London Brick in the Early Renaissance

London Brick in the Early Renaissance.

CONTENTS

1.

Introduction

2.

Sources of brick-earth and timber

3.

Materials development and uses

4.

Types of buildings and social standing

5.

Bryck Place and contemporary influences

6.

Conclusion : Brickwork - discovery, prestige and acceptance.

Bibliography List of illustrations

Colin D. Brooking. Dip. Arch.

1.

Introduction.

A medieval tradition of timber buildings flourished for domestic comfort in the private house, and flexibility in a developing streetscape. Sources of timber mature and suitable for construction were plentiful from the undeveloped suburbs of a medieval city stretching out through Epping, Essex and southwards to the Sussex Weald. Why should this tradition begin to erode and where could alternative materials be found in abundance ?

An era of timber building in the city overlaps with new social influences, discovery (or rediscovery) of brick-earth as a source material of choice and a receding forestation. A growing complexity in the supply of seasoned timber overlaps with an influential patronage of brickwork and brick building.

Brickwork as a type of masonry subsequently grows on areas of abundant brick-earth, with some select late medieval examples. That this proceeds from geology and local sources capable of expansion, displaying the influence of a wider culture, enables an understanding of a material shift in tradition.

A shift from a timber tradition to a type of masonry displaying influence, flexibility and social acceptance.

2.

Sources of Brick-earth and timber.

From the earliest building in the city, timber was cut from the surrounding managed woodland. The extent of timber woodland is still unknown for this era (Milne, 1992). Progressively during the late medieval era and early renaissance quantities of building timber as the principal of building construction, deforested the environs. Transporting timber from Epping and Essex to the east, Sussex to the south and Kingston to the west (Milne, 1992), increasingly moved from oxdrawn carts to water transport. Barges and boats supplied the timber yards, ship-building areas and timber wharves along the Thames where oak, ash and elm was sawn, seasoned and made available as timber. A tradition of framed building supported a demand for mature timber, as in the area around St Paul's Figure 1 and in Wards and Boroughs overlying a geological strata of brick-earth.

Some exemplar use of stone had throughout the early and late medieval period, included the Guildhall, an example of principal civic use in addition to church building of this era. While a limited use of brickwork in notable civic works included voussoir arches, decorative courses and perhaps unseen conduits.

Fig. 1 Copperplate map showing the principal streets of timber buildings in an area around St Paul's.

Fig. 1 Copperplate map showing the principal streets of timber buildings in an area around St Paul's.

Reproduced with the permission of the Dessau Anthaltische Gemaldegalerie.

Southeast England “…had been producing its own bricks from the beginning of the fifteenth century.” Schofield (1994). However, an attraction of local manufacture, i.e. brick kilns set up on the site of building works, was the avoidance of transport costs. These local brickworks were active on several sites, Northolt Manor House before 1350, at Kennington palace in the middle of the century, at Charterhouse in 1372 and a Flemish brickworks at Deptford from 1404 Schofield (1994). Select and notable uses of brick thus drew upon an abundant source, discovering a geological provenance of a strata between 90 – 150m deep, Figure 2 which later generations were to make fuller use of, subsequently supplanting a tradition of timber framed buildings.

Fig.2 Locality sketch map of London clay strata, 90 – 150m deep. Reproduced with the permission of the British Geological Survey Š NERC 1996. All rights reserved.

Bryck Place, Homerton 1535 and Middle Temple Hall built 1570 Figure 3 are surviving examples in locations where several civic residences gave momentum to a growing influence in the use of brickwork.

Fig. 3 Middle Temple Hall, Fleet Street - north elevation.

3.

Materials development and uses.

Cutting and seasoning of native timber, principally oak from areas of forestation, included a considerable time factor in a long cycle of demand and delivery to city areas. Naval policy was apt to interrupt supply for civic and city buildings, while processes in brick-making could be both local to the works and run on an independent schedule largely to suit the patrons wishes.

