Iron production in Russia in the eighteenth century centred on the Urals, but in time was encouraged by export markets to move to the north-west. A slump in the engineering and export markets encouraged its use in the home decorative architectural fields, particularly around the luxurious buildings of St Petersburg. The paper excludes consideration of bridges, but iron was also used for practical purposes such as in roofing plates and furniture, as well as replacing wood for support and constraint of building walls, floors and roofs, although the plentiful supply of wood from local forests encouraged its continued use in iron smelting and in building. Some local expertise had been lost with the slump and many iron-working experts from Britain feature in this account, some staying in Russia for long periods.