Buckingham and Carnatic Mills, popularly known as B & C Mills, were

textile mill Textile Manufacturing or Textile Engineering is a major industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then converted into useful goods ...

s run by Binny and Co. in the city of

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The mills were closed down in 1996 and the site is now used as a container freight station and is a popular venue for film shootings.

History

Messrs Binny & Co, one of the biggest private enterprises in the then city of Madras, set up a textile mill of its own, the Buckingham Mills in the wedge between

Perambur Perambur is a neighbourhood located in the northern region of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Etymology In Tamil, ''pirambu (பிரம்பு)'' means bamboo and ''ur (ஊர்)'' means city or place. Before British rule, this place was w ...

, Vepery and

Basin Bridge Basin Bridge Junction is a station on the Chennai Suburban Railway and serves the locality of Basin Bridge, the confluence on the Otteri Nullah and Buckingham Canal, in Chennai, India. The station is located at the southern end of the 'diamo ...

. The company was registered on 17 August 1876 and started functioning in January 1878. The Carnatic Mills were founded on 30 June 1881. The two companies were merged in 1920. Binny also started the Bangalore Woollen, Cotton and Silk Mills in 1884. The mills functioned successfully till the 1970s when rot set in. Running on heavy losses, the mills were finally closed in 1996. India's first labour union, the Madras Labour Union (MLU) was formed at Buckingham and Carnatic Mills by B. P. Wadia and V. Kalyanasundaram Mudaliar on 27 April 1918.

References

{{reflist Defunct textile companies of India Companies based in Chennai Textile mills in India Textile industry in Tamil Nadu Indian companies established in 1876 1876 establishments in India Indian companies disestablished in 1996