Between 1850 and 1914, London witnessed an exponential rise in the number of components manufactured and stocked by specialist firms. This thesis argues that the uptake of these prefabricated products significantly reshaped the practices, organisational structures and material cultures of the metropolis’s contracting system, as well as wider experiences of the city’s architecture. Particular attention is paid to the broader socio-material relations that governed how these products were made and selected, how they were promoted and displayed, and how construction work was specified, divided and managed. From fibrous plaster panels to iron staircases to plumbing systems, this influx of component goods provided London’s building world with a vast range of premanufactured design options. Previous studies have identified the growing specialisation of building-related firms in the capital during the late nineteenth century. Yet, the operations of component suppliers and their role within the construction process remain underexamined for this period. Historians have instead concentrated on the integrated operations of the large-scale master builder, separating studies of construction from design, which has generally been treated as resting solely in the hands of the architect. This omission has led to a misconception in the existing literature: that it was only in the late 1930s that architects and clients began to shop for branded products as specialist subcontractors became common phenomena, transforming the methods, promotional practices and professional configurations of London’s building world. In contrast, I argue that the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries laid critical foundations for this shift and the multi-layered supply networks typically associated with the post-war period. This research asks: how and why did this earlier phase of specialisation occur? To examine this core question, the research mobilises under-explored materials from the Archive of Art and Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum alongside collections held by the London Metropolitan Archive, National Archive and the R.I.B.A. The types of materials examined include order books, design records, builder's ledgers, architectural journals, magazines, catalogues, exhibition literature, surviving objects, models, contracts, site books, correspondence and the records of professional institutions. Each of the thesis’s three sections, Design, Communication and Professional Relations, analyses a distinct aspect of the commercial development of components: from the skills and cultural practices that shaped their manufacture and uptake; to the novel communication channels that aided their promotion; to the ways in which their specification reconfigured the professional boundaries of architects, builders, and their tradesmen. Through this overview approach, the thesis contributes a new interpretation of the collaborative networks, technologies, marketing cultures and social practices that defined nineteenth century construction. It does so from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining approaches from both design and architectural history, and drawing on concepts and methodologies from labour studies, the history of technology, and the digital humanities.

Some images in this thesis have been redacted for reasons of copyright. Funder: AHRC [2152429]