A Career in Construction - Part 2

It was my mother who found the advertisement, possibly in the newspaper. George Wimpey (at the time the biggest construction company in the world) were looking for school leavers with two A Levels to join their company training scheme for Quantity Surveyors. Coming to the end of Sixth Form, I already had an offer from Hull University to read Economics. But the grades they required seemed quite ambitious for my capabilities. I had thought about a career in architecture, but I had no talent for drawing. The next best thing seemed to surveying, and a book described all the different kinds surveyor. There did not seem to be many openings to train as a Building Surveyor (my preference) and Quantity Surveyors seemed to operate in private practice. So training with a Building Contractor was an unexpected opportunity.

I went for an interview at the Hammersmith Head Office of George Wimpey. I guess there were a huge number of applicants. While I was waiting for the result, some friends at school suggested I had no chance. One particularly bright pupil from the year above had an interview but never made it. So I was pretty pleased when I was shortlisted for a second interview and finally made an offer that I accepted. As expected, my A Level grades were not good enough for Hull. My mother was actually amazed that I had scraped through all three subjects.

I have one vivid memory of the summer before I started work. Sitting alone in the front room of the house in Braintree (a sitting room that was hardly ever used) listening to some records and wondering what life would be like. I was leaving home to live in digs in Barnes, working in an office five days a week and going to college in Brighton. And being paid; I was, in fact, an indentured trainee. My father and I had to sign a form of indenture and this set out my remuneration over the five years.

I started on £350 per annum. This was supplemented by £2 and 15 Shillings per week lodging allowance. My digs were in Riverview Gardens. There were two of us. Derek Anderson and I shared a bedroom and the Irish landlady provided breakfast and an evening meal. Most of the trainees were always short of cash, but I found I could save a little, and was able to buy a Grundig tape recorder within a few months.

For our first year, we trainees were based at The Hammersmith head office. So every morning I walked over Hammersmith Bridge to get to work. We were attached to the Quantity Surveying team under George Vickery who produced Bills of Quantities for tenders throughout the country which were then passed to Central Estimating to price. Our task for most of that year was squaring the dimensions. There is a chapter in Elements of Quantity Surveying by Arthur J Willis (our bible for that first year) which explains all this.

The following example shows how measurements are taken off and set down on dimension paper.

Of course, these are in in feet and inches and it was our job to do the calculations in duodecimals. So you see that the third column below now has these figures.

This was all done by hand, no calculators for us in those days for duodecimals. There were the first movements towards mechanisation, but as Willis says in his More Advanced Quantity Surveying, "One cannot but feel that machines are excellent as an aid to the human brain, but that we are professional men (wow) not machine minders and that our brains have a part to play".

So our brains were worn out squaring dimensions all day, every day. Even more taxing was the checking of another's squaring. We were told that any errors were down to the checker, not the original squarer. It was therefore a relief when were able to take the process to the next stage of casting the dimensions and preparing the abstract from which the final Bill of Quantities would be produced.

I guess the idea was that we would become familiar with the measurements we were squaring, as the taking off of those measurements from a pile of drawings was then the fundamental business of a Quantity Surveyor.

Ghosts at the Oxford Playhouse

This is not a comedy. The only laughs are from those of a nervous disposition. This is a dark, dark play. Ibsen described Ghosts as "a family story as sad and grey as a (Norwegian) rainy day". I guess they must have a lot of those there. The director is Stephen Unwin in his swan song after six years as artistic director of Rose Theatre, Kingston in a co-production with English Touring Theatre that Stephen founded in 1993. Stephen is a huge Ibsen fan having directed six productions, five for ETT. His translation has a really modern feel. Ireland in the not too distant pass comes to mind. This play caused a huge scandal when it was first performed, and it was banned in many places, particularly in Ibsen's home country.

