IStructE - Listening to workers: oral histories of post-war construction

In 1962 the Emmerson Report criticised the British construction industry in the following terms: ‘In no other important industry is the responsibility for design so far removed from the responsibility for production’. This was qualified for the civil engineering sector, where relationships between engineer and contractor were supposedly closer and more collaborative. But where did construction labour fit in these relationships?

This lecture presents oral history interviews recorded by the author, together with examples from archives to demonstrate the role of construction workers in a selection of major post-war projects. These personal accounts reveal the knowledge, skill and working lives of those whose contribution is rarely credited in architectural or construction history.