Bell Mill, St Roque's Lane, Dundee

Bell Mill, St Roque's Lane, Dundee

Four fireproof flax mills are grouped around a yard, forming an imposing industrial complex in central Dundee. Listed in clockwise order, they are Bell Mill on St Roques Lane (1866), North Mill on Princes Street (1935), Dens Street Mill on Dens Street (1865), and St Roques Mill (1830s, rebuilt internally in 1889).

Bell Mill was designed by Peter Carmichael in 1866. It is a five-storey mill with attic, comprising 12 bays by 3 bays and constructed with an iron frame and rubble masonry. The imposing southern elevation displays four bays with projecting Italian Renaissance-style stair and lift towers. These towers feature roundheaded windows, blind to the south and paired at the sixth floor. The western stair tower is particularly fine, topped with a square cupola having two arched openings on each face, segmental pediments, a drum, domed roof and cross finial. The eastern tower, which houses a hoist, is balustraded with a flag pole and has a gable oculus. The eastern and western elevations span 12 bays including towers and are faced with channelled ashlar. A triple-arched passageway in ashlar traverses the mill at ground floor level. Later additions include concrete and corrugated-iron lift blocks and a brick single-storey remnant. The northern elevation features a mansard gable with urn finials and spans three bays.

Dens Street Mill was also designed by Peter Carmichael and built in 1865. It is a five-storey mill with attic, arranged in 3 bays by 12 bays, and is rubble-built. The elevation facing Dens Street rises four storeys with an attic, comprising 12 bays of coursed rubble with a top band course. The elevation to the yard is five storeys with an attic, including ground-floor doors. The northern elevation is three storeys with basement and attic, three bays wide, and features a mansard gable with oculus and urn finials. The southern elevation presents a blank mansard gable. The slate roof retains original ornate ventilators.

North Mill was designed by George Pyott and completed in 1935, serving to link Bell Mill and Dens Street Mill. It is two storeys with an attic. The elevation to Princes Street and St Roques Lane is coursed rubble, three bays by 10 bays. At the centre is a roundel inscribed "Baxter Brothers 1935 Lower Dens Works". The elevation to the yard is four storeys, with a reinforced concrete frame and glazing except for the brick top floor. The roof is piended slate. A tunnel to Upper Dens Works has been blocked.

St Roques Mill, also known as Wallace Mill, dates from approximately 1830 to 1840. It was given an iron frame and a taller mansard roof by Baxter Brothers in 1889. The mill is three storeys with basement and attic, arranged in an L-plan with dimensions of 7 bays by 3 bays, and is rubble-built. The elevation to Dens Street comprises a four-bay gable of the mill and a one-bay wing. At attic level, there is a band course with two windows and an oculus. The mansard gable displays urn finials. The southern elevation spans seven bays and includes small blocked basement windows. The western elevation has two basement doors—one with a cornice to stairs and one to the engine house—single windows at ground and first floors, three windows at the second floor and attic, and a mansard gable with oculus and urn finial. The northern elevation to the yard comprises four bays, with a further two bays blocked at upper floors by steel-framed passages linking St Roques and Dens Street Mills. Two large engine house windows are positioned at the west, and a projecting soil chute is present. The mansard slate roof retains original ornate ventilators.

A small lodge with a later first floor, and a retaining boundary wall along Constable Street and St Roques Lane, were constructed in 1889.

The interiors of Dens Street, Bell and St Roques Mills are fireproof, featuring two rows of cast-iron columns carrying cast-iron beams, wrought-iron ties and brick arches. Fine cast-iron gothic roofs rest on clustered columns. Original stairs and cast-iron doors are retained. North Mill has concrete floors on tubular steel columns, but with similar spans to the iron-framed mills.