Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners

Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners was a British firm of Consulting Civil Engineers, based at Queen Anne's Lodge, Queen Anne's Gate and subsequently Telford House, Tothill Street, Westminster, London until 1974, when it relocated to Earley House, 427 London Road, Reading, Berkshire.

The firm had been founded in 1922 by noted Scottish Civil Engineer, Sir Alexander Gibb.

For the first ten years the business was not very rewarding financially although it was engaged on several important projects. Gibb and his colleague, noted Electrical Engineer Charles Hesterman Merz, designed Barking Power Station and later the Galloway Hydro Electric development, the first major work of its kind to be linked to the National Grid.

Gibb resolved to make his firm the largest of its kind in the country and in time, the firm grew to the point where it was responsible for projects in several parts of the world.

By the late 1980s/early 1990s, the firm was organised as a number of specialised departments in Reading, namely Water and Energy (WAE), Transportation and Marine (TAM), Structures and Services (SAS), Project Management Services (PMS) and Gibb Architects. Outside of the United Kingdom, the firm had associated practices including Gibb Africa (headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya), Gibb Botswana (operating from Gaborone) Gibb Petermuller (Headquartered in Athens) and Gibb Mauritius.

In 1989, the firm merged with the larger American company, Law, which was then acquired by the US-based Jacobs Engineering Group in 2001.

During the 1930s, under the direction of Hugh Beaver, the firm brought together architecture and mechanical services with the founding focus on heavy civil engineering, and so was able to offer to industrial clients a complete service.

In 1939 Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners designed 3 large Ordnance factories for the Ministry of Supply; three other smaller factories followed later.

Other notable designs were the Kincardine Bridge, Guinness and Company's brewery at Park Royal, the Captain Cook graving dock at Sydney, Australia, the Singapore naval base, supervision of construction of Phoenix units for the Mulberry harbours and an underground factory for aeroplane engines at Corsham.

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