Hunslet Mill and Victoria Works in Leeds on Top Ten Most Endangered Buildings list

The Society urges the owners, who have left the site unused for nearly twenty years, to propose a development scheme before it is too late.

 

The Victorian Society today reveals that the Hunslet Mill and Victoria Works in Leeds are one of 2015’s Top Ten Most Endangered Victorian and Edwardian Buildings in England and Wales. The Society urges the owners, who have left the site unused for nearly twenty years, to propose a development scheme before it is too late.

Griff Rhys Jones, The Victorian Society Vice President, launching the Top Ten, said “These are buildings that need help, and we need your help.” Inclusion in the Society’s Top Ten often leads to national exposure and new interest in the buildings selected which can help save them.

The Hunslet Mill and Victoria Works is a huge multi storey complex of red brick mill buildings. Hunslet Mill is thought to be the last, and individually the largest, of Leeds’s great flax-spinning mills. William Fairbairn who designed Hunslet was a leading designer of mill buildings and also was responsible for the world heritage site at Saltaire Mill. Sadly, the buildings have been unused for decades – the west was range demolished in 1986. The Mills are partly sheeted over but decay must be serious inside. The developers who have owned the Mills for around 20 years state development remains unviable. Hunslet Mill is being treated as a priority case by Leeds City Council and Historic England but if the developer doesn’t take action soon there will be little left to develop.

Director of the The Victorian Society, Christopher Costelloe, said: ‘We’re grateful to everyone who nominated the Hunslet Mill and Victoria Works. Like all the buildings included in this year’s Top Ten, it is a listed building meaning that the Government has recognised its national importance. The Council are to be commended for prioritising the building but the owners need to act soon. I urge the public to share the Top Ten, and Griff’s message, to help raise awareness of the situation and help the mills find the investment they so desperately need.’

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