More than £1 million has been awarded by Historic England to support urgent repairs at the vast Temple Works in Holbeck with a view to making it the new northern home of the British Library. It is a major cash boost for one of the largest Grade I-listed buildings in the north of England with the landmark Victorian building famous for its Egyptian architecture and tales of 19th century sheep grazing on the roof.
The former mill, which opened in 1840 and was once claimed to be the largest indoor space in the world, has been the subject of decades of concern for its future and was placed on the Heritage at Risk Register in 2000. The site has been given a £636,000 grant from the Heritage Stimulus Fund, which is part of the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund, to help with work to prop up the interior of the mill until permanent repairs can be undertaken.
A further £400,000 from Historic England’s Yorkshire region will fund urgent repairs to the Counting House, with its grand Egyptian temple facade, which will then showcase the proposals to turn the site into a new northern base for the British Library. The Counting House provided office space for the mill and visitors are still greeted by its towering lotus columns and walls decorated with Egyptian motifs and hieroglyphics.
