Images Dated 15th February 2022

Shaft for column foundations JLP01_08_083512

HEATHROW AIRPORT, B E A SERVICING HANGAR, HEATHROW, HILLINGDON, GREATER LONDON. Concrete being poured into a shaft for the foundations of the BEA aircraft servicing hangar at Heathrow Airport.
In October 1969 Laing announced that its Industrial Engineering Branch had been awarded a contract for construction of an aircraft servicing hangar for British European Airways at Heathrow Airport. It was the company's second major contract at Heathrow, following the completion of the BEA and BOAC cargo terminal. The hangar was designed to accommodate new airbus jets and existing aircraft. Four 75ft shafts were sunk for the foundations. The excavation of each shaft began with an in situ concrete ring beam near ground level. Rings of a caisson, which formed the upper half of each shaft, were then sunk through 30ft of clay. Men worked at the bottom of the shaft to excavate the remaining 45ft, and fixed precast segmental concrete rings to the structure as the shaft descended. Construction of the shafts began in October 1969, and when completed they were filled with concrete in two stages: the lower sections were filled with 250 cubic yards of concrete in a continuous pour on 27th February 1970, and the upper sections were filled after a column was positioned in each shaft. This photograph was published in the April 1970 edition of Team Spirit, the Laing employee newsletter

© Historic England Archive

Shaft for column foundations JLP01_08_083513

HEATHROW AIRPORT, B E A SERVICING HANGAR, HEATHROW, HILLINGDON, GREATER LONDON. A man looking upwards in a 75ft shaft lined with reinforcement steel, part of the foundations of the BEA aircraft servicing hangar at Heathrow Airport.
In October 1969 Laing announced that its Industrial Engineering Branch had been awarded a contract for construction of an aircraft servicing hangar for British European Airways at Heathrow Airport. It was the company's second major contract at Heathrow, following the completion of the BEA and BOAC cargo terminal. The hangar was designed to accommodate new airbus jets and existing aircraft. Four 75ft shafts were sunk for the foundations. The excavation of each shaft began with an in situ concrete ring beam near ground level. Rings of a caisson, which formed the upper half of each shaft, were then sunk through 30ft of clay. Men worked at the bottom of the shaft to excavate the remaining 45ft, and fixed precast segmental concrete rings to the structure as the shaft descended. Construction of the shafts began in October 1969, and when completed they were filled with concrete in two stages: the lower sections were filled with 250 cubic yards of concrete in a continuous pour on 27th February 1970, and the upper sections were filled after a column was positioned in each shaft. This photograph was published in the April 1970 edition of Team Spirit, the Laing employee newsletter

© Historic England Archive

Flats in Hulme JLP01_08_076201b

HULME, MANCHESTER. A view over the construction site of three-storey flats in Hulme, built using the 12M Jespersen system, with the Manchester skyline in the distance including Manchester Central Railway Station.
In 1963, John Laing and Son Ltd bought the rights to the Danish industrialised building system 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. These flats in Hulme were built by Laing in 1967 and were part of a contract to build 420 flats and maisonettes, with the prefabricated concrete units being supplied by the John Laing Concrete Factory in Heywood. The housing development consisted of walks and closes including Toddbrook Close, Pyegreave Close, Birchvale Close, Magdalen Walk, Elmin Walk and others. The development has subsequently been demolished and the site is now occupied by the Hulme Park playing fields just off Jackson Crescent

© Historic England Archive