Verdant Mill, West Henderson's Wynd, Dundee

Verdant Mill is an A-grade listed building, a substantial 1833 flax mill with ancillary buildings added in the mid-19th century. The main mill is a two-storey and attic structure built of rubble, originally 18 bays by 3 bays in plan. The elevation facing Miln Street has 18 bays, with a square chimney built into the corner bay, constructed of stone to the cornicing level, brick above, featuring an iron tie-band and a section of the top 20 feet removed. The north elevation includes a window and a blocked door to the boiler house, alongside two tall roundheaded windows associated with the engine house, and two smaller first-floor windows above, to the left. Thirteen bays to the east feature two-storey arrangements of eight-pane sash and case windows; some windows have been replaced to accommodate a new entrance. A corniced parapet tops the building, and a slate mansard roof incorporates a continuous skylight and a dormer over the lift. A stone party wall separates the boiler house section from the main mill. The west-facing gable includes a chimney and a blind ground floor, with a three-bay first floor, cornicing, and three multi-paned sash and case windows set into the mansard gable. The south elevation, also 18 bays, features three arched bays to the west housing the ground-floor boiler house with a window and hoist door above. Further openings in the ground floor wall, dating from circa 1846-51, provide access from a preparing room, some being shouldered and supported by cast-iron beams. The first floor features sash and case windows, cornicing, and a parapet.

Internally, the mill features a central row of iron columns with triangular brackets and saddles, a north row of subsidiary columns (four of which have brackets), and a south row of wooden posts supporting cross-wise timber beams and a wooden ceiling. The engine house has a wheel pit, wall-boxes, and boarded walls and ceiling. The first floor contains a single row of iron columns supporting a lengthwise wooden beam with subsidiary cross-beams on wooden posts. A plastered ceiling finishes the first floor. The attic has two rows of iron columns supporting a gothic traceried cast-iron roof, which may be a rebuild following a fire at Upper Dens Mill.

A preparing room, dating from circa 1846-51, is a single-storey structure with a delicate cast-iron roof. Batching rooms in the eastern section, originally dating from the 1830s, were expanded to an L-plan layout circa 1846-51. These are single-storey with iron columns and wooden roof, with a two-storey, five-bay front facing a yard, incorporating ground floor doors and an external stone stair leading to the first floor, under a slate M-roof added in the 1860s.

The office, dating from the 1830s, is a two-storey, three-bay building with a two-bay extension into the ground floor of a storehouse fronting West Henderson’s Wynd. It features 12-pane sash and case windows etched at ground floor level, a slate roof, a party wall, and three ridge stacks. A “Verdant Works” mosaic is incorporated into the doorway, and the north bay lodge has a balustraded wooden counter. The office’s internal features include late 19th century wood and glass panelled partitions and a plaster ceiling.

The attached storehouse, constructed between 1851 and 1857, has a gable facing West Henderson’s Wynd. The ground floor has two office windows and an iron door under an iron lintel; the first floor has a wooden loading door. Skewputts and a flat-topped finial adorn the gable. A blocked first-floor window is located on the south side, obscured by a later building associated with D C Thomson. Loading doors are provided to the yard on both floors, with wooden floors above iron ground-floor columns and wooden first-floor posts.

Finally, a warehouse located at the southeast corner, constructed between 1857 and 1871, features an M-shaped wrought-iron roof supported on iron columns, with rubble walls.