Albion Mills, Southwark

You are standing near the site of Albion Mills, which rose beside Blackfriars Bridge in the seventeen eighties as a titan of the early industrial age. This five-story brick building housed the first commercial steam-powered flour mill in the United Kingdom. Its design, featuring innovative iron shafts and massive steam engines engineered by James Watt, allowed it to process grain at a speed that traditional wind-powered mills could never match. For a brief period, the mill stood as a symbol of technological progress, drawing curious crowds who came to witness the sheer power of this new, coal-fueled landscape.