The earliest type of brick kiln found is referred to as a brick clamp, a term more widely used than justified since nearly all brick making during the later medieval era and beyond is within an enclosing structure or kiln. Processed clay, hand moulded, is stacked within the u-shaped enclosure, with wood as the means of combustion, to be sealed with earth turf’s and burnt in a repeating cycle.

It is estimated one person could produce, on site some 5,000 bricks per day (Noah, 1986) in Baer et. al. (1998). A cycle of production suitable for large works.

Fig. 4 Bryck Place, Homerton.

Influences on brickwork development were thus varied, local brick making, producing a durable masonry, architectural features from a travelled patron or court circle promoting civic prestige Figure 4 A facility to provide independent source material was also linked with cultural development factors in the choice of brickwork. Imports of Flemish brick continued with a significant influence enabling architectural features,mouldings,decorative emblems, elevations of multi-coloured pattern or diaper work to feature in a noble residence.

Design influences in this way filtered into a social and cultural process Girouard (1966).

Timber building continued a tradition in streetscape which never the less begins to lose influence, suffer fluctuations in supply and loses social status in comparison with brick

masonry as new brickfields are cut and manufacture offers capacity for Royal works as well as principal residences.

4.

Types of building and social standing.

There are cultural values which attach to materials, perhaps use of the term tradition is most indicative of this. Continuous use or favouring of timber frame construction since the early centuries after the Roman era, can be seen as a varied response to urban development in commercial areas like Cheapside Figure 5. A pool of skilled workmen, an attitude to adapting and extending existing buildings which facilitates large, wide areas of glazing, adding new doors on street openings, is part of a timber tradition.

Fig. 5 Cheapside by Ralph Treswell 1585.

Reproduced with the permission of the London Metropolitan Archives.

Social standing is also an attribute which attends the interior fitting, furniture and finishes. Carpenter, Joiner, and Cabinet-maker handle timber in different ways.

Patronage desires, influences, gives an impetus to hospitality and civic interests. interests. For a court circle and educated patrons wishing to share something of a wider cultural language, public space or house elevations are a civic dialogue.

Timber framed elevations Figure 6 with less of this facility to engage are supplanted with masonry, carved mouldings and architectural motifs or details which display a courtly influence for example. Stonemasons continue to provide a civic faรงade for church, guild and public works also promotes private patronage in masonry building. As continental travel enables detail and Fig. 6 A surviving elevation at Staple Inn. pattern in masonry to gain influence, brickwork of Flemish culture offers an alternative to stone building with independent manufacturing a positive factor. Influential patronage may both display cultural connections and design influences to a civic realm through

brickwork development. Timber with an interior focus, fine for hospitality perhaps, begins to lose favour for civic and noble residences.

5.

Bryck Place and contemporary influences.

Aptly named ‘Bryck Place’ , more usually known as Sutton House, apart from a patron in Ralph Sadlier has no known architect. Influences therefore, may be various and gained from contemporary works, perhaps a court circle in which Sadlier moved at the period of building in 1535. Royal palaces including ‘Placentia’ Figure 7 are examples of royal interest in brick, Bromley Hall may, as a royal Sporting Lodge, have gained details from contemporary workmen at Hampton Court c.1530.

The presence of Flemish workmen and their mobility enabled a growth in brickwork, a consistency in construction, with mouldings and details garnered by practitioners. Later, Robert and and his son John Smythson with Elizabethan works proved influential, by drawing on examples identified and favoured in court circles (Girouard, 1966).

Fig. 7 Placentia Palace on the Thames at Greenwich.

Reproduced with the permission of the National Trust

How such brickwork piers, octagonal columns came to be incorporated in a small Sporting Lodge on the wetlands of Bow indicates that such mobility is as important as availability of brick-making for such later medieval developments. A material which conveys good value, and enables cultural patrons to discourse on building, began to gain influence.

There is in a process of archaeology at Bromley Hall Figure 8, evidence not of brick losing social prestige but of change and alteration by later generations with evolving social needs. Reuse of brick in construction and alteration is both a way of continuing a tradition as well as a reliable source of material. Substantial masonry piers, vaulted structures or principal walls with deep window reveals include aspects of a castle model which Fig. 8 Bromley Hall, Bow formerly a royal sporting Lodge.

early renaissance patrons promoted. Such an approach to brickwork incorporates rubble or semi-fired bricks to bulk mass walls and tower details.

