Temple Mill

Temple Mill, Marshall Street, Holbeck, Leeds

This flax spinning mill was built in two phases between 1838 and 1843 to designs by architect Ignatius Bonomi the younger of Durham, with James Combe as engineer, for John Marshall and Company. It now serves as a mail order warehouse and offices.

The building is constructed of brick with a cast-iron frame and ashlar facade. The roof is flat, covered with twentieth-century asphalt and lead, and features conical glazed skylights that have been restored. A parapet with stone steps rises to a roof light over the engine house.

The structure comprises two ranges. The main mill range, completed in 1840, measures approximately 125 by 70 metres and covers nearly two acres. The office and counting house block projects from the north side and was completed in 1843. The entire design follows the Egyptian Revival style, replicating the Temple at Edfu.

The main range rises as a tall single-storey structure over a basement, with a two-storey range and former engine house positioned on the north side. The street frontage features battered walls and a coved cornice, interrupted by 18 recessed columns with papyrus capitals. These columns punctuate a screen wall containing wood-framed small-pane windows. The right return incorporates the mill entrance, accessed by a restored flight of curved steps that lead to deeply-recessed double doors, each of three panels with a small-pane overlight.

The office block rises two storeys and presents a central entrance set within a moulded surround, topped by a winged solar disc. Flanking this entrance are elaborate giant columns bearing lotus capitals, with a single-storey screen wall decorated with Egyptian motifs. First-floor windows are small-pane and set back, while deep coving carved with hieroglyphics and the winged sun runs across the facade.

The interior of the mill entrance contains a lobby with an inserted partition, original doors, and stairs to offices. The single-storey mill space employs a cast-iron frame composed of columns styled as papyrus bundles, which support brick shallow groined vaults pierced by circular skylights. Two sets of wrought-iron tie bars link the column heads. An original clock in a moulded stone surround occupies the north wall, featuring a metal face, painted numerals, and a long minute hand. A stone spiral staircase rises to basement and upper floors near the entrance lobby. The basement, which remains unseen, contains brick piers and vaulting.

The office entrance hall contains a wide staircase with a cast-iron balustrade featuring moulded balusters and ramped handrail. Stairs ascend to a landing with double panelled doors, with narrower doors to left and right.

The decision to build a single-storey mill came after comparisons with the traditional multi-storey units the firm had already constructed elsewhere in Marshall Street. Only one other such building was erected, a half-acre weaving shed of brick and stone construction at Deanston in central Scotland. This building represents the zenith of the Marshall Mills flax business in Leeds and acquired a legendary reputation within years of completion. The Egyptian design is attributed to Egyptologist Joseph Bonomi, the architect's brother, Egypt having held an important flax industry in the ancient world.

The business ceased production in 1886 and subsequently became a clothing factory operated by James Rhodes and Company, later becoming Kay and Company in 1952.