Did Derby build the world? How the Museum of Making bounced back

After two fires and an £18m makeover, this redbrick mill has been reborn as a shrine to Derby’s astonishing manufacturing prowess, where everything from clocks and clogs to telephones and tights were made A seven-tonne Rolls-Royce jet engine hangs in the lofty glass atrium of Derby’s new Museum of Making, suspended above a wall of objects that cascade down the stairs towards the entrance, as if propelled by the mighty turbofan of the engine. It is a junk-shop tsunami of clogs and clocks, spoons and street signs, telephones and tights, harnesses and horsetails, with one thing in common: they were all made in Derby. There might be no better place to tell the story of manufacturing than this Midlands city, and specifically this building: a redbrick mill on the River Derwent that was the first fully mechanised factory in the world when it opened in 1721. Built by industrialist John Lombe for spinning silk, it has produced everything from cough sweets and skin ointment to fly paper and ice cream powder over the last 300 years – and burned down twice in the process. After an £18m makeover, it has been reborn as a shrine to all of these things and more, as well as an active site of production, in a radical new concept for what a museum can be. Continue reading...
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