Salts Mill (sometimes spelled Salt's Mill) is a former textile mill, now an art gallery, shopping centre, and restaurant complex in Saltaire, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was built by Sir Titus Salt in 1853, and the present-day 1853 Gallery takes its name from the date of the building which houses it. The mill has many paintings by the local artist David Hockney on display and also provides offices for Pace plc.
The Mill and surrounding village of Saltaire was financed and built by the 19th century industrialist and philanthropist Sir Titus Salt after he observed other textile factories and was disappointed by the working conditions he saw there. At the time mill working conditions were commonly poor, with most workers suffering disease, low wages and labour exploitation. Dangerous machinery and long hours, sometimes exceeding 16 hour working days, resulted in frequent accidents. Titus Salt acknowledged this and built a factory and surrounding village with which he intended to improve the working conditions for his employees. When completed, the mill was the largest industrial building in the world by total floor area. It is a grade II* listed building. [1] The mill closed in 1986 and the following year it was sold to Jonathan Silver, who began a long renovation scheme. [2]
The spellings Salts Mill and Salt's Mill (that is, with and without an apostrophe) are both commonly used. The former is used consistently by the Salts Mill website [3] and the Saltaire Village website; [4] the latter by Visit Bradford from the official Bradford Tourist Information service. [5] Both versions are used in the UNESCO World Heritage documentation. [6]
Bradford's Peace Museum moved to the third floor of the mill in August 2024. [7] The move was paid for by the Bradford 2025 City of Culture fund and the national lottery. [8]
Derwent Valley Mills is a World Heritage Site along the River Derwent in Derbyshire, England, designated in December 2001. It is administered by the Derwent Valley Mills Partnership. The modern factory, or 'mill', system was born here in the 18th century to accommodate the new technology for spinning cotton developed by Richard Arkwright. With advancements in technology, it became possible to produce cotton continuously. The system was adopted throughout the valley, and later spread so that by 1788 there were over 200 Arkwright-type mills in Britain. Arkwright's inventions and system of organising labour was exported to Europe and the United States.
Sir Titus Salt, 1st Baronet was an English manufacturer, politician and philanthropist in Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, who is best known for having built Salt's Mill, a large textile mill, together with the attached village of Saltaire, West Yorkshire.
Saltaire is a Victorian model village near Shipley, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the River Aire, the railway, and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Salt's Mill and the houses were built by Titus Salt between 1851 and 1871 to allow his workers to live in better conditions than the slums of Bradford. The mill ceased production in 1986, and was converted into a multifunctional location with an art gallery, restaurants, and the headquarters of a technology company. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and on the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
Shipley is a historic market town and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Baildon is a town and civil parish in the Bradford Metropolitan Borough in West Yorkshire, England and within the historic boundaries of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Bradford, also known as the City of Bradford, is a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns and villages of Keighley, Shipley, Bingley, Ilkley, Haworth, Silsden, Queensbury, Thornton and Denholme. Bradford has a population of 528,155, making it the fourth-most populous metropolitan district and the sixth-most populous local authority district in England. It forms part of the West Yorkshire Urban Area conurbation which in 2011 had a population of 1,777,934, and the city is part of the Leeds-Bradford Larger Urban Zone (LUZ), which, with a population of 2,393,300, is the fourth largest in the United Kingdom after London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Salt is a dietary mineral, used for flavoring and preservation.
Lister Mills was the largest silk factory in the world. It is located in the Manningham district of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England and was built by Samuel Cunliffe Lister to replace the original Manningham Mills which had been destroyed by fire in 1871. The mill is a Grade II* listed building, built in the Italianate style of Victorian architecture.
The Wool Exchange Building in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England is a grade I-listed building built as a wool-trading centre in the 19th century. The grandeur of its Gothic Revival architecture is symbolic of the wealth and importance that wool brought to Bradford. Today it is a Waterstones bookshop as well as a cafe.
Bradford is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the 1974 reform, the city status has belonged to the larger City of Bradford metropolitan borough. It had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 census, making it the second-largest subdivision of the West Yorkshire Built-up Area after Leeds, which is approximately 9 miles (14 km) to the east. The borough had a population of 552,644, making it the 9th most populous district in England.
Jonathan Silver (1949–1997) was an entrepreneur from Bradford, Yorkshire, England; he was responsible for the restoration of Salts Mill as a thriving cultural, retail, and commercial centre.
Roberts Park is a 14 acres (5.7 ha) public urban park in Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England. Higher Coach Road, Baildon, is to the north and the park is bounded to the south by the River Aire. A pedestrian footbridge crosses the Aire and links the park to the village of Saltaire. The park is an integral part of the Saltaire World Heritage site.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Victoria Hall, Saltaire is a Grade II* listed building in the village of Saltaire, near Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, built by architects Lockwood and Mawson.
Saltaire United Reformed Church is a church at Saltaire, West Yorkshire, England. Commissioned and paid for by Titus Salt in the mid 19th century, the church is a Grade I listed building and sits within the Saltaire World Heritage Site.
William Mawson was an English architect best known for his work in and around Bradford.
Drummond Mill was a complex of industrial buildings on Lumb Lane, Manningham, Bradford, West Yorkshire. It contained originally a spinning mill, a warehouse, a spinning shed, and an engine house with chimney and was destroyed in a fire on 28 January 2016.
Saltaire is a model village in Shipley, a ward in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The village contains 93 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, four are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. In 1850 Titus Salt started to build a textile mill, known as Salt's Mill, alongside the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and then developed the model village to house and serve its workers. This included housing, shops, and community buildings, all of which are listed. The architects for the entire scheme, including later mills, were the Bradford architects Lockwood and Mawson. All the listed buildings built between 1850 and 1870 were designed by them. The later listed buildings are a tram shed, a war memorial and a telephone kiosk.
Milner Field was a large country house near Saltaire in West Yorkshire, England built in 1872 for Titus Salt Junior, youngest son of the Yorkshire wool merchant and philanthropist Sir Titus Salt and demolished in the 1950s. The house was situated at the edge of the village of Gilstead, near Bingley, overlooking the Aire Valley in the direction of Salt senior's model village of Saltaire and Salts Mill.
Thomas Milnes was an English sculptor. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1842 to 1866. He also exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851 and the International Exhibition in 1862.
53°50′20″N1°47′16″W / 53.8388°N 1.7879°W