![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_The-Mancunian-Way-2.png\")
Hello<\/p>\nA Mancunian Way special on the Hotspur Press fire<\/p>\n
14:48, 24 Jun 2025Updated 14:49, 24 Jun 2025<\/p>\n
Hello<\/p>\n
Yesterday afternoon tour guide Jonathan Schofield was stood outside the Hotspur Press explaining the significance of one of Manchester\u2019s oldest surviving mill buildings. Three hours later it had been all but destroyed in a devastating fire.<\/a><\/p>\n “It was a total inferno,\u201d he said. \u201cThe beams were falling one by one, and then the walls. It was astonishing.”<\/p>\n By now you\u2019ll have likely seen the astonishing pictures of the fire<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n At the height of the blaze a major incident was declared as 100 firefighters battled the flames.<\/a><\/p>\n “I\u2019m not going to lie, I absolutely sh** my pants,\u201d the doorman of one of the evacuated blocks said. \u201cThere was smoke billowing everywhere and the fire was just raging and raging.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t 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.”<\/p>\n \u2018It was like a disaster movie\u2019 M.E.N. reporter Greta Simpson was at the scene for a large part of the evening. She described it as \u2018like something from a disaster movie\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be dramatic, but with the scale of the flames and the smoke it was genuinely frightening,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat 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 \u2018It\u2019s spread\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIt went up so fast. Ash was falling from the sky and the streets were filled with smoke.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city centre was quiet and eerie. It was apocalyptic.\u201d<\/p>\n Why the Hotspur Press matters The Hotspur Press provided a direct link to Manchester\u2019s industrial origins<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city has lost an important early mill building of the type that defined Manchester and led the city to be tagged the \u2018shock city of the age\u2019,\u201d says Schofield.<\/p>\n \u201cI once took a French architectural critic around Manchester and he said \u2018I love your city it is such a mess\u2019. He meant it as a compliment, he loved how different buildings with different styles from different times sat cheek by jowl.<\/p>\n \u201cThat 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is context there to the history of the city, which has now all gone up in flames.\u201d<\/p>\n The morning after This morning only a scorched shell is still standing. What remains of the 224-year-old mill will probably be demolished.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Their plans to build a 36-storey student tower and keep the original fa\u00e7ade were given planning permission in May 2024 \u2014 but a year on, work hadn\u2019t started. And complicating matters even further is the fact that in January the Government knocked back Historic England\u2019s recommendation that the core of the building be Grade II-listed.<\/p>\n Up in flames<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not the only question that needs answering. We also need to know details about how and why efforts to protect the building were rebuffed.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for architectural campaigners The Georgian Group described being \u2018deeply shocked and appalled\u2019 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Manchester headlines<\/p>\n Shop fire:<\/strong> Stockport<\/a> Road through Longsight<\/a> was closed this morning after a fire broke out at Manchester Superstore. Read more<\/a><\/p>\n Hazardous waste:<\/strong> Playing fields in south Manchester have been taped off after the eviction of a travellers\u2019 camp left a \u2018huge quantity\u2019 of \u2018potentially hazardous waste\u2019. Warning signs have gone up at Hough End playing fields in Chorlton<\/a>. More here<\/a><\/p>\n Flight diverted:<\/strong> A flight from Manchester Airport<\/a> to Doha was diverted back to the UK<\/a> – 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Mancunian Way special on the Hotspur Press fire 14:48, 24 Jun 2025Updated 14:49, 24 Jun 2025 Hello…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,25785,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-210777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-the-mancunian-way","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114739187300755697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2_JH_MEN_230625_FIRE2.jpg\")
Firefighters battle the blaze(Image: Matt Edwards)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_JH_MEN_230625_FIRE2_03.jpg\")
Flames shoot from the roof(Image: Matt Edwards)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1750780943_728_1_030325HotspurPressJPG.jpg\")
The Hotspur Press before the fire<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_240625hotspur6.jpg\")
Crews at the scene this morning(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n