Unweaving Northern Industry
Towns and cities across the entirety of the United Kingdom prospered from the exploits of British colonies and industrialised capitalism, though the urban development is none more apparent than in the North.
From the Mersey to the Humber, trades surged in innovative new industries. Humble market towns began to see replacement with towering mills and warehouse blocks as a shift in power gravitated towards a new ruling class: that of the Industrialist, and though for a time this was the case, as the cogs of industrial capital eventually ceased to turn across Britain, the relics of industrial past often remain fossilised in the landscape: Urban Artefacts.
Though a selection have found adaptive re-use in alternate economic sectors, many reside derelict and decayed amongst the very urban grain they had once shaped. This raises a set of questions: How do these rejuvenated industrial artefacts compare to their original states in terms of their political, cultural and economic contribution to societies? How can societies reflect on their precedent states, both the positive and the negative? And finally, what issues arise from the integration of these buildings as cultural hubs in the 21st century as opposed to the industrial era?
In a collaborative project, 'Unweaving Northern Industry' looks historically at the disparate inequality of Preston, Lancashire, and envisions a new industrial and commercial hub through the lens of it's past.
