Heritage Timeline

The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 would still have been a raw and recent memory when Islington Mill was constructed in 1823. On 16 August 1819 a peaceful meeting of 60,000 people, united against poverty and exploitative working conditions, gathered at St Peter’s Fields and were soon met with military violence which left 18 innocent people murdered and around 700 seriously injured.

The Peterloo Memorial Campaign hosts a list of those involved (the Peterloo Memorial Campaign’s list of names), several of whom resided on Gravel Lane, where Islington Mill worker Susannah Hambleton also lived at the time of her death in the collapse of Islington Mill. 18 people also died in that terrible incident. You can read more about the collapse and our commemoration of the event at numerous links on our main Heritage page.

The University of Manchester hosts an extensive digital collection relating to Peterloo. the University of Manchester’s Peterloo digital collection to find out more.

“A seven storey mill, twelve bays long, internal beam engine house with upright drive shaft to each floor. On the south side a water tower and extension have been added. An early fire-proof mill constructed in 1823 by the building firm of David Bellhouse, responsible for a number of Manchester’s early mills. Near the terminus of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. Built as a room-and-power mill, which was tenanted to persons involved in cotton spinning.”

— R. McNeil and M. Nevell (2000), A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Manchester

Islington Mill was originally built for cotton spinning in 1823 by the self-taught Leeds-born architect David Bellhouse (1764–1840) for Nathan Gough. Bellhouse’s firm was also responsible for the construction of the Manchester Portico Library, of which Bellhouse was also a founding member, and the original Manchester Town Hall which resided on King Street, designed by Francis Goodwin, and later demolished.

The mill’s original structure had consisted of a single row of cast-iron columns. During the rebuilding, additional rows of support columns were added for structural strength. The re-opened mill was in use for cotton spinning and later for doubling.

The new structure is said to have influenced the design of subsequent mill buildings and there is also an oft-quoted rumour that the architectural structure of the mills of the North West inspired the budding skyscraper builders of Manhattan. We are digging for evidence of this.

In 1853 the Morning Chronicle reported on a festive party held by William Morris at his establishment Islington Mill. Over 400 people attended and it was decorated in a “rough and ready” manner with the beams supporting the roof “hidden by laurel and holly and bay” and “bright coloured tissue paper cut into fringe”. The majority of the party attendees were young women.

“We noticed a few silk dresses, but scarcely any of the staple fabric of the county; the majority had got their exterior habiliments from the other side of Blackson’s edge. Mohair, alpaca, and wool was substituted for New Orleans and affuitive material. These dresses showed off the forms of the wearers to the best advantage; tastefully but neatly made, they were made more agreeable to the eye by nice habit shirts or pretty little collars of pure white turned down about the throat, and confined by a ribbon and a sparkling brooch.”

— Morning Chronicle, 1853

Instead of having garments made by machinists on site, Maurice and Emmanuel Sylvester adapted their business model and began importing clothes from Germany to sell to the people of Salford and beyond in the early 1960s.

Many local Salfordians still remember buying their coats from Islington Mill throughout the 60s and 70s. According to a local woman who had a Saturday job at the store, it was frequented by Coronation Street stars and even Manchester United manager Sir Matt Busby.

We would love to see more photos that people may have of the clothes they bought from the Mill!

Two moments of important change for the Mill occurred in 1996. Firstly, the building was listed by English Heritage as a Grade II structure and was now subject to special protections. (Our building ID number is 471566 if you’d like to our British Listed Buildings entry.)

Secondly, Bill Campbell, a young gay artist living in an adjacent tower block, noticed a ‘TO LET’ sign appear at the old mill across the way. Recently returned to Greater Manchester after studying fashion at Central St Martin’s, Bill rented the fourth floor of Islington Mill to use as his studio.

At this point much of the mill building, particularly the abandoned upper storeys, had been out of use since the 1960s. Bill soon began to share his new space with other artists and the first DIY art happenings (and parties) began to take place. In 1997, just nine months after Bill’s arrival, Islington Mill was put up for sale.

“Art is anything that doesn’t fit easily in a paper bag…”

“Art is life…”

“Art is what you can get away with…”

Following from the Chapel Street Open in 2000, a new multi-venue arts festival emerged the following year, and counted Rachel Goodyear as part of its curatorial team.

‘SHO 1’ is an exciting 12-minute documentary that depicts these events in October 2001 across a number of Chapel Street spaces, emanating from the main venue of Islington Mill.

The film – made by Barry Thomas and commissioned by the Chapel Street Regeneration Project – pinballs around the Mill, capturing detailed shots of work on show including a fashion show, sculpture, painting and installation. The painted line which the camera follows up the staircase, across floors and around doorframes can still be spotted in parts of the building today.

There is footage of open studios and other Mill interiors and exteriors, as well as other Salford and Chapel Street venues, including the Chapman Gallery at University of Salford, and Saint Philip’s Church (watch out for an electric guitar being played by a vibrator).

Other venues mentioned are Ordsall Hall and The Lowry, which at the time had been open less than a year. There are also many shots and fascinating vox pops with audience members.

Running throughout the film is the provocation, ‘What is art?’ which yields answers from the hilarious and rambling to the heartfelt and sublime. The SHO 1 model of a creative hub at Islington Mill with related events spilling up and down Chapel Street can easily be recognised as a prototype festival model for Sounds From The Other City which launched in 2005.

In January 2020 the National Lottery Heritage Fund announced that our funding bid was successful and that £746,000 was to be awarded to Islington Mill to complete our capital fundraising project of over £2 million.

This generous award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund allows for our building programme to commence. That means a new roof, complete weather-proofing of our structure, new entranceways, exterior lift to all floors, a fifth storey walkway, and new live/work/event spaces in a complete transformation of the 5th and 6th floors.

Most importantly of all it means our tenancy of this magnificent building is secured and there will be artists at Islington Mill for hundreds of years to come because of what we all did together in these years.