Women Gallery

Barbara Hepworth at her studio OP32772

Trewyn Studio, Barnoon Hill, St. Ives, Cornwall. Barbara Hepworth at her studio in St Ives, working on the sculpture Contrapuntal Forms for the South Bank Exhibition, Festival of Britain.
The original caption reads: "Barbara Hepworth working on her sculpture for the Festival of Britain Exhibition 1951, South Bank, London at her St. Ives, Cornwall studio."
The stone sculpture symolised the Spirit of Discovery and weighed 9 tons. It was commissioned by the Arts Council, and was displayed on a pedestal outside the Dome of Discovery at the South Bank Exhibition

© Historic England Archive

Restell Close JLP01_08_074885

Restell Close, Greenwich,
Greater London. Looking up at a Sectra block of residential nurses flats on Restell Close, showing a group of women looking out over a balcony.
This residential block for nurses was one of three 10-storey, H-shaped blocks, built by Laing's Construction Company for the South-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, using the Sectra system. The flats were built on a high point just off Vanbrugh Hill with views over Greenwich, Deptford and the River Thames, providing self-contained flats of three and four rooms for nurses who worked at Greenwich Hospital. The blocks were named Jenner House, Lister House and Norfolk House. In 2007, two of the blocks were demolished and Norfolk House was reclad and subsequently renamed Leamington Court

© Historic England Archive

Friends outside JLP01_08_072661

Bearwood House, Bearwood Road, Smethwick, Sandwell, West Midlands. A young woman sitting in the lounge-diner of a flat at Bearwood House, waving to a friend outside.
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.
Bearwood House was built by Laing for Smethwick Borough County Council. The architects were K.R. Emmett, S. Greenwood, J.E. Hepburn and R.E. Philcock. Construction work started in 1965 and the building was opened on 25th January 1966. It has since been demolished

© Historic England Archive