I have to admit that when I was younger, even though I lived in Peckham only a few miles away, I'd never heard of Brixton mill, and by that I mean the windmill and not the other one (of which later).
In fact even when I started to research this article I still hasn't seen it!* (despite going to Brixton College round the corner in the 1970s)
Yet the mill was a local landmark having been about a long time. Not far away is another famous (or infamous) landmark, Brixton prison, built around the same time it is London's Oldest Prison.
It was in fact hearing a radio programme with that name, about the prison, which drew me to writing about these neighbours, for such they are, and is not just location that connects them...
Of course when Ashby's Mill was built in 1816 Brixton looked very different surrounded by fields to supply its raw material. It looks an idyll in the picture on the left.
A few years later, around 1820, a prison was built nearby, the Surrey House of Correction, and they have been neighbours ever since. It was intended to house 175 prisoners, but regularly exceeded that with 200 prisoners making overcrowding an early problem. Combined with its small cells and poor living conditions it soon had a reputation as one of the worst prisons in London.
The Windmill worked until 1862 when a watermill at Mitcham succeeded it, during that time it suffered competition, because for as well as the Watermill(s) in Mitcham there was a wholly different sort of mill on its doorstep; a Treadmill.
Invented in 1818 by William Cubitt the treadmill was installed into Brixton Prison in 1821 and was the main implement of punishment in the days of hard labour, driving millstones grinding flour for the prison bakery. The prisoners would tread for 20 minutes then rest for 5 minutes then repeat for up to 12 hours or during daylight whichever was shorter and for 6 days a week.
The Windmill got new sails in 1821 called spring sails they now
didn't need cloth to be spread as these sails use shuttered wood (also invented by Mr Cubitt); but even these were removed in when the windmill was relegated to use as a store, which it remained until 1902 when the lease on the watermill expired. The mill was then pressed back into use, but driven by engine, which continued until 1934 supplying wholemeal flour to West End hotels and restaurants.
After the war, there were proposals to demolish the mill and build a block of flats. The proposal was rejected and it was decided to conserve the mill, which was restored in 1964 by London County Council. New sails were fitted, and machinery from a derelict windmill at Burgh le Marsh, Lincolnshire installed to replace that which had been removed, the work being done by Thompson's, the Alford millwrights.
Today? Well once restored the mill was opened to the public in 1968 and three years later
passed to Lambeth Council There have been several restorations since with the most recent being completed in 2011.
Meanwhile in the prison? Well Brixton made the treadmill famous and, within two decades, half the prisons in the country would have one. Then in 1852, overcrowded and with a reputation for brutality, Brixton was closed as a local prison for the south of London. Its notorious treadwheels were dismantled and the land and buildings sold at auction.
Except, at the eleventh hour the government made a compulsory purchase of Brixton and converted it into a prison solely for female convicts (the first of the kind in the country). This had become necessary as the end of transportation to Australia in the 1850s meant Britain suddenly had to find prison accommodation for thousands of serious offenders. But the history of the prison in detail is a whole other story including its use as a military and remand prisons, All of which you can read here.
Well times move on and in 2012 as part of a television documentary the Bad Boy's Bakery in the prison was set up which supplied coffee shops across London with products made with flour! (Though I see today 2017 - the website has gone so I don't know if it still does)
Ironically the building where this happened is where once the Treadmill's mill stones ground flour!.
Laurie Smith
*Though of course I have during the writing to give you the picture above.
Tucked away in the West End behind Leicester Square and Covent Garden is an unusually named area. I first heard of it when I was watching The Gentle Touch in the early 80s because that TV cop series was set there (albeit that many scenes were filmed in Kennington which I was much more familiar with).
I had no idea why it was called that and to start with I didn't know where it was, I even confused it with Seven Sisters in my mind at first, as I knew of that area from visiting an aunt. In fact however it was named for a sundial, a rather unique one however which has an interesting history.
