It doesn’t have to be Roman concrete. English concretes made with, e.g., Portland cement, predates Sway tower by a hundred years. Obviously, the only version o

It doesn’t have to be Roman concrete. English concretes made with, e.g., Portland cement, predates Sway tower by a hundred years. Obviously, the only version of this claim that could be true is that Sway Tower was the first building in England built exclusively of unreinforced concrete. (There were uncountable buildings built by using unreinforced concrete and stone, e.g., the third Eddystone Lighthouse completed in 1759.) But I’d still find it very surprising that people built structures in England from reinforced concrete for decades without anyone trying to do it without the reinforcement. (“The first home built using reinforced concrete was a servant’s cottage constructed in England by William B. Wilkinson in 1854.”)