Cast-iron architecture

Refinements developed during the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century made cast iron relatively cheap and suitable for a range of uses, and by the mid-19th century it was common as a structural material (and sometimes for entire buildings), and particularly for elaborately patterned architectural elements such as fences and balconies, until it fell out of fashion after 1900 as a decorative material, and was replaced by modern steel and concrete for structural purposes.

[1] Texts written by the Japanese Buddhist monk Ennin describe in detail the cast-iron pagodas and statues widespread in China at the time.

On the continent, the 1804 Pont des Arts in Paris is an early and elegant use of cast iron for a major city river crossing (the metal work of the current bridge is a near identical copy built in 1984 due to structural decay).

Its usefulness for multi storey buildings ensured it remained popular for all kinds of industrial and commercial structures, as well as supports for balconies in theatres and even in churches, up until it was finally replaced by steel in about 1900.

[5] The improvements in techniques in the late 18th century led to the possibilities of finer castings, allowing decorative objects such as statuary and jewelry to be mass-produced.

Other well known architects were early adopters of the material; John Nash employed cast iron as part of the structure of his landmark 1820s Royal Pavilion in Brighton, and German architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel was an enthusiastic early adopter, using cast iron for memorials such as the 20m tall Gothic Revival Kreuzberg War Memorial in 1821, and the delightful nautical seahorses and mermaids in the balustrade of the 1820s Castle Bridge in Berlin.

The Commissioner's House of the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda designed by Edward Holl and built in the 1820s, is considered to be the first residence that used cast iron structure, for the verandahs, and floor and roof framing, and proved the concept of prefabrication and transportation long distances.

The Marché en Fer (Iron Market) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, fabricated in Paris, was reputedly intended as a railway station for Cairo in 1891 but was purchased by the Haitian government instead.

The Boat Shed (Number 78) at Sheerness Naval Dockyards, built 1856–60, is constructed entirely of a cast and wrought iron members, braced as portal frames, with extensive window and timber infill panels forming the external walls.

Possibly the largest prefabricated cast iron structure is the Bulgarian St. Stephen Church in Istanbul, shipped out from Vienna in the late 1890s.

Designed by Jules Saulnier, it was an expression of a French approach that included an exposed metal frame as part of an overall decorative scheme, often using polychrome brick and tiles, with other examples later in date.

After a period in the 1950s–60s when cast iron verandahs were routinely demolished,[16] since the late 1970s they made a revival, and numerous foundries still provide historic patterns to order.

English architect and gardener Joseph Paxton experimented with frameworks of timber, cast-iron and glass in the 1820s and 30s, designing ever larger structures, often prefabricated, culminating in the monumental Crystal Palace exhibition hall built in London in 1851.

The success of the concept spawned many imitators, as both exhibition halls and greenhouses, which were almost universally constructed of cast iron (sometimes in combination with wrought-iron) in the 19th century.

Cast iron was quickly adapted to allow ever wider glass roofs on the then new idea of glass-roofed shopping arcades in Paris in the first decades of the 19th century.

The idea spread across Europe and the United States in ever grander structures, and the largest examples had vast arched roofs in cast iron, such as the Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel in Milan.

The central four storey circular hall and towering glass dome[21] of the long-demolished 1849 London Coal Exchange was an early and spectacular use of the material as both structure and architecture.

The 1872 George Peabody Library in Baltimore is a similarly elaborate atrium with glass roof, where all the structural members are also decorative and made of cast iron.

An early example dates from 1837, when architect Louis Auguste Boileau supported the interior of the Eglise St-Eugene Ste-Cecile in Paris on slim cast iron columns and ribbed vaulting imitating the Gothic style, but thinner than stone would have allowed.

Two famous examples of cast iron as both support and decoration of a roof on slender columns are the two great mid 19th century libraries of Paris, the double-arched roof of the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève reading room, built 1843–51, by architect Henri Labrouste, who also designed an even more elegant multiple-domed reading room for the Bibliothèque nationale de France, built in 1861–68.

The 1870s Victoria Embankment in London features particularly ornate examples, with entwined dolphins supporting elaborate lampposts, and benches with sphinxes or camels as end panels.