Images Dated 18th January 2022

Launch of SS Great Eastern, 1857

Album of photographs relating to the construction of SS Great Eastern. Black & white photograph, features IK Brunel, Henry Wakefield, J. Scott Russell and Lord Derby. Standing by the edge of a wooden pier, directing the launch of SS Great Eastern, 1857

© SS Great Britain Trust

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, London, Millwall, Ss Great Eastern, Steamship

Aylesbury Estate Walworth JLP01_09_761948

Aylesbury Estate, Walworth, Southwark, Greater London. Looking over low-rise blocks of flats and maisonettes during the topping out ceremony of the Southwark Whites contract on the Aylesbury Estate.
The Southwark Whites contract was carried out by Laing's South London Region. In an article published in October 1976 in Laing's monthly newsletter Team Spirit, the site is described as the last housing development to be built by Laing in the 10 year redevelopment of the Aylesbury Estate. It was also to be the last housing development to be built using the 12M Jespersen scheme as the John Laing Concrete factories had all closed and the trend in the country was now for much smaller estates to be built. The Whites scheme consisted of an extension to an existing 14-storey block, but the new buildings were grouped in seven low-rise blocks of flats and maisonettes with more landscaping than the previous schemes

© Historic England Archive

Delivery JLP01_08_083042

Aylesbury Estate, Walworth, Southwark, Greater London. A lorry delivering precast concrete panels from Laing's factory in Andover to a block of flats on the Aylesbury Estate, built using the 12M Jespersen system.
In 1963, John Laing and Son Ltd bought the rights to the Danish industrialised building system for flats known as Jespersen (sometimes referred to as Jesperson). The company built factories in Scotland, Hampshire and Lancashire producing Jespersen prefabricated parts and precast concrete panels, allowing the building of housing to be rationalised, saving time and money. Laing's Southern Region started building the Aylesbury Estate in 1967. At the time it was the largest industrialised housing scheme ever undertaken by a London Borough, providing homes for more than 7000 people, comprising of low and high-rise linear blocks from four to fourteen-storeys high containing flats and maisonettes

© Historic England Archive