After eight years in the military, Stuart Holt decided to move into the business of buying and restoring old buildings, founding his design and building company, Javelin Block, in 2010. After a string of successful projects in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, he discovered this former textile factory in the area and set about sensitively transforming the sprawling space – now known as The Compound – into his home and office. Now it arrives on the market, Stuart talks to us about how he re-animated this industrial building and how it has evolved into a multi-purpose events space, welcoming the likes of Warner Brothers and Ed Sheeran.

Stuart: “It was after I moved to Birmingham in 2005 and I was training for a marathon by running around the city’s canals that I noticed how under-developed the city was, especially the Jewellery Quarter. When the recession hit in 2008, the price of industrial buildings in this area plummeted and I decided the timing was right to start restoring them – I’ve always thought they’re incredible assets of our past, why can’t they be assets for the future?

“I set up Javelin Block shortly afterwards to re-animate these buildings belonging to Birmingham’s industrial heritage. Our goal was to restore the integrity of these buildings whilst helping to form the community we were giving them back to.

“I bought this building in 2012. In the past, it had been used as a textile factory and a guitar laminating factory. When I first came to see it, the estate agent suggested that it could be replaced by a car park! Instead, we decided to strip it back and re-work it in a sensitive way to suit contemporary life.

“Not many people can say they’ve had Steven Spielberg film in their living room! He used the space for some of the main shots for the film Ready Player One – something I never imagined happening, but I think it is testament to what we achieved here.

“People from all walks of life have passed through, but arriving always has the same effect on people, and one which they certainly don’t expect coming in from the street. Even I still get that ‘wow’ feeling when I come home. Walking in never gets old.

“We left the street patina on the facade, keeping the huge shutter and adding a 1960s prison door. Inside, we stripped the space back to reveal a raw canvas but made sure to retain any original industrial fixtures, fittings and materials. We exposed the steel frame which had been covered up and dropped a new roof on top of the original one. When we did introduce new materials, we chose ones that get better with age, such as brass, zinc, copper and steel which all develop their own character over time.

“We also furnished the space with materials from salvage and reclamation yards and commissioned local metal workers to fabricate the wire mesh balustrades. We have a 20,000 sq ft warehouse, crammed with pieces that have been brought to us or we have collected over the years. It’s nice to know that much of the light fixtures we used have been put back into exactly the sort of industrial context they were originally stripped out of.

“For me, modern living is about space. Although The Compound is open-plan, we created distinct areas, including three self-contained living areas, mezzanine levels, a basement cinema and speakeasy bar, and a large kitchen and living area on the ground floor. The first area you encounter here is our winter garden with a 35-foot high ceiling. We added a vast Crittal curtain to separate this space from the main living area, which contains the kitchen, sitting area and dining table. The mezzanine level was already there and we made this into a bedroom, which leads through into the back of the building where Javelin Block’s offices and open-plan studio is.

“It was only ever meant to be my home, but when a photographer friend came to see the work we’d done, he said ‘you’ve got to let people in here to use it as a location’. He asked if he could shoot a campaign here and it’s gone on from there. We don’t market it, but we’ve had everyone from Red Bull, Microsoft and Facebook use the space.

“Although continuing to work on our other restoration projects in Birmingham, I have bought a derelict 100-acre farm an hour outside of the city. I want to design and build a space that does the neglected site justice and I’m excited to bring life back to it and get it working again. If it’s appreciated half as much as The Compound, then I’ll have done ok.”