On Monday night, Manchester watched as The Hotspur Press burned.
A blaze began at 4:30pm, and by early evening, as the city’s commuters were making their way home, the inferno was so severe it stopped trains at Oxford Road Station and spread to balconies on a nearby block of flats, leading to more than 100 residents being evacuated.
Its cause remains unknown, as firefighters have not been able to properly investigate the site yet. To do that, they need to partially demolish the Georgian structure, which dates back to 1801.
In the next few days, two emotions permeated the city: sadness and frustration.
Manner, a developer who had planning permission to transform the former mill and printing shop into a block of student flats but keep its facade and signage, said it was ‘truly heartbroken’ by the fire.
But a petition, started on Thursday, calling for Hotspur Press to be rebuilt ‘in its original form’ also epitomised some of the frustration Mancs had in seeing a historic gem destroyed.
“The fire has robbed Manchester of one of its most iconic and historic buildings, a cornerstone of the city’s skyline and industrial heritage,” it said.
While Hotspur Press’ future is unclear and uncertain, there are still historic buildings in the city which experts and campaigners believe remain ‘at risk’ of being lost, sometimes down to a lack of protection, sometimes down to disuse.
Like Hotspur Press, their future is unknown. But they are here in 2025, so we’ve collated a list of 11 so you can see them before they go — if they go.
Withy Grove Stores
Just over the road from the bars stag and hen dos seem to love, and next to the Printworks, is Withy Grove Stores.
This is probably the best-known entry on our list — but probably not for its heritage. Mancs will know the building as the home for the office supply shop which is seldom open, but always subject to fascination.
“It is known for its old metal sign ‘WITHY GROVE STORES’,” Save also notes. “The building is a lone reminder of similar industrial buildings in the street that have all since been lost.
“It boasts its original sash windows, a slate roof, decorative quoins and has examples of fine modillion eaves cornicing and a rare fanlight window pediment on the corner elevation. The internal condition of the building is unknown, but externally it is in a poor state of repair.
“There appears to be salt damage to the brickwork on the upper floors, as well as foliage growing out of the shopfront on the Dantzic Street frontage.”
Shudehill
In the heart of the Shudehill Conservation Area, designated in 1987 to recognise the area’s vital role in Manchester’s rise to a commercial powerhouse in the 19th century, are four warehouses.
The Thorniley Brow mid-rise buildings are redbrick examples of where Manchester’s textile industry took off — and the city nearly lost them in 2023, after a developer appealed against a decision to refuse planning permission.
Manchester council rejected their scheme to demolish most of the buildings, and planning inspectors also agreed, refusing an appeal. The warehouses remain, but remain unused.
Theatre Royal, Peter Street
It seems strange to say, but Manchester’s most popular nightlife spot has an unused theatre.
The Theatre Royal, on Peter Street, is ‘Manchester’s oldest theatre having been built in 1845’, according to SAVE Britain’s Heritage (Save), a campaign group that added the building to its ‘risk register’.
The grade-II listed building was designed by John Gould Irwin & Francis Chester, who included ‘a huge, projecting three bay portico of two fluted Corinthian columns flanked by Corinthian pilasters with a deep entablature above’, Save writes.
“The Theatres Trust (on whose at-risk register this also sits) describes the façade as ‘one of the finest examples of theatre architecture to have survived in Britain from the first half of the nineteenth century’. According to the Theatres Trust, it served as a theatre until 1921 when it became a cinema and later found use as a bingo hall and more recently as a night club. Its interior was remodelled in 1989 but many details are thought to remain including the 1875 balcony.”
It’s now owned by the Edwardian Hotel group, which holds the Free Trade Hall next door as well.
Former Cox’s Bar, Windmill Street
On the other side of the Theatre Royal is Cox’s Bar, which Save says ‘forms a slice across the back of the’ the building. It adds: “The building has had a number of uses over the years and appears to have been refaced at some point in brick and grey terracotta dressings.
“This end of the theatre building faces towards what became in 1876 Manchester’s railway station [now the Manchester Central convention centre]. It is possible that it was at this time that it was altered and given a use serving the customers of the railway. However, more research would be needed into its history.”
Barrack House, Chester Road
Just outside the city centre is Barrack House, a grade-II listed building which stands at 10 Princess Street in Hulme, but also visible from Chester Road.
Built in the early 1800s it was historically used as officers’ mess and later offices. Today it is subdivided into flats. Save says: “It is in poor condition despite being in partial use and seems to be deteriorating.”
31 Byrom Street
Spinningfields was designed as Manchester’s answer to Canary Wharf in the early-2000s, and is fittingly an image of steel and glass. But in its midst sits what Jonathan Schofield, a Manchester writer and tour guide, calls ‘splendid’.
But, writing in the M.E.N. this week, he added it ‘looks like it might fall down soon unless urgent action is taken’.
20 High Street
It’s easy to miss this High Street gem, because it’s opposite the Arndale — so you’re either distracted by your shopping, an errand, or a tram coming around the corner.
But if you stop and look at number 20, you’ll find ‘the last pre-20th century building on this stretch of the High Street’, Save explains, which was ‘most recently a café on the ground floor with offices above’.
The group continues: “The ground floor has elegant rusticated detail with the opening for the shop or café for which it was clearly built to accommodate situated in a low arched opening.
“The door to the stairs leading to the floors above has a large key stone adorned by a bust of a bearded man.”
35 Back Turner Street
Deep in the Northern Quarter, where Thomas Street watering holes spill out into fashionable on-street beer gardens, a series of cottages, at least 100 years old, appear to slowly be falling down.
They’re all grade-II listed, Save says, because they are a ‘rarity’ of ‘small-scale weavers accommodation in Manchester’.
It adds: “In fact, these examples are only just surviving and some of this range is being held up by extensive scaffolding whilst number 36 collapsed in 2005 having been listed in 2004. Clearly a plan is needed if these valuable remnants of Manchester’s industrial past are to survive much longer.”
41-43 Faulkner Street
This small former warehouse is a perfectly formed addition to China Town, according to Save. It says: “Originally a warehouse built in 1846 to the designs of Thomas Fish Taylor, the façade of this grade-II listed building would not look out of place as the offices of a bank or grand headquarters if on a small scale.”
If you’ve not seen its beauty, you wouldn’t be alone, as Save notes it requires ‘craning your neck’ to see ‘deep entablature’. While its lower floors are in-use, the top floors remain unloved.
Cable Street
New Cross, is littered with 18th-century buildings. And tour guide and Manchester expert Hayley Flynn, aka Skyliner, is worried about them.
One in particular catches your eye — a ‘wonky’ warehouse on Cable Street — which Historic England says is grade-II listed ‘for its special architectural or historic interest’. It’s got a surface-level car park outside.
Fenton House, Higher Ardwick
Another one slightly out-of-town, Fenton House at 4 Higher Ardwick, is described as an ‘attractive early 18th century house’. Grade II listed, it was once a hotel and then care home. Now disused, it is showing signs of deterioration. Save says, “Although recent work is encouraging, there is still concern about its condition.”
