Goodbye Hotspur Press …….

I think you would have had to be asleep all week to have missed the news of the fire and destruction of the Hotspur Mill on Cambridge Street.*

The event has stirred the pot with stories about how it was one of our first cotton mills, dating from the start of the nineteenth century with the suggestion that bits dated back to the 1790s.**

Its chequered career since then is the stuff of historical drama with lots of topical discussions about its future, from its time as a printing press, to offices and latterly a residential development.

Over the years I have taken my share of pictures and have marvelled at how other photographers have managed much better than me to get the angle and juxtaposition of the building set against others just right.

And here are six from my old chum Andy Robertson who wandered down soon after the fire was put out and captured these images.

Andy has amassed a huge portfolio of pictures of both the twin cities and the areas beyond and specializes in recording buildings which are at risk and follows them as they fall into disrepair and are demolished.  And then returns to photograph the redevelopment, from the builders breaking the ground to the rise of new properties and their final completion.

He has been doing this since the 1980s and has contributed to the blog for over eleven years and in the process has created a unique collection of pictures of historic Manchester and its regeneration.

And that is it, other than to say the six I have chosen are my favourites and capture the former mill just days after that fire.

Leaving me just to add that I am sure the Hotspur Press printed what remains the best set of comics in the 1950s, from the Eagle to Girl, Swift and Robin which will always make the building special to me.

Location; Cambridge Street

Pictures; the Hotspur Press building, 2025, from the collection of Andy Robertson and The Red Moon Mystery, Eagle, Vol 2 No. 40 January 11th 1952, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*"Truly heartbreaking": Hotspur Press developers break silence after 'horrific fire' destroys mill, Holt, James, Senior Live and Breaking News Reporter, Davies, Ethan, Local Democracy Reporter, June 25th, 2025,  https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/truly-heartbreaking-hotspur-press-developers-31934909 

**Hotspur House – Cambridge Street, Manchester View, https://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/tours/tour8/area8page12.html

The Red Moon Mystery, Eagle, Vol 2 No. 40 January 11th 1952