The Manchester inferno is tearing through a 223 year-old Victorian mill which the Daily Express exclusively revealed last November had been at the centre of a regeneration row.
Scores of jobs, shops, a piazza and 595 student rooms were set to breathe new life into the city centre area with plans to redevelop the iconic former Victorian printing mill, The Hotspur Press.
Originally built in 1801 on the banks of the River Medlock, it started life as a cotton mill before becoming a printing press in 1888, and more recently an artists’ community until finally boarded up for good in 2017.
Developer Manner won council planning permission last year and hoped to complete the transformation by 2028, fearing the building could be “condemned” if work on the derelict mill does not start soon.
Restoration of the 18th century mill façade and the preservation of the iconic Percy Brothers signage – a local landmark – was also included.
But Historic England acted on one anonymous protestor to the plans, who wanted the building listed, prompting the quango-like non-departmental public body to send a report to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy so her Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) can make a decision on the development’s fate.
In April this year Manner survived the listed-building attempt and then submitted a request to alter the plans, to make the tower a more “contemporary aesthetic” with a bronze finish to the exterior instead of red brick.
Now those dreams for the building could literally be up in smoke depending on the damage the fire does to the structure and the site.
According to their own 2021 report, Historic England say the vacant space from northern England derelict mills is 2.3 million square metres – enough space to accommodate 42,000 new homes or provide 84,000 new jobs.
