Read on Twitter
Friends: it is story time.
The year is 1864. The city is Leeds (Leeds Leeds).
The year is 1864. The city is Leeds (Leeds Leeds).
You are Abraham Johnson. You’re a strapping young man, on your way to work. You check out your reflection as you walk past a window and you look a little something like this.
(thanks to @BradfordMuseums for this image of John Sowden's watercolour of Abraham
)
(thanks to @BradfordMuseums for this image of John Sowden's watercolour of Abraham
)
A shiver runs through you as you stroll down Carlisle Road, on your way to Holbeck.
You aren’t sure why, but you suspect this might be the future site of something special, like, say, a state of the art museum storage facility called Leeds Discovery Centre.
You press on.
You aren’t sure why, but you suspect this might be the future site of something special, like, say, a state of the art museum storage facility called Leeds Discovery Centre.
You press on.
You arrive at Marshall’s Temple Mill! You know that later, this will be known widely as ‘Temple Works’, and because you’re a forward thinking guy, that’s what you call it from now on.
You clock in, and give boss man John Marshall a wave.
You clock in, and give boss man John Marshall a wave.
John doesn’t notice because he’s too busy thinking about Cleopatra and pyramids and stuff.
He’s an Egyptology fanatic!
He’s an Egyptology fanatic!
Temple Works reflects this: The stone façade consists of 18 pillars with an overhanging, based on Egyptian Temples.
The chimney was originally in the style of an obelisk or ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’, but it cracked and was replaced by bricks in 1852.
The chimney was originally in the style of an obelisk or ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’, but it cracked and was replaced by bricks in 1852.
Anyway. Abraham. Focus.
You walk the length of the factory. This takes literally forever, because it’s the biggest single room in the world.
You walk the length of the factory. This takes literally forever, because it’s the biggest single room in the world.
The walk’s taken it out of you. You’re sweating! The humidity isn’t helping.
The mill needs to stay nice and humid, to keep the linen from drying out and being too hard to use.
The mill needs to stay nice and humid, to keep the linen from drying out and being too hard to use.
You need some fresh air. You head up to the roof for a lie down on the grass that covers it (it helps with the humidity).
You bypass the stairs (ew) and take the newly-invented-for-this-actual-building hydraulic lift.
You bypass the stairs (ew) and take the newly-invented-for-this-actual-building hydraulic lift.
You reach the roof: you lay down and start counting sheep.
We mean this literally - the roof is covered in sheep, to keep that grass nice and grazed now.
We mean this literally - the roof is covered in sheep, to keep that grass nice and grazed now.
The hydraulic lift was invented to get the sheep up to the roof in the first place (we cannot, and will not, ever get enough of this fact)
Here, the story ends: partly because we’ve used all of our best facts, partly because there’s just no topping the sheep thing
We know that Abraham worked at t'mill for some time, and was born in Zanzibar in 1848. In the 1880s he became a street vendor in Bradford, but little else is known about him.
The Temple Works building is still standing today, in this here Leeds, the greatest city in the world.
The Temple Works building is still standing today, in this here Leeds, the greatest city in the world.
