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E ENSCHED TER S MANCHE LEEDS ELD I F S R E D HUD TA M P E R E FORSSA Z CHEMNIT LÓDZ P R AT O ROUBAIX GENT TILBURG

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COMEB A CK CITIES IN THE PICTURE This exhibition shows pictures of twelve European textile cities. Cities with large cultural differences, which are geographically far apart. When you look at the old pictures, however, the large similarities immediately attract attention. A century ago the picture was dominated, without exception, by a forest of chimneys. The spinning mills, the weaving mills, the dyeing mills, all were modelled on the same pattern. A stately main brick building, preferably with a turret in the middle and an imposing façade. Attached to it the enormous halls with sawtooth roofs and then, somewhere around, the machinery hall with its chimney. Twelve cities with identical factories that seem to have been built from the same model-making kit. Nowadays, the old chimneys are redundant and have been demolished. Only here and there does one still stand as a reminder. If you look carefully you will notice that the old factory buildings can still be seen everywhere in the town streets. In places where prosperity had great plans, such as, for example, in Enschede, only the odd one. But in other places most of the buildings are still standing. In Lódz and Chemnitz in particular, in the former Eastern bloc countries, complete complexes are, after years of decay, about to be rebuilt as luxury lofts. Even though there are considerable differences, recent pictures show that everywhere buildings have survived the wrecking-ball of progress; former textile factories in Ghent, Tampere, Tilburg and Prato have been turned into textile museums. Elsewhere, they have been rebuilt as shopping malls, galleries or dwellings. The former textile machinery factory of Wirkbau in Chemnitz has become a collective building with small companies and even schools.

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What remains of the life of the manufacturer and worker from back then is preserved in thousands of photographs, stored in archives, museums and private collections. As photographic plate or digital file. But generally as a dusty and crumpled snapshot, kept in an old box as a memento of a special occasion. Anniversaries were not the only cause for photographs: the acquisition of a new machine was reason enough for a photographer’s visit. It would be a simple matter to arrange an exhibition of hundreds of machinery halls with gleaming looms and remarkably seductive, beautifully dressed women. The photographs tell the story of economic success and technical triumph, but also of a tough existence. In the oldest photographs the children do the work. When many years of social struggle put an end to this inhuman child labour, women replace them. In the group photographs we see men mainly in leading or technical positions. Only towards the end of the European textile industry has a certain level of equality been achieved on the shop floor. w C ontin u e d on page 1 3

Enschede netherlands

Enschede then

Enschede now

Originally the textile industry in Enschede was nothing more than the cottage industry of a mainly agricultural population. From generation to generation spinning and weaving took place on the farm. Only after 1830, after the separation of Belgium from the Netherlands, the Nederlandse Handel-Maatschappij (Dutch Trade Company) appointed the city of Twente as the alternative location for the Flemish cotton industry. The local expert knowledge and cheap labour force were the main reasons for this choice. The colonies overseas guaranteed the Netherlands a steady supply of raw cotton and a stable market. For more than a century, the new factory owners, such as the Van Heek, Menko, Ten Cate and Jannink family, leave important marks on the city. One spinning mill after the other arises. Residential areas and parks are built for the work force with government help. As a result of the arrival of the English steam engine in the factories, Enschede becomes an important centre for the production of textile. At the end of the nineteenth century the families still possess ever larger country estates with luxurious country houses. This earned them their name of 'textile barons'. In 1940, more than 80 percent of the employed population is working in the textile industry. The collapse of the complete European textile industry, between 1965 and 1975, shows the large risk of this one-sided dependence; widespread unemployment occurs when the mills are forced to close their doors. Most of the vast mill complexes were demolished in the nineteen eighties; only a few buildings were rescued and renovated. The former Jannink and Van Heek mills, for instance, were rebuilt as residential dwellings. Another part was converted into a museum. After the disappearance of the textile industry, Enschede develops into a service centre. In the nineteen eighties the city centre was renovated and became a pedestrian area, and the industrial zones that became vacant were used for housing, shopping centres and offices. Since the nineteen sixties Twente University, which specialises in technical and social sciences, has made quite a reputation for itself. On 13 May 2000, the city was struck by an enormous fireworks disaster that completely destroyed the residential area Roombeek. Twenty-three people were killed and nearly a thousand people were wounded. The reconstruction is now almost finished. It gives the city not only a new look, but also a strong cultural impetus.

Photos and documents : Municipal Archive Enschede, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Harry Cock

1 Around 1930. The Van Heek & Co. complex in Rigtersbleek.

1 2009. Hendrik Jan van Heek Square.

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2 2009. The centre of Enschede. 2 1896. Girls in the shearing department of Weaving Mill G.J. Heek & Sons on the Goolkatenweg. 3 1950. Jennie Blijdenberg at the weft reeling machine at De Nijverheid. Photo Löhnberg / Municipal Archive Enschede 4 1955. The Lage Bothof Street, in the background the Van Heek & Co. factory.

3 2009. The Culture Cluster, including the Twentse Welle Museum and the Rozendaal Centre for fine arts. Rozendaal was once an import and export company for cotton waste. 4 2009. The Rozendaal complex, rescued from demolition, was once an import and export company for cotton waste.

5 6 August 1948. The Van Heek & Co. complex on the railway line from Enschede to Gronau, on the right the new factory on the Lage Bothof Street. Photo Aviodrome

5 2003. Boulevard 1945 with the new Holland Casino.

6 & 7 1960. Weaving room 108 of Van Heek & Co on the Lage Bothof Street.

7 2009. The Music Centre by architect Jan Hoogstad, with a theatre auditorium seating 1000 people.

8 1894. Steam Weaving Mill Nieuw Engeland, belonging to Van Heek & Co. Photo Goudsmit / Municipal Archive Enschede 9 1964. Boulevard 1945, in the direction of Gronau with the market on the Van Heek Square to the left. 10 1907. Exit weaving mill, Van Heek & Co., Noorderhagen. 11 1958. Exit from the factory of Van Heek-Schuttersveld Bros. Photo Ger Dekkers / Het Oversticht Zwolle 12 1930. The offices of J.F. Scholten & Sons on the Haaksbergerweg. Photo Studio Staal / Municipal Archive Enschede 13 10 September 2000. Roombeek, four weeks after the fire works disaster. Photo Menno Boermans / Hollandse Hoogte

6 2003. Hendrik Jan van Heek Square looking towards De Bijenkorf.

8 2009. Nieuw Roombeek. 9 2009. New inhabitants of the newly built houses of Roombeek, with in the background the future Jan Cremer Museum in the old Balengebouw (Bales Building), once part of the De Bamshoeve cotton spinning mill.

