The recent history of London is written in London Brick. It is responsible for many of London’s most iconic buildings – as well as the terraced houses, railway arches and factories that shape the city’s streets.

Story of the London Brick company began in 1899 when James McCallum Craig bought a plot of land near Peterborough known as Fletton lodge situated on a seam of perfect clay that runs from Dorset to Yorkshire passing through London.

By the beginning of the 1930’s brick production started to peek and enabled some of the Victorian’s architectural achievements, sewers, power stations and the world’s first under water tunnel, and so soon became London’s key building material.

In 1939 when WWII broke out brick production declined as men were called to the war effort, women were called to work in the factory. Bricks were needed to build bunkers across the county, and then during the post war boom bricks were needed to re -build broken England. It is estimated that 6 million domestic houses are built using London brick.

I have carved some of London’s most significant structures into green bricks collected from Peterborough, worked on them, then returned to and fired by the London Brick factory in their large industrial gas fired kilns over the course of 4 weeks.