Grade I-listed mill Temple Works in Leeds could become the new British Library North

Temple Works in Holbeck, which was built in 1836, is being explored as a potential new home for the British Library North - a project which was confirmed in yesterday's Budget.

The government has committed to opening a new northern outpost in Leeds, as there is also a British Library archive storage facility in nearby Boston Spa, which would remain open as a complementary site.

Kirkstall Forge developers Commercial Estate Group then purchased the site to develop for residential, retail and commercial uses with the support of Leeds City Council.

The council now hope to use £25million of central funding to transform Temple Works into a hub of learning and have been liaising with Commercial Estates Group over the mill's future.

Leeds City Council leader Coun Judith Blake said: “This is an important and very welcome acknowledgement of our collaborative efforts to achieve national recognition of the significance of Temple Works to Leeds, the North and indeed the country. Its historic and modern relevance as one of the main birthplaces of the industrial revolution and an incredibly important Grade I listed building is incalculable.

“While this is just the beginning of a long process of guaranteeing this amazing cultural landmark’s future it is very good news that the government has endorsed our initial exploratory discussions with the British Library. We’re proud to host what is already a significant iconic national cultural asset here in Leeds in Boston Spa and this would further consolidate the British Library as a major Northern base of a national institution and create much greater community access to their rich archive.

“To have the British Library at Temple Works would be a wonderful addition to the ever-growing and flourishing South Bank area of the city and a great boost for the community of Holbeck. Its proximity to both the existing rail station and the planned HS2 station would also open it up to the rest of the country and bring many more visitors to our city.

“We will continue to work extremely hard with the owners of Temple Works, the CEG Group, and the British Library to both investigate the potential of this incredible building and achieve the extra funding needed for this exciting new scheme to be realised.”

Temple Works is known for its ornate Egyptian-inspired frontage, and the main room within is two acres in size - it was once the largest indoor space in the world. It had its own church, stables and baths. Its owners, the Marshall family, employed 2,600 workers at the height of yarn production. They sold the mill at auction in 1886.

CEG have spent the past year conducting exploratory work at the site and improving safety and security.

Head of strategic development David Hodgson said: “This is great news for Leeds. This ongoing engagement with Temple Works has been made possible through CEG gaining a detailed understanding of the building over the past two years and we look forward to further collaborative working with the council and the British Library as we continue exploring the iconic building’s future potential.

“We can then build on the engagement and consultation activities we have already started with the local community and other stakeholders to ensure the proposals are truly inclusive for all.”

In 2008, the mill suffered a significant structural collapse, having been empty for several decades. Around 20 per cent of the roof is held up by scaffolding.

CEG are also involved with the adjacent Globe Road and Water Lane site, which will include offices, 750 new homes, retail units and a hotel as part of the wider South Bank development scheme.

The British Library is the largest in the world and holds 200 million catalogued items.

The main site occupies a Grade I-listed building between Euston and St Pancras stations in London, while there is a second facility in Boston Spa, near Wetherby, that is used to store documents and houses some of the British Newspaper Archive.

A copy of every newspaper published in the UK is kept in the Boston Spa storage facility

The Guardian obtained the minutes of a meeting between the British Library and Leeds City Council in which the plans were first discussed back in May 2018.

There is already an ongoing £250,000 investment project to upgrade the reading rooms at Boston Spa, which are open to the public.

What is the British Library and what material does it hold?

- It's the largest library collection in the world, containing over 200 million items across a range of mediums

- It is the nation's foremost legal deposit library, meaning it receives a copy of every work published in the UK - around 8,000 items per day

- It holds 14 million books and historical manuscripts that date back as far as 2,000 BC

- The Library adds three million new items every year covering 9.6 kilometres of new shelf space. There is space in the London building for over 1,200 readers

- Most of the historic material was donated in the 18th century, and collections were housed in the British Museum prior to the 1970s

- Low-use items were moved to a new storage facility at Boston Spa between 2009 and 2012. The old newspaper storage library at Colindale in north London was closed in 2013 and its collections split between St Pancras and Boston Spa. Around 70 per cent of the material held by the British Library is now kept at Boston Spa

- Boston Spa's storage facility has capacity for seven million items, stored in more than 140,000 bar-coded containers which are retrieved by robots

- The British Library holds a copy of almost every British newspaper published since 1840 - its collection of national and London titles goes back as far as 1801

- The 40-acre Boston Spa facility was built on the site of a WW2 armaments factory at Thorp Arch industrial estate. It has 700 staff and receives 1,200 new newspapers each week.