THE Royal Mills in Ancoats, Manchester, were destined to be a showpiece
development when the first bricks were laid almost 200 years ago. They are a
showpiece development once more — although Villeroy & Boch
bathrooms and granite kitchens have replaced the rows of cotton-spinning
machines removed when the mills ceased production in 1959.
The four red-brick mills, built between 1818 and 1913, have been transformed
into 312 apartments by ING Real Estate at a cost of £85 million. It is
impossible not to be awestruck by the sheer scale and workmanship of these
buildings. There are ultra-modern skyscrapers going up a few minutes’ walk
away in the city centre, but owning a piece of this history — which you can,
from £160,000 for a one-bedroom, 723 sq ft flat — would be its own reward.
It is not just in Manchester that mills are coming back to life. The trend is
beginning to have an impact on the property market in the former textile
towns that straddle the Pennines between Manchester and West Yorkshire.
Buyers who want the cachet of “loft-living” without city-centre hassles or
price tags, are discovering an alternative option. In Stalybridge, where
Urban Splash is creating 44 apartments in the existing 19th-century
Longlands Mill, and planning a new-build of 57 more, 500 people have
registered their interest, though marketing is not due to start for weeks.
The 12-minute train journey to central Manchester is a major draw.
“In Yorkshire, the most popular conversions are peripheral to Leeds city
centre,” says Anne Haggas, partner at Knight Frank in Leeds. “Places like
Shipley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Mirfield, where there are usually excellent
rail links. People seeking these mill conversions don’t want to live in a
city centre; they can work in the city but live in their home town.” A long
association with the wool trade has left Huddersfield with a legacy of
mills, and with good transport connections to Leeds and Manchester.
One of the most imaginative conversions in Huddersfield is Titanic Mill in
Linthwaite. It was built in 1912, the same year as the ill-fated liner, and
was reclaimed from dereliction in 2003. There are 39 of the 140 apartments
still for sale; prices start at £135,450 for a 561 sq ft one-bedroom
apartment, and from £232,150 for a 998 sq ft, two-bedroom one. Titanic
claims eco-credentials; the apartments are designed to be carbon neutral,
and the site has its own bore-hole to provide heating and drinking water.
The piãce de résistanceis the full-scale health spa on the
ground floor with a pool, heat rooms and restaurant. For £250 (refunded on
purchase), potential buyers can stay overnight in a show flat, indulge in a
few treatments, and, so the marketing blurb goes, “live the dream”.
Amy Burton, 29, works with her husband, Warwick, Titanic Mill’s spa director,
and does just that. They live in a 1,184 sq ft, two-bedroom flat on the
fourth floor with their 15-month-old son, Thorin. “We relocated here last
year from a four-bedroom detached house in Derby,” she says. “We had heard
all these horror stories about living in an apartment with children, but so
far none has come true. We have plenty of room, and none is wasted. I
reckon, in square footage terms, we have about the same space.”
Also in Huddersfield, in the suburb of Longwood, the heritage conversion
specialist P.J. Livesey is turning Parkwood Mills into 183 apartments. At
first sight the colossal mill complex, with its looming towers and rows of
windows, suggests “prison” rather than “home”.
Wherever you find a mill conversion, you will find sceptical locals. Many
mills are listed buildings, but are not always in the most sought-after
spots, are often surrounded by semi-industrial land, and the views might be
of rows of houses rather than rolling hills. Anne Haggas sees this as a
plus: “You have an infrastructure already in place, such as corner shops,
which you don’t always get in a city.” Good point. But when you look up at a
crumbling, burnt-out mill, it is amazing to imagine how anybody could
actually turn such a place into cosy rooms.
So where does a developer start? Ralph Brocklehurst, technical director of
P.J. Livesey, says: “Initial instinct prevails when one sees a building for
the first time. It is then a matter of taking off the rose-tinted glasses
and going through an automatic series of responses to the problems that
buildings generate.” What might those problems be? “Cast-iron columns and
wrought-iron beams can cause havoc. Major timber floor beams can appear
solid from a visual inspection but be rotten internally. Then there are
underground water races, mill ponds and rivers. Subsidence, the mill chimney
. . . harmonic vibration caused by the looms and spinning machines can have
a permanent effect on the structure . . . contamination, birds, bats and
environmental issues . . .” The cost of dealing with this lot puts a major
dent in the theory that mill developers snap up old wrecks to make a fast
buck. In the show flat at Victoria Mills in Shipley, near Bradford, there’s
not a bat dropping in sight. It’s all natural stone and buffed-up original
oak. But conversion of this old worsted mill is costing Newmason Properties
at least £75 million. Apartments are not the cheapest, priced from £175,000
for 631 sq ft and one bedroom, £225,000 for 672 sq ft and two bedrooms.
Andrew Mason, co-owner of Newmason, speaks with messianic zeal. His aim is to
build a 21st-century community for home-workers and commuters to rival the
“workers’ utopia” created by the 19th-century industrialist Titus Salt down
the road in Saltaire. The finished site will have more than 400 converted
and new-build apartments, tennis courts, riverside walks and shops. “People
are buying into the heritage, buying into a listed structure,” he says. “It
is our responsibility to do as the Victorians did, and create a building
which will continue to last for generation after generation.”
Royal Mills, Manchester, Knight Frank, 161-237 9435, www.royalmills.co.uk;
Longlands Mill, Stalybridge, Urban Splash, 07000 373737,
www.urbansplash.co.uk; Titanic Mill, Huddersfield, 0845 2701370,
www.titanic-mill.com; Parkwood Mills, Huddersfield, 0161-873 7878,
www.pjlivesey-group.co.uk; Victoria Mills, Shipley, Knight Frank, 0113-297
9040, www.victoria-mills.com
FACTFILE
The average price of a property in Huddersfield is £146,036 (Land Registry
figures, Oct-Dec 2006), up £11,000 from the same period the previous year.
Overall, prices in Huddersfield have effectively doubled since 2002, when it
was possible to buy a flat for £39,000.
Between October and December 2006, 4,703 properties in Huddersfield changed
hands — 3,580 more than in the previous quarter. Reasons for this include
the release of new-build stock, the town’s popularity with commuters and
increased activity in the student buy-to-let market.
Terraced houses have had the most consistent growth — more than 8 per cent
year-on-year, from an average of £95,795 in 2005 to £103,953 in 2006.
