Sources for construction history in the library of the Trades Union Congress by Christine Coates A joint library was first established by the ly available to the public, individual applica- Trades Union Congress (T.U.C.) and Labour tions for access are considered subject to a Party in 1922, bringing together the papers, 30 year rule. The files include correspondence pamphlets and official reports collected by from trade unions and pressure groups. the Labour Party Information Bureau, T.U.C. The publications of unions affiliated to the Parliamentary Committee and the Women's T.U.C. have been collected systematically. Trade Union League. In 1956 the T.U.C. mov- There are good holdings of journals, reports, ed to Congress House in Bloornsbury, bring- rulebooks and pamphlets from all the unions ing the greater part of the joint library with active in the construction indushy during this it. The subject coverage of today's library century, including those trades which reflects the wide-ranging interests and ac- amalgamated long ago to form the present- tivities of the T.U.C. itself, but it is our day unions, such as the Transport and holdings of trade union publications which are General Workers Union and the Union of Con- of most interest to visitors. struction, Allied Trades and Technicians. The library also houses two special collec- There are also five general files of press cut- tions: the John Burns Library, comprising tings from 1922 to 1951 on building trade mainly nineteenth century labour, socialist unions. and radical books, pamphlets and periodicals, As might be expected, the library holds a and the Gertrude Tuckwell Collection on mass of material reflecting the T.U.C.'s con- women workers from 1900 to 1920. In addition cern for working conditions in the industry. we hold a small photograph library and a col- Sources on the National Joint Council (the lection of historical artifacts, which includes main negotiating machinery in England and the trade union emblems and badges of Wales) and its predecessor commence with various unions in the building trade. the Proposal for a builders national indushial T.U.C. policies in relation to housing and pazliament drawn up by twelve unions in 1916, the construction industry can be traced and include reports from 1921 and the London primarily through its publications and the An- Working Rule Agreement from 1942. nual Congress reports, which contain not on- Other material on pay and working condi- ly verbatim debates but also the General tions includes official reports (e.g. the Earn- Council's report on activities during the ings and Labour Inquiry of 1906) and pam- previous year. The minutes of General Coun- phlets by various pressure groups urging im- cil meetings and of its various Standing Com- provement in safety standards (although it mittees provide more detail. T.U.C. publica- should be noted that most of our health and tions, including the Congress Reports, and the safety collection dates from the 1970s). T.U.C. Parliamentary Committee and F'ressure for expansion in training and ap- General Council minutes have been available prenticeships (particularlyduring World War in microform for several years and may be ,11) is shown by a series of publications from examined in the natibnal and major academic unions and from organisations such as the libraries. The filming of T.U.C. Committee Building Apprenticeship and Training Minutes is in progress. Council. AU unpublished papers including minutes Pamphlets on the controversial issue of and correspondence are held in a separate direct labour range from early titles such as Filing Department and, although not general- The danger of socialism through the agency of local authorities and the fallacy of direct publications from town planning associations labour, (1928) right up to the current debates and the Design for Britain series in the 1940s. Construction history and urban sites : on contracting-out. There are several publica- The John Burns Library was the Liberal tions, including the journal Building M.P.'s personal collection and is not confin- recent work by the Venetian school Guildsman,from the National Building Guild, ed to labour history. The catalogue therefore which sought to spread the ideas of Guild includes such items as The gentleman and on the construction history of Venice Socialism and workers' control through the tradesman's complete assistant or the whole industry. art of measuring and estimatingmade easy, during the Long Renaissance Material on working conditions in other (1781) ; Crosby's builder's new price book, countries is very patchy, but it does include (1841); the balance sheets of the London by Donatella Calabi* reports of the International Labour Office Building Labourers' Strikes 185460 and 1896; Building, Civil Ehgheering and Public Works various union (and anti-union) publications; For several years now 'Venice during the as instruments of perception or interpreta- Committee from 1946, and various publica- and pamphlets by hygiene reformers on Long Renaissance' has been one of the tion. In this sense the method, insofar as there tions and periodicals of the International 'housing the poor". The Library also holds a research topics pursued by the Department is