Builders and Brickwork.

Celebrating the beautiful work of skilled artisans.

I’ve always had a love and appreciation for brickwork, it was the reason I once, and probably only time, I got all 3 bonus questions on University Challenge right, it was a picture round and 3 pictures of brickwork were shown, the answers were Flemish bond, English bond and queen closer if you are interested!

I’m actually not just writing about brickwork and bricklayers, I am writing about builders and craft and trades people, I think they get an unwarranted reputation, people talk about “cowboy” builders, we hear about the nightmares people have had with builders on TV shows, people are always complaining about how much it costs to get their boiler fixed or how much an electrician is going to charge them. I’m not saying there aren’t bad builders and that people don’t have bad experiences but I’m sure they are in the minority. There are bad people in all areas of work, but no one talks about “cowboy” investment fund managers or “cowboy” corporate giants or, until the proverbial really “hits the fan” think Bernie Madoff or the Post Office scandal and many more.

Anyway, back to good builders, I work in a comprehensive school in one of the most expensive areas of London, which in turn is one of the most expensive cities in the world our pupils travel from about a 10-mile radius to come in, at the moment a brand-new house is being built next to the school, it’s in the garden of another house. Because it is in a “conservation area” it has to be built to look exactly the same as the other houses that were built in the 1860s.

I’ve been able to watch it being built from the start, I have marvelled every day at the skill of the groundworkers, the scaffolders, the block workers, the bricklayers the carpenters and joiners, the roofers. I am in total awe of the brickwork; the chimney stacks are a work of art!

The perfection and angles of rafters beautiful. The amount of practical mathematics involved is mindboggling. The skills and talent of the people involved in all areas is as a builder friend of mine would say in his Cork accent “off the scale!”

I remember being mesmerised about 20 years ago when we were having a loft conversion, watching the plasterer (he probably couldn’t wait for me to go to work) fashioning a curve under the staircase with chicken wire and then throwing plaster at it, a day later it was a shiny perfect finish.

Going back in history and linking with the City of London, the City and much of its wealth was actually built and generated by these people, the original guilds and livery companies were these craftsmen. the Worshipful Companies of Carpenters, Painters-Stainers, Masons, Plumbers, Tylers and Bricklayers, Joiners and Ceiliers, Plaisterers. Glaziers and Painters of Glass all got their Royal Charters in the Middle Ages.

Interestingly The Worshipful Companies of Management Consultants, Investment bankers and Tax Advisers all received their Royal Charters in 2004! Educators had to wait till 2013 and Nurses till 2023!

So please let’s celebrate the artisan, the makers of things, the builders, the tradesfolk, the people whose talent lies in their hands and lets all commend people when they want to be a plumber, electrician, a brickie or a carpenter.

To my friends who work in the construction industry, they know who they are, I salute you, your hard work and graft and your skills!