Property

One of Manchester’s oldest surviving Victorian mills to be repurposed into ‘distinctive’ rental homes

A £37m funding deal has been agreed.

Emily Sergeant - 19th February 2025

A multi-million funding deal has been agreed to repurpose one of Manchester’s oldest surviving Victorian mills.

After £55 million plans to reimagine Talbot Mill into a 10-storey apartment block began back in May of last year, social impact developers Capital&Centric have now agreed a £37 million deal with Paragon Bank to finance the restoration of the historic mill and repurpose it into 190 new distinctive properties for rent.

Built in 1855 overlooking the canal, the imposing red-brick mill on Ellesmere Street in the Castlefield neighbourhood was the product of Manchester’s textile boom.

One of the city’s last massive mills to be restored, it was Talbot that spearheaded the rapid transformation of the Cornbrook area from undeveloped land to a powerful industrial hub in the late 19th century, before going on to dominate the local cotton industry in the early 1900s.

It was even used as a mushroom farm in the 1980s, while more recently, it has been the set of a period drama and a massive art exhibition.

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But when the restoration is complete, over half the development will be newly-built and will offer residents of the nearly 200 ‘distinctive’ apartments a lush hidden garden, with plenty of green spaces to meet and hang out, while still managing to celebrate the mill’s past and retain loads of original features.

Capital&Centric is developing Talbot Mill as an investment, which it will retain for rent once finished.

This is something the developers have already done successfully on a number of sites in recent years, especially in its lengthy run of restoring Manchester’s iconic listed buildings and mixing the old in with the new.

“We love to restore and repurpose historic buildings,” explained Tom Wilmot, who is the joint managing director at Capital&Centric.

“But as one of Manchester’s oldest mills, Talbot Mill is something a bit different, so we’re buzzing to be bringing it back to its former glory, [as] it had a huge role to play in the industrial revolution in the city and now it gets to be part of the city’s future.

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“We’re retaining as many features as we can, to keep the history of the mill alive and so that our residents can enjoy becoming custodians of the past whilst enjoying all the trappings of modern-day living.”

Featured Image – Capital&Centric