History of the building

From historical documents follows that the territory where the NEVKA Business Center is located was inhabited long before the founding of St. Petersburg. Passing along the right bank of the river Neva, the road to the large and well-fortified port city of Vyborg at that time caused the development of the adjacent territories. The nominal recall of this ancient road to Vyborg got its name Vyborgskaya side.

On the first plans of St. Petersburg the modern Vyborgskaya side has already been marked as populated, and the first mention of it is contained in the decree of Peter 1 of 1715 on the fortification of the shore with stilts for street arrangement or hospital. Later according to decrees on the Vyborgskaya side shops, soldiers' settlements, a summer customs house and a bathhouse were built. By 1740 a decree issued on the establishment of state brickworks.

Most of the Vyborgskaya side is located at an altitude of 5 to 10 meters above sea level - this is the most elevated area of St. Petersburg. Which during the floods remained largely dry, which is why people here from ancient times settled, and at the end of the XVIII - beginning of the XIX centuries potential manufacturers and entrepreneurs began to pay attention to this area: in a zone safe from flooding it was profitable to have industrial enterprises with their raw and technical bases.

In 1840 the land plot on which the NEVKA Business Center is located, acquired by Ivan Torshilov, a wealthy and respected man, a merchant of the first guild, a hereditary honorary citizen of St.Petersburg, for the construction of a paper mill. The city at that time occupied an important place in the formation of the Russian cotton industry: it was here that the first to originate and develop mechanized paper spinning. Torshilov's merchantry was founded on the acquired lands in 1846 and entered the peripheral industrial complex of the city that was being formed at the time and later became one of the features of St. Petersburg of the XIX-XX centuries.

Paper mill built by architect A.N. Rokov from red brick in less than two years is the oldest structure of the factory created in the style of the early English industrial architecture, the main distinguishing feature of which is a combination of red brick masonry and metal frame structures. In the second half of the 1850s the construction of the manufactory attracted to the architect E.E. Anikin who drafted the expansion of the Torchilov’s paper mill due to extensions to the original factory building.

In 1877, as a result of the explosion and arson, arranged for the purpose of obtaining insurance by the son of merchant Torshilov, some of the buildings were badly damaged; At the same time the fact of participation of the new owner in arson was proved, he did not receive insurance. Manufacture experienced a period of decline until 1886 when it was purchased by the Association of Thread Manufactory. In 1890 according to the project the technique of F.K. von Pirwitz, a new one with water towers was added to the building that was restored after the fire, namely this building together with the original building designed by A.N. Rokov, can now be seen from the side of the river Big Nevka in the panorama of the Vyborgskaya embankment. In 1891 the factory again began its work having become a member of the "Partnership" as "Paper mill Nevka". By 1892 a successfully operating enterprise was absorbed by a large British firm "I. and P. Koots" (on the boxes with raw materials the brand "NEVKA" appears).

Further expansion of the factory took place in 1910 when a nearby five-stored building adjacent to Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Avenue began the construction of a five-story weaving building with hipped roofs towers designed by architect N.V. Vasiliev. According to the architect the building in the future should be extended due to a similar construction but this idea remained unfulfilled. After the February Revolution of 1917 thread paper spinning mill "Nevka" suspended its work, opening production later under a new, existing and now name-spinning mill "Krasnaya Nit".

The further history of the quarter's development proceeded without significant changes in the external appearance of the main complex of production buildings. Despite the fact that the buildings were erected at different times according to the projects of different architects, due to the expressiveness of the overall appearance and the combination of monumental images and planes that are successful, they form a single whole together. On February 20, 2001, by order No. 15 of the KGIOP of the Government of St. Petersburg, the ensemble of historical buildings was recognized as the identified cultural heritage object: "The Nevskaya Thread Manufactory", which is maintained in accordance with No. 73-FZ of the Russian Federation of June 25, 2002 " cultural heritage "(monuments of history and culture) of the peoples of the Russian Federation".

Currently in accordance with the concept of development of the Vyborgskaya side as the administrative and business zone of St. Petersburg, historical production areas passing through the process of adaptation to modern use form the new status of the once exclusively industrial region - "Business City". A striking example of this phenomenon is the "Business Center" NEVKA located in the oldest building of the former paper mill of Torshilov.