Listening to workers: oral histories of post-war construction
Date & Time

10 October 2023
18:00 - 20:30 BST

Location

Online and at The Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EL
View on Google Maps

Price

Free

Listening to workers: oral histories of post-war construction

Listening to workers: oral histories of post-war construction

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Author
Date published
Price
Lecture
Date & Time

10 October 2023
18:00 - 20:30 BST

Location

Online and at The Alan Baxter Gallery, 75 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EL
View on Google Maps

Price

Free

The third of the History Study Group's autumn lecture series, celebrating it's 50th anniversary, will explore how oral history enhances and expands historical accounts of the construction process and working life on building sites.

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.

Reasons to attend

  • Widen your perspectives on construction history

Intended for

  • Anyone with an interest in oral history and construction history

Speaker

Christine Wall

Professor, University of Westminster

Christine Wall is Professor Emeritus of Architectural History, at the University of Westminster. She has researched and published widely on the British construction industry in the twentieth century and the role of women in construction. She is a Trustee of the Construction History Society, an Editor of The Construction History Journal and currently holder of a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship for her research project, ‘If I had a hammer': feminist activism and the built environment 1975-2000.

Location

Contact

Email - [email protected]

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