It is Mrs Alving (a stand out bravura performance by the terrific Kelly Hunter) who confronts her ghosts. The portrait of her long dead husband is almost a ghost in itself. When Pastor Manders (Patrick Drury) reminds her of how he persuaded her to return to her husband after running away, she cannot remain silent about the unhappiness she suffered. But in  the Pastor's words (of consolation?) "To pursue happiness in this world is to be governed by the spirit of rebellion. What right do we have to happiness? No we must do our duty, Mrs Alving. And your duty was the cleave to the man you'd chosen and to whom you were tied by a sacred bond". The revelations that Mrs Alving then reveals are the crux of this powerful and, at all times, gripping play. The cast of five are all excellent and the first half (actually three quarters of the time) goes so quickly. But the sunshine after rain is a contrast to the over melodramatic ending. These days, playwrites would  have had it finish five minutes earlier.

The Casual Vacancy, The Catcher in the Rye and Heartbreak Hotel

I have never been keen on soaps on TV and The Casual Vacancy is the literary equivalent. I didn't expect great writing from JK Rowling so I wasn't disappointed. What we did get was a tightly plotted but uneven drama full of nasty, argumentative people mainly being horrible to each other. I'm not sure what kept me going, probably I was hoping that something interesting might turn up. I guess it does, but only on occasions. As I said, pretty uneven. Some fairly tedious sections interspersed with a rare brilliantly constructed episode. A party and a break-up come to mind. So why did I give it as much as three stars? For one reason. The writing for the teenage characters was absolutely wizard. (Get it?) There are quite a few of them, and their stories take up a good chunk of the book. Here, the writing suddenly takes off. I'm sure it was not just my imagination.

My occasional dabble with classics led me to The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I felt it was a bit of a let down. I found the first half of this short novel to be sharp and original. However I eventually found Holden, our seventeen year old narrator, to become quite tiresome and repetitive. Although the descriptions of New York in the fifties were very well written. I just wished I had had read it when I was a lot younger.

After the intensity of having just read "The Garden of Evening Mists" for Book Club,  I plumped for a change in style with Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach. I was thrilled with this funny and frivolous story for those of us of mature years. OK, it was fairly predictable as a number of lonely people descend upon ex-actor Buffy's run down B&B come hotel for his "Courses for Divorces". But the warmth of the storytelling is so powerful, it towed me a long in it's witty and manipulative wake. There is a feeling that, after the success of the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" that was based on the author's novel "These Foolish Things", this is a film script instead of a book, but there is too much to enjoy to quibble. Yes, the British acting establishment will be queuing up for the roles of Buffy, his ex-wives, his children and hotel guests, and it would make a decent movie. Except that some of the best stuff here relies on reminiscences of the character's previous lives, and at the same time being a study of city versus country as they are today. As an antidote to something serious, this is just the ticket.

My Favourite Songs in Films and TV

I have always been a sucker for great popular songs stuck in a film or TV programme just at the right time. No surprise then that twenty one made it to my list of 131 Songs.

It all started when, as a teenager,  I went to see Antony Newley in the 1959 movie Idol on Parade. The song I've Waited So Long is not very good. But it's impact has lasted long in my memory. So has I Should have Known Better, the song The Beatles sing in the guards van in the movie A Hard Days Night. And who could forget their running and jumping sequence to Can't Buy Me Love.

And so the list goes on from Song Number 63 to Number 84. All except a Christmas favourite in the middle. What made me think of these again were two recent  belters. The first is in the movie About Time. The Cure's Friday I'm In Love is perfect for the montage at the art gallery. The latest is by The Proclaimers. There are some great songs in the movie Sunshine on Leith, and my favourite was the brilliantly staged I Would Walk 500 Miles. Check out the film's trailer.

 Here's the full list, published mainly for my benefit.

