It was recently demolished and photographer Jack Lowe captured its demise in a stunning series of images that have just been collected into a new book, ‘Spillers’ Downfall’. 

One of Lowe’s pictures shows the mill – which the photographer dubbed The White Cliffs of Byker – with its side flank exposed as a huge crane begins the process of ripping its guts out. We gain a glimpse into the cavernous dark within as an enormous piece of masonry crashes to the floor. It’s like looking at a beached whale: once majestic, master of its domain, now floundering, pitiful. 

The photographer began this series of pictures simply because he would pass the huge structure each day as he cycled to his studio and would marvel at how the early morning light would play against its vast expanse of whiteness.

Then, over the course of around six months in 2011, he recorded its demolition, capturing the process with a set of images which are both strangely beautiful and undeniably awesome.

They’ve now been collected into a wonderful hardback book (including a special edition which includes an embossed print) and a series of truly beautiful prints that are available individually or as part of a collectors’ portfolio. 

If you didn’t get a chance to pay your last respects to this once iconic building, then this is the place to come. RM

More info: mrjacklowe.com