6.

Conclusion : Brickwork - discovery, prestige and acceptance.

Of brickwork and terracotta materials which are discovered during the Roman era, only tile-making continued while a medieval timber frame tradition became established. Seasoned timber supplies, transported mainly by river, offered a reliable form of building in an expanding city while woodlands provided sufficient quantities of mature timber and moderate imports were available. Such a provision became increasingly complex and subject to other factors, naval policy, social and cultural influences.

There is in the rediscovery of local brick-making a geological provenance for a city situated on a deep strata of brick-earth. In selected works and localities this is exploited with independent brick-making by notable patrons. There is enterprise in a patronage of those buildings which follow examples of royal works and re-discover brick masonry. A patronage influenced by a material which enables transferable details, profiles and architectural mouldings is important, so it is the setting-up of local brickworks which enables various civic Inns and notable houses to be built.

Workmen transferring from royal works to facilitate civic projects and a notable house for Ralph Sadlier (for example), are one of the ways in which choice of brick becomes an accepted cultural development. There are various aspects of provenance and cultural influence which may account for the eventual supplanting of a timber tradition with brick building. Stone masonry provides precedents and as brick work develops connections with stone, social and civic influences promote new houses and significant projects. Castle houses and civic halls become accepted parts of traditional Inns rebuilding and so brick-making participates in an era of lively civic developments.

______________________________________________________________________ Bibliography and list of illustrations Baer, et. al. (1998)

Conservation of historic brick structures.

Pub. Donhead.

Barron, Caroline M (2004)

London in the Later Middle Ages.

Pub. Oxford University Press

Brunskill, R.W. (1997)

Brick building in Britain.

Pub. Gollancz

Campbell, James WP (2003)

Brickwork, a world history.

Pub. Thames & Hudson.

Girouard, Mark ( 1966).

Robert Smythson and the Architecture of the Elizabethan era. Pub. Country Life.

Hibbert, Christopher (1980)

London: biography of a city.

Pub. Harmonsworth/Penguin

Holmes, M (1969)

Elizabethan London.

Pub. Cassell.

Lloyd, Nathaniel (1983)

A history of English brickwork.

Pub. Woodbridge

Milne, Gustav (1992)

Timber building technologies in London c.900 – 1400 Pub. LAMAS (special paper)

Richards, W.R. (1990)

Brick manufacturing from past to present.

Pub. Ceramic Bull 69(5) pp.807 - 813

Richardson, John ( 2001)

The Annals of London.

Pub. Cassell

Schofield, John (1990)

Medieval and Tudor Domestic Buildings in the City of London.

Pub. British Archaeological Society.

Sumbler, M. G. (1996)

London and the Thames Valley.

Pub. British Geological Survey.

________________________________________________________________________ List of illustrations with references

Fig.1

The Copperplate Map sheet – 3 c. 1553 – 59. Reproduced with the permission of the Dessau Anthaltische Gemaldegalerie . All rights reserved.

Fig.2

Locality sketch map of London clay strata, 90 – 150m deep.

Pub. In London and the Thames Valley. Reproduced with the permission of the British Geological Survey © NERC 1996. All rights reserved.

Fig.3

Middle Temple Hall, Fleet Street. (contemporary photograph) by author.

Fig.4

Bryck Place, Homerton (called Sutton House). (contemporary photograph) by author.

Fig.5

Cheapside (part) 1585 by Ralph Treswell. In the LMA collection.

Reproduced with the permission of the London Metropolitan Archives.

All rights reserved.

Fig.6

Staple Inn, Holborn. (contemporary photograph) by author.

Fig.7

Placentia palace at Greenwich, oil painting by Anon. early 17th century Kingston Lacy House collection. Reproduced with the permission of the National Trust. All rights reserved.

Fig.8

Bromley Hall, Bow (formerly a Royal Sporting Lodge). (contemporary photograph) by author.