John Brodie’s First Experimental Reinforced Concrete Houses in Eldon Street
It is fair to say that Liverpool is a city of firsts. It is where the world’s first commercial wet dock was built, for example, and was the first to see The Beatles play live.
When Liverpool Football Club won the Champions League in 2005, it became the first English side to win the competition for five times and get to ‘keep’ the trophy. Goodison Park was the first purpose-built football ground.
If you want to know about trend-setters then Liverpool is the place to go, including seeing the first recast reinforced concrete homes being built.
A Brief History of Prefabrication
The method of producing standardised components away from the site, usually in a workshop or a factory, fitting them together at the site itself, is known as prefabrication.
In order to understand why what John Alexander Brodie did in Liverpool was so exciting and at the forefront of the development of using concrete materials, we first have to look quickly at the history of prefabrication. In some ways, ‘prefab’ building wasn’t a new thing, with William the Conquerer bringing sections of defence with him for his invasion in 1066.
The complex features an octagonal square with boutiques, playgrounds, and a school, promoting community living. Notable for its extensive prefabrication and a central sculpture by Miguel Berrocal, it attracts tourists despite its slum status and is part of European architectural heritage.
— michaeledward (@michaeledward.bsky.social) 27 November 2024 at 16:13
Yet it was in the 19th century that prefab buildings really took off, thanks in no small part to industrialisation. Britain shipped an iron prefabricated house to Australia in the 1850s, for example.
More and more developments occurred over the decades that followed, laying the groundwork for proper homes to be made using prefabricated methods. In the early part of the 20th century, an American company named Sears Roebuck was offering ‘Modern Homes’ via mail order kits, with other companies soon offering the same sort of thing.
What Brodie Did
John Alexander Brodie was born in the Shropshire market town of Bridgnorth on the first of June 1858. In 1875 he moved to Merseyside in order to serve his apprenticeship working in the engineering department of Mersey Docks and Harbour Board.
He worked under the Chief Engineer, George Fosbery Lyster, and in 1879 won a scholarship to head to Manchester in order to study mathematics at Owen’s College. Eventually, he worked for Liverpool City Engineer’s Department, setting up a private consultancy and living in Liverpool from 1898 onwards.
It was his work at the forefront of prefabricated housing that we’re interested in here, which is why we aren’t going to spend a wealth of time talking about the fact that he essentially created the dual carriageway, nor that he was the person who invented the goal net used in football matches.
He promoted the use of reinforced concrete slabs that were pre-cast, meaning that houses could be built both quickly and cheaply. An example of his work was presented to the Cheap Cottages Exhibition at Letchworth Garden City in 1905.
John Alexander Brodie standing outside of his home, Ullet Road #Liverpool with a car. pic.twitter.com/sjpPz0YzcN
— K E V yoliverpool (@YOLiverpool) April 26, 2020
He would later go on to help built the Mersey Tunnel that runs from Liverpool to Birkenhead, as well as be appointed as the President of the Institute of Civil Engineering. He became an Associate Professor of Engineering at Liverpool University, too.
Yet it was his work experimenting with prefabricated concrete that is arguably the most important thing that he did. He was responsible for the building of the first ever prefabricated concrete tenements in Eldon Street in Liverpool, which was later used throughout the city.
