1. The History
On the edge of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, Heap's Rice Mill was founded by Joseph Heap as Joseph Heap & Sons Ltd in 1778. Initially, just a rice mill, warehouses were added and then combined into a single building. Its claim to fame is that the rice in Kellogg's Rice Krispies was once ground at Heap's. The massive seven-storey mill is predominantly constructed in red-brick, a slate roof and a frame of timber and cast iron.
Until about the 1880s, Heap & Sons owned their own ships which were known as the Diamond H Line. They sailed between Liverpool and Australia, via Rangoon and the East Indies. The firm was operational until 1988 when it transferred to a new site in Regent Road. Heap’s Mill was still partially operational right up until 2005. It was then vacated and left empty and was due to be demolished until it was Grade II listed in 2014. English Heritage stated that the mill was “a good example of an early and mid-C19 warehouse complex adapted in the late-C19 for a single unified use as a rice processing and storage site”.
There were plans afoot in 2014 to convert the building into luxury apartments as part of a £130m residential development. Writing in the Architects' Journal Gill Darley, described the plans as "façadism" as the developers had wanted to pull out of the redevelopment if they were forced to keep the original interior. Hence in 2015 the site was sold on to Inhabit who disclosed that a planning agreement had been reached and that the work to convert the building into luxury apartments was to be started. However, Elliot Lawless' Elliot Group bought it back in July 2019, but no work has yet started.
The mill pictured back in 1980:
2. The Explore
So, after two mornings of relative urbex failure exploring in Liverpool on morning 3, I meet up with @urbanchemist Our first target turned out to have live secca on it, so we moved onto an alternative place. I’d already seen it the day before and couldn’t work out how to get it. But as you can see from his previous reports, UC is very much in the know. And very quickly we gained entry to the mill.
The place had a glut of reports around 2010 and again in 2015. But then there was little in the way of reports until UC’s superb report from February 2018 (SEE HERE).
I really enjoyed the explore and the pleasure of UC’s company. However, the place is a complete death trap and my caution slowed us down. When it came to the “Bridge of Death” I’d reachemy the extremity of my comfort zone. It was also really hard to photograph due to the close-to-darkness light situation, dust and grime and sketchy to no floors at all situation. All-in-all though, a very interesting explore, even if my pictures didn’t really do the place justice.
Big up again to @urbanchemist for showing me around.
3. The Pictures
A few externals first:
And we’re in:
A pair of two large hoppers between the two buildings:
Looking up at a loading bay, originally outdoors, now indoors:
One of the less sketchy floors in B block!
The circular staircase was at least solid!
And up to the attic on the top level:
The door from C block to B block flanked by two cyclone-type sentries:
Connecting bridge between block B and C:
A large part of C block has no floors at all!
by HughieDW, on Flickr
HughieDW, on Flickr
And finally, right back down to the bottom and the subterranean bit:
On the edge of Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, Heap's Rice Mill was founded by Joseph Heap as Joseph Heap & Sons Ltd in 1778. Initially, just a rice mill, warehouses were added and then combined into a single building. Its claim to fame is that the rice in Kellogg's Rice Krispies was once ground at Heap's. The massive seven-storey mill is predominantly constructed in red-brick, a slate roof and a frame of timber and cast iron.
Until about the 1880s, Heap & Sons owned their own ships which were known as the Diamond H Line. They sailed between Liverpool and Australia, via Rangoon and the East Indies. The firm was operational until 1988 when it transferred to a new site in Regent Road. Heap’s Mill was still partially operational right up until 2005. It was then vacated and left empty and was due to be demolished until it was Grade II listed in 2014. English Heritage stated that the mill was “a good example of an early and mid-C19 warehouse complex adapted in the late-C19 for a single unified use as a rice processing and storage site”.
There were plans afoot in 2014 to convert the building into luxury apartments as part of a £130m residential development. Writing in the Architects' Journal Gill Darley, described the plans as "façadism" as the developers had wanted to pull out of the redevelopment if they were forced to keep the original interior. Hence in 2015 the site was sold on to Inhabit who disclosed that a planning agreement had been reached and that the work to convert the building into luxury apartments was to be started. However, Elliot Lawless' Elliot Group bought it back in July 2019, but no work has yet started.
The mill pictured back in 1980:
2. The Explore
So, after two mornings of relative urbex failure exploring in Liverpool on morning 3, I meet up with @urbanchemist Our first target turned out to have live secca on it, so we moved onto an alternative place. I’d already seen it the day before and couldn’t work out how to get it. But as you can see from his previous reports, UC is very much in the know. And very quickly we gained entry to the mill.
The place had a glut of reports around 2010 and again in 2015. But then there was little in the way of reports until UC’s superb report from February 2018 (SEE HERE).
I really enjoyed the explore and the pleasure of UC’s company. However, the place is a complete death trap and my caution slowed us down. When it came to the “Bridge of Death” I’d reachemy the extremity of my comfort zone. It was also really hard to photograph due to the close-to-darkness light situation, dust and grime and sketchy to no floors at all situation. All-in-all though, a very interesting explore, even if my pictures didn’t really do the place justice.
Big up again to @urbanchemist for showing me around.
3. The Pictures
A few externals first:
And we’re in:
A pair of two large hoppers between the two buildings:
Looking up at a loading bay, originally outdoors, now indoors:
One of the less sketchy floors in B block!
The circular staircase was at least solid!
And up to the attic on the top level:
The door from C block to B block flanked by two cyclone-type sentries:
Connecting bridge between block B and C:
A large part of C block has no floors at all!
And finally, right back down to the bottom and the subterranean bit:
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