Works begin next year on city’s last jute mill

DEVELOPMENT: Taybank Works to be partially knocked down to make way for 37 flats and houses for rent

“We’re currently finalising detailed designs. ANDREW KILPATRICK

Work to transform Dundee’s last jute mill into affordable housing will begin early next year.

Taybank Works on Morgan Street will be partially demolished and redeveloped into 37 flats and houses for social rent.

The first phase of the plans, by Caledonia Housing, for 28 affordable homes was approved in 2017, with permission for an additional 15 homes given this month.

Caledonia Housing hopes to begin work early next year with a completion date still to be announced.

Andrew Kilpatrick, Caledonia Housing Association’s director of assets, said: “We are pleased to have received planning permission from Dundee City Council to provide another development of affordable housing in Dundee.

“We’re currently finalising detailed designs for the development, to enable us to get tenders from prospective contractors later this year.

“We hope that this will enable us to start works on site in early 2020.”

The plans will see a new street created off Morgan Street with a number of the homes adapted for tenants with additional needs.

As part of the 2020 phase, there will be nine houses and six flats.

The houses will be two-storey with three bedrooms and include a mix of detached, semi-detached and terraced properties.

A three-storey block will contain twobedroom flats for people with learning disabilities and a one-bedroom flat for staff.

Large swathes of the existing building – until recently home to a number of businesses – will be demolished to create vehicle access into the area.

However, several aspects of the building are listed, including the old calendar – the large spools through which material is fed – and gable ends on the building.

It is expected that a demolition contractor will work delicately around this area.

Taybank Works was built in 1870 by Pearce Brothers engineers, who also built Wallace Craigie Works, Wellfield Works and a number of jute mills in India.

Historically, Taybank Works was renowned as a jute spinning mill, but has its roots in weaving.

The site was expanded in the 1940s with a distinctive corner entrance, which is now the Lilybank Mews housing development.

It was the last working jute mill in Dundee and the UK as a whole to close when its shutters came down in 1999.