Victoria Riverside (Leeds)

Victoria Riverside (formerly known as the Hunslet Mill and Victoria Works Complex) is a series of very large previously disused mill buildings regenerated into apartment buildings on Goodman Street in Leeds, England. The regeneration, carried out between 2017 and 2023, introduced two new buildings alongside the restoration of five listed structures.

Background

The complex contains five listed buildings, plus two new buildings added during the regeneration project from 2017 to 2023. The five individual listed structures within the complex are Hunslet Mill (Grade II*),

Victoria Flax Mill entrance range and bollards, Victoria Works Range, the former drying house part of Victoria Flax Mill complex, and Mill Range (all Grade II listed).

At the time of its completion, the mill was the largest regeneration project of its kind in Europe.

History

1800–1970: Hunslet Mill and Victoria Works Complex

In 1838 the Victoria Works mill was constructed for W. B. Holdsworth. Victoria Works was occupied by a tailoring company called Botterill & Senior from the 1930s and later was owned by a firm of ironmongers called R. H. Bruce.

The adjacent Hunslet Mill was constructed by William Fairbairn for John Wilkinson and completed circa 1842. By 1847 some 1,500 female staff were employed in the mill reeling flax. The mill was occupied by a firm of linen manufacturers called Richard Buckton and Son from 1868 and then by a firm of blanket weavers called Dodgson and Hargreaves from the mid-1920s until it closed in 1966.