Inside the Iconic Millennium Mills

I remember the first time I stepped into a derelict building. It was a house I had lived in during my final year in school and both the roof and floor had rotted away. Stephen’s instinct was to get out of there immediately, mine was to explore. And so began my love of all things derelict. I can’t explain it and many people won’t share it but I love the idea of exploring crumbling down buildings.

I’m less sure when my love affair with Millennium Mills began. I recall seeing the sun glinting off it one day as the DLR trundled past. I promised myself that I’d take a walk down there one day to get a closer look. I featured it in a blog post last year called Millennium Mills: Past, Present and Future and focused on how it had been used in music videos, TV shows and films and how it would soon be redeveloped.

Then something truly exciting happened – the developers contacted me and invited me to take a look inside! How thrilling!

And so it was that one cloudy morning, we took a boat from Royal Victoria Dock to the iconic Millennium Mills and got to take a look inside.

Amplify Your Voice (taken from the water).

Looking up at the side elevation of Millennium Mills.

Reflections in Water

From the inside looking out

Laying the Foundations of Floors

The Green Door

Greenery and reflections

Shadows of the Mills

Escape or entry

Concrete Perspective

Roof to roof

The view of the river

Arches and rooftops

Green Perspectives

Stairs down

Broken windows

Warning: Floor level obstacles

Looking up at Millennium Mills

Spillers

Definitely visit my post Millennium Mills: Past, Present and Future to learn more about the history of the mills which were built in 1905 during the heyday of the East London docks. There are also graphics of how the proposed development will look.

The Millennium Mills redevelopment is a massive £3.5bn project that is due to be finished in 2017. The aim is to deliver 21,000 jobs and 3,000 homes and a public space where local businesses and start ups can afford to move in. In every part of the process, the developers say that they are keen to avoid the mistakes of the past.

Mike Luddy from the Royal Docks Management Authority has stressed that they won’t ignore history like they did at Canary Wharf and that the development will respect the history of the former flour mill and the working class people who made the area great. If you meet Mike he will tell you that the docks became disused not because they weren’t looked after but because modern ships were too big for the shallow waters.

Likewise, Simon Webster from The Silvertown Partnership promises to take on board the history of the area and reflect it in the development. He has said that the renaissance of the area has been a long time coming. In June this year, the development was shortlisted for the ‘Planned Economic Growth’ category of the Planning and Placemaking Awards.

I was quite wary of the proposed development initially but even I have to admit that something has to be done with the building to prevent it falling into dereliction. From the sound of it, they seem to be doing something right with the development if they are winning awards.

What do you think? Would you like to explore a place like Millennium Mills? Perhaps if you wore a hard hat and steel-toed boots like I did on the day?

A Medieval Weekend at Lullingstone Castle

I love Lullingstone and Eynsford. It was one of the very first areas of Kent that I ever explored and I’ve been back many times since. The minute I discovered that they were holding a Medieval Weekend at Lullingstone Castle over the May bank holiday, I firmly marked it out in my calendar. The last time I visited Lullingstone Castle, it was the dead of winter and we’d walked there from the High Street only to find the gates firmly shut. Needless to say, I was quite eager to get inside those gates!

Like many English castles, Lullingstone Castle is not actually a castle; it is a historic mansion that was built in 1497. Quite incredibly, it is still owned by the same family, the Hart Dykes, and King Henry VIII and Queen Anne were known to be regular visitors. The grounds are also home to the World Garden of Plants which contains plants from around the world – definitely click the link to read about how Tom Hart Dyke came up with the idea for the garden when he was kidnapped by Colombian rebels! On this occasion though, we were not there to visit the gardens but will certainly return soon.

The Lullingstone Castle medieval weekend is an annual living history event that allows visitors to step into the world of medieval England. It is clearly an educational event meant for children which meant that I was in my element.

There were many examples of suits of armour, including the gauntlets featured above. If you’ve ever explored European castles, then you’ll be familiar with suits of armour but what was nice about the fair was that it had a definite focus on the normal, everyday life of peasants.

I had a nice, long chat with a fletcher called Jim who you’ll meet below. A fletcher is a person who attaches the fletching to arrows and he was very sad to admit that his surname is not Fletcher but he has been a seven time longbow champion so at least there is that. Jim explained that there were four main types of arrowheads used but in the very top photo of this post, you can see that there are scores of different types of arrowheads.

In case you were wondering what ‘fletching’ is, it is the aerodynamic stabilisation in arrows, usually feathers. Jim handmade these arrows which I found really impressive.

Moving on, we got to inspect these rather evil looking axes and wandered around the stalls chatting to more storeowners. I really rather wish I’d spent more time doing so because they were each fascinating in their own right.

There were a number of stalls focusing closely on food consumed during the medieval period, especially by peasants. We noticed the distinct absence of meat, of course and the presence of some rather unusual types of grains and nuts.  In the foreground of the photo above, you can see Kentish cobnuts which are apparently quite delicious and behind that to the right, acorns, which really aren’t.

We also spent a long time talking to a lovely young man at his stall of exotic medieval spices which peasants would certainly not have been able to afford. He had frankincense and pine resin and several types of peppers. Above you can see actual cochineal beetles to the left, and dragon’s blood to the right, both rich red dyes. Why did I take a photo of these and not the frankincense? Well, I was fascinated - I am allergic to cochineal, which is used as pink food colouring in ice creams and milkshakes – but had never actually seen them up close.

We noticed that people were rapidly disappearing behind the church and after a quick peek inside, I followed them to the reenactment area. The church is properly known as St Botolph's Parish Church and it is of Norman origin.

The archery and gunnery displays were presented by the Woodvilles medieval re-enactment group. I loved how they were all firmly in character and the small details in their costumes.

This is Jim, the fletcher that I had met earlier, firing his longbow. Doesn’t he look impressive?

We spent some time watching the archery and gunnery display. Those guns were really loud! I overheard a really interesting conversation regarding the licensing for these guns and how they are allowed for reasons of historic preservation.

As lovely as the original 1497 gatehouse is, it was lovely to finally get inside the grounds of Lullingstone Castle and not be stuck outside. We had a fantastic day out at Lullingstone Castle and I will definitely return soon to see the World Garden.

Lullingstone Castle
Eynsford,
Kent,
DA4 0JA
Tel: 01322 862114