Anchor Mills

Selected by

Marcus Binney, Architectural historian/author

Marcus Binney is a British architectural historian and author. He is best known for his conservation work regarding Britain’s heritage, and the author of numerous books on the subject. He has also written books dealing with the experiences of those involved in secret operations during WWII.
Location

Thread Street
Paisley, Scotland
Architecture

Listed Grade A.
Architects: Morley & Woodhouse, 1886. Reopened June 2005.
Architects for the restoration: James F Stephen (www.jfsa.co.uk)

“Anchor Mills was originally the Domestic Finishing Mill, part of a larger complex known collectively as the ‘Anchor Mills’. The mill was built in 1886 and enlarged in 1914 to the design of the leading Lancashire mill architects, Morley & Woodhouse.

By the mid-19th century weaving had become Paisley’s principal industry. The Paisley weavers’ most famous product were shawls, which bore the Paisley Pattern made fashionable by the young Queen Victoria. Though of Kashmiri origin the teardrop pattern soon became known as Paisley throughout the western world.

Internally the mill had a central top-lit atrium which also provided space for the drive belts from the engine on the ground floor to the machines on the upper floors. It was built for John Clark, of the Clark family of Paisley, successful thread manufacturers who, with the Coats family, played a key role in Paisley’s ascendance.At the height of Paisley thread manufacture in the 1930s, there were 28,000 people employed in the huge Anchor and Ferguslie mills of J & P Coats Ltd, said to be the largest of their kind in the world. In the 1950s the mills diversified into the production of synthetic threads but production diminished rapidly as a result of less expensive imports and the establishment of mills in India and Brazil by J & P Coats. By the end of 1993 there was no thread being produced in Paisley.

The Anchor Mills complex employed hundreds of local people. When the finishing mill was built the complex filled nine acres. By 1914 it covered 28 acres and by 1952 it had spread to 51 acres. Work in the domestic finishing mill ended in the 1980s, and the mill lay empty and neglected for 20 years. “ Marcus Binney, Big Saves.

For the renovation, the lofty internal court acts like the atrium of a modern office block providing access to varied users on different floors and introducing daylight in to the heart of the building. The internal structure consists of a cast iron column and beam frame enclosed by external brick walls. The project comprised of restoration, repair works and replacement works and included the conversion of the Mill to create luxury apartments, business space and dedicated internal car parking facilities.
Interesting Facts

Paisley’s buto motif is thought to have originated about 2,000 years ago. Many believe it was derived from the ancient Zoroastrian symbol of life and fertility, which is represented as a cypress tree combined with a floral spray.
Resources

James F. Stephen Architecture

Anchor Mill ©Princes Foundation

Victorian cotton mills, by virtue of their sheer size, rank among the principal landmarks of their age, with rhythmic beauty in their ordered tiers of windows and imposing water towers. Anchor Mills, forlorn and empty, looked an impossible challenge until the Prince’s Regeneration Trust devised an imaginative scheme of mixed use which quickly filled the building.

The rescue and conversion of Anchor Mills is the most ambitious and successful revival of a great cotton mill yet completed. In the 1950s and 1960s there were still hundreds of giant cotton mills in Manchester and surrounding towns like Oldham and Rochdale. They are familiar features of many of Lowry’s best loved paintings. They were the giants of industrial architecture, rivalled in size only by the largest warehouse complexes like the Albert Dock in Liverpool and great power stations such as Battersea and Bankside.

Anchor Mill before restoration

As cotton manufacture declined after World War II many of these mills closed. Often they were less than a hundred years old and being robustly built took on a second life, notably as mail order centres for which their large open plan layouts were well suited. Even so, by degrees, dozens were abandoned and often demolished with the help of Government regeneration grants, intended to create land for new industry though usually replaced by warehousing, if anything at all.

Anchor Mills is therefore a beacon, the more significant as it is based on a scheme of mixed use. This was devised by Kit Martin, the well-known rescuer of great country houses, working for the Phoenix Trust (now the Prince’s Regeneration Trust). It follows on from his highly successful conversion of Stanley Mills outside Perth into apartments, also for the Phoenix Trust.

The sheer size of the mill placed it beyond the resources of a building preservation trust. Kit Martin therefore evolved a partnership between the owner, Renfrewshire Council, Scottish Enterprise and Historic Scotland. The £12 million redevelopment was carried out with Persimmon City Developments providing the investment.

Funding came from sales, with contributions from Historic Scotland, Scottish Enterprise Renfrewshire and Morrisons (who were building a store in an adjoining brownfield site). The design team was led by Doug Reed of James F Stephen Architects. The construction began in June 2003. The restoration respected the original structure of the building and made good use of the final central, colonial style atrium to maximise natural light and ventilation.

“ Victorian cotton mills, by virtue of their sheer size, rank among the principal landmarks of their age with rhythmic beauty in their ordered tiers of windows and imposing water towers.”

“ Victorian cotton mills, by virtue of their sheer size, rank among the principal landmarks of their age with rhythmic beauty in their ordered tiers of windows and imposing water towers.”

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