I love West Yorkshire, especially the industrial landscape. The mills, chimneys and canals portray a rich history built on entrepreneurship and architecture. Of course, it is difficult to show the social aspect of mill life, however, it is important to me to show how the spaces are being used now and the structural and architectural elements which make these buildings so iconic of the northern industrial towns. Temple Works as you will see in the following photographs is architecturally bonkers (3rd image), with Victorian romanticism shown in the Egyptian facade. It is also structurally unsound and has been since its inception. It once boasted the largest room in the world (1st image) and was never powered or heated electrically. It was heated by a weird industrial age eco version of air con (2nd image), which meant the roof needed to be grassed. Sheep were kept up there to keep the grass down. Like I said, a bit bonkers.
The Mill is now home to individual artists, film makers, photographers and bands.
I wanted the ‘Get off yer bike…’ image to portray the vivid colour of the bicycle and John Wayne’s fake lipstick. I took the image of the internal posts to show the contrast between dark and light on opposite sides of the pillar ‘line’. The images of the posters, I took because they show diversity, faded glory and a touch of irony. The wanted the images to look grimy and ‘urban’ to reflect the current use of the mill and also the working conditions people endured during the industrial period.
The roof requires some propping!
Some of the spaces were useful to practise some low light photography
This tour of Temple Works has inspired me to concentrate on the industrial heritage of Leeds and Bradford and I hope to provide some historical background along with the images.
Temple 