Number 63   I've Waited So Long by Anthony Newley - posted on 10.11.10
Number 64   I Should Have Known Better by The Beatles - posted on 10.11.10
Number 65   You Never Can Tell by Chuck Berry - posted on 10.11.10
Number 66   El Matador by Los Fabulos Cadillacs - posted on 24.11.10
Number 67   Hotel California by The Gipsy Kings - posted on 24.11.10
Number 68   Ballad Of Lucy Jordan by Marianne Faithful - posted on 24.11.10
Number 69   Let It Snow by Dean Martin - posted on 12.12.10
Number 71   Earth Angel by Marvin Berry - posted on 18.01.11
Number 72   Come Up and See Me by Cockney Rebel - posted on 18.01.11
Number 73   The Sound Of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel -posted on 18.01.11
Number 74   Don't Worry Baby by The Beach Boys - posted on 18.01.11
Number 75   Time After Time by Cyndie Lauper - posted on 18.01.11
Number 76   Cat People by David Bowie - posted on 18.01.11
Number 77   Hold Tight by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky Mick and Tich - posted on 18.01.11
Number 78   Love On The Rocks by Neil Diamond - posted on 18.01.11
Number 79   In The Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett - posted on 18.01.11
Number 80   Slipping Through My Fingers by Abba - posted on 18.01.11
Number 81   Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles - posted on 18.01.11
Number 82   One Of These Mornings by Moby - posted on 03.02.11
Number 83   Shelter From The Storm by Bob Dylan - posted on 03.02.11
Number 84   Take The Long Way Home by Supertramp - posted on 03.02.11

A Career in Construction - Part 1

Instead of starting at the beginning, I want to fast forward to 2nd May 1977. That was the day I re-joined Henry Boot Construction after a five month spell with a small builder in Dunstable (more later). Little did I know the fledgling Southern Division would have seven changes of management in seven years. A period of exciting skulduggery as managers conspired to oust their predecessors.

In 1977 there were two major housing contracts in Harlow and Cheshunt, both won and run by the Midlands Region. I joined as Area Surveyor, based on site at Cheshunt, and reported to a Birmingham Senior Contracts Manager called Henry Atkinson. When rumours grew in 1978 that the company was serious in expanding in the south, we all expected that Henry would be first in line to manage the new division.

However, the Midlands Region was struggling. The success it had with huge housing contracts in the early seventies ( particularly the spectacular profit on the second of the Peterborough phases of housing where I was resident) came rapidly to a halt with a number of  loss making contracts. So in the second half of that year came the first of the many changes.

Our two contracts were transferred to the Yorkshire Region that was run by Regional Manager Peter Horth. He and Regional Surveyor Ken Ottley only visited us occasionally as, more importantly, a new Senior Contracts Manager arrived. Tony Whale joined the company from Bovis, a hint of things to come as David Woolf from that same company was taking over as Managing Director at the company's headquarters in Sheffield.

Things suddenly started happening towards the end of 1978. Plans for the Southern Division became a reality. A small Projects Team under Colin Brooks was set up in the company's house/office at The Boltons in Chelsea. Another Senior Contracts Manager started. Mike Stafford was another ex-Bovis man. He was given the first new contract won for the south, a warehouse and offices in Brentford. In the absence of any new surveying staff, he relied on me to do the business. We were running the operation out of a back room in The Boltons office, at the same time I was dashing to Sheffield and back to report on Harlow and Cheshunt.

By the end of the year, the company had found a new Divisional Office in Castle Street in High Wycombe. We were still having regular management meetings at The Boltons, so it was a huge advantage when we finally moved into the High Wycombe office on 3rd January 1979. The first shock came when we found that the Divisional Manager would not be Peter Horth, who was moving down from Yorkshire, but Colin Brooks. His small Projects Team were primarily responsible for finding work and I'm not sure if Colin had any experience of running construction operations. So Peter Horth moved into the office next to his, and next along was that for Ken Ottley as the now permanently resident Divisional Surveyor.

Only his occupation of that office didn't last a day. On the 3rd January he was sent to Birmingham to close that office and it's contracts. He still had some responsibility for the old Harlow and Cheshunt contracts, and I did meet him in Birmingham on the odd occasion. But in the south we Surveyors were left without a leader for the new contracts. That was resolved when I was made a Regional Surveyor. I already had been given an office in High Wycombe, the first time in my career that I had not  been site based.

However by September, we only had three of the new contracts, Brentford at £715,000 and two even much smaller jobs. Brian Gregory had joined the surveying team to look after these two at the Architect Association and IBM. When we won the prestige  refurbishment and restoration of Nuneham House at Nuneham Courtney in Oxfordshire, we were making progress. Then in October 1979 we hit the big time. White City Industrial Park turned out to be a massive warehouse and office contract that did well financially. I was interviewing for new staff while setting up both of these highly dynamic projects.

