From 1952, Northampton Tanning – leather dressers occupied the building. The tanning began in the front section of the building and then they later purchased the back building (tower part) at a later date. In around 1970, the leather tanners went bankrupt and the building was empty until 1975 when it was bought by the current owners who used it for leather dressing until 2009 as Teesdale Leathers Ltd.

Since closing the leather business and returning Phipps to the building, the aim is to produce brews from over 100 years ago. There is now a small brewery occupying some of the ground floor and basement area. The rest of the building is starting to be developed for small local businesses, mainly creative, this includes; photography studio and dark room and artists studios with galleries, with a hope to bring many more creatives in. There is still a large area of the building which remains unoccupied with no current use.