[2] He settled in Bradford in about 1810 and established a drapers shop in Kirkgate,[3] eventually beginning a career as a stuff merchant.

[4] Both St George's Hall and Milligan and Forbes were completed in 1853, with the warehouse considered today as Bradford's first Palazzo building.

It was intended to complement its neighbour and indeed it was described in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (published 1870–72) as "not much inferior to that pile in magnificence".

[5] In the 1920s, Bradford's local newspaper company, the Telegraph and Argus, moved into the building and is still operating, on a massively reduced scale, from there today.

Because of the increasing demands of newspaper production, a large extension was added to the original Victorian building, although it is now redundant.