Manchester england

Manchester then

Manchester now

Manchester's textile history is a remarkable story. Flemish weavers, looking for religious freedom, brought the craft to Lancashire and its surroundings in the late Middle Ages. Because of the wool trade, Manchester became an important market place in Great Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When the industrial revolution began and the first mechanical spinning and weaving machines arrived, Manchester was a convenient location for the first textile mills. The presence of flowing rivers and plentiful rainfall made it an ideal place for the water-powered machines. Shortly afterwards, when canals connecting Manchester with the sea-port of Liverpool enabled the supply of raw cotton, the textile industry began to boom. The town's prosperity continued as steam engines started taking over from manual labour, and the necessary canals to the Worsley coalmines were dug. Lancashire lived through the hey-day of its cotton industry in the nineteenth century. At that time 'Cottonopolis' had at its disposal a world-famous canal system and the world's first railway connections for supply and transportation. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Manchester had become a very cosmopolitan city. For various reasons, Jews from Eastern Europe, Italians, Germans and Irishmen came looking for a new way of life in this fastgrowing, successful city. In the following years production moved increasingly to the surrounding cities: the weaving mills moved to Blackburn, Burnley and Nelson while the spinning mills moved to Bolton and Oldham. Manchester itself was mainly a centre for design, trade, storage and distribution. In that period working conditions were very bad. Manchester became the cradle of the workers revolution and the first trade union congress in the world took place in the Mechanics' Institute in David Street on 6 June 1868. By then, Marx and Engels had already written the Communist Manifesto in Chetham's Library in Manchester. The direct connection to the sea provided by the Manchester Ship Canal allowed the city to withstand competition for a long time, until the worldwide great depression of the nineteen thirties also hit Manchester. From that time on, textiles went downhill, due also to fierce competition on the world market. Around 1970 the Port of Manchester Docks was closed, leading to high unemployment in the whole region. Building on the post-war knowledge of the computer pioneers at Manchester University, present-day Manchester plays an important role in technical research and IT development. Culturally, the city became noteworthy in the late seventies as the music capital of the United Kingdom. More recently, two events have been of great importance to the city. On 15 June 1996 an IRA bomb was detonated in the centre injuring 200 people and causing widespread devastation. A part of the old centre was destroyed. Secondly, Manchester was selected to host the Commonwealth Games of 2002. This gave the city an enormous boost and provided a lot of new accommodation and a renovated city centre. The renovation of large parts of the old industrial inheritance is still continuing. Since 2006 the city has had a new eyecatching landmark, the 47-storey Beetham Tower.

Photos and documents: Manchester Archives and Local Studies, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Stefan Boness / Panos

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1 1935. Group of women in cotton factory. 2 1908. Newgates, Corporation Street. 3 1921. Cotton bales in the pulley system of the ship canal near Trafford-Park. 4 1910. Cotton bales stored at the Trafford Park Warehouse. 5 & 6 1920. Weighing bales of cotton at the Port of Manchester Warehouse. 7 1970. View of Manchester industrial scene at Salford. 8 1929. Aerial view of Salford, Pendleton. Hankinson Street area. Photo Allied Newspapers Ltd / Manchester Archives and Local Studies. 9 1955. Woman cotton mill worker. 10 April 1945. Promotional brochure for Trafford Park: Learning and liking it. Juvenile training in the cotton weaving industry. 11 April 1945. Page in the promotional brochure for Trafford Park: Learning and liking it. Juvenile training in the cotton weaving industry. At the loom.

1 2007. Urbis Building, the new Urban Culture centre next to the old Printwork building. In June 1996, an IRA bomb exploded here, injuring more than 200 people and ripping into the fabric of the city's main shopping centre. 2 2006. Neglected old houses next to a modern building project in the centre. 3 2009. The Chips Building by architect Will Alsop in Ancoats, the East End of Manchester. Site of the future development projects helping to regenerate New Islington. 4 2006. Urbis Building, the new Urban Culture Centre next to the old Printwork building. 5 2009. The wall of the Victoria Station in the city centre shows the map of the Northern Railway connections, which connected the former cities of the textile industry. 6 Platform of the Imperial War Museum by architect Daniel Libeskind, with view of the Lowry Theatre and modern architecture at Salford Quays. 7 The Manchester Wheel of the Manchester Evening News next to the Arndale Shopping Centre. 8 Project Chimney Pot Park of the innovative developer Urban Splash in Langworthy Road in Salford, in which run-down Victorian terraced houses will be refurbished. 9 2009. The new built Beetham Tower by Ian Simpson Architects, half hotel and half apartment complex, in the centre of Manchester. It stands next to the old city canal and the old railway line from the industrial past. This building is the tallest residential building in the UK. 10 2009. Milliners Wharf in Ancoats. This will be the future development site of New Islington, a futuristic living quarter built by Urban Splash.

Leeds england

Leeds then

Like so many cities, Leeds was established at a ford in the river. For the surrounding villages, Leeds increasingly developed into a commercial hub on the river Aire, which meanders through Yorkshire in a southeasterly direction to the North Sea. The large number of sheep farms in the area led to the early development of a wool trade and as a direct result a clothing industry. Wool weaving and dyeing is said to have taken place there since as early as the fourteenth century. In the following centuries, Leeds became an important centre for textiles and transport. The town expanded so quickly that by 1840, towards the end of the first industrial revolution, it already had more than 150,000 inhabitants. The steam engine, the construction of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the railways were the foundations of the town's success. Various types of trade and industry developed as a direct result of the textile industry. Notably a steel industry, steam engine and automatic loom building, as well as related companies such as dyeworks, clothing manufacturers, chemical works and printers. Important discoveries were made and for more than a century Leeds was the centre of trade and production at a crossroads of waterways and rail tracks. To celebrate the triumphs of these achievements the Great Exhibition took place in Leeds in 1851 with an exhibition in the Crystal Palace attracting more than six million visitors. The town was at its absolute height during the Victorian era and many buildings in the city still bear witness to this boom period. By the end of the First World War Leeds had past its peak as a textile town and the focus had already moved to education and science. The Colleges of Technology, Art, Commerce and Education eventually became Leeds Metropolitan University in 1992. As in other places in Europe, the actual production of textiles slowly disappeared from the city after the Second World War. Armley Mills, where once England's largest wool mill was established, now houses the Leeds Industrial Museum. Today, Leeds not only plays a regional role but also has an international position. Nowhere else in England are there so many people working in the IT sector as in Leeds. A large number of call centres, offices and related media form the heart of Leeds' economy. The city has been radically modernized and new, comfortable houses have replaced the thousands of workers’ slums.

Photos and documents: David Atkinson Archive / Leeds Library and Information Service, unless otherwise mentioned

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1 Around 1900. Young textile workers at Albert Mills, Wellington Street, Morley. The school leaving age at this time was on the thirteenth birthday, and these youngsters only just seem to be past this. 2 1901. View into Lady Bridge Mill Yard. Various companies used the mill complex, including at this time Bainbridge Brothers wholesale clothiers, and Robinson and Mortimer boot and shoe manufacturers. 3 May 1963. One of the earliest parts of Morley to flourish in the development of the town was Morley Bottoms. Workers whose job was too far away to walk home in the lunch break often took their own lunch to the mill. 4 January 1965. Crank Mills on Station Road had the longest life of any textile factory in Morley, lasting from 1790 to 1979. The mill shows many stages of development, expansion and growth. The oldest part is the three storey stone building on the roadside. 5 Undated. Mr D. J. Sharpe, for long history master at Morley High School looking at Gillroyd Mills, Wide Lane, Morley. Three and four storey blocks of red brick close to the chimney were used for the willeying, blending, carding, scribbling and spinning processes. 6 1890. View looks across a weir, which spans a mill race. This water near the railway arches had been diverted from the River Aire to power several mills. 7 9 March 1961. Wallace Arnold coaches waiting by Springfield Cottages outside Springfield Mills to transport female mill workers back home. Many textile businesses found it difficult to obtain enough women workers locally, so they decided to bring them in from areas where most jobs were male-oriented. 8 Undated. The interior of the last major building project at J.& S. Rhodes' Prospect Mills in Victoria Road. This new weaving shed was built in the boom time of the early 1950s. The year of highest employment in Morley's textile trade was 1955 with over 7,500 workers.

