Hexagon Tower is a specialist science and technology facility located in
Blackley
Blackley is a suburban area of Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it is approximately north of Manchester city centre, on the River Irk.
History
The hamlet of Blackley was mentioned in the Domesday Book. The name derives from ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
, England.
The site is a former
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) research, development and production centre. Facilities at Blackley have played host to enterprises since 1785, before becoming an integral part of the British Dyestuffs Corporation after 1919 and then ICI in 1926.
Following a purchase in 2008, Hexagon Tower is now part of the Business Environments for Science and Technology (BEST) Network of UK science parks, managed by
LaSalle Investment Management.
History
1785–1926
The site in which Hexagon Tower is located has a long industrial heritage. The first enterprise to locate in the area was the Borelle Dyeworks, established by French
émigré
An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate".
French Huguenots
Many French Huguenots fled France followin ...
Louis Borelle in 1785 to produce the
Turkey red
Turkey red is a color that was widely used to dye cotton in the 18th and 19th century. It was made using the root of the rubia plant, through a long and laborious process. It originated in India or Turkey, and was brought to Europe in the 1740s ...
dye.
Following a period of decline, the site was taken over by another French expatriate, Angel Raphael Louis Delaunay, who arrived in the area at the turn of the 19th century to establish his own dyeing business in Blackley.
Following the death of Delaunay's son and heir Louis, German chemical entrepreneur
Ivan Levinstein
Ivan Levinstein (1845-1916) was a German-born British chemist who pioneered the manufacture of synthetic dyes and helped develop the British chemical industry in the late nineteenth century. He was born in Charlottenburg, Germany, the son of ...
bought the dyeworks in 1865, leading to a period of commercial success for the site.
Besides his dying business, Levinstein was also famed for opening the
Sackville Street Building and founding
Wrexham Lager
Wrexham Lager is a brewery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, that has produced alcoholic drink for more than 120 years. A new brewery opened in 2011 in the heart of Wrexham, after the original closed in 2000. The original brewery was demolishe ...
.
In 1919, Levinstein's operation at Blackley merged with other chemical dyers to form the British Dyestuffs Corporation Limited,
before becoming part of ICI in 1926.
ICI ownership
The ICI was founded in December 1926 from the merger of four companies:
Brunner Mond Brunner may refer to:
Places
* Brunner, New Zealand
* Lake Brunner, New Zealand
* Brunner Mine, New Zealand
* Brunner, Houston, United States
* Brunner (crater), lunar crater
Other uses
* Brunner (surname)
* Brunner the Bounty Hunter, a cha ...
,
Nobel Explosives, the
United Alkali Company, and
British Dyestuffs Corporation
British Dyestuffs Corporation Ltd was a British company formed in 1919 from the merger of British Dyes Ltd with Levinstein Ltd. The British Government was the company's largest shareholder, and had two directors on the board.
Background
By 191 ...
.
[ICI: History](_blank)
Archived from the original on October 17, 2008. Since then, the Blackley Dyeworks site was integrated into the chemical giant's Specialty Chemicals division
Under ICI stewardship of the Blackley Dyeworks, architect Richard Seifert was commissioned to build Hexagon Tower, with construction completed in 1973.
The 14-storey tower was named after the hexagon shaped windows based on the chemical compound
Benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms ...
, which is widely used in the creation of synthetic dyes.
During its height in the 1960s, more than 14,000 people were employed at the site.
However, after growing competition from East Asian dye markets, the Specialty Chemicals division of ICI at Hexagon Tower passed ownership over to
Zeneca
Zeneca (officially Zeneca Group PLC) was a British multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It was formed in June 1993 by the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Che ...
in the mid-1990s.
Zeneca's move into pharmaceuticals saw Hexagon Tower become Avecia's international headquarters when it was bought by the company in 1999.
LaSalle Investment Management
In 2008, LaSalle Investment Management – an independent subsidiary of
Jones Lang LaSalle
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) is a global commercial real estate services company, founded in the United Kingdom with offices in 80 countries. The company also provides investment management services worldwide, including services to insti ...
– purchased Hexagon Tower on behalf of a pension fund client.
