42 C O N T E X T 1 3 0 : J U LY 2 0 1 3 the way buildings were built as he had hoped. He met fierce resistance from the mainstream architectural establishment, who saw concrete as the product of the machine, and therefore abhorrent to the burgeoning renaissance in the decorative arts and the role of the craftsman under the influence of Ruskin and the aesthetic movement in the latter half of the 19th century. Number 549 Lordship Lane was Drake’s own house, built no doubt as a show-piece for his new system. To court wider acceptability for his invention, he chose a conservative gothic style. The house survives today as testament to the giant leap forward in the standardisation of building production which the architectural establishment was able to absorb into architectural expression only during the next century in the modern movement. Drake seems to have been Drake’s Concrete Building Apparatus At the beginning of the project the house was a ruined shell.The porch, east bay window and half the roof had collapsed. aware of the portents. In a prophetic speech to the Civil and Mechanical Engineers Society in 1874 he concluded by saying: ‘Much has been written and said lately about the demand for a new style of architecture. May I suggest that this may be found in studying the right architectural treatment of concrete buildings?’ But the special significance of Drake’s villa is as a show home produced by a leading Victorian technologist to display the technical innovation of its construction. Ultimately, Drake’s patent was to lead him into legal disputes with Tall and his partner Reid. His company manufactured and laid claim to sales of his Concrete Building Apparatus to ‘all parts of the United Kingdom, South Africa and India’. But he quickly over-extended himself and ran into financial difficulties. Drake himself suffered ill health, apparently being forced to sell his house in 1876, only three years after its construction. When we commenced the project the house was a ruined shell. Only the outside concrete walls survived and these were open to the elements. The porch, east bay window and half the roof had collapsed.The south bay window was detached and leaning outwards. A large section of wall in the north-west corner had been pulled away, leaving a tall concrete chimney precariously unsupported over three storeys. Internal floors and most windows and doors had been stolen. Fortuitously, Drake’s system proved able to outlast a brick house that would have collapsed under similar ill-treatment. Despite numerous cracks and deep cuts deliberately made into external walls, the unreinforced concrete house refused to collapse.The building, which was listed Grade II and is on the Heritage At Risk Register, was in a parlous state and in urgent need of repair. A partnership of Southwark Council, London-wide building preservation trust Heritage of London Trust
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