September 14 2018

Aberdeen City Council planners have given their consent to demolish an A-listed mill at Broadford Works to make way for 36 new build private rental homes above two ground floor retail units.

Grey Mill is the oldest surviving iron-framed mill in Scotland but has been assessed by structural engineers Cameron + Ross to have suffered settlement to such a degree that partial retention of the southern gable and integration with a new build element was the best solution going forward, maintaining the existing footprint while pulling back the northern section to open up a new access link.

This would result in the loss of 40% of the current mill, where the arrangement of internal structural columns preclude residential re-use.

Outlining their rationale the planners report read: “Old and South Grey Mills are considered repairable, but at great expense and re-use options are limited by the type of structure, which further affects viability.

“The significance of the buildings is in their construction, rather than external appearance, therefore facade retention is not a worthwhile approach.”

In their design statement for their replacement plans Sheppard Robson wrote: “The new building is articulated to create set-back retail frontage with an expressed ‘colonnade’ indicating active retail. Dormer windows are added to enable top floor accommodation to work within low roofline determined by the retained façade; breaking the roof eaves line and creating visual interest.”

Developer Inhabit intends to build a £100m ‘urban village’ within the former industrial hub, containing 460 homes, shops and offices.

2 Comments

#1 Posted by SJF on 14 Sep 2018 at 12:24 PM

If your not going to make the effort to protect an "A" Listed Building, is there any point in the system as a whole?

#2 Posted by Iain Duerr on 16 Sep 2018 at 12:58 PM

I know from having been in the Grey Mill many times that it was in a sorry state of repair and had an large fracture running ground to roof at one point. While it would have been great to keep the whole building, retention of the gable in this case is unfortunately the best option.

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