Historic Concrete Backround To Appraisal




Introduction

James Sutherland

It is common knowledge that the dome of the Pantheon in Rome is made of concrete

but few realize that the Liver Building (Figure 1.1), which has dominated the

Liverpool waterfront since about 1909 is a pioneer example of reinforced concrete

framing. Even fewer people know of the Eldon Street flats, also in Liverpool

and even more notable as pioneers, being built in large panel precast concrete in

1905. 1 Here the structure (Figure 1.2) is remarkably similar to that ‘invented’ as

system building in the 1950s although perhaps more robust. The first flat slab concrete floors in Britain are normally attributed to Owen Williams in the 1930s

more than 20 years after the independent invention of flat slab construction in

Switzerland and America. Recently an example (Figure 1.3) has been found in

Britain dated 1919. 2 Could there be an even earlier one? These are just cases of


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