Developers commit to ‘faithful reproduction of the former mill facades’

Hotspur Press is set to be completely demolished after an inferno raged through the Georgian mill last June, developers have announced.

Manner had planning permission to build a 35-storey student accommodation block around the mill’s facades when disaster struck last summer, but its building attempts were held up by a bid to list the building and the company’s multiple changes to planned cladding panels. In January, the developers revealed revised plans for the site, promising to ‘replicate’ the original structure and incorporate ‘any materials that can be reused’.

On Thursday (March 5), Manchester council recommended the project be given planning permission, but confirmed ‘as a result of the fire, the mill facades cannot be retained and would be demolished and reconstructed in a replicated form’ with the same dimensions ‘but with new materials’.

A spokesperson for Manner ‘welcomed the recommendation for approval and the opportunity to bring forward our revised plans for the regeneration of The Hotspur Press’.

They added: “Our updated planning application sets out a regeneration scheme that remains true to our original vision, following the setback of the devastating fire the building suffered in 2025. While it is not possible to safely retain the remaining structure, we are committed to a faithful reproduction of the former mill facades.

“This approach will ensure the historic significance of The Hotspur Press can be appreciated by Manchester’s residents, while bringing it back into productive use for the first time in nearly two decades and delivering the site’s wider regeneration plans.”

Manner previously said it hoped to start demolition and the rebuild at some point in 2026.

The Georgian mill had been subject to numerous redevelopment attempts since it closed as a printing press in 1996, including a 2020 bid to convert it into private flats which came to nothing, despite being awarded planning permission.

A 619-student accommodation tower will now be built on the Cambridge Street site, which will be clad in bronze, following multiple changes to the scheme by Manner before the fire started. After initially proposing brick cladding, it asked for permission to switch to silver material, and then bronze.

Changes further delayed building beginning after an application to list the building in 2025 held up the process until January 2025, when Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy rejected the bid.

The proposal will be debated by Manchester’s planning committee at 2pm on Thursday, March 12. You can watch it online here.

To find all the planning applications, traffic diversions, road layout changes, alcohol licence applications and more in your community, visit the Public Notices Portal.

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