Jonathon Silver

Jonathon Silver.

Jonathan Silver was born in Bradford Yorkshire in 1949. He hated school, and had the the young entrepeneur in him from a very young age, this was shown when he often spent his school lunch breaks in local auction rooms where he bought and sold furniture.



The battered state of the mill when
Jonathon bought it in 1987.

As Jonathon didn't like school his lack of effort consequented in usually being bottom of the class, but in the early 60’s he was given a school project that caught his imagination. He was working on the school magazine when he realised the stage of rising fame David Hockney was going through; David had attended Bradford Grammar,the same school as Jonathan, a decade earlier. They met up in Jonathan’s dad’s Wimpy Bar, and David agreed to design the magazine cover.

After he finished school, Jonathan studied Art History and Textiles at Leeds University and then began a clothing firm. He married Maggie in 1972, and worked so hard that by 1979 he had 13 menswear shops across the country.

Jonathon's work certainly paid off. :)

Through the 70’s and early 80’s, Jonathan started many other businesses, but he was always a person who liked to taake risks, and by 1984 he and Maggie fancied a change. They sold everything they owned and travelled the world for 18 months with their young daughters. When they came back to England, Jonathan looked around for a new enterprise, and so he bought Salt's Mill in 1987, transforming it into a vibrant place of art and commerce. His working day started at 5a.m. and went on long into the night. It was like Jonathan's energy was endless.

Jonathan and David Hockney had been in touch since that meeting in the Wimpy Bar all those years ago. Jonathan realized that Salts Mill was the perfect place for David to show his work, and David thought so too. That’s how the 1853 Gallery was born.

Jonathan died of cancer in 1997.