London Stock Brick
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London stock brick is the type of handmade
brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
which was used for the majority of building work in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and
South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...
until the increase in the use of Flettons and other machine-made bricks in the early 20th century. Its distinctive yellow colour is due to the addition of chalk. Another important admixture is 'spanish', which is made up of ash and cinders from incinerated waste and rubbish. The spanish ignites on firing and reduces fuel costs at the firing stage. London Stocks are still made in comparatively small quantities in traditional brickworks, mainly in Kent and Sussex, for heritage work, and machine-made versions are available for use where a cheaper approximation to the traditional product is acceptable.Brunskill, R. W. ''Brick Building in Britain''. Victor Gollancz in association with Peter Crawley, 1997. Red stock bricks are also fairly common, but only the yellow or brown bricks are usually known as London stocks.


History

During the 19th century, the fields around London were built up with new housing. Commonly, a field would be excavated to expose the brickearth (which was found overlying the London clay
subsoil Subsoil is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. Like topsoil, it is composed of a variable mixture of small particles such as sand, silt and clay, but with a much lower percentage of organic matter and humus. The su ...
), which was then turned into bricks on the site by moulding and firing them. The bricks would then be used to build houses adjacent to the brick field – transport was expensive. Once the building work was nearing completion the brick field would be levelled and built upon while a new brick field further out would supply the bricks. Bricks were also made in clay areas surrounding London. The opening of the
Grand Junction Canal The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the English Midlands, Midlan ...
to the River Thames at
Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...
in 1794 and its
Paddington Arm The Paddington Canal or Paddington Arm (also known as Paddington Branch) of the Grand Union Canal is a canal from Bull's Bridge in Hayes, Hillingdon, Hayes, west London, to Paddington in central London, England. Little Venice, London, Little Ven ...
in 1801, enabled the bulk transportation of stock bricks into London from west Middlesex, particularly from the Cowley,
Yiewsley Yiewsley ( ) is a large suburban village in the London Borough of Hillingdon, England, 2 miles (3 km) south of Uxbridge, the borough's commercial and administrative centre. Yiewsley was a chapelry in the ancient parish of Hillingdon, Middl ...
and Starveall areas. By the 1890s it is estimated 100 million bricks per year were being produced in west
Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...
, supplying Victorian London's demand for building materials. In December 1882, the Slough Arm of the canal opened, enabling the transportation of bricks made in Buckinghamshire. Bricks were also made in Kent, Essex and other areas where they could be imported to London by rail. In
Stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...
, Essex, there is a common belief that 'stock bricks' originated there; bricks were certainly made there, but the name is a coincidence, ''stock'' being a common English word with many meanings and also a common place-name element.
Air pollution Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...
in London during the 19th century and early 20th century commonly caused the bricks to receive a sooty deposition over time, turning the bricks greyish or even black, but the removal of contaminants from the air following the passing of the Clean Air Act in 1956, has enabled older buildings to be cleaned and new buildings to retain their natural colour. In the 19th century, London stock bricks were available in a variety of grades priced according to their consistency and their regularity of shape and colour. High-grade bricks were used for face work and lower grades were bought for use as internal bricks. Unfortunately it seems to have been common practice for a high grade brick to be broken in half so that it could be used twice, each end appearing as a header in the wall. The result of this parsimony was that the wall was deficient in bonding bricks, i.e. bricks tying the outer skin of brickwork back to the inner part of the wall, often resulting in the outer skin peeling away from the inner and bulging out. This issue, known as snapped or snap headers, leads to walls which need to be repaired either by rebuilding or by fitting various types of proprietary tie.


Stock bricks

The term 'stock brick' can either indicate the common type of brick stocked in a locality, or a handmade brick made using a stock. A stock or stock board is an iron-faced block of wood fixed to the surface of the moulder's bench. The brick mould fits over the stock; the brick maker fills the mould with prepared clay and cuts it off with a wire level with the top of the mould, before turning out the 'green' brick onto a wooden board called a pallet for drying and firing. Reclaimed London stock bricks are sought after for decorative and conservation use. The mortar usually used with them in original construction was
lime mortar Lime mortar or torching is a masonry mortar (masonry), mortar composed of lime (material), lime and an construction aggregate, aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar, used in ancient Rome and anci ...
, which is much softer and weaker than modern cement based mortar and can be cleaned off second-hand bricks easily leaving them ready for re-use. Nevertheless, the supply of second-hand stocks cannot always meet the demand, and 'new' second-hand stocks can be obtained from builders' merchants. Unfortunately, some of the new products are painted white or black to simulate the whitewashed or soot blackened surfaces often encountered in the real second hand bricks – making them unsuitable for face-work.


Mortar

Most London stock bricks are more or less porous, as is the lime mortar in which they have traditionally been laid. The pointing should be flush pointing so that rain water can run down off the surface and not be encouraged to soak into the wall as is the case with recessed or struck pointing. When used in this way the brickwork does not get wet all the way through and is thus effectively waterproof. Lime mortar tends to weaken in London's acidic rainwater and needs repointing several times a century. It has been common since the widespread availability of Portland cement to see London stock brickwork repointed using much stronger cement mortar. As repointing consists of replacing the outer 20–40mm of mortar, the effect of this is to make the outer 20–40mm of the brickwork harder and stronger than the interior of the wall. This can lead to
spall Spall are fragments of a material that are broken off a larger solid body. It can be produced by a variety of mechanisms, including as a result of projectile impact, corrosion, weathering, cavitation, or excessive rolling pressure (as in a ba ...
ing of the brick surface, and can also encourage the bulging associated with snapped headers.Bidwell, T. G., "The Conservation of Brick Buildings". Brick Development Association, Windsor, 1977


See also

*
Brick A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a unit primarily composed of clay. But is now also used informally to denote building un ...
* Face brick where no
plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "re ...
ing is specified *
London Brick Company The London Brick Company, owned by Forterra plc, is a leading United Kingdom, British manufacturer of bricks. History The London Brick Company owes its origins to John Cathles Hill, a developer-architect who built houses in London and Peterbo ...


References


www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk
Retrieved February 2012 Alan Cox 1997. A vital component: Stock bricks in Georgian London. Construction History 13, 57-66. Ian Smalley 2021. London Stock bricks: from Great Fire to Great Exhibition. British Brick Society Information 147, 26-34.


Notes

{{Use dmy dates, date=January 2020 Architecture of London Bricks