During this time, management was going through an interesting time. Brian Warren had joined as another Senior Contracts Manager. That made three with Tony Whale and Mike Stafford. All three we ex-Bovis and got together to form an informal and secret Divisional Operations Board. I was co-opted as the top operations surveyor, and attended the first Divisional Operations Board Meeting on 13th July 1979. No Peter Horth, no Colin Brooks. The writing was on the wall for both of them. This new cabal had only one thought in mind, their exit. And it was probably in September that Peter Horth left.

I cannot remember many more such meetings. Brian Warren had a personal friend from Bovis in Brian Gregory to look after his jobs, small as they were initially. Brian Warren was obviously instrumental in getting the other Brian the position of Regional Surveyor of which there were now two. We actually got on pretty well, we ran surveyor's meetings between us, co-operated on reports to senior management. I knew the Henry Boot system very well, Brian was experienced in the cost recovery type of jobs, and this was where his specialism lay.

Early 1980 was a busy time starting the new big contracts. Mike Stafford had moved to Head Office in Dronfield to get involved in management contracts. I visited him there to finalise the account on Brentford. It was not until June 1980 that we had the next big upheaval. Colin Brooks left the company and was replaced by ...... Brian Warren. So that was Midlands Region with Henry Atkinson, Yorkshire Region with Peter Horth, Colin Brooks and now Brian Warren, all in two years.

Brian was a lovely guy, Bunny to all his friends. The next year would have been great except for one thing. He promoted Brian Gregory to Divisional Surveyor. So instead of running the commercial side together, I now reported to someone I knew was my inferior. The only thing that kept me from leaving was that I was left to supervise my own contracts exactly as before. White City was taking up a big chunk of my time and it was turning out to be very successful. We won the second phase, and then later, the third. I was working very closely with Tony Whale who was now pretty much deputy to Brian Warren, as I was to Brian Gregory. Tony and I were on Cheshunt together, before the Southern Division had become a reality, and we had worked on the same contracts together since the beginning.

It was a good thing I stayed. In March 1981, less than a year into his job, Brian Warren left and Tony Whale took over as Divisional Manager. The fifth change of leadership. But nothing changed on the surveying management. Brian Gregory was still in charge. For a meeting with Tony on 31st March 1981, I had kept a note in my diary. There are hardly any such notes of a personal or political nature. However this time I wrote "We discussed the new management chart. I made it clear that I accepted what he had done was the only possibility at this stage, but that I was unhappy with my personal circumstances, and that if I didn't think the situation could be changed , I would find things impossible. Tony mentioned that possibly by December things might change, so that was a good date to work to."

However I only had to wait until 24th July 1981 when Brian Gregory left the company. Tony promoted me to Divisional Quantity Surveyor, a position I was to hold for the next three happy years. However, there were still a few major surprises to come, most of them unpleasant.

Another year another Divisional manager! Tony resigned in June 1982. Our biggest contract at that time was the Holiday Inn, Croydon. It was destined to become a huge problem, and the rumour was that the Managing Director only took on the project to appease Tony who wanted it badly. So when it ran into trouble, I guess Tony thought it might be a good time to depart. So who would take over this time? John Marshall had been based in the Dronfield head office in charge of Management Contracting. He was parachuted in to run the Southern Division in his own inimitable way. We were onto number six.

John Marshall relied heavily on Mike Ellis, who was now the Senior Contracts Manager and myself. Mike and I had worked together on the division's biggest contracts. First Cheshunt, five years previously, where he was Site Manager, White City and now the headache that was Holiday Inn, Croydon. (I can remember being on site one day when an operative plonked a second world war bomb on his desk, that had been found during excavations. More of that later).

It wasn't long before Mr Marshall decided that he needed to strengthen the surveying management, and brought in Joe Scroxton in January 1983 over my head. Joe was an ex President of the Institute of Quantity Surveyors before that Institute was absorbed by the RICS. So he was coming towards the end of his career. However we never really knew what his role was to be. All the day to day commercial work went on as before with all the Surveyors still reporting to me. Joe seemed to be in a kind of consultancy role as I was still attending the quarterly meetings of Divisional Quantity Surveyors in Dronfield.

