Islington Mill, Including Engine And Boiler Houses, Warehouse And Stabling

Islington Mill is a cotton spinning mill, built in 1823 and subsequently altered and extended, now used as retail and office premises in Salford. Originally constructed as a room and power mill by David Bellhouse of Manchester, the site was later used for doubling in the early 19th century. The main spinning mill is built of brick with a slate roof, and features a fire-proof internal structure with cast-iron columns supporting transverse brick arches. The original design comprised a single central row of columns, but additional rows were added following a partial collapse in 1824. The mill retains timber queen-post roof construction.

The site includes the main spinning mill, an external engine house and boiler house, a second mill and warehouse range, and office and stabling buildings, enclosing a courtyard. The main mill is six storeys high, with twelve bays, featuring rectangular windows in each bay, and semicircular windows in the gable apexes illuminating an attic storey. An original internal engine house, marked by a round-arched window, was located towards the western end, along with a stair and chimney tower originally situated to its west. This engine house was replaced by an external engine house in the yard, constructed or rebuilt in the late 19th or early 20th century and subsequently heavily modified. A lift tower was added to the south elevation, possibly extending an original privy tower, in 1907-8, and a stair tower at the southeast angle in 1928.

A second mill occupied the western part of the rear of the site by around 1830, but was rebuilt around 1901-2. This is a three-storey brick building with a cast-iron and timber internal structure. An addition to the eastern section of this mill was built around 1840 and survives largely in its original condition, featuring a stair tower to the west and taking-in doors suggesting its use for warehousing. A small office building was added around 1880 to the east of the site entrance, a two-storey, four-window range, with a single-storey wing to the rear that originally contained stabling.

The mill's partial collapse in 1824, attributed to poor casting in the ironwork, is a documented structural failure of early fire-proof mills. The building is listed as a good example of an early 19th century fire-proof mill, notable for the subsequent alterations made following that collapse. The subsequent development of the site demonstrates the adaptation and extension common to textile-working mills.