The original layout of the Seven Dials area was designed by Thomas Neale in the early 1690s as part of the 
great rebuilding programme in London following the Great Plague and Fire. Originally there were to be six roads converging on a central circus, although this was later increased to seven probably in order to maximise the number of houses that could be built on the site, or at least the income that could be raised from the estate, as at that time rental values were based on the frontage, and not on the square footage.
In the middle of the circus was erected a doric column as a centrepiece, with a dial stone of six facets, each with sundials. So where is the seventh dial? Well, 
it's said that the column is itself the 7th gnomon and the circus the dial, though how you would read it and indeed how it would cast a shadow when it's often in the shade of one of the surrounding buildings is a question needing an answer! Sundials however were commonly used as public timepieces in late 17th Century London before the arrival of the accurate clocks of today, as similar 4 faceted ones erected at Convent Garden in 1688 and New Square, Lincoln's Inn from around 1700 testify.
Neale disposed of his interest in the site, and the rest of the development was carried out by individual builders over the next 15 years. Today his involvement is recorded only by two street names - Neal Street and Neal's Yard.
Over the years the area went into decline and by the middle of the 18th century to the extent that 39 night-watchmen were needed to keep the peace; and by the early 19th century the area became famous, together with St. Giles to the north, as the most notorious rookery in London
During this period the column was removed. There are various stories about why, that this was due to it being pulled down by an angry mob or that the column was destroyed in an attempt to find buried treasure which was rumoured to be underneath.
In fact the column was acquired by architect James Paine, who kept the stones at his house in Addlestone, 
Surrey for the following years.
There its story might have ended, but when a popular philanthropist died in Weybridge a collection in her memory was organised by local publican Joseph Todd for a monument to her, Princess Frederica Duchess of York, and the stones were re-erected as a monument in Weybridge. It was decided however that the dial stone was too heavy to cap it, and a ducal coronet was used instead with the base of the column inscribed to the Duchess.
The "Dial Stone" was used as a mounting block at first, later being moved to the Council Offices, then to the west side of the library where it can still be seen.
The Seven Dials Monument Charity was set up in 1984, at the request of Camden Council, to finally restore one of the City's 'great public ornaments' to the now historic conservation area of Seven Dials. Various attempts have made this century to have column the returned to its original site in Seven Dials, but Weybridge refused to return it.
Luckily for the Charity Edward Pierce's original working drawing was held in the British Museum, which enabled 
architect A.D. 'Red' Mason to faithfully reproduce 'this great public ornament'. One of the problems for the project was how to design the foundations so as to satisfy all the authorities whose services ran beneath the Dials. Eventually they built an underground platform which bridges the services.
The column, made from 'Whitebed', one of the finest types of Portland Stone was carved and erected in 1988/89 with the bulk of the work carried out by trainee masons at Vauxhall College and Ashby and Horner Stonemasonry, a large youth training project.
The trainee masons raised and lowered all the stones by hand, using similar methods to those used in the Seventeenth Century. Each section of the column sits on reinforcing pins joining it to the sections below. The whole erecting process took two and a half months.
Caroline Webb designed, carved and gilded the Dial faces with each face enabling different hours of the day to be read, so it was essential that each face was carved exactly to astronomical calculations, and then that the Dial stone, weighing 1 tonne, was placed accurately. In the end three days were spent with an astronomer on site setting the stone so that each of the 6 faces is now accurate within ten seconds.
Once erected two 40 foot Carlsberg Lager Cans hid the Monument until its unveiling, which was performed by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, accompanied by her husband Prince Claus 29th June 1989. The lager can advertising raised ￡10,000 for the charity.
Nowadays I often walk through the circus on my way from Charing Cross to Bloomsbury, there are often people hanging about, sitting on the Crepidoma or base around the column drinking either coffee or something stronger. Perhaps the undesirables in the area hanging around the original column was the cause of it being removed. We will never know for sure but it's certainly a nice area on a sunny day, let us hope this one stays put and doesn't move to the country.
Laurie Smith
More information can be found at http://www.sevendials.com/the_seven_dials_monument_charity.htm
Additional Pictures can be seen by clicking on the links in the text
