A 10-mile tour around sites in London highlighting the ‘before’, ‘after’ & ‘what next?’ of an Industrial Revolution enabled by a patent granted in Britain 250 years ago. From The Shard at London Bridge station to Parliament Square via St.Paul’s cathedral, The British Museum, The Science Museum and much more…..
Highlights:
REFLECT ON WHERE WE STAND TODAY
From the eastern side of London Bridge, see iconic examples of the world built in an industrial era fuelled by coal, oil and gas….. Adelaide House, London’s first steel-framed ‘skyscraper’….Tower Bridge, its roadway lifted by hydraulic pumps (originally steam powered) ….. HMS Belfast, a steel warship from WW2 powered by oil-fuelled steam turbines ….. the soaring Shard, a steel framed skyscraper anchored on a massive core of reinforced concrete.
STEEL, glass AND CONCRETE. Today’s world Has been BUILT BY CARBON FUELLED INDUSTRIES.
Tower Bridge (1886-94) Designer: Horace Jones. Builder:John Wolfe Barry & Henry Marc Brunel. 11,000t of steel, granite & Portland clad. Roadway bascules lifted by steam-powered hydraulic engines (later electro-hydraulic). Clearance increases from 29ft to 135ft to allow tall ships to enter the Pool of London.
John Burnet’s Adelaide House (1921-5). London’s 1st steel-framed ‘skyscraper’. 13 floors, 43m height.Built & then powered by CARBON FUEL HMS Belfast (1936). Steel-built cruiser. 613’long, 11,553tons 32 knots, 800 crew. 12 six-inch guns. 14 mile range – now aimed at Scratchwood motorway services.🤠Oil-fired boilers 4 steam turbines, 80,000 hp. 30 tons/hr of fuel; 120 tons/hr CO2.
Renzo Piano’s ‘Shard’, (2009-12). Height 310m. 14,000 tons of steel, 100,000 tonnes of concrete (over 110,000 tons of CO2 generated).
STONE, thatch, WOOD, canvas. A PRE-INDUSTRIAL WORLD LEFT BEHIND
William the Conqueror built the Tower of London to stamp his authority on England. Stone upon stone. Across London Bridge road is Southwark Cathedral, London start point for the Pilgrim’s Way to Canterbury……. The Golden Hinde, a replica of Drake’s wood & canvas warship….. a faithful replica of Shakespeare’s timber & thatch Globe Theatre……. St. Paul’s cathedral, once the tallest dome in Europe.
The Tower of London 1066. William the Conqueror built the Tower of London to stamp his authority on the capital of England
Southwark Cathedral Originally an 1106 priory, mainly built 1220-1420, nave rebuilt 1839. Traditional London start point for Canterbury pilgrims.Wren’s St. Paul’s London. 35 years to build (1675-1710). Dome height 111m, then the highest in Europe. 65,000 tons of Portland stone
The Globe Theatre. Sam Wanamaker’s faithful 1997 reconstruction of Shakespear’s 1599 original. Timber frame, thatched roof.PRE-INDUSTRIALGolden Hinde (1577) 1973 working replica of the wooden galleon Drake used to circumnavigate the world. 102′ long,150 tons, 385 sq.m. sail, max speed 8 knots, 80 crew. 22 cannons, 3/4 mile range.
Carbon-fired Furnaces have given us all affordable transport
PRE-INDUSTRIAL 1818. Working from 75 Long Acre, coach builder Denis Johnson’s made over 300 wood framed/ iron wheeled ‘pedestrian curricles’ similar to that introduced in Paris in 1817 by Baron Karl von Drais
THE AGE OF CARBON 1885 Starley’s ‘Rover’ safety bike in the Science Museum. Frame made from steel tubing. Chain geared tech from the factories. A safer & faster bike than the earlier ‘Penny Farthings’ Cheaper too. Affordable mobility for the masses. It did wonders for the gene pool.
SUSTAINABLE 2026. Brompton foldable electric city bike. The days of fuel burning cars on our city streets are numbered. Brompton’s showroom is at 69 Long Acre. Right next to Johnson’s workshop of 200 years earlier.
ONE radical invention opened up a radicalLy different Future
Starting THE AGE OF CARBON1776 Watt’s coal-fired steam-powered beam engines pumped flooding mines. That was just the start of it all.
SUSTAINABLE to build and maintain. Buro-Happold’s thin-shelled roof (2000). 3,312 double glazed panels enclosing the Great Court within the 1827 British Museum’s neo-classical building.
FINALLY,,,,,, LEADERSHIP
Pre-industrial Westminster Hall. 1094-1398. The Court of Chancery, seated here, awarded Patent 913 to James Watt on 5/1/1769. The Industrial Revolution began, slowly at first then gathering pace from the mid 1900s
The Age of Carbon Houses of Parliament. 1837-60. Pugin, Barry. Pompous Gothic Revival style glorifying Britain’s superpower status established by the Industrial Revolution. Within, our elected leaders grapple with the issues of long term direction in the face of short term electoral survival.
JOIN IN……..
Progress has been at the expense of lasting damage to the natural world and climate. That affects us all – particularly vulnerable less developed nations. Here’s a chance to contribute by pound-matching a small, very practical initiative run by Kenyan smallholders taking responsibility for positive action into their own hands, organising themselves, finding ways to adapt. We’re raising funds to meet half the cost of a small second-hand tractor and trailer to help these smallholders up their game. Click the thumbnail here to chip into our tractor fund. There’s more detail on our crowdfunding page. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/peter-bedingfield and also HERE.
