A Mancunian Way special on the Hotspur Press fire
14:48, 24 Jun 2025Updated 14:49, 24 Jun 2025
Hello
Yesterday afternoon tour guide Jonathan Schofield was stood outside the Hotspur Press explaining the significance of one of Manchester’s oldest surviving mill buildings. Three hours later it had been all but destroyed in a devastating fire.
“It was a total inferno,” he said. “The beams were falling one by one, and then the walls. It was astonishing.”
By now you’ll have likely seen the astonishing pictures of the fire. As flames leapt into the sky and a huge plume of smoke billowed overhead there was chaos in the city centre, as roads were closed, trains stopped and two nearby tower blocks evacuated as the fire spread to neighbouring balconies.
Firefighters battle the blaze(Image: Matt Edwards)
At the height of the blaze a major incident was declared as 100 firefighters battled the flames.
“I’m not going to lie, I absolutely sh** my pants,” the doorman of one of the evacuated blocks said. “There was smoke billowing everywhere and the fire was just raging and raging.
“I don’t even know what to say – it was wild. It just went f***ing mental. There was bits of coal landing on me and burning on me.”
‘It was like a disaster movie’
Flames shoot from the roof(Image: Matt Edwards)
M.E.N. reporter Greta Simpson was at the scene for a large part of the evening. She described it as ‘like something from a disaster movie’.
“I don’t want to be dramatic, but with the scale of the flames and the smoke it was genuinely frightening,” she said. “What was really scary was while I was doing a Facebook live people noticed that a neighbouring building had caught fire and they were shouting to the police ‘It’s spread’.
“It went up so fast. Ash was falling from the sky and the streets were filled with smoke.
“The city centre was quiet and eerie. It was apocalyptic.”
Why the Hotspur Press matters
The Hotspur Press before the fire
The Hotspur Press provided a direct link to Manchester’s industrial origins. Built in 1801 as the Medlock Mill, it was later taken over by the Percy Brothers who converted it into a printing press, before that too closed in the 1990s.
“The city has lost an important early mill building of the type that defined Manchester and led the city to be tagged the ‘shock city of the age’,” says Schofield.
“I once took a French architectural critic around Manchester and he said ‘I love your city it is such a mess’. He meant it as a compliment, he loved how different buildings with different styles from different times sat cheek by jowl.
“That combination of old and new in Manchester architecture is important. Hotspur Press looks set to be lost and therefore the city has lost something that added context to that part of the city.
“It reminded us of other times and other lives, of how the city has changed, its fluctuating fortunes. It has seen generations of people walk through those doors.
“There is context there to the history of the city, which has now all gone up in flames.”
The morning after
Crews at the scene this morning(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
This morning only a scorched shell is still standing. What remains of the 224-year-old mill will probably be demolished.
It’s a sad end for a building that has long needed some TLC. After the printworks closed, the Hotspur fell into disrepair. As huge modern developments shot up nearby, it remained derelict.
But then plans to convert it into a 171-home, 28-storey apartment block were unveiled. That fell through in 2020 and a new firm, Manner, took the building on.
Their plans to build a 36-storey student tower and keep the original façade were given planning permission in May 2024 — but a year on, work hadn’t started. And complicating matters even further is the fact that in January the Government knocked back Historic England’s recommendation that the core of the building be Grade II-listed.
Up in flames
Firefighters remain at the scene today. An investigation into the cause of the blaze is unable to begin until the last remaining pockets of fire have been damped down and the building made safe.
But that’s not the only question that needs answering. We also need to know details about how and why efforts to protect the building were rebuffed.
A spokesperson for architectural campaigners The Georgian Group described being ‘deeply shocked and appalled’ by the fire. They added: “The group has been engaged with Medlock Mill for the last 12 months, leading efforts to protect this important but vulnerable building by getting it listed.
“Following a setback in January in which the Secretary of State went against Historic England’s recommendation to list the historic core of the building at Grade II, we submitted a Listing Review Request to DCMS in February. We were anxiously awaiting the outcome of the review.”
Manchester headlines
Shop fire: Stockport Road through Longsight was closed this morning after a fire broke out at Manchester Superstore. Read more
Hazardous waste: Playing fields in south Manchester have been taped off after the eviction of a travellers’ camp left a ‘huge quantity’ of ‘potentially hazardous waste’. Warning signs have gone up at Hough End playing fields in Chorlton. More here
Flight diverted: A flight from Manchester Airport to Doha was diverted back to the UK – after Iran launched attacks against a US base in Qatar. QTR36R had reached the Turkish coast when it was diverted following the latest Middle Eastern clashes.