9 June 1965. View of plain looms, made by Lee and Crabtree, being used by female workers to weave ladies' overcoating material at J. & S. Rhodes' Prospect Mills. 10 August 1964. Commercial Street, Morley, just about the high point of the postwar textile boom for W. and E. Jackson's Peel Mills.

Leeds now All photos: Tim Smith, 2009 1 The Leeds City Museum, dominates Millenium Square in the centre of Leeds. 2 Recent commercial developments along the River Aire in Leeds, nowadays a thriving 21st century city. These new buildings house businesses and accommodation together with spaces for cultural and leisure activities. 3 Mosque serving the large Pakistani Muslim community in the Harehills area of Leeds. 4 The Victorian Tiled Hall now houses a cafe that connects the Central Library and Leeds Art Gallery in the centre of Leeds. 5 The former Post Office in City Square which now houses restaurants and bars next to a modern office block in the centre of Leeds. 6 St Paul's House is a Moorish-Venetian style warehouse designed by Thomas Ambler in 1878 for John Barran, the clothing manufacture. It is now converted to offices and lies at the heart of Leeds' financial and legal district, part of the thriving 21st century city. 7 West Indian style carnival in Chapeltown, Leeds. 8 Leeds City Hall, built in its Victorian heyday, still dominates the skyline in the centre of Leeds

Huddersfield england

Huddersfield then

Huddersfield now

Present-day Huddersfield still displays many traces of its Victorian hey-day. At that time, radical mechanization in the textile industry was steadily driving up production levels. For centuries, the slightly rolling green hills and plentiful rainfall ensured that Huddersfield had lush pastures for sheep breeding. Farmers would spin and weave at home or in small communal sheds, while clothing was made by hand and sold in local marketplaces. The valleys of the fast-flowing rivers Colne and Holme were the ideal location for the early textile mills. More and more were built and the machines became increasingly faster as a result of clever technical developments. As well as wool, linen and cotton were also produced cheaply, partly thanks to child labour. With the arrival of the mills, the home workers were driven out of the market. Eventually these craftsmen refused to tolerate the situation any longer, which led in 1811 to the so-called Luddite uprising. The new machines were destroyed and production was brought to a standstill. The army was brought in and with great effort the revolt was quashed. Later uprisings in Huddersfield led to an improvement in working conditions and the first legislation and limitation of working hours. This barely affected the prosperity of the textile industry and the city, as the magnificent houses and buildings, but above all the station from the second part of the nineteenth century bear witness. When the textile industry slowly started to lose its importance for the city the Huddersfield Broad and the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which had played such an important role, slowly fell into disrepair. For one and a half centuries they had supplied cotton and coal and transported textiles by ship. Today, these canals are once again fully restored and he former warehouses and mills on the canal banks have been converted into highly desirable houses and offices. Nowadays, the largest employer in Huddersfield is the university. Traces of the textile industry can still be found; there are still wool mills, and textile machines are still being built. Furthermore, an important engineering office and a factory for agricultural chemicals are located in the city.

Photos and documents: Kirklees Image Archive Huddersfield, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Tim Smith

1 1910. Textile Mill.

1 2009. Renovated buildings alongside the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

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2 1935. The assembling of textile machinery at John Haigh & Sons Ltd.

2 Huddersfield 2009.

3 Date unknown. Interior of a textile mill.

3 Huddersfield town centre as seen from Castle Hill.

4 1910. Wool and rag sorting.

4 2009. The railway station in St George's Square.

5 1959. Warping at Beanland's Mill, Spring Grove Mills, Clayton West. 6 Date unknown. Florence Woodfine at the despatch room of Beanland's Mill. 7 1959. Bundling at the Beanland Mill of Spring Grove Mills, Clayton West. 8 1940. Woman loading loose wool that has been dyed into a so-called woozer, a hydro-extractor for spinning at Thomas Broadbent & Sons.

5 Byram Arcade, a traditional shopping arcade in modern day Huddersfield showing the Victorian buildings constructed during the textile heyday. 6 2009. The Open Market in modern day Huddersfield showing Victorian buildings constructed during the textile heyday. 7 Brooke’s Mill in the Armitage Bridge area of Huddersfield was the home of wool cloth manufacturing for over two hundred years. Founded in 1541 by the Brooke family, the trading company is believed to be the oldest surviving family business in the UK. In 1987 the competition from low cost countries brought the demise of manufacturing on the site. Since then the buildings have found new uses as home to a variety of businesses, an art gallery and film studios. 8 2009. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal. 9 A former dyehouse in the Armitage Bridge area, now the office of architects. The dyehouse supplied the nearby Brooke's Mill. 10 2009. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

Tampere finland

Tampere then

Tampere now

The city of Tampere was founded on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids by the Swedish king Gustav III in 1779. From the very beginning it was a breeding ground for industrial pioneers. Eleven years after Russia seized the Swedish territory, a Scottish businessman, James Finlayson, recognized the potential of the location. With a loan from the tsar he built textile and machine factories there in 1820. The difference in height of more than eighteen meters between Lake Pyhäjärvi and Lake Näsijärvi provided him with free hydroelectric power. This energy, cheap labour and a favourable Russian market ensured the factory’s success. Some time later, the Tampella factory followed Finlayson's example on the other side of the river. For more than a century they produced high quality fabrics. In 1917, when Finland declared itself independent, Tampere was already known as the 'Manchester of the North'. The textile industry also attracted other companies to the city. Tampere grew into the largest industrial city in Finland. At a certain point, apart from textiles, mine borers, locomotives, canons and turbines were also produced on the Tammerkoski. Here also lies also the basis of one of Finland's most famous companies, Nokia. In 1865, mining engineer Fredrik Idestam started a small paper mill on the rapids. Years later, when he opened a second branch in the nearby city of Nokia, he named the firm Nokia Company. The company specialized in paper, rubber and cables and later, as we know, in telecommunications. It was in Tampere that many high-tech telephone innovations such as GSM and WAP were first introduced. Today, many old factory sites in the city centre have been abandoned by industry. The buildings have been converted into museums, galleries, cinemas and restaurants. The names Finlayson and Tampella live on as logos on the roofs of the old buildings and in the two districts on both sides of the river. The Tammerkoski area has even been declared a Finnish national heritage landscape. The city still uses four hydroelectric power stations that deliver virtually free electricity to the current industries such as mining machinery, paper and telecommunications. In Tampere, there are also many engineering and biotechnology companies. Higher education dominates the service sector. More than 40,000 students study at the polytechnic high school and the universities, out of a total population of 200,000 people.

