Black and white photograph of newly completeted London Central Mosque.
A view of the London Central Mosque taken from the west, showing the arcaded elevations of the northern and eastern ranges © Historic England Archive. John Laing Collection Jlp01/09/771229
A view of the London Central Mosque taken from the west, showing the arcaded elevations of the northern and eastern ranges © Historic England Archive. John Laing Collection Jlp01/09/771229

John Laing Collection: Breaking New Ground

John Laing was a company that profoundly shaped post-war Britain. It constructed the country’s first major motorway, built outstanding sites of worship such as Coventry Cathedral, and created buildings which housed innovative forms of technology such as Berkeley Nuclear Power Station.

Throughout the lifespan of the company, photographers captured sites being built; these pictures now form the John Laing Photographic Collection. The photos provide a unique insight into the origins of iconic British buildings as well as the new modes of living they initiated. They exhibit a true kaleidoscope of British people, places and progress.

Breaking New Ground was a 21-month project supported by the John Laing Charitable Trust to make available 10,000 images from the John Laing Photographic Collection.

View the online collection

Contents
  1. A short history of John Laing
  2. Building post-war Britain
  3. Team spirit: the John Laing family trips
  4. Celebrities and celebrations: a quirky collection
  5. Breaking New Ground: the project

Gallery

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

A group of women holding children peer through the window of a newly built Easiform home. A police stands guard at the doorway A young boy with sunglasses smiles amongst a family playing in the sand at the beach. A female site nurse walks through mud on motorway construction site. A group of male Laing employees pose for a group photo. Men in helmets working to manoeuvre a metal frame. Six other men stand observing. The spire of the old cathedral is in the background. A black and white photograph of the Preston Bus Station showing the large car park building. A woman and three children wait for a bus inside the Preston Bus Station. Two men on intricate scaffolding complete tiling at the London Central Mosque. An interior photograph of the Barbican Centre showing bespoke furniture and fittings. A stonemason in yellow Laing hardhat works on stone around stained glass at the Carlisle Cathedral. Sunset blue skies with lights reflecting on the water at Graythorp powerstation. Two female Laing employees use a theodolite in front of the 'Jay Robertson' barge in the River Severn.

A short history of John Laing

The John Laing building company began in 1848 when James Laing (born 1816), his wife Ann and some employees built a single house in Carlisle. They sold it for £175 (around £17,000 today) which allowed them to build two more houses. From these humble beginnings the company grew.

Before the Second World War the now formed John Laing building company built more homes and received significant government contracts. The business expanded to include ventures in Britain and overseas in investments, technology and even mining. They built the Middlesex County Hospital, office blocks, pumping stations, power stations, and an army camp.

By the Second World War the fifth generation of Laings were with the company. John Laing remained a family business until 2001 when the construction side that started it all was sold after 156 years of building.

A family business for five generations

John Laing Building Co

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

Two men wear suits and crouch down to plant a small tree. They are both wearing hard-hats. In the background, there are three other men. To the left of the picture, there is a large vertical sign saying ‘Laing’. A small two-up, two-down house with a white door. The house is surrounded with foliage. An old man smiling. He is holding a camera and wears an overcoat and hat. A crowd of men pose for a picture. Some are wearing work-overalls and donkey jackets and a few of the men wear suits. Some of the men are holding pints of beer. They look to be celebrating inside a large building which has scaffolding on the outside of it. An exterior view of a large brick-coloured building. Three flags stand out the front. A Laing sign is posted on the front of the building. In the foreground, there is a hedge and a tree. Five people pose for a photograph. There are four men and one woman. The man in the middle holds a large cheque. The photograph is in colour and all the people are smartly dressed. A smartly dressed couple pose for a photograph. The man stands on the left wearing a grey suit. The woman on the right wears a red blouse. They look to be standing in an office. A smartly dressed man and woman pose for this black and white photo. The man wears a suit and the woman wears what looks to be a fur scarf. In the background there's a wide set of stone steps and a leafless tree.

Building post-war Britain

After the Second World War with John Laing now based in London and with regional offices all over the country, modern Britain was being shaped through a visionary building programme.

From the hardships of war the nation reached for a new modern world, for motorways, for bridges, for new schools and houses, for nuclear power stations, for the white heat of technology.

Constructing our modern world

Gallery

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

The image depicts a large dome which is white with specks of orange colouring. At the top, there is green netting and scaffolding. To the left there is a large yellow crane. On the dome itself, there are two people who are abseiling. A view of the top of a bridge, which spans out to the coastline in the distance. The bridge is not yet finished. The river underneath it is a muddy-brown colour. A long road recedes into the distance. A truck dumps a load of earth in the middle of the road, where a worker drives a small digger. The truck has a ‘Laing’ sign on it. Another worker stands next to the truck. He has an L on his back.

John Laing pioneered Easiform, a non-traditional form of house construction, enabling thousands of new homes to be built quickly. ​

The company was responsible for building much of the new town Milton Keynes; power stations like Sizewell B; the Second Severn Crossing; hospitals and schools all across England; the British Library; modern office blocks like the CIS Tower in Manchester (then the tallest inhabited building in Europe).

As well as rebuilding the Coventry Cathedral, they also built a Mormon temple, a mosque and redeveloped a synagogue.

John Laing key sites map

Click on the map pins to explore photos of places built by John Laing.

