The Spaces We Need to Be Loud:
The Closure of Brunswick Mill
Harry Verrier
A short bus ride from Piccadilly Gardens, nestled on the edge of the Ancoats area stands a huge former factory: Brunswick Mill, home of the aptly named Brunswick Mill Studios. The mill is very old. It was built in 1840 and at that time it was one of England’s largest cotton spinning factories.
You can tell Brunswick Mill has seen better days, it stands now, decrepit and decomposing, with smashed windows, bared doors and dark hallways. However, whilst on the outside Brunswick Mill may seem to be just another abandoned factory, wastefully rotting away; in reality, it was a mecca for artists and creatives across Manchester. It was a grass-roots dream, a melting pot of Manchester creatives, complete with authentic awful toilets, graffiti everywhere, and a local chippy! It was even a prominent filming location, with Liam Gallagher shooting the music video for ‘One of Us’ there, as well as Netflix and Disney plus using it as a filming location.
Where cheap rents can be found, musicians can inevitably be to, and Brunswick Mill offered great rooms at affordable prices especially for students. At Brunswick Mill studios, you could rent sound-proofed practice rooms with round the clock access, an essential need for any up-and-coming band. Tigers and Flies, Plaster, Pyncher, Cruush, and Witch Fever to name a few have all used these rooms to hone their sound. What Brunswick provided was a space for bands to hone their craft, perfect their songs and develop as artist. Whilst it may seem as if acts spring, fully formed onto the stage and stardom, the reality is that what’s performed on stage is the result of many hours of practice at spaces like Brunswick.
Yet despite its cultural value, Brunswick Mill was sold to a property developer who intend on turning the building into yet more luxury apartments.
Whilst the developers may argue that their investment into the refurbishment of the derelict property is their investment in the local community, less than 20% of flats renovated will be affordable to someone on Manchester’s average gross-household income and currently there are no plans for any green areas or parks for the local neighbourhood. If anything, one could argue that the addition of yet more luxury apartments to Ancoats will only serve to increase gentrification. This development solely stands as a development for the sake of profit, not for helping or uplifting the community around it.
The development of Brunswick Mill is an example of a pressing issue across the country: our cultural spaces are being erased in favour of bigger developments and expensive homes. The government seems to have forgotten that people make communities, not the expensive homes they live in. Whether it’s the ongoing noise complaints affecting Night and Day, the closure of the Leadmill in Sheffield, or the Aylesham Centre plans for a mega construct in the heart of Peckham. The places which bring cultural value to an area are being washed away and the communities at the heart of these developments aren’t being offered anything in return.
Developers and local councils need to consider the affect they are having on the neighbourhoods they develop in and should consider how they can use their developments to help the communities around them. Were Brunswick Mill being turned into a block of affordable homes, with green spaces and local community centres like youth clubs or playgrounds, we could still see the loss of our grassroots space as a positive change for Ancoats.
We need places to be loud, to let loose, to move and shake our bodies, to meet friends and make new ones. In the age of isolation and increasing loneliness, they are essential, and what brings community to an area. They are our cultural homes and as usual, government policy is failing to value them as such.
Whilst this feature was intended more as an opinion piece ( I am a student not an official newspaper after all),a lot of effort has been made to make sure Information for this piece is correct. All information was sourced from the following sources:
https://themanc.com/audio/brunswick-mill-development-musicians-leave-ancoats-manchester/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_Mill,_Ancoats
https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/maryland-looks-to-offload-brunswick-mill/