Photos and documents: Werstas Photo Archives, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Petri Nuutinen

1 Tampere, middle 1920s. Workers leaving from work from the Finlayson cotton factory. 2 1900-1910. The first grocery of the Finlayson & Co Workers Cooperative Shop. Street view from Amuri, the working-class quarter of Tampere. 3 July 29th 1910. Indoor picture from the grocery store of Finlayson & Co Workers Cooperative Shop. Behind the counter standing on the ladder Pentti Hirvonen, manager of the shop. Photo Niels Rasmussen / Werstas Photo Archives 4 1921. Driver Nestori Niininen on his Mannesmann Mulag car of the Finlayson factory. Next to him handyman Kalle Vuorinen, on the right handyman Jukka Syrjälä. Photo Teuvo Mäkinen / Vapriikki Photo Archives 5 Postcard made of a Tampere photograph by Ida Nyman, 1901. Vapriikki Photo Archives 6 1920s. Factories by the Tammerkoski rapids. On the right the Tampella area and on the left the Finlayson area. This is a view from the Satakunnankatu bridge. 7 October 1939. The Tammerkoski rapids. In the foreground Hämeenkatu, the main street of Tampere, in the background the factory area. Photo E.M. Staf / Vapriikki Photo Archives 8 1920. Ida Ojaniemi works at the Lapinniemi cotton factory. 9 29 August 1936. View of Hämeenkatu, the main street of Tampere. At the end the railway station, with the tower under construction. Photo K.O. Lumme/Collection Aamulehti Magazine/Vapriikki Photo Archives 10 1930. Young boy at the weaving mill. Photo Werstas Photo Archives 11 1999. Shadow, artwork by Kaarina Kaikkonen. Photo Mikko Marjamäki/ Tampere Museum of Contemporary Art

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1 2009. Panorama over the industrial centre of Tampere, with in the middle the white tower from 1837, part of the Finlayson factorie. 2 2009. At the opening of the exhibition by graduated students of TAMK, School of Art and Media, in the former Finlayson factories. 3 2009. Linjanmuutoksia (Changes of lines), an installation by Kaarina Kaikkonen from 2009. The white house on the right dates from 1837 and is the oldest building of the Finlayson area. The white on the back is the newest one from 2003. 4 2009. Finlayson area, the white tower and house in front dates from 1837 and is the oldest building of Finlayson and the first many floors industrial building in Finland. The white on the left is the newest one from 2003. 5 2004. Red brick factories beside the rapids of Tammerkoski, in centre of Tampere city. On the left side the Finlayson buildings and on the right side the Tampella factories. 6 2006. Sammon keskuslukio 2005. Architect Olli Pekka Jokela. 7 2006. The local samba school g.r.e.s. União da Roseira, Samba Carnival on main street Hämeenkatu. 8 2009. The glass-covered area between two buildings of the former Finlayson cotton factory. 9 2009. Panorama over the centre of Tampere, seen from the tower Näsinneula.

Forssa finland

Forssa then

Forssa now

Forssa is a small industrial city on the river Loimi in the South-west of Finland. Textile has been produced on farms in the surroundings since the seventeenth century. At the time, Forssa was not yet a city but more like a collection of hamlets. The Swede Axel Wilhelm Wahren took the first step towards industrialisation; in 1847 he founded the Loimijoki Cotton Factory on the riverbanks. The spinning mill is driven by steam power and is located on the upper course of the river where there is a sufficient supply of firewood. 'Fors' means rapids in Swedish. From that moment on the town develops around the mill. Mr Wahren builds houses and shops for his employees, but also a park, a library and a hospital. In 1856 Mr Wahren adds a weaving mill and a finishing department to his company on the other side of town. Until the Second World War everything in Forssa revolved around that one company. Cotton was supplied from the United States via the port of Turku and was transported to the mill by horse and cart. In those years, the main market was Russia. Mr Wahren plays an important role in society; Finland's first telephone line runs from his mill to the station, and the first electric train connects his spinning mill to the weaving mill. In 1951 Finlayson, which had taken over the mills in Forssa in 1935, built a new weaving mill, the largest one in Scandinavia. Today, the cotton industry no longer plays a role in Forssa, but the city is still a traditional industrial city. It has specialised in IT and the graphics industry, but also produces food and building materials. The 'new' Finlayson factory, from 1951, is now the Citymarket Shopping Centre. Other buildings from the textile period have now been converted into museums and offices. The Tyyki Textile Museum and the Forssa City Museum also attract tourists who come mainly for the nature and water sport.

Photos and documents: Textile Museum of Forssa /Tyyki-collectie, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Olli-Paavo Koponen

1 After 1900. The Forssa Ltd cotton mill built by Axel Wilhelm Wahren in 1847.

1 & 7 August 2009. In the processes of weaving steam power was needed, which was generated on the other side of the river in the steam power plant from 1923.

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2 1950. Cotton fibre is ready processed for the spinning at the Finlayson Forssa factory.n 3 1960. Weaving mill's packing department. 4 Beginning 20th century. The weaving mill, in the front the firewood for the steammachines. 5 2007. Aerial view of Forssa with left under the former spinning mill and at the right the weaving mill. Photo Town of Forssa 6 2007. The old Finlayson Forssa weaving mill, built in different stages from 1877 to 1906. On the right, the 'new' weaving factory from 1951, now the Citymarket shopping centre. Photo Town of Forssa

2 August 2009. The museum on the right is established in the storage building, which is made in two stages in 1848 and 1859. 3 August 2009. The town library is established in a factory building from 1874. 4 August 2009. The old weaving mill, next to the Citymarket shopping centre on the right, was built in different stages from 1877 to 1906. 5 August 2009. Finlayson factory shop is still in place although the weaving activity has left the factory. This part of the factory from 1882 was used for bleaching and colouring the cotton. 6 2009. Citymarket shopping centre

7 1960. The roller printing machine at the Finlayson Forssa factory. 8 1960. Screen printing machine.

8 2009. The spinning mill is built in different stages from 1873 to 1890. Currently it houses the University of Applied Sciences.

