One Great George Street : the headquarters building of the Institution of Civil Engineers

237 Pages·2013·24.081 MB·English

by  Malcolm Dunkeld

ONE GREAT GEORGE STREET

ONE GREAT
GEORGE STREET
T
HE HEADQUARTERS BUILDING OF THE
I C E
NSTITUTION OF IVIL NGINEERS
Malcolm Dunkeld
Whittles Publishing
Published by
Whittles Publishing,
Dunbeath,
Caithness, KW6 6EG,
Scotland, UK
www.whittlespublishing.com
© 2013 Malcom Dunkeld
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, recording or otherwise
without prior permission of the publishers.
ISBN 978-184995-090-9
Printed and bound by Ashford Colour Press Ltd,
Gosport, Hants PO13 0FW
To Gillian and Iain – the two people I love most in the world
And to Anton Obholzer, a muse and friend of humanity
vi
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements ix
List of illustrations xii
List of tables xv
1 Introduction 1
2 Appointment of the Architect 17
3 Choosing the Builder 42
4 The Technology of the Building 65
5 The Appearance of the Building 100
6 Grand Interior 124
7 Loose Ends 171
8 Conclusion 176
Bibliography 183
Photography credits 197
Index 199
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viii
Preface and Acknowledgements
In his formative book The Rise of Professional Society (first published in 1989), the social
historian Harold Perkin documents the role specialised expertise had – in the form of
the professions – in fashioning British society over the past century. He claims that the
conditions for professionalism developed in Britain in the late 19th century with the
rise of an urban middle class, which provided an expanding market for various services,
and continued apace in the 20th century with the appearance of the Welfare State and
its need for managers and experts of various kinds. Perkin identifies such professionals
as having received a high standard of education – in a polytechnic or university – and
whose working activities are controlled, or at least influenced, by professional
associations. Currently there are over 450 such professional associations in the UK,
including accountants, lawyers, doctors, civil servants, managers, engineers, surveyors,
and architects.
The role of professional associations in society has attracted the interest of both
historians and economists. An extensive literature has developed that attempts to assess
whether professional institutions are a benefit to society (Perkin claims the professional
ideal embraces equality of opportunity and treatment in raising every citizen to the
minimum accepted standard and providing social status), or whether they hamper
economic development by granting monopoly powers to certain groups in the provision
of labour services. Part of this discussion also addresses the problem of definition:
what is a ‘profession’? Attempts at differentiating the professions are based on the
belief that there is an essential quality or qualities which distinguish the professions
from other occupations or trades, and which provides a basis for a distinct body of
theory and alternative form of analysis. Those engaged in defining a profession tend to
adopt one of two approaches. The first is an ‘attributes’ approach, where certain key
characteristics are identified (for example, specialised skill acquired by intellectual
and practical training; high degree of detachment and integrity required; the service
involves direct, personal and fiduciary relations with the client; the practitioners are
organised in bodies which, with or without State intervention, are concerned to provide
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