Material, shape and design Gallery

Spiral staircase, Royal Festival Hall HKR01_04_476

Royal Festival Hall, South Bank, London. Interior view of the hall's restaurant, looking down through the well of the spiral staircase linking the upper and lower levels. Photographed by Margaret F. Harker in 1951

Architecture, Modern, Stairs

Consett Steel Works FF98_00247

Consett Steel Works, County Durham, 1945-80. Eric de Mare (1910-2002) cellulose acetate negative. Steel-making dominated Consett for 140 years from 1840, and the steelworks, employing 6, 000 workers in the 1960s, loomed over rows of terraced houses. Eric de Mare's elevated view of Consett Steel Works captures their gargantuan scale, echoing the work of pre-war photographers such as Albert Renger-Patzsch in Germany and Charles Sheeler in the United States who emphasised the strong forms of industrial structures. De Mare used colour photography here, recognising that this required a ?'different vision from black-and-white film. The massive tube in the foreground reflects his view that a close shot filling or almost filling? the frame will usually be more effective and more interesting

© Historic England

Shoreham Cement Works JLP01_01_028_017

Shoreham Cement Works, Upper Beeding, West Sussex, 9 August 1950. John Laing plc, silver gelatin DOP (developing out paper) print. Shoreham Cement Works, established in the 19th century, was completely rebuilt between 1948 and 1950 by John Laing who also documented the work. Workmen are shown constructing conical preliminary mixers for the new works, fixing shuttering to the nearest mixer and steelwork to the one in the background. The works closed in 1991 and the future of the site remains uncertain

© Historic England. John Laing Photographic Collection