Chemnitz germany

Chemnitz then

Chemnitz now

In the Middle Ages, more than a third of the population of Chemnitz, at the foot of the Erzgebirge mountains, were working in textiles. At that time, there was no question of an industry; spinning was still done by hand and weaving was done on early wooden handlooms. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, these looms could process more cotton than six spinning wheels could deliver. When it became apparent that the spinning machine invented by weaver Samuel Crompton produced excellent threads, Karl Friedrich Bernard decided to import these spinning mules from England. It seemed, however, that the local spinners could not work with the machines. Technicians and craftsmen were brought in to Chemnitz from England to train the spinners. These immigrants became increasingly involved in building the machines but when, under their direction, production of the English spinning mules began in Germany, England decided to prohibit exports. Bernard could be regarded as the first industrial spy. The success of the cotton mills, weaving mills, dye works, but especially the engineering works set a precedent which was followed by many others. Fürchtegott Moritz Voigt developed a highly successful knitting machine. Richard Hartmann built textile machinery as well as locomotives. Native Hungarian Johann Zimmermann came to the town and in 1848 founded the Chemnitzer Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik. Initially it was ridiculed, but in the end he built the largest engineering factory on the continent. It was to stay that way until the end of the Second World War. From the middle of the nineteenth century Saxony and Chemnitz were the centre of the European cotton and engineering industry. Chemnitz played an important role in the German war industry during the Second World War, although the British and Americans destroyed large parts of the city with heavy bombardments. The last remnants were destroyed in the communist era, between 1949 and 1990. The city centre around the town hall was replaced by dull East German concrete constructions. During the period of the German Democratic Republic Chemnitz was known as Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1953. After the fall of the Iron Curtain the old name was re-established. Since the reunification of Germany the city centre has undergone a huge overhaul, partly by famous architects such as Helmuth Jahn and Hans Kollhoff. Since 2007, Chemnitz has called itself 'Stadt der Moderne' which it certainly has the historical right to do. The Schocken Department Store, built by Erich Mendelssohn in 1930, was at the time and remains one of the world's most modern buildings. The city and its surrounding areas are now the most powerful industrial region in East Germany. Volkswagen, Thyssen Krupp, Continental and IBM all have large operations there. Mechanical engineering is still an important sector and textile machines are still produced in Chemnitz. The Chemnitz Industrial Museum is housed in the restored foundry of the former Auto Union, nowadays part of Audi AG. The Technical University of Chemnitz specialises in research into new materials and production lines, microelectronics and precision computer technology, among other things. The Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkzeugmaschinen und Umwelttechnik is still involved with improving textile techniques.

Photos and documents: Stadtarchiv Chemnitz, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Ulf Dahl

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1 1911. The machinery factory belonging to Hermann and Alfred Escher AG at Zwickauer Street. Source: Chemitz in word and image. 2 The thirties. View of the Kappelenberg. 3 1937. The machinery hall of Becker Brothers AG in the Crusius Street. 4 1937. The glove sewing hall of Becker Brothers AG in the Crusius Street. 5 The thirties. Construction of the cotton ring spinning machine in the Saxon textile factory. Source: 100 Jahre Hartmann Textilmachinenbau, 1937. 6 The thirties. Assembling the drive of the ring spinning machine at the Saxon textile machine factory, prev. Richard Hartmann AG. Source: 100 Jahre Hartmann Textilmachinenbau, 1937. 7 The thirties. View of the Annaberger Street. 8 The twenties. The Saxon Trade School for the Textile Industry at Sedan Street, now called the Wilhelm Raabe Street. Source: Deutschlands Städtebau Chemnitz, 1929.

1 2009. The Industriemuseum Chemnitz. From the beginning of the last century among other things the Schubert & Salzer machinery factories and the Hugo Schreiter and Moritz Rockstroh foundries have been established in the buildings. 2 2009. Steffen Petereit of the Industriemuseum is showing a machine to weave glove fingers, built by the G. Hilscher company in Chemnitz in 1907. 3 2005. Museum night in the Industriemuseum. 4 September 2008. Chemnitz town hall; the old part in Renaissance style, the new part in Jugendstil. 5 2008. According to an old tradition bands from all over the Erzgebirge parade during the first Advent weekend in Chemnitz. Here they are passing the Marx monument from the sculptor Lew Kerbel in the Brückenstraße. 6 September 2006. The Türmer building, houses and companies where once the renowned Rosencafé stood. 7 2009. In the former Higher Weaving School nowadays the Philosophy department of the Technical University of Chemnitz is established. 8 2004. The Market Hall, one of the most beautiful in Germany. In the cellar the Chemitzer Kabarett and a cafe are established. 9 2005. The former textile machine factory Wirkbau of Schubert & Salzer with the clock tower. Today small companies and schools are established there. 10 Chemnitz, 2006. In 2012, the Landesmuseum für Archeologie will be established in the department store Schocken, built by Erich Mendelsohn in 1930.

Lódz polen

Lódz then

Lódz now

Lodz, located in the middle of modern day Poland, was originally an agricultural town. The first textile company was only established in 1823 by Silesian weavers. With the arrival of the steam engine in the weaving mills ten years later, progress was fast. Ludwik Geyer built the largest steam driven cotton mill of his time. The Polish author Wladyslaw Reymont named his novel about the town The Promised Land. It tells about the drift from all parts of Central Europe to the factories of Lodz – in particular Russians, Jews and Germans but also Portuguese, English, French and Irish workers. At a certain point, the town was the most densely populated in the world and was growing faster than New York. Around the turn of the nineteenth century a third of the population was Jewish and a third of the factories had been established by Jewish manufacturers. Israel Poznanski built a factory complex that was so enormous that it was unparalleled in Europe. A hundred years later, these buildings and his home were converted into Manufactura, the cultural centre of Lodz. Carl Wilhelm Scheibler, the 28-year-old Belgian-German son of an entrepreneur, also built a huge modern complex. Apart from a weaving mill he also built houses and schools for his workers, and gasworks that provided the whole complex with light. There was, however, a fence around the site, which was locked at night. Until the outbreak of the First World War, Lodz experienced a golden era. After the war, the export of textiles entered an uncertain period when the Germans closed the border due to a customs conflict and the lucrative Russian market was lost as a result of the civil war. The situation deteriorated in the Second World War when the occupying German troops murdered almost the entire Jewish population. The factories were dismantled and transferred to Germany. When the Russians liberated the city in January 1945, the German population of Lodz had already fled to the west in fear of the Red Army. In the communist period between 1945 and 1989 most manufacturers who had survived the war, lost their possessions due to nationalization. The majority of textile mills closed after the fall of the Berlin wall; the Lodz textile era was over. The factories were converted into museums, lofts, shops, restaurants and even small beach volleyball fields. In the eighties and nineties, some new enterprises were set up, producing textiles only on a small scale, mainly for the Russian market. Today, the city profits from its central location. Many big companies choose Lodz as their place of business including foreign corporations such as Philips, Procter & Gamble, the Swiss company ABB and the Indian company Infosys Technogies. Despite the crisis, Dell hopes to hire 3,000 employees in its new factory. The infrastructure around Lodz is being radically improved for cars as well as for trains, which is convenient for TNT that also has a head office there. Many Poles who previously went elsewhere to find their fortune are now slowly returning. Will Lodz be The Promised Land again, with its successful industries, universities and cultural centres?

Photos and documents: Textile Museum Lodz (TmL), unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Dick van Aalst

1 1920s. Postcard of panorama of Lódz.

1 May 2007. Manufactura shopping centre. Part of the factory site of textile baron Poznanski.

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2 1920s. Household workers at Ksiezy Mlyn, Karol Scheibler’s factory. 3 About 1880. Karol Scheibler’s factory and workers houses in Ksiezy Mlyn. Photo of the original lithograph. 4 1920s. Volunteer fire brigade site at the factory of Karol Scheibler, Ksiezy Mlyn (Priests Mill). Photo Grohman Collection / Tlm 5 1930s. Workers in Ludwik Geyer’s Jacquard Weavery at Piotrkowska Street 293. Photo private collection Lodz 6 1930s. Workers from one of the textile factories. 7 1920s. Karol Scheibler spinning waste site at Kiliskiego Street 185.

