our history
The patterns of boom and recession in the British economy and the post war history of commercial property developers have shaped the Waterman Group to a considerable degree.
In 1952, when Harold Waterman founded the company, it offered consultancy in structural engineering pure and simple. His strategy was to enter into partnership with many of the UK’s local authorities and work with them to re-build towns and cities badly scarred by the effects of wartime bombing. His vision was enduring; by the 1990s, through a series of corporate acquisitions and organic growth, we had become one of the largest and most successful UK engineering consultancies - a position we still hold today.
HL Waterman and Partners gradually grew the business throughout the commercial property development boom of the 1950s and 60s. Strong and steady growth picked up real speed by the 70s and 80s that kept pace with the changes in British building development – we were involved in many of the large office buildings in the City and elsewhere in London. Much of this was achieved in concert with the major developer clients of the day.
In 1988, the Partnership became a public limited company and floated on the main stock exchange. Since flotation, the skills base of Waterman Group has been widened progressively to include a full range of engineering disciplines.
Our first international office was opened in Moscow in 1991 and we have since invested considerably in our international and Eastern European business.
By developing expertise in a range of engineering and engineering-related disciplines, by growing from within and by acquiring existing businesses that have a good fit with the original business, Waterman has become a true multi-disciplinary engineering organisation.
For fifty years, our engineers, the schemes they have engineered and the working practices they have helped to pioneer, have taken Waterman from very small beginnings on London’s fringes to an international presence.
Click here to read 'Ingenuity and Engineering' - The Waterman Story