In the paper experimental investigation results of three elements are presented. Two of them were made of reinforced concrete. The strengthened bracket had the steel accessory mounted to cracked loaded corbel (while it was loaded to half ultimate force of the reference element), the reference one was tested without any accessory. The third corbel was the steel accessory mounted to the concrete column. Full scale corbels were 450 mm deep and 250 mm wide, steel accessory was 320 mm high. The aim of the research was to verify the following thesis: short corbels (shear slenderness ac /h ≈ 0,3) can be strengthened by a steel accessory. Load carrying capacity of strengthened member increased by 40 %. The ultimate force obtained for the steel accessories mounted to concrete column was 66 % of reference value. While testing some observations and measurements (strain of reinforcement and concrete, development of cracking) were made which allowed to describe corbel behaviour under increasing load.