A monumental block of industrial heritage that has stood empty for roughly 35 years is about to be returned to new use. Just as Battersea has defined the skyline of west London, Millennium Mills equally defines the east, and both have stood out for their decades of dereliction. However, while Battersea generated power, Millennium Mills generated flour.
It was one of the largest flour mill complexes ever built in London, and while built to last, the use it was put to soon fell into disuse and the mills closed in the 1980s, and apart from intruders, or film crews, have lain waste ever since.
Millennium Mills is the last of the three great mills that once stood on the site, and is surprisingly, not listed, so could be demolished. However, their bulk and iconic status locally makes that almost unthinkable, so they are being converted into workplaces as an overflow for the sort of companies being priced out of Shoreditch.
Turning the vast bulk into offices won’t be easy though.
Built from monumental concrete — as a fire retardant from dust explosions — the structure is largely decently sound. However, it has asbestos, and a government grant is funding the current works on site to make it safe.
Within the bulk, the intention is to remove the internal grain silos, and the brick walls to expose the scale of the floors, and then plan the layout for future users. That is for the future, as the exact final details are still to be agreed.
At the moment, works are underway to strip out the unwanted parts, including a lot of rotted wooden floors — wood being used away from the flour production, so probably offices and services.
Although much of the concrete is sheer bulky mass, where there are staircases, they have used thin sheets, where the structure is also the design. A style that is very similar to that used in Trellick Tower some 20 years later.
As the grain was pumped up high, and used gravity to drop down to the mills, there are distinctive huge metal cones leftover from the milling days, along with the holes in the roof where grain would have flowed. Roller mills were on the higher levels and processing plansifters and other machinery on the lower floors.
Further down, helter-skelters funnelled milled grains down to be processed and bagged. Maybe they will be polished up and used for people getting between offices?
Investors are already sniffing around the site, and the intention is to have the first occupants move in from 2017, in time for Crossrail to arrive nearby at Custom House station in 2018.
After that, housing will rise up on the lands around the mill. In all they expect this to be a decade long project, which is also just about enough time to avoid the plague of mono-culture development where everything is built at once, to the same design, and ends up as a blot of modern suburbia.
And occupants may get to have one of the most stunning roof patios around, although probably not on a day as windy as today was.
Some more photos:
Thanks to the site management for access to the building.
It’s good that this building is being used for something now.
Turn this vast building into social housing. So much more useful than an overspill for the Shoreditch hipsters.
We don’t need social housing. People need to stop relying on handouts
How about a factory or some kind of business that would create JOBS? People sometimes seem more interested in freebies than actual work or education.
Leave the hipsters alone. They’re honest people that work for their money, hence should be allowed to spend it on whatever they like.
i have some photos of the mill from long ,also one of the large steam engine that used to drive the mill
Hello Dave Arnfield
I worked at Millenium Mills from 1968 to 1974 i was an Apprentice Miller and was a Shift Miller for several years.I would love to see any photos you may have of the Mill.I still remember it well.I have been a Miller for 49 years now!!
Thanks.Sean Malone.
hi sorry its been a long time but i have been extremely busy and have just got back to the site