Driving through the ICI works is, says Henry Thorold in his Shell Guide to Durham, 'One of the most extraordinary of experiences, a sight almost unique in England . On either side of the road are the works, steaming, sizzling - tall steel chimneys, great cylinders, pipes everywhere... At night brilliant with a thousand lights, the great girders of the Transporter Bridge dark in silhouette: a magic city.'
Born in Newcastle, Isaac Lowthian Bell attended Bruce's Academy in Percy Street and also studied in Europe, ending up in Marseilles, where a new process for the production of alkali had been discovered. In 1835, he entered the offices of Losh, Wilson and Bell (his father) in Newcastle and by 1850, he started chemical works at Washington, where he had Washington Hall built. For the extensions, he employed the important architect Philip Webb (the model for Philip Bosinney in John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga). The tall casements foreshadow Webb's work at Red Barns, Redcar, Gertrude Bell's childhood home. Webb's only commercial building, incidentally, is the Dorman Long office in Zetland Street, MIddlesbrough. The Bell brothers opened their great ironworks on the banks of the Tees in 1853. Much subsequent effort went into ensuring the supply of iron ore from the Cleveland Hills and limestone from Weardale. Interestingly, the firm's blowing-engine house, clock tower and work offices were also designed by Philip Webb. They were his only industrial buildings and are all, alas, demolished.
Steel production began at Port Clarence in 1889 and an amalgamation with Dorman Long followed. In later years, Teesside steelmakers were responsible for the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Tyne Bridge at Newcastle. After rock salt was discovered under the site in 1874, the salt-extraction industry on Teesside was founded. By now Bell Brothers had become a vast concern employing some 6,000 people. Bell's own eminence in the field of applied science, where he published many weighty papers, and as an entrepreneur whose knowledge of blast furnaces was unrivalled, led to universal recognition. He was the first president of the Iron and Steel Institute, and the first recipient of the Bessemer Gold Medal in 1874. Bell was Lord Mayor of Newcastle in 1854-55, and again in 1862-63. He served as MP for Hartlepool in 1875-80.