2 December 2006. View from the platform at Central Station. 3 May 2007. At the corner of the J. Kilinskiego Street and the J. Tuwima Street. 4 May 2007. At the corner of the Legionow Street and the Zachodnia Street. 5 November 2008. District Retkinia. 6 May 2007. Piotrkowska Street. 7 February 2007. Entrance shopping centre Manufaktura, from Ogrodowa Street. Formerly, the entrance of the Izrael Kalmanowiisz Poznanski textile factory.

8 1925. Factory hall in Karol Scheibler’s New Weavery at Kiliskiego Street 187. Photo Grohman Collection / Tml

8 March 2007. The former Poznansk textile factory in the Ogrodowa Street. After refurbishment a hotel will be established here as part of the Manufactura Complex.

9 1920s. School at the factory of Karol Scheibler in Ksiezy Mlyn (opened in 1876). Photo Grohman Collection/Tml

9 May 2007. Adam Osser's spinning mill, built in 1903, from the corner of the Kilifskiego Street and the Przybyszewskiego Street.

Prato italy

Prato then

Prato now

The Tuscan city of Prato already had some form of industrialization from early times. A document dating from 1107 shows that wool processing no longer took place on farms or in convents but in special mills where the first mechanical wool processing was used. The river Bisenzio together with a clever system of canals supplied the town with sufficient rinsing water. In the centuries that followed, Prato and the Bisenzio valley became famous for the extraordinary quality and in particular for the softness of their wool products. In the fourteenth century, the Corporazione dell'Arte della Lana was founded, which was a guild of wool traders. It provided a network of points of sales throughout Europe and, moreover, it offered the possibility to buy the best wool and dyes along the route. In the early nineteenth century, when Giovan Battista Mazzoni put the first Jacquard weaving machine into use, the industrialization of Prato took off. He improved the spinning machine and the patterns of his wool products. After the unification of Italy in 1870, the textile industry really began to thrive. The Kossler and Mayer families came from Austria and in 1887 established a textile factory that people from Prato would later call Il Fabbricone – the Large Factory. The real boom started shortly after the Second World War. Between 1950 and 1981, the number of employees increased from 22,000 to 60,000. Around 1960, Prato's textile industry invested in new machinery and technology. Product quality continued to improve, with the result that the 'Made in Italy' fashion houses increasingly used fabrics from Prato. In the early nineteen eighties, as in the rest of Europe, even Prato was unable to avoid mass redundancies. As a result of this, some manufacturers transferred their production to the East or Far East. In the meantime, several Chinese from Wenzhou who were making hats in Florence, told their family that life was good in Prato. It had everything that a Chinese person needed to start a new life: factories, real estate, textiles and clientele. And most importantly, small companies to be taken over. The first Chinese were almost invisible in the city; they worked at home where they made woollen and leather goods for the Italian distributive trades that resold it to designers such as Gucci and Versace. Increasingly more Chinese then followed their relatives' example. Today, around 30,000 Chinese are living in the city, most of them originally from Wenzhou. That makes Prato the city with the highest percentage of Chinese in Europe, after Paris and Milan. They own a quarter of the textile sector in Prato. In many places, the street scene has considerably changed; shopping streets, advertisements and signboard appear Chinese, but the big Italian fashion houses still prefer to use threads and fabrics from Prato.

Photos and documents: Museo del Tessuto (MdT), Prato, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Andrea Abati

1 1930. The chimneys of the city, most of them from textile factories.

1 2009. Piazzale dell'Università. The Industrial Technical Institute Tullio Buzzi used to be here; the school for the textile industry and dyeworks, founded in Prato in 1886.

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2 1930. The main entrance of Fabbricone Textile factory. 3 About 1920. The interior of the Fabbricone Textile factory, founded in 1888. 4 About 1920. The interior of the Fabbricone Textile factory, founded in 1888. 5 1996. Man in the spinning mill. Photo Fabrizio Tempesti/Mdt 6 1996. Workers dyeing at the textile factory. Photo Fabrizio Tempesti/Mdt 7 1996. Worker at textile factory. Photo Fabrizio Tempesti/Mdt 8 & 9 1990. Demolition of chimneys in Via Flaminio Rai. Photo Andrea Abati

2 2009. The car park on the roof of Lidl supermarket in Via Luigi Borgioli. Many Chinese immigrants live in this neighbourhood. In former days here too there used to be Piero Becagli wool factories. 3 2009. Via Antonio Marini, one of the main streets in the Chinese quarter. At the end of the 1990s the buildings and mill were pulled down and reconstructed. 4 2009. Piazzale Enrico Coveri. The building with the chimney used to be the Piero Becagli wool factory. 5 2009. Piazzale Enrico Coveri, named after the fashion designer who was born in Prato in 1952. Restructuring of the Piero Becagli industrial textile complex. View from the car park on the roof. 6 2009. New houses in Via Cristoforo Colombo, built after the demolition of several textile factories in 2007. 7 2009. Houses in Via Antonio Marini, built in previous years after the demolition of important wool factories on this spot.

Roubaix france

Roubaix then

Roubaix now

During the height of the textile industry, Roubaix, together with the neighbouring town of Tourcoing, had more than 200 factories, probably more than any other city. This made the twin city one of Europe's largest industrial areas; a forest of chimneys in suffocating smoke. For a century and a half France's clothes were mainly produced here. Charles the Bold of Burgundy could surely not have imagined this when he granted the city the privilege to produce and trade in textiles in the fifteenth century. The importance of such 'charters' became clear when Roubaix acquired the right to copy English fabrics three centuries later. It was the beginning of heavy investment in the region, briefly interrupted only when the ruling classes fled for foreign countries during the French Revolution. Under Napoleon's rule the industry experienced another revival and entrepreneurs built factories that looked more and more like castles. The arrival of the steam engine and the presence of coal in the region made Roubaix the textile city of the North. The presence of the World Wool Exchange, nowadays located in Australia, proved how important the city really was. In the second half of the nineteenth century there was a growing need for better training for workers and management. This led to the foundation of the industrial high school. The Ecole Nationale d'Arts Industriels dates back to 1881 and is a co-operation between the city and the French state, recognizing the importance of higher education in the textile city. Today, the school still exists under the name l'École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et du Textile de Roubaix. At the beginning of the nineteen fifties, seventy percent of the population was still working in textiles. After that, the situation changed and it was no longer possible to withstand the competition from low-wage countries. In the sixties the first factories were closed, but the big bang was yet to come. Between 1973 and 2000 46,000 people were made redundant in Roubaix. Today, after years of investment, Roubaix is slowly losing its old stigma as a run-down industrial city. New companies such as call centres, IT, communication and design offices have found their way to the old vacant buildings. Insurance companies have also located to the city. Textiles can still be found in the city. The clothing and fashion industry have opened up new markets in co-operation with mail-order firms such as La Redoute-Redcats and 3 Suisses. The former factory of Louis Motte-Bossut dating from 1862 now houses the French National Archive of Labour. The factory outlet L'Usine, one of 130 in the city, is also housed in an old textile mill, as is the mail-order centre Eurotéléport. Unlike other cities, Roubaix did not convert a former weaving mill into a textile museum; it has been brought together with the visual arts and is housed in the former art-deco swimming pool, La Piscine. However well-known the city may have been as a wool city, it owes its greatest fame to the Paris-Roubaix bicycle race, which two local textile manufacturers, Theo Vienne and Maurice Perez, first organized in 1896 to prove how strong their woollen clothing actually was.

