Mantilla Row interpretation

New Lanark, World Heritage Site

New Lanark was the vision of David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers, which opened in 1786. The boom years were followed by a long period of decline. In 1974 the New Lanark Conservation Trust saved the village from dereliction. Remarkably only 3% of the buildings on the site could not be saved. Mantilla Row, once home to mill workers and their families, was one of the casualties. A retaining wall and outlines of the foundations are all that remains of three tenement stairs.

Abound, with interpretation consultant Ann Tweedie and illustrator Alan Duncan, were commissioned to interpret the site, to tell the story of some of the families who once lived here.

Our original brief was simply to create a series of A0 interpretation panels. However, we saw an opportunity to bring the story to life using life-size cut-outs. Each of the tenements was used as part of a timeline, comprising an A2 lectern that described the family who lived there, and aluminium silhouettes imagining the domestic scenes of these former residents.