Stockport’s Weir Mill: These buildings have stories to tell

The complex will transform two historic mill buildings into apartments and add multiple new buildings, while demolishing some of the complex as well. The new buildings are designed to emphasise their engineering in tribute to Victorian infrastructure, while public spaces are intended to welcome the wider community in, and create a hub for Stockport. “One of the things Covid has been useful for is reminding us why architecture is important, and why public space is important,” says Heatley.

Mark Braund, the architect director at BDP leading the design at Weir Mill, says one of the unique characteristics of the site is the layers of history, because mill complexes were out built over time: “There are even remnants of a wheel house that drove the mill before steam engines, too dangerous to access now, with a bit that’s probably still sitting in under the Mersey today, with timbers from the original water wheel.”

Heatley says it’s unusual for Capital&Centric to work with a large architecture practice such as BDP, who are “much bigger” than the developer as a company. “It’s about the individual. Mark gets it, and that’s important. That person has to have passion and sit alongside you.”

That passion extends to working with older buildings: “A lot of our previous projects involve existing buildings. They have real character to them and that creates a challenge that requires you to have more innovative solutions and be creative. We like that.”

Heatley says VAT reform – refurbishment is taxed where new-build is not – would remove the incentive to demolish: “It’s much easier to keep a building and repurpose it and bring it back to life than it is to tear it down, munch it to pieces, dig it into the ground and put a new building above it.

“That seems just nuts to us, it always has. It destroys value. It destroys the climate unnecessarily. Look, I’m not an ecowarrior – that’s just common sense.”