Sky's the limit for old Flax Mill revamp
When you look at the Manhattan skyline – at the Empire State, the Chrysler, or any of the dizzying array of buildings that make up the towering New York island – you might not see the DNA that links it to Shrewsbury. But it's there.
A couple of generations removed maybe, but the family tree that ends with the new World Trade Centre, London's Gherkin, or the world's tallest building – the 829 metre Burj Khalifa in Dubai – always twists back to Shropshire's county town.
Ditherington's Flax Mill might not look like the most impressive of buildings today. Birds roost in its rafters and soil its darkened corners, while every species of British bat you care to imagine sits silently in the darkness of its fourth floor.
But plans are afoot to restore the world's first iron-framed building. The design of the iron structure was used to build the first skyscraper. The mill was also the first in Shrewsbury to benefit from gas lighting.
Businesses are now being asked for their input into the £12.2 million phase one development of the mill, the latest in a long series of restoration attempts.
"It's a great building," says the council's investment officer Claire Cox. "But it has got to be commercially viable for its tenants. After the first phase there would be 200 or 300 people working on the site, but the earlier we can get occupiers on board, we can start to identify their requirements.
"They would then be in a position to work with architects and say what they do and don't want. The key is with state-of-the-art infrastructure, and things like second or third generation broadband would be a given. The type of businesses will be those that see themselves having some kind of synergy with the building: architects, engineers, those that see the innovation aspects of being inside the world's first skyscraper. I know there will be some kind of serviced office requirement already.
"A single, 300 person inward investment would be amazing in what it would bring to the local economy. I know it's incredibly ambitious, but this building should have international appeal."
Artists' impressions show an open, airy building with sunshine streaming through its huge windows.
At present, that isn't the reality of the situation. Boards cover the openings where once there were windows. Signs warn against flash photography that may disturb the bats.
As we stand inside the dye house next to the mill – what will be a public visitor centre – clouds of snow plume through cracks in the roof.
Years of wrangling over how to bring the site back into effective use have left the prospect of it returning to its role as a vital segment of Shrewsbury looking less likely than ever. So, it's hardly surprising that some people feel they have heard all this before, but Mrs Cox believes this time there is momentum behind the Flax Mill's potential rebirth.
"English Heritage took it over in 2005 and before that it was in commercial hands," she said. "There was talk of the regeneration of this northern corridor, as far as Doncasters Aerospace, and this is the main building within that. This project started to gain momentum then. Since then the partners, us, English Heritage and the Friends of the Flax Mill, have started to galvanise support, and we are starting to look for support from the public realm, which commercial developers don't have access to.
"Shropshire Council is behind this, the Friends have about 800 members, English Heritage want it off the 'heritage at risk' register. It feels to me like it's galvanised support, and everybody is at the same point. Everybody is behind the restoration."
Even if it is a little rough around the edges, the Flax Mill is nonetheless a beautiful, fascinating, and historically vital building. Its period detail remains in the ornate twists and loops of the iron skeleton whose ribs run along each of its floors. The huge kiln, which lies in darkness, will be bathed in light and provide an arresting sight for visitors to the offices inside.
That will come as part of the project's initial phase, financed – fingers crossed – with a mixture of European and Lottery funding. The mill will be restored and its windows unblocked to provide views across Shrewsbury. The dye and stove house will also be brought back into use with space for schools, a café, space for artists and even, possibly, a micro-brewery.
As more tenants come on board, they could help unblock some of the roads towards additional funding to allow further stages to be completed. Phase two will see infrastructure installed to make the area of Salton Road commercially viable for developers to come on board, while the third step will be to develop the wider area along the nearby canal for residential space.
The council has bought the nearby bus depot which will provide parking in the early days, which could provide a long-term solution for the shortage of car space. The back of the site could also provide an alternative access to Greenfields to relieve pressure on traffic in Ditherington Road.
It's all due to happen rather quickly, too. With announcements on funding coming in spring, and contractors and a project manager signed up, work could begin this year, and occupiers could be moving in within three years.
