1960s Gallery

Ice cream van JLP01_08_071642

Hornchurch Court, Bonsall Street, Hulme, Manchester. A recently completed multi-storey block of Sectra flats in Hulme, probably Hornchurch Court, with a family in the foreground buying from an ice cream van.
Sectra was a French prefabricated steel formwork design for flats which John Laing and Son Ltd acquired the British rights to in 1962. It was a method of using precision made
steel formwork for the placing of structural concrete in tunnel sections in room unit widths and ceiling heights. The units were bolted together in rows on special tracks, with the concrete poured to form the walls and floors in one operation. The formwork was internally heated to accelerate the hardening of the concrete in the mould and the sections were then lifted into position by a tower crane on the construction site.
Hornchurch Court was the first of three multi-storey blocks that Laing built in Hulme for the City of Manchester to replace 5,000 slum houses. The company started working on the site in October 1964 and finished 18 weeks later with the opening taking place on 10th May 1965. The other two blocks were due for completion at seven-week intervals

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Passing bus JLP01_10_00430

WESTWAY FLYOVER, A40, KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA, GREATER LONDON. A Routemaster bus passing a concrete batching plant on Great Western Road, whilst the transporter crane lowers a deck unit of the Westway Flyover into place.
The transporter crane was specially designed and built by Laing's Plant Department. The four-legged gantry made 400 trips along the carriageway of Section 5, lifting the individual deck units from the Harrow Road end, transporting them the length of the highway and lowering them into position. The deck units for Section 5 weigh up to 130 tonnes and are more than 28 metres wide, carrying all six lanes of the carriageway. The units are supported on a temporary structure of steel beams weighing 160 tons until each span is complete, stressed together and self-supporting. This photograph was taken at grid reference TQ2491181834

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Victoria Park Estate JLP01_08_078248

Victoria Park Estate, Macclesfield, Cheshire East. Three girls standing beside a stone wall, looking towards flats in the distance at the Victoria Park development, 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. The Victoria Park development in Macclesfield, lying between the park and the centre of town, was built by Laing in two phases using the 12M Jespersen system. Providing around 500 flats, the design consisted of thirteen interlinked blocks forming a series of courts with landscaped gardens. The first phase was completed in 1968 with the second phase started in the same year. This photograph was published in June 1968 in Laing's monthly newsletter Team Spirit'

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