Photos and documents: Médiathèque de Roubaix, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Eric Pollet / Nord Presse Images

1 At the beginning of the 20th century. Map of the industry in and around Roubaix. Photo Archive Municipale de Roubaix

1 2006. Main building of the Motte Bossut textile factory, nowadays the Centre d'Archives du Monde du Travail (the French central labour archive).

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2 At the beginning of the 20th century. Panoramic view including Rue de la Gare. Photo postcard 3 1922. Letterhead of the company Motte Bossut Fils. 4 At the start of the 20th century. The Roubaix canal, Sartel Quay and the Motte-Bossu factory. Photo postcard 5 At the start of the 20th century. The Roubaix canal and the Carissimo factory. Photo postcard 6 1930. The quality check on the textile of Le Clercq Dupire. Photo Médiathèque de Roubaix 7 1930. Export department of Le Clercq Dupire. 8 1930. Management office of Le Clercq Dupire. 9 1930. Sales department of Le Clercq Dupire. 10 1930. Personnel of Le Clercq Dupire is leaving the factory. 11 1938. Letterhead of the company Rossel Motte.

2 2006. St Martin's Church on the Grand-Place. 3 2006. The tram is passing the former Motte Bossut textile factory (called the Castle of Industry). 4 2009. Renovated bridge at the Quai de Lorient over the Canal de Roubaix. 5 2009. The interior of La Piscine, the Musée d'Art et d'Industrie. 6 2006. Entrance of the Musée d'Art et d'Industrie. In the background the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles (Art and Textile Industry College). 7 2006. Former textile complex completely rebuilt and now serving as Outlet l’Usine with dozens of small boutiques. 8 3 March 2009. Trade union demonstration by employees of La Redoute - 3 Suisses is passing the Institut Universitaire de Technologie.

Gent Belgium

Gent then

Gent now

Since as early as the Middle Ages, Ghent has been a prominent centre for wool production. The rivers flooded too often for agriculture to prosper, which is why sheep breeding became common in the surrounding area. In the fourteenth century Ghent woollen sheets were famous all over Europe, and from the sixteenth century linen was also traded and later it boasted the largest flax factory in Western Europe. But things really began to move quickly when Lieven Bauwens, who was born in Ghent, risked his life and smuggled a spinning machine from England and used it to start the first mechanical cotton spinning mill in the former Chartreuse Monastery in 1801. The monastery becomes a mill, farmers become factory workers. When shortly after that the steam engine appears the technical triumph of the textile industry is complete. The stimulating effect of textile on other industries makes Ghent the most important industrial town of Flanders in the nineteenth century: 'the Manchester of the continent'. There was a constant stream of manpower from the countryside and therefore little was done for the workers; after all there were always enough workers eager to fill any position that fell vacant. Only the La Liève flax mill built houses for its personnel. Most of the working-class houses, the so-called 'beluiken' were built and rented out by wealthy families for an exorbitant profit. It is not surprising that Belgium's first trade unions appear here. Between 1800 and 1930 Ghent mainly consisted of textile mills and workers. The flourishing industry served large markets during the French period. Ghent textile also prospered during the Dutch period, from 1815 until 1830, by exporting to the colonies in the Dutch East Indies. The profit was used among other things to dig the Ghent-Terneuzen canal, which made the supply of cotton by sea-going vessels easier. World War I and the crisis of the nineteen thirties put an end to the enthusiastic process of modernisation the city had known until then. Little by little the markets and production are moved to other continents, although knowledge remains in the city: the college and university have a bachelor and a master course in textile technology. Nowadays, Ghent is an important educational city with more than 59,000 students in higher education, for instance at Ghent University, Ghent College, Artevelde College and the High School for Sciences and Art. Ghent's largest employer is the non-commercial services industry: the care sector and the social service sector, followed by banks, insurers, temporary employment agencies and IT companies.

Photos and documents: City Archive City of Ghent, unless otherwise mentioned

All photos: Marleen Daniëls

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1 1880. Flax mill La Liève on the Wiedauwkaai. Photo Edmond Sacré / City Archive City of Ghent 2 & 4 Probably 1910. Female workers in spinning mill. Photo MIAT, Museum for Industrial Archaeology and Textile 3 15 August 1906. National demonstration for better working conditions. Photo Amsab, Institute for Social History 5 1926. Female workers at the Samenwerkende Maatschappij Vooruit (Working Forwards Together Company) spinning mill on the Vliegtuigbaan. Photo MIAT, Museum for Industrial Archaeology and Textile 6 1922. Statue of Lieven Bauwens, important industrialist. He smuggled textile machines out of England to the continent, and in 1801 he started his first mechanical cotton spinning mill in the Chartreuse Monastery, the start of the Industrial Revolution. 7 1924. The Textile de Flandres weaving mill. Photo Joseph Buyens / Amsab, Institute for Social History 8 28 September 1837. The first steam train in Ghent. 9 1924. Workers from Flax mill La Liève with the ferry in the Voorhaven in Ghent. 10 Around 1920. Unloading cotton in the harbour. Edmond Sacré (probably). 11 1906. Letterhead D. Vanderhaeagen.

1 2009. The Gravensteen, built in 1180, played an important role in the 19th century industry. After the French revolution the Heyndrickx, Van Acker-Ceuterick and Couvreur cottong spinning mills were housed here. In 1872 the city government bought the Gravensteen. 2 2009. View of Ghent from the Belfort in northeast direction. In the background the chimney breast of the old electricity generating station at Baudelo Park. 3 2009. View of the Graslei from the St Michiel's Bridge. These houses played an important role in the rich economic past of the city since the Middle Ages. 4 2009. Brasserie Pakhuis in a former storage area was rebuilt by the Portuguese architect Pinto into a successful café and restaurant. 5 2009. The statue of Lieven Bauwens, born in Ghent. He meant a lot for cotton in Ghent. He smuggled textile machines out of England to the continent, and in 1801 he started his first mechanical cotton spinning mill in the Chartreuse Monastery, the start of the Industrial Revolution. 6 2009. View of Ghent from the fifth floor of the MIAT, from left to right Belfort, St Baaf and St Niklaas. 7 2009. The Book Tower built by Henry van de Velde for the library of Ghent University dating from 1939. 8 2009. The MIAT, Museum for Industrial Archaeology and Textile, founded in 1976 in the former Desmet-Guéquier cotton spinning mill at the Minnemeers. 9 2009. 'Beluiken' in the Rodelijvekens Street, in the north of Ghent. Beluiken were the districts with working-class houses nearby the factories, built by usurers. Today they are refurbished and they house mainly young families and immigrants. 10 2009. Today there is not much traffic on the Wiedauwkade. This was where bales of cotton would arrive from all parts of the world. Warehouse and cranes are now protected industrial heritage.

