BOOK TALK 6 July 2023: Architecture and the Face of Coal
C20 Society: Architecture and the Face of Coal Lecture
In Person and Online: Architecture and the Face of Coal Lecture
Thursday 6 July 2023 at 6.30pm
The Gallery, 70 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6EJ / Online via Zoom
Professor Gary Boyd will discuss the impact of architecture on the UK’s coal industry in the 20th century, including its crucial role as a force for modernisation and in enhancing worker welfare.
While its deleterious impact on the environment is now obvious, there was another side to coal mining in the United Kingdom. In the 20th century, architecture became critically important not only to the process of the industry’s modernisation, but also to the welfare of its workers, as well as how it was perceived both within and outside the coalfields. This richly illustrated talk examines aspects of this architecture of coal and its forms, actors and impacts.
Gary A. Boyd is Professor of Architecture at Queen’s University, Belfast. Research for his book, ‘Architecture and the Face of Coal: Mining and Modern Britain’ (Lund Humphries, 2022), was conducted under a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust and a publication grant from the Paul Mellon Foundation.
Copies of Gary’s book will be on sale in the Gallery on the evening of the talk.
In person - C20 Society Members: £ 12 Non-Members: £ 18
Includes a glass of wine
Note: This event is hybrid and is being run both in-person at Cowcross Street Gallery and online via Zoom. The event will be recorded and offered as a catch-up lecture for those who have booked, and will be available for two weeks.
Above image: Hafodyrynys Coal Preparation Plant, South Wales begun 1951. Courtesy of the National Archives.