Goodbye the Hotspur Press … only the demolition team and Andy Robertson think of you……

 Well of course that is not strictly accurate.

There are others interested in the building who keep coming down since the fire to photograph the sad sight of what’s left.

But there aren’t many.  The media, and TV pundits, have moved on to pop concerts, and road closures.

While the conspiracy theorists no longer cast the dice on who was to blame, how had the story first broken on a Chinese news station 24 hours earlier and had the building really been consumed by flames, and instead return to stories of visitors from outer space building the pyramids.

Not my old chum Andy Robertson who was back on Friday with camera in hand to explore what was going on.

As ever he is creating a collection of pictures which will chronicle the end of the building and whatever the developers have in mind for the site.

So here are his latest images which reveal the bits inside which most never see from Cambridge Street, along with the effects of the fire on timber, stone and wood.

And I finish with a picture almost the same as the first, but which offers us that chair just beyond the fence.

I may be wrong but that chair or a similar one seems to have sat there for as long as I can remember, long before the fire and long before the high-rise developments along Cambridge Street.

Well I may be wrong …. Someone I am sure will have an opinion, and perhaps come up with some photographs of the site of their own.

We shall see.

Location; Cambridge Street

Pictures; Friday on Cambridge Street at the Hotspur Press site, 2025, from the collection of Andy Robertson

After they have all gone …… the relic of the Hotspur Press

It is a familiar story ….. a breaking news event … be it a bombing, a flood disaster, or in this case the fire on Cambridge Street when the Hotspur Press burned down in a matter of hours.

On that June evening, the press, TV pundits, conspiracy theorists and photographers were all over the historic building which some claim to be the oldest textile mill in Manchester.

But almost before the last smouldering embers gave up their heat, the press, TV pundits, conspiracy theorists and photographers quit the stage looking for new sensational things to report and record.

Leaving the conspiracy theorists to cast the dice on who was to blame, how had the story first broken on a Chinese news station 24 hours earlier and had the building really been consumed by flames.

Meanwhile a few stalwarts went back and continue to do so with the aim of recording what happened next.

Amongst these is my old friend Andy Robertson who is  big contributor to the blog, seeking to record the whole story of a building, from it decline to its eventual demolition and its replacement.

In the process he has amassed a vast collection of images of places across the Twin Cities and beyond making it a wonderful record of the transformation of Manchester, Salford and other places across Greater Manchester.

Of these two images he told me “a bit more knocked down”.

So watch this space.

Location; Cambridge Street

Pictures; knocking down bits of the Hotspur Press, 2025, from the collection of Andy Robertson

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

A Printing Press ……. that historical mill and the entry device ……… down by the Medlock

Now you know a place is on the skids, when all the not so smart entry devices seem broken.

Admitting no one, 2021

These are from the entrance to Hotspur House, on Cambridge Street which is better known as the Hotspur Press.

My copy of  Pevsner refers to it as "Medlock Mill, circa 1811 on the N bank of the Medlock.  A range of 19thcentury offices fronts and follows the curve of  the road , and the converted mill (Hotspur Press) rises behind.  Cast iron columns and timber beams , the variety of column types suggesting successive alterations, but the full story is difficult to divine from what little can be seen behind the partitions and false ceilings”.*

The OS map for Manchester and Salford in 1849 shows a footbridge running south from the mill over the Medlock allowing access to the Cambridge Street Works, while behind was the Manchester Gas Works which at the time boasted six gasometers of varying size.

Medlock Mills, 1849

And dotted around the Medlock Mill were a series of other textile mills and dye works.

Most people will know the building as the home of Percy Brothers and the Hotspur Press.

Which brings me back to those entry devices, and the future of the building.

Back in 2018 there was a lot of interest in plans to redevelop the site, which would have involved a 28-story tower block, the conversion of some of the former mill in to “170 apartments, shops, offices, restaurants and potentially a gym, bowling alley or medical centre” along with the demolition of part of the building”.**

There was opposition to the plan, both on grounds of the size of the tower block and the demolition of part of the mill.

The Hotspur Press, 2017

It would appear that planning permission was approved in December of 2018.***

But I seem to be missing something because just over three years later there seems to be no development, and and according to the  City’s planning portal permission was granted in October 2020.****

So perhaps things will soon begin to move.

As ever a trawl of the planning documents offers the Archaeological Assessment of the site by the University of Salford, which like all such reports is a fascinating document revealing much about the building and the surrounding site.*****

The Medlock, 2021

And along with details of the development of the area are the names of the mill owners which will lead me off through the dusty archives of the rate books and lead to some interesting discoveries.

So that is pretty much it, no doubt in the near future those entry devices will be thrown into a skip and with the completion of the development residents will stare down at the passage of the Medlock.

Location; Chorlton-on-Medlock

Pictures; Around Cambridge Street, 2017-2021, from the collection of Andy Robertson, and the Medlock Mill , 1849, from the OS map of Manchester & salford, 1849, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, https://digitalarchives.co.uk/

*Cambridge Street, Manchester, Clare Hartwell, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Penguin Books, 2001 page 318

The Hotspur Press, already surrounded by developments

**Some of the Hotspur Press could be demolished despite warnings from conservationists, Jennifer Williams, December 10, 2018, Manchester Evening News, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-hotspur-press-city-centre-15520203

***Manchester’s Hotspur Press Plans Given The Green Light, mcr Property Group, https://www.mcrproperty.com/2018/12/14/manchesters-hotspur-press-plans-given-green-light/

****120635/FO/2018 |  Hotspur Press 2 Gloucester Street Manchester M1 5QR, Manchester City Council Planning Portal, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=PBP6U6BC03O00

*****Hotspur Press, Archaeological Desk Based Assessment, Ian Miller, Report 2013/33 University of Salford Manchester, https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/files/578C61E347E26EBEB06F969C8D3983AD/pdf/120635_FO_2018-ARCHAEOLOGICAL_ASSESSMENT-941351.pdf