Tilburg Netherlands

Tilburg then

Tilburg now

In 1809, when Tilburg was granted its city rights by Louis Napoleon, it had already been an important wool town for two centuries. Sheep breeding was at the basis of the textile success. In the scattered hamlets ('herdgangen') the wool was washed, spun and woven as part of a cottage industry. In the Netherlands the nickname for people from Tilburg becomes Kruikenzeiker (Flask Pisser); the urine that every family saves up and collects in flasks is used to extract fat from raw wool and to wash it. At the end of the nineteenth century the first textile mills were established on both sides of the connecting roads between the hamlets. In the industry’s heyday, forty percent of the population worked in more than fifty different textile companies in Tilburg: spinning mills, dyeworks, weaving mills and laundries. End products included not only the plaids and blankets from the AaBe woollen blankets factory, but also the woollen fabrics that were turned into made-to-measure suits elsewhere. In the wake of the textile industry many transport companies were established in Tilburg, which transported the goods virtually everywhere. They brought back wine from France to Tilburg. That is how a new and thriving business sector came into existence: wine import. By now, importers from Tilburg deliver a third of the wine that is consumed in the Netherlands. Most of the mills closed in the late nineteen eighties. The odd one struggled through until 2008, like for instance AaBe, which started up again and specialised in upholstery for aircraft seats. After the disappearance of the textile industry and the establishment of new businesses on the outskirts of the town, Tilburg started about thirty years ago to fill the spaces that became vacant with residential areas and office buildings. What immediately draws the attention when looking at the city are the three tall buildings that dominate the skyline: the head office of insurance company Interpolis, and the residential apartment blocks Westpoint and De Stadsheer. Tilburg is now a modern city with more than 200,000 inhabitants and one of the most important industrial centres in the Netherlands. Tilburg is also a high quality centre of education; Tilburg University and in particular the art courses offered by Fontys High Schools are held in high esteem.

Photos and documents: Regional Archive Tilburg, unless otherwise mentioned

All photo’s: Dolph Cantrijn

1 1952. In the foreground, Goirke Street. The textile factories of Van Beurden van Moll, Brouwers-Van Glabbeek, George Dröge (formerly Mommers) and Franken Bros. Photo Aviodrome Lelystad

1 3 March 2009. View from the panorama hall of the Interpolis building, looking towards the Spoorlaan, De Stadsheer and Westpoint.

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2 1925. Goirke Street. Photo Postcard 3 The thirties. Staff of the Tilburg Clothing Factory, Tilcofa, belonging to the Mutsaers brothers. 4 Tilburg, 1956. Bus stop at the Heuvel in front of the AaBe window. The window was famous in Tilburg, with its winter landscape with deer and horse-sleigh loaded with woollen blankets. 5 Advertisement for AaBe-plaids. 6 1930. Office of De Regenboog (The Rainbow) on the Bredaseweg in Tilburg. 7 1920. The Zomer Street starts at bottom right. Behind the Zomer Street, the wool fabric factories of B. Th. C. Sträter and F.M. Sträter. In the background the former St Anna church and right, on the Zomer Street, the Dutch Reformed Paul Church. Photo Postcard 8 1930. Branch of Steam dying room and chemical laundry De Regenboog (The Rainbow) on the Vijzelstraat 45 in Amsterdam. 9 1935. Interior Steam dyeing room and chemical laundry De Regenboog (The Rainbow) on the Bredaseweg. 10 • 11 • 12 1966. Interior Steam dyeing room and chemical laundry De Regenboog (The Rainbow). 13 2 juli 1996. Blowing up the factory chimney of De Regenboog (The Rainbow) on the Bredaseweg.

2 2007. In the Nieuwlandstraat stands a statue of the Kruikenzeiker (Flask Pisser). This nickname for people from Tilburg dates from the time when urine would be collected house by house and used to extract fat from raw wool. 3 2007. Pieter Vreedeplein. The building of the Piet Smits & Co Wool Fabric Factory and the new building. 4 8 March 2009. Unveiling statue Miet van Puijenbroek at the Textile Museum. 5 2007. Museum De Pont in the former Thomas de Beer wool-spinning mill, with work by the British artist Keith Tyson. 6 2007. The Hall of Fame, in the old Vormen Factory on the Cecilia Street. 7 5 juli 2009. The Tilburg summer carnival, start of the T-Parade. In the background the Kazernehof, with the rescued chimney of the Beka wool fabric factory. 8 2007. Building-up the funfair. Tilburg has the largest funfair in the Benelux.

Old photography can be divided into several categories. There are photographs that were commissioned by the company: everything appears clean and well cared for in those photos. Much of such work has been preserved in luxurious albums with leather bindings and gold embossing; unique editions that were presented to the management. All facets of the company were photographed, from the delivery of the raw material to the end product in the shop. It could be the case that more interesting photographs have been preserved from less important companies than from a giant who did not realise their importance. Then there is the work of photographers who were only interested in beautiful pictures and who looked for themes on their own initiative. The subject, the ambience and the composition fascinated them. It is material that has generally found its way into the archives from the estate of the photographer rather than from a company archive. The third category is the occasional photography, such as the news photo when a fire occurred, but also group portraits and other photographs that colleagues made or kept of each other. Photographs of the demonstrations for better working conditions or for the survival of the company also belong in this category. Postcards have ensured that many images from the past have been preserved. The relatively large print run guaranteed the image a considerable ‘chance of survival’. Furthermore, such printed postcards were from early on highly prized by collectors. It is remarkable how varied the photographs on the cards are; you cannot find a better impression of a city’s past than on a postcard. When selecting the present-day photography for Comeback Cities in the Picture, we tried as far as possible to show the towns as they function today. With here and there a hint of the – industrial – past. But it should not lead to industrial archaeology. The style of each photographer is different, the use of the camera diverse. The photographs show prosperous cities in various stages in the history of textile: in Manchester no textile has been produced for many years and in Prato and Forssa there are still active factories. In my search for suitable material I was struck by the enthusiasm many have for the subject. My thanks to the photographers and the employees of the town halls and museum archives for their effort and help. Simon B. Kool

CREDITS Compiled & produced by: Simon B. Kool Photography: Dick van Aalst, Andrea Abati, Stefan Boness/Panos, Dolph Cantrijn, Harry Cock, Ulf Dahl, Marleen Daniëls, Olli-Paavo Koponen, Petri Nuutinen, Eric Pollet/NordPresseImages, Tim Smith and local archives Design: Hans Lodewijkx, x-hoogte, Tilburg Graphics: Beukers Scholma, Haarlem Print: Peter Paul Huf, Amsterdam Translation: Yvette Derksen, Amsterdam Special thanks to: Nienke van Boom, Hans Mommaas and the authors of COMEBACK CITIES, the Audax Textiel Museum Tilburg. Hans Aarsman, Géraldine Bulckaen, Amanda Booth, Storm Calle, Adam Daber, Rose Gibson, Isabelle Heyvaert, Kimmo Kestinen, Sirkka Köykkä, Cornelia Krause, Kath Lapsley, Päivi Majava, Jane Parr, Michael Regnier, Adrie Roding, Arianna Sarti, Marita Viinamäki, Hanna Zubrzycka © 2009 City of Tilburg