LaSalle has turned the facility into a multi-let science park, accommodating a range of tenants from SMEs such as Colour Synthesis Solutions to multi-national firms, including
Intertek
Intertek Group plc is a British multinational assurance, inspection, product testing and certification company headquartered in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
History
Int ...
.
The site now consists of of machine halls, laboratories and office space over 13 floors and a lower ground level with multi-purpose laboratory space.
Hexagon Tower received an
International Standards Organisation
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
certification for its environmental responsibility in January 2014.
Research
The site researched
Triarylmethane dye
Triarylmethane dyes are synthetic organic compounds containing triphenylmethane backbones. As dyes, these compounds are intensely colored. They are produced industrially as dyes.
Families
Triarylmethane dyes can be grouped into families accordin ...
s in the 1920s.
It worked with the
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...
, which opened its Chemistry and Chemical Technology Building in October 1967.
There was extensive building in the late 1960s, with a £3 million new technical services centre for around 700 scientists. The site claimed to have the largest concentration of organic chemists in the Commonwealth.
The son of a Director of Research was Sir
James Baddiley
Sir James Baddiley FRS FRSE (15 May 1918, in Manchester – 17 November 2008, in Cambridge) was a British biochemist.
Early life and education
Baddiley was born and brought up in Manchester. His father was director of research at the ICI ...
FRS, who was the first to synthesise
ATP.
Queen's Awards
The site won the Queen's Award for Export Achievement, and also for Technological Innovation in 1966.
It won the award in 1968 and 1969.
The site won the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement in 1990,
under ICI Colours and Fine Chemicals, for work on benzodifuranone-based dyes.
Zeneca LifeScience Molecules won the Queens Award for Technology in 1997
and the award for Export in 1998.
In 1999 Zeneca Metal Extraction won the Queen's Award for Environmental Achievement.
Timeline of the Blackley Works and Hexagon Tower
* 1785 – The first industrial enterprise at Blackley, the Borelle Dyeworks, establishes, and later becomes Delaunay Dyeworks which was known for producing 'Turkey Red' dye.
* 1865 – Nearly a century after it was first established, the dyeworks is taken over by German commercial science entrepreneur Ivan Levinstein.
* 1919 (June) – After 54 years as Levinstein Ltd., the company merges with British Dyes to become the British Dyestuffs Corporation, controlling 75% of dye production in the UK.
* 1926 – British Dyestuffs Corporation merges with several other commercial chemical enterprises to form Imperial Chemical Industries, which would work at the Blackley site for the next 67 years.
* 1969 - It became the headquarters of the Dyestuffs Division, with 10 factories in northern England and Scotland, with two in Manchester, also in Huddersfield and Teesside. The division exported £45M in the late 1960s.
* 1971 – Richard Seifert is commissioned to design Hexagon Tower, with the building completed in 1973.
* 1993 – ICI sells off the Specialty Chemicals division to the Zeneca Group, including Hexagon Tower, as part of its Fine Chemicals division. It became part of Zeneca Specialties, which made dyes for ink jet printers, resins and products for finishing leather products.
* 1999 – AstraZeneca was formed in April 1999. Zeneca Specialties was sold by AstraZeneca in May 1999 for £1.3bn.
[''Times'' May 1999] Hexagon Tower is sold to Avecia, and establishes its headquarters there, as AstraZeneca moves into pharmaceuticals.
* 2008 – Avecia sells Hexagon Tower, with management passing to LaSalle Investment Management, which establishes the facility as a science park, providing a base for small start-up organisations to multinational businesses.
* 2013 – Hexagon Tower is incorporated into the BEST Network.
* 2016 – Hexagon Tower is sold to AG Hexagon BV, part of the Pioneer Group.
See also
*
Fibres Research Centre
*
Science and engineering in Manchester
Manchester is one of the principal cities of the United Kingdom, gaining city status in 1853, thus becoming the first new city in over 300 years since Bristol in 1542. Often regarded as the first industrialised city,• • Manchester was a city ...
References
{{reflist
AstraZeneca
Buildings and structures in Manchester
Chemical industry in the United Kingdom
Chemical research institutes
Imperial Chemical Industries
Research institutes in Manchester
Towers in Greater Manchester