Wigan's biggest project: update on the Cotton Works

And the rehabilitation of this mighty building is just phase one of 11 over the coming years as the bid to turn what used to be Eckersley’s Mills into an urban village called The Cotton Works – predicted to be the envy of the North West – continues.

Mill One at the complex off Swan Meadow Road is being repurposed to contain a food hall, bars and a pub on the ground floor, business space on the three middle storeys and it will then be crowned by a glass-sided rooftop bar and co-working space.

The work is one of the biggest projects ever taken on by Wigan-based Heaton Group – a business used to major enterprises – and its head of commercial Lee Dalgleish says he is very proud to be involved in it.

Standing on the balcony terrace encircling the top floor facilities, he said: “I am imagining people sitting up here at tables with umbrellas, having a drink in just a few months’ time and taking in these fabulous views of Wigan for miles around.

"You can’t guarantee that in Manchester or Liverpool. You can have a view like this and the next year someone sticks another office block right in front of you and it’s gone.

"There is a huge amount of excitement about this place, not least about the co-working space. We are trying to create a community. It will be quite transient: there will be start-up businesses and people wanting to get out of the house and they can come here and share ideas.

"The beauty of it is you could have 50 people here one week and a different 50 people the next because it is endlessly evolving. There will be individual desks and offices, a larger boardroom and a central area where individuals can show off their products and services.

"The Government are trying to get people back into the office post-Covid and it is definitely picking up. None of us work from home, that’s for sure.

"We have been taken aback – in a good way – at the number of large companies wanting large office space too. Twelve months ago it would have only been small businesses, and three years ago it would have been a struggle to attract anyone.”

Talking of big business, energy company Calisen will this coming week be receiving the keys to the entire first floor of Mill One: all 20,00ft sq of it as they consolidate all their different Wigan offices, plus others from elsewhere in the North West, in that impressive space.

“It’s a real coup for us and the Wigan economy,” Mr Dalgleish said.

Heaton Group too will be occupying 7,000ft sq of space on the third floor while another large tenant is set to occupy the rest of that storey, leaving only floor two to fill, and there have been expressions of interest about that too.

Looking out over the back of the mill you see another hive of activity. Old weaving sheds are being demolished to make way for car parking which will finally mean that the scaffolding that has been propping up the wall on Pottery Terrace for umpteen years can come down and access round the back and through to Fourteen Meadows Road finally allowed again.

Two padel tennis courts will also be created on that part of the site.

Mr Dalgleish said: “You look around and you see so many impressive things, including the new big arched window in the engine room section.

"But there might be others you take for granted. A new staircase has been installed all the way to the top involving girders and individual pieces of concrete weighing half a ton each. It’s an incredible feat of engineering. Some of the lads are saying this is the biggest, most challenging job they’ve ever worked on.”

He said that the ground floor food hall and bar will be more of an informal space, whereas the rooftop bar would be a more intimate setting with 100 covers (although both will be open to the public and tenants alike).

As far as timescales are concerned, completion dates have pushed back a little.

While originally the whole of Mill One was expected to be up and running by the summer, with some parts open well before that, the ground floor bar is now expected to be the first public area to be ready in around April – at a similar time that Calisen is expected to move in once it has done its own fitting-out. The food hall will follow “at some point in 2025”.

The top floor facilities, he said, will be complete by “the back end of 2025 at the earliest.”

Until the food hall opens though, Feast at the Mills – the street food, bar and live music phenomenon informally staged in and around outbuildings at the foot of Mill One – will continue.

And with winter upon us, a couple of precautions have been taken to make life more comfortable for visitors, there now being a temporary roof over the whole area while the number of heaters has increased.

In the building nicknamed The Ritz, children’s films are being screened at Disney parties every Sunday lunchtime for the next few weeks and a DJ booth has been installed for other entertainment events.

Mr Dalgleish said: “Feast has proved extremely successful, which is great, because we want people to get used to this part of the town being a place for hospitality so that when the bar and food hall open, the transition will be a natural one.

"At first people perhaps didn’t know what to make of Feast because it was all a bit new, but now they are used to it and love it.”