Work Gallery

Comptometer Room, Stratford Cooperative Society 1914 BL22762

STRATFORD CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY, Maryland Street, Stratford, Greater London. Interior view of the Comptometer Room at Stratford Co-operative Society, showing girls and boys working on model E compometers, manual calculating machines. The comptometer, invented in 1887 by American, Dor Felt, was the first successful manual calculating machine. The children in the photograph could be employed in work, with the school leaving age only being raised to 14 in the Education Act of 1918. Photographed by Harry Bedford Lemere, 1st July 1914

© Historic England

Meeting JLP01_09_820415

Sir John Laing Building, Page Street, Mill Hill, Barnet, Greater London. A meeting of the Treasury Department team at the Sir John Laing Building, Mill Hill.
The Sir John Laing Building, named in honour of the company's president who died in January 1978 at the age of 98, was built between 1977 and 1980 having been planned since 1974. The building completed a phase of development at Laing's Mill Hill headquarters complex, an area that the firm had occupied since moving from Carlisle in 1922. By 1988 however a major restructuring of the company and meant a wholesale relocation out of the Mill Hill site with just the Sir John Laing Building remaining as Group HQ. It too was subsequently demolished and housing occupies the site. The use of brick in a sculptural way was a deliberate attempt by architect Graham Barsby to distance the design from the concrete rectilinear forms of the 1960s. The building won a Certificate of Merit in the Brick Development Association Architectural Awards in 1983

© Historic England Archive

Topping out JLP01_11_44925_12

NATIONAL INDOOR ARENA, KING EDWARDS ROAD, BIRMINGHAM. Members of the site team raising their hard hats in celebration during the topping out ceremony for the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.
The £50m Design and Construct contract for the National Indoor Arena (NIA) was awarded to the Laing Midlands Division by Birmingham City Council in January 1989. It was officially opened on 4th October 1991 by athlete Linford Christie. At the time of opening, it was the largest indoor arena in the UK and had capacity for approximately 12, 000 spectators. The arena has been renamed multiple times throughout its history. Originally the National Indoor Arena (October 1991 to December 2014), it later became known as The Barclaycard Arena (December 2014 to August 2017), Arena Birmingham (September 2017 to April 2020), and Utilita Arena Birmingham (April 2020 to present)

© Historic England Archive