Hotspur Press to be demolished and replaced with flats

The remnants of a former mill in Manchester city centre that was devastated in a fire last year is set to be demolished and replaced with a high-rise block of student flats.

The 1801-built Hotspur Press on Cambridge Street set ablaze in June and was left as what the firm planning to develop the site described as "little more than a shell".

Developer Manner had wanted to retain parts of the original building under plans for the 36-storey student accommodation block.

Planners on Manchester City Council have now approved the developer's new plans which would see new facade built to look like the former mill, alongside the new flats.

One of Manchester's oldest mill buildings, the structure had fallen into a dilapidated state since the printing press closed down in 1996.

Manner's Ian Williams-Slaven told a council planning committee earlier that "the building that's little more than a shell" that need to be demolished to make it safe as "no one can get into the site".

The firm first secured planning permission in 2024 to build the 36-storey student accommodation block around the mill's facades and 'Percy Brothers' signage.

But the project never got off the ground as there was an application to list the building that was ultimately rejected, and the cladding material was twice changed.

Williams-Slaven said the new plan keeps the principles of the original, and the new facades will be "faithful re-presentations of the mill [so] what we will see is a scheme that is aesthetically no different to the original proposal".

A 10,000 sq ft public square is also planned, as well as a 'landscaped walking routes from both Cambridge Street and First Street'.

Councillors voted unanimously in favour of approving the bid.

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