There was no part of British life that John Laing were not associated with constructing. Everyone’s lives were touched in some way by Laing’s work, and as the images show, these projects were often rebuilt and shaped by ordinary men and women.

The need to construct these buildings was motivated by the changing lifestyle patterns of postwar citizens, including marked increases in leisure time and an upsurge in disposable income and wealth.

Some of the less famous, but no less important, undertakings of the Laing company were the multiple car parks, sewage works, shopping malls and holiday villages constructed after the 1950s.

Some of the people who worked for John Laing and built some of Britain’s most iconic buildings share their stories in the video below.

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Team spirit: the John Laing family trips

During a period of incredible growth for the company, the business focused on the care of their staff. There were welfare officers, site nurses on big projects and in the photos you can see the pioneering changes in health and safety that they supported, from flat-caps to hard hats. 

The John Laing Photographic Collection also gives us insight into work and play in the lives of the workers and their families.

Laing men are like Blackpool rock; if you cut them open they’ve got Laing running through their veins.
Rosaleen Norris, wife of former Laing worker

Influenced by the religious attitudes of its founder, Sir John Laing, who was part of the Plymouth Brethren, the company had enlightened attitudes towards its staff for the time, with a strong focus on family values.

It arranged company away days, events and trips to the seaside for the families of its workers. Photographs were taken to record these events for the company’s ‘Team Spirit’ in-house newsletter, published from 1946-2001.  

Company events and outings

Family trips

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

A toddler with curly blond hair holds a stick of rock to her mouth. The child wears a long-sleeved coat and stands in front of the legs of a man. The image is in black and white. A group of people in a train carriage. Two men sit with a boy and a woman on their knees. Above, a young girl sits on a luggage rack and a man stands on the seat beyond. They all wear suits and dresses, and are smiling. The image is in black and white. The engine of a steam train alongside a platform. On the front of the engine is a sign with the word ‘LAING’ beneath two crossed flags, and ‘STAFF OUTING CORONATION YEAR’ around the edge. Steam rises from beneath the engine. A boat travels along the channel of a water ride. In the boat, a smiling woman sits beside a young boy. A man sits in the prow and wipes his hands with a handkerchief. To the left is a false rocky outcrop of the ride. The image is in black and white.

Celebrities and celebrations: a quirky collection

John Laing believed in building people and communities, as well as material structures.

Whilst working in Hackney in the 80s they created work schemes for young unemployed men, and in some of the more curious images of the collection you can see they sponsored bands, events and even a few well-known faces.

Unquestionably, there is something in this collection for everyone.

Sponsored bands and famous faces

Celebrities and celebrations

Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.

Five men pose for a photograph; all wearing smart clothes. The man in the middle shakes the hand of the man to his left. They are all smiling. In the background, there is a building site. A woman plunges a shovel into the earth. Next to her is a sign saying ‘Superhomes For the Money Programme.’ Behind her there is scaffolding around a half-built house. The image is in black and white. A man and woman pose for a picture. The man is on the right and wears a blue business suit. The woman on the left wears a grey suit and holds yellow balloons. In the background, there is a grey building with the title ‘Laing Toolhire’ on it. Five men in suits pose for a photograph. One man stands to the left of the picture. The other four sit in the digger of a JCB. In the background there's a tree. Eight men wear black and yellow donkey jackets and pose for a photograph. Each man holds a shovel as if they were doing a dance move. They pose in a dark room and it looks like it is underground. In the background, the Laing logo can be seen. Three men pose for a picture and all of them wear suits. In the middle, the man wears an ornamental necklace showing he is a mayor. In the background there is circular sign on a blue background a sign saying ‘Linford Christie MBE. Birmingham’. In the bottom left of the image, there is the shadow of a photographer.

Breaking New Ground: the project

Breaking New Ground was a 21-month project supported by the John Laing Charitable Trust to make available online 10,000 images from the John Laing Photographic Collection, offering a unique insight into the building of post-war Britain. The project conserved, catalogued and digitised the images and made them freely available in the Historic England Archive online.

Over the course of the project, the Breaking New Ground Trainee Programme ensured that the skills needed to do this work were passed on to a new generation. The project funding from John Laing Charitable Trust and Historic England paid for three trainee positions, a Cataloguer Trainee, a Conservator Trainee and an Imaging Technician Trainee.

Learn more about Breaking New Ground: Trainee Programme 

There’s always help on hand, there’s a lot of people with different specialisms. It’s quite a nurturing environment. I have a lot more experiences that I can draw upon when applying for opportunities in the sector.
Rachel Stokes, Cataloguer Trainee on the project

A national engagement programme involved four primary schools, over 150 key stage two pupils and eight ex-Laing workers, with a further four ex-Laing workers taking part in filmed accounts. To share the work done on the project a series of case studies and teaching activities have been created, to help teachers everywhere make the most of the Laing collection.

It was very fun because I got to speak to one of the builders of Laing and see how they worked and what conditions they worked in.
Year 4 Student Goddard Park Primary School, Swindon
We interviewed some people that worked for John Laing and it was very interesting because we got to hear some people talking about the rebuild of Coventry Cathedral.
David, student at St Osburg’s school and participant of education workshops

Supported by:

Also of interest

Foundations Laid Then Buckets and Spades
Small Projects, Big Impact: How John Laing Influenced Our Everyday
The Rise of the Shopping Centre
Find Photos
Topical Press Agency Medical Collection
Trainee Programme