheaply; unlike using stone which required skilled stonemasons.
You really should be a bit more aware of the industrial heritage of this country; do the words ‘industrial revolution’ ring any bells with you?

Some unbelievably difficult castings and more imprtantly extremely complex patterns, the skill and workmanship that goes into that stuff is awsome, with very few powered tools as could be used now.

One reason for ornate OTT design in Victorian public utility structures was the fact that the companies weren’t allowed to turn a profit. So the ‘profits’ were spent on the artwork, and I’m sure there were plenty of dodgy dealings going on.

The thing is, though, Moly, those are public utility structures, not a private mansion

Right, well when you don’t have to pay for a national health or social security, you’ve got a lot of spare cash to impress people with haven’t you?

And not all fancy bulidings were public works either remember.

You really should be a bit more aware of the industrial heritage of this country; do the words ‘industrial revolution’ ring any bells with you?

Cast iron is available now too. And yes I know about the industrial revolution, it’s when a lot of workers got exploited, like I said.

The thing with the Victorian sewage stuff was a bit of a PR stunt, so much money vanished in work under the ground that they made the pumping stations ostentatious so that people could see where some of the money was spent.

The real skill lies with the craftsmen who made the detailed wood forms that were used to make the sand moulds; those only needed to be made once, after that, they could be used many, many times. I even did it myself in metalwork classes at school. Anyone who walks along the Thames Embankment will see the cast iron lamp standards with the dolphins on, mass-produced ironwork by relatively unskilled workers, who would still earn reasonable money.
We’re not talking about rich landowners exploiting farm labourers here, this is an industry using mass-production techniques on a massive scale, with materials obtained in this country, and transported by new forms of transport; the canals, and then the railways.

I shouldn’t need to tell you that using cast iron meant that construction of complicated buildings and structures, along with ornate detailing, could be carried out easily and cheaply; unlike using stone which required skilled stonemasons.

But then you did need skilled patternmakers, draughtsmen, foundry cupola workers along with skilled core makers and moulders,all seperate tradfes but we needed an appreciation of each trade to become Skilled.

Without the invention and succesful casting of cast iron some of the great railway stations and bridges that require large numbers of repetive castings couldnt have been built

My Wife’s Great (…can’t remember how many..) Great Grandfather, made this, among other things, including the Albert Memorial .

Francis Skidmore

Right, well when you don’t have to pay for a national health or social security, you’ve got a lot of spare cash to impress people with haven’t you?

Yes, but those innovations came about through the improvements in society through the industrial revolution, because there was more money available, and many Victorians were very socially aware; London’s sewer system is a miracle of public engineering, created by one man, in order to stop the deaths caused by pollution of water supplies by raw sewage, which was as great an improvement in public health, in its way, as the NHS.

In the Middle Ages, the public interest had been defined in terms of the King’s peace, a domain of law in which the ruler claimed the right to intervene on behalf of the good of the realm and its subjects. Gradually, the Crown was subjected to the rule of the law as interpreted by the courts, and, after 1688, Parliament took over much of the royal claim. In the nineteenth century, three developments precipitated new questions about the public interest. Rapid urbanization, coupled with the invention of mass circulation newspapers, generated a sense of community with often radical overtones. Unlike the eighteenth-century mob agitation that supported John Wilkes and Henry Hunt, however, this new community image was identified with local parishes, boroughs, neighborhoods — in other words, urban territory. Second, turnpike and railway legislation and the various reform acts passed by Parliament (especially the Factory Acts, the Poor Law administration, and the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835) highlighted tensions between local authorities and royal government. Finally, public construction projects brought subjects and rulers face to face with the question, whose property is public property? Political authorities obtained the legal right to confiscate real estate and buildings that stood in the way of approved projects, so long as the owners were properly compensated. But who had a vested interest in the new landscape and structures that replaced them? The local vestry or borough council? The central government? An autonomous “improvement commission”? Residents? In the case of the Thames Embankment, some fifty-two acres of prime real estate were literally dredged out of the river in the heart of London. They were authorized by Parliament and the Treasury, claimed by both the Crown and the City Corporation of London under ancient law, built under the auspices of the recently created Metropolitan Board of Works, defended by aristocratic residents — and requisitioned, in the end, by the people of London for their own use. This new concept of public property was to have important consequences for future environmental issues. To cite a single instance, by the end of its institutional life, in 1889, the Metropolitan Board of Works came to manage over 2,600 acres of parks and commons, most of them taken over from private landowners as the metropolis swallowed up the manors and villages. [16]

Quite agee – this is inside a Victorian water pumping station.

Papplewick?

It’s not just show though is it, the pumps themselves are a work of art imo and astonishingly quiet.

Only on stw can ‘oooh look at this lovely object’ turn into a full on dissection of society at the time it was made

Personally I like the details for what they are decoration – does that make me shallow? 🙂

They don’t build things like they used to….

I bet it’s made in China.

😆

We built things to last 100 years ago.
I love victorian engineering and buildings.
We are now richer as a society (and the wealth is more spread) yet we spend less on making things beautiful and to last than ever before.

Oh I dunno, this looks a bit beautiful. Impossible without reinforced concrete. The levels of precision required when making those pillars were staggering.

You bet your ass they wouldn’t

A public owned company spent all that dosh on jazzing up some pipes there’d be an almighty hoo haa and a private corp is all about paying them shareholders and board members

kimbers – Member

You bet your ass they wouldn’t

If it isn’t now it will be in the near future … Made In China stamp at the bottom.

You have been owned!

😆