There were more changes in the autumn of 1983. First John Marshall announced on 21st October that he had resigned to take up the post of Managing Director of Mowlems. Roger Coombes from the Civil Engineering Division took over on the 31st. The following month saw a huge reorganisation  of staff with massive redundancies, almost one in two of all staff. I know from conversations later that either Joe Scroxton  or myself had to go. The committee who had to decide apparently had to cast their votes. It was no surprise that John Marshall voted to keep Joe. But in the end, he was outvoted, Joe left that day, and I started to work with my seventh boss in seven years.

I liked Roger very much. We had a difficult time with the decimation of our resources, and 1984 turned out to be a momentous year in more ways than one. Croydon was at last finished, although the financial situation was disastrous. Amazingly, we were recruiting in the Spring. A large contract at Ipswich was about to start and a number of smaller jobs were underway. Mike Ellis had left to join Farrans, and I knew that if that went well I might be joining him in the autumn. But there was still time for one last reorganisation. In the summer of 1984, the Southern Building Division ceased to exist. The company amalgamated Civils and Building and split the country geographically East and West. It was the head of Civils Quantity Surveying that was appointed to lead both Civils and Building in the East, so I was back to square one.

But I didn't have to get used to the new structure for very long. I left Henry Boot on 31st October 1984 to join Mike at Farrans. These seven and a half years had been possibly the most exciting of my career. I worked with some great people, and some not so great. But that goes for any industry. In the end I am so glad I was there at the start of a new venture for the company in the south, and to see it grow. It was just on the wane as I left. I was very lucky.

My Most Treasured Book

A Cheltenham Literary Festival Special in the Saturday Times a couple of weeks ago featured some well known authors describing the books they own and prize above all others. Simon Schama chose his Collected Works of Shakespeare that was given to him as a present at his Barmitzvah. It reminded me of The Works of William Shakespeare that was given to my father in recognition of his performance as a boy in Sheffield Repertory Theatre's production of "Sing a Song of Christmas" over the holiday of 1930/1931. It was signed by the whole cast and crew.

Then Brian Sewell chose Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows given to him by his mother on his seventh birthday. His was a 58th Edition bound in green cloth. Mine was from Gran, my father's mother, on my fifth birthday, Christmas 1949. Mine is a ninety second edition, and it is amazing that there have been so many editions since it's first publication in 1908. Sewell mentions the chapter "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn". What a title for a chapter of a book. Rat and Mole rowing down the river and a bird piping as the sun comes up. The whole chapter is so beautiful, I never realised quite what a genius the author was.

Prisoners, Blue Jasmine and Rush

I thought Prisoners was a very impressive crime drama. Everything seemed to work together, which if they didn't, it might have been just another dozy story about a kidnapped girl. I guess it all starts with a very decent script. Aaron Guzikowski actually wrote it in 2007 and it has taken this long to see the light of day. Then director Dennis Villeneuve has created something nailbiting and atmospheric and lead actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal are on top form. The editing is superb; whenever a scene might go on too long, it doesn't. And then the Georgia landscape is beautifully photographed, in fact all the cinematography was brilliant. It was Roger Deakins again! This is a long film, but it always held my attention.

The critics have all gone mad for Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine. It does have much to commend it, but it's one big failing left me disappointed. The central character does not have a single shred of anything attractive. Surely Allen could have found something that might have elicited our sympathy. But no. This does the movie no favours. So I was left with a sour taste as Cate Blanchett's disgraced financier's wife Jeanette/Jasmine dissolves in a puddle of self pity. There is not a laugh to be had as she holes up in her sister's crumby apartment. But here Sally Hawkins gives a superb performance. Allen is heavy handed as he contrasts her blue collar friends with Jasmine's cultured background. I found the portrayal of working class America, up close and personal, to have a certain merit. Blanchett is heavily tipped for an Oscar, and indeed her performance is quite staggering. Shame about the script.

Another critical success is Ron Howard's Rush.  I thought it was awful. Poor script, even worse acting, and I just hate all the revving and screaming of the F1 engines. If what had gone on in between races  had been remotely interesting, I might have enjoyed it more. As it was, it turned out to be the worst movie I have seen for a long time.