ICI - a short account of the activities of the company, 1929 - housing for workers at Billingham
From a book produced, I suspect as part of the opening of the company's grand headquarters building at Millbank in London. The photo was taken by one of the great photographers of the day - the German born but British based Emil Otto Hoppé (1878 - 1972). It shows the company housing built for workers at the Billingham plant on Tees-side.
Billingham Works was a greenfield site that sprang from the needs for ammonium nitrate for munitions during the First World War. The highly complex method used to fix atmospheric nitrogen had been developed by the German chemists Haber & Bosch in 1913. The site was chosen by the Ministry of Munitions in 1917 and construction started in 1918. By 1920, the Cheshire based alkali company of Brunner, Mond had acquired the works and they set to developing the process, aided by acquired German technology from BASF, until the company was merged into ICI upon its foundation in 1926. The works became hugely important for its products that were used for both fertilizers and munitions. However, during the lengthy period of capital investment required to make the chemical process into a production process, the finances of even the mighty Brunner, Mond appears to have been strained and I wonder if one of the reasons they fell in with the ICI scheme was partially due to the need to access further capital. One issue of a greenfield site, even one close to existing towns such as Stockton and Middlesbrough, was that of housing a workforce the size of that at Billingham that by 1932 employed 5,000 people. Part of the need was met by houses constructed by the local authority on land provided by BM such as these seen here.
ICI - a short account of the activities of the company, 1929 - housing for workers at Billingham
From a book produced, I suspect as part of the opening of the company's grand headquarters building at Millbank in London. The photo was taken by one of the great photographers of the day - the German born but British based Emil Otto Hoppé (1878 - 1972). It shows the company housing built for workers at the Billingham plant on Tees-side.
Billingham Works was a greenfield site that sprang from the needs for ammonium nitrate for munitions during the First World War. The highly complex method used to fix atmospheric nitrogen had been developed by the German chemists Haber & Bosch in 1913. The site was chosen by the Ministry of Munitions in 1917 and construction started in 1918. By 1920, the Cheshire based alkali company of Brunner, Mond had acquired the works and they set to developing the process, aided by acquired German technology from BASF, until the company was merged into ICI upon its foundation in 1926. The works became hugely important for its products that were used for both fertilizers and munitions. However, during the lengthy period of capital investment required to make the chemical process into a production process, the finances of even the mighty Brunner, Mond appears to have been strained and I wonder if one of the reasons they fell in with the ICI scheme was partially due to the need to access further capital. One issue of a greenfield site, even one close to existing towns such as Stockton and Middlesbrough, was that of housing a workforce the size of that at Billingham that by 1932 employed 5,000 people. Part of the need was met by houses constructed by the local authority on land provided by BM such as these seen here.