SAVE welcomes important step towards securing future of extraordinary Leeds landmark
Grade I-listed Temple Works in Leeds has secured a £10m government grant to help transform the extraordinary building into the British Library North. SAVE, which has been campaigning for this characterful former Victorian flax mill since 2018, welcomes the news. It is particularly heartening as it follows an announcement last year from the Treasury that indicated it was “minded to withdraw” the funding as it sought to make savings.
The building, a much-loved landmark in the Holbeck area of the city which has stood empty for 20 years, has a remarkable history. Incredibly, its roof was originally turfed and grazed by sheep which were hoisted up there to regulate the temperature of flax in the shed below. The weaving shed is over two acres, making it perfect for the northern outpost of the national institution.
Its extraordinary Egyptian Revival style earned it a grade-I listing and perhaps references the importance of linen in ancient Egyptian culture. The mill complex was completed in the 1840s and was one of the first, large-scale single-storey factories.
The grant will go a long way to getting this important repair and reuse project over the line.
SAVE has long been at the forefront of the movement to rescue and reuse industrial buildings. More than 40 years ago SAVE’s exhibition Satanic Mills launched a campaign to save the great textile mills of the North of England. SAVE played a role in the rescue Salt’s Mill at Saltaire and supported the pioneering revival of the Crossley carpet Mills in Halifax.
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