The Manchester and Salford Junction Canal passes beneath Great Bridgewater Street before entering the Rochdale Canal.  On one side of the canal, at this point, is the Rain Bar but on the other is the imposing structure of Evershed House. 


The name comes from its prime occupant Evershed's, the international law firm with offices in Europe, Africa, the Middle & Far East.


This building replaced the Havelock Mill that stood on this site until its demolition circa 1992.  The red arrow on the aerial photograph below (dated 1953) points at the Havelock Mill.  A document entitled, "Havelock Mill, Manchester: A case-study in the emergency recording of a large urban mill complex", has this to say about the mill:  "Havelock Mill illustrates the size and complexity of these buildings but is distinguished because it incorporates the city's last intact silk mill. Documentary research and comparison with silk mills in other areas indicates that this was an exceptionally large example which was at the forefront of developments in the mechanisation of silk manufacturing. A cotton mill was later added to the site"

If you look at the 1849 map of the area, below, you can see both the silk and cotton mills side by side on the site forming what was later referred to as the "Havelock Mills".



By the 1880s (as my version of a map from that time below shows) the mill building has assumed a number of roles and occupants.  Notably the former cotton mill was now manufacturing umbrellas and braces.  This must have continued for many years because the 1927 Kelly's Directory of Manchester & Salford listed "Greenough Occleston & Co, manufacturers of umbrells & parasols, braces, belts and art silk winders, Havelock Mills."

The image below, shown with the permission of Len Grant, shows work underway to build the Bridgewater Hall.  Beyond it, indicated by the arrow I added, you can see the Havelock Mills.

Tucked away in a corner of the former UMIST campus beside the Barnes Wallis Building is a small plaza with picnic tables.  Off to one side among the greenery are a series of red metal pillars and beams.  These were salvaged from the Havelock Mill and erected here as a monument to the ground-breaking design, in Manchester,  of cast iron beams that were lighter and cheaper than anything used before and which led to their widespread use in the construction of 19th century industrial buildings.