one, depends on the subject of each in- Federation of Building and Woodworkers, in- large collection of Robert Owen's works in- of the History of Architecture at the Univer- dividual 'history7:advance judgements and cluding Bauarbeiter-Internationale cluding his schemes for 'villages of coopera- sity Institute of Architecture, Venice all-embracing assumptions are as pointless (1920-1929). tion' and plans for the communities at New (I.U.A.V.). In that historical period we see and irritating as they are impossible to The Library has a collection of material on Lanark and New Harmony. plans and pressure for urban renewal, opposi- sustain. the economic structure and development of The Gertrude Tuckwell Collection includes tion and resistance, religious ferment, The first topic of study, seen in the writings the construction and building materials in- several files (mainly of press cuttings) on material interests, developments in construc- of Manfredo Tafuri and Antonio Foscari, has dustries, particularly in both post-war wartime housing problems which would be tion, technique and science, and rivalry both included architecturally significant buildings, reconstruction periods, but much of this con- useful, notably 'Housing and hostels for between 'engineers' and 'architects' and bet- and through them the interlinking connec- sists of official reports and publications women 1910-1919', and material on garden ween theory and practice. From this a cen- tions between politics, science and architec- available elsewhere. Non-official publications cities and accommodation for munition tral chapter in the history of the city republic tural knowledge; the links and conflicts bet- mainly cover arguments around centralised workers2. of Venice and its construction now emerges ween the technical and the institutional from planning and nationalisation. There is little The T.U.C. Library is open to visitors in a new light, while overall the research pro- the Middle Ages to the modern age are also technical material except in relation to health Monday-Friday. 10 am - 5 pm by appoint- ject has also been regarded as an experiment involved. Important here are the plans and safety issues and specific areas of ment only. Enquiries should be addressed to in historiography. drafted by the proti (technical staff working research and development (e.g. reports of the the Librarian, Trades Union Congress, Con- In the first part of this article I shall make for the republic as salaried officials attach- Building Research Board and the Research gress House, Great Russell Street, London a brief point-by-point summary of the main ed to one of the magistracies), including Station). WClB 3LS (Tel: 01 636 4030). topics being investigated in this project. In the Giorgio Spavento, Bartolomeo Bon, Tullio Of more interest to C.H.S. members might second part I shall look in more detail at the Lombardo, and also some of the Venetian be the large collection of material on housing Trades Union Congress Library book by Ennio Concina, L'Arsenale della work of Jacopo Sansovino. policy. From the 1900s, there are many pam- Republics di Venezia (Milan 19841, which I The main projects were the church and con- phlets indicating concern over the condition References think exemplifies our studies. vent of San Salvatore (which stands at the of working class housing in both urban and 1 John Burns Library, TUC, classified Grand Canal end of the Mercerie, the main rural areas and its link with poor health and catalogue entries 69; L 123.6; L 150(41): 69. The project route to the St Mark's complex), the Scuola 'social problems'. T.P. Ritzema, How to re- 2 Tuckwell Collection, TUC, files 611,615,670 The list of 'objects' or titles of research pro- della Misericordia, the Palazzo Grirnani at S. house the working classes and save 200,000 jects which follows should be seen not so Samuele, the church of S. Martino and above lives per year (1909) is a typical example. much in terms of inherent links between the all the church of San Francesco della Vigna. Post-war slum clearance campaigns and the various items as in tenns of a group of topics In all cases the final outcome of the project garden city movement produced a mass of being explored by similar methods. These lat- depended on the weight exerted by the com- literature arguing that an expansion in house ter require a short prefatory comment. missioners of the various buildings (whether building would help solve the unemployment The guiding principles behind our studies they were special in any way, cultivated or problem. This enthusiasm for new towns and are the aspiration to rigour in relating what representative of a particular tendency, like suburban housing estates had by the 1930s took place and in analysing what was con- the Grimani family or the Doge Andrea Grit- produced a rival concern over the social pro- structed (be it sign, text or image) and the ti), on the relative ascendency in Venice of blems inherent in their design, and the need equally rigorous pursuit of the complex for construction of community centres, etc. causation of these phenomena. Buildings, *Translation by John Millerchip and Mark Illustrative of this period are the numerous drawings and documents are used as sources, Swenarton