Albion Mills was a

steam-powered A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tra ...

flour mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

situated on the southeastern side of

Blackfriars Bridge Blackfriars Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, between Waterloo Bridge and Blackfriars Railway Bridge, carrying the A201 road. The north end is in the City of London near the Inns of Court and Temple Chu ...

in northern

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

, London, then in the parish of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, Surrey.

Matthew Boulton Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engine ...

began plans for the mill as early as 1783; it was completed in 1786, and gutted by fire in 1791. Most of the notable engineering drawings and depictions of Albion Mills are in the

Birmingham Central Library Birmingham Central Library was the main public library in Birmingham, England, from 1974 until 2013, replacing a library opened in 1865 and rebuilt in 1882. For a time the largest non-national library in Europe, it closed on 29 June 2013 and was ...

Facility

The building was designed by the architect

Samuel Wyatt Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was primarily in a ...

. The engines were supplied with water taken directly from the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

. At the time, they were "the most complete and powerful which had been produced by the

Soho Manufactory The Soho Manufactory () was an early factory which pioneered mass production on the assembly line principle, in Soho, Birmingham, England, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. It operated from 1766–1848 and was demolished in 1853. Be ...

". The mill's wheels and shafts were made of iron. An exception to this were some of the cogs, which were of hard wood, though others were of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

, as were the

pinion A pinion is a round gear—usually the smaller of two meshed gears—used in several applications, including drivetrain and rack and pinion systems. Applications Drivetrain Drivetrains usually feature a gear known as the pinion, which may ...

s. The teeth, some of wood and others of iron, were manufactured by chipping and filing into

epicycloid In geometry, an epicycloid is a plane curve produced by tracing the path of a chosen point on the circumference of a circle—called an ''epicycle''—which rolls without slipping around a fixed circle. It is a particular kind of roulette. Equati ...

al shapes. The shafts and axles were made of iron and the bearings of

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

. The mill's double engine, producing , drove 20 pairs of

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...

s, each grinding some nine bushels of corn an hour. It also provided power for raising corn, fanning it to free it of impurities, sifting it, dressing the meal and lowering it into the barges, which made the process more efficient.

History

The mill was built in 1786 by Matthew Boulton, with the backing of City financiers and

Joah Bates Joah Bates ( – 8 June 1799) was an English musician. Life Joah Bates was baptized at the parish church in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Halifax on 8 March 1740 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. (8 March 1741 Old Style and New Style dates, N.S.). ...

, an organ player and composer who "embarked all his own money and 10,000/ belonging to his wife" to build it. It was the first steam-powered commercial flour mill in the United Kingdom.

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...

, an associate of Boulton, was personally hired to build a steam engine for the mill to grind corn. Watt's engine was tested before numerous spectators, including Sir

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

, but encountered problems with the

sun and planet gear The sun and planet gear is a method of converting reciprocating motion to rotary motion and was used in the first rotative beam engines. It was invented by the Scottish engineer William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, but was patente ...

, and the piston rods. Repairs were completed in April 1786. The cost of erecting the mill proved to be considerably in excess of the original estimate, and Watt soon feared that it would turn out to be a losing concern. He had no doubt that the engines or the machinery would be able to do all that had been promised; but he feared that the absence of business capacity on the part of the managers would be fatal to the mill's commercial success. In September 1786, the

Duke of Milan The following is a list of rulers of Milan from the 13th century to 1814, after which it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia by the Congress of Vienna. Before elevation to duchy Until 1259, Milan was a free commune that elect ...

visited the mills. By 1789, a second engine had been installed. The business thrived, and by June 1790 the mill was producing sales of £6,800 in flour a week. However, problems remained with its running and maintenance, and Boulton was dissatisfied with the results.

Fire

At 06:30 on 2 March 1791, a fire gutted the building, devastating Bates financially. The building was completely gutted within two hours. Several houses near the mills were also burnt down. Damage was estimated at £150,000. Over 500 people became unemployed. Arson was strongly suspected, but Rennie and Wyatt, the manager of the mill, blamed a lack of grease on a corn machine in front of the kiln, and called the fire an accident. In response to the loss of the Albion Mills, the proprietors of mills at Blackwall,

Limehouse Limehouse is a district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It is east of Charing Cross, on the northern bank of the River Thames. Its proximity to the river has given it a strong maritime character, which it retains throug ...

and Poplar,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

and

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of Dogs ...

, Surrey restarted business, their mills having been idle for more than three years. The gutting of the mill and the end of a period during which the Albion Mills Company held a virtual monopoly on the London flour market was warmly received by some rivals in London, particularly when plans to build a new engine and mill were eventually rejected and the old mill was converted into houses. According to Graham Gibberd, the Albion Mills building became "London's symbol for the impending industrial revolution", and the shell of the building was the inspiration for

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

's "dark satanic mills" in his poem ''

And did those feet in ancient time "And did those feet in ancient time" is a poem by William Blake from the preface to his epic '' Milton: A Poem in Two Books'', one of a collection of writings known as the Prophetic Books. The date of 1804 on the title page is probably when the ...

''. Most of the notable engineering drawings and depictions of the Albion Mills are in the Boulton & Watt Archive of Birmingham Central Library.

References

* * Bibliography * * * *{{cite book, last=Smiles, first=Samuel, title=Lives of the Engineers: Harbours. Lighthouses. Bridges. Smeaton and Rennie, url=https://archive.org/details/livesengineers05smilgoog, year=1874, publisher=J. Murray Flour mills in the United Kingdom Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Southwark 1786 establishments in England 1791 disestablishments in England 1791 disasters 1780s in London 1790s in London Fires in London Economic history of London Commercial buildings completed in 1786 18th-century architecture in the United Kingdom