Abraham Moon Design Office – Leeds

Abraham Moon & Sons Ltd

Guiseley, Leeds, West Yorkshire

Abraham Moon & Sons is a weaving manufacturer located in Yorkshire, the traditional home of the English cloth mills. The manufacturer had outgrown their premises and needed to expand to retain their location and modernise working methods. Bowman Riley was commissioned to provide architecture, interior design, contract administration and CDMC to extend the factory by 45,000 ft2 bringing all machinery into one location in an open plan space.

Considering the site’s adjacency to a railway line, we communicated with Network Rail to ensure the factory and railway line were kept safe throughout construction.

Following the successful completion of the extension, we designed the refurbishment of a redundant first floor space within the mill into a dynamic design office and showroom.

Over 70% of the cloth produced by the factory is exported to America and Asia with clients visiting the factory from overseas to source traditional tweeds and cloths. The existing design studio was unable to handle large client meetings with no facility to display the fabrics.

The brief involved forming a new entrance with vertical circulation providing direct access to staff and visitors. A state-of-the-art heating and cooling system was required to convert the factory space into a comfortable office and showroom. Historic features were retained and the whole space was sandblasted exposing the original brickwork and stone details.

Located within a conservation area, the mill was fully operational during the construction. The design pays respect to the local vernacular and the site planning and logistics were carefully considered to deliver a traditional appearance with modern facilities.