Printworks is an urban entertainment venue offering a cinema, clubs and eateries, located on the corner of Withy Grove and Corporation Street in Manchester city centre, England.
Printworks is an urban entertainment venue offering a cinema, clubs and eateries, located on the corner of Withy Grove and Corporation Street in Manchester city centre, England.
Printworks entertainment venue is located on the revamped Withy Grove site of the business premises of the 19th-century newspaper proprietor Edward Hulton, established in 1873 and later expanded. [1] [2] [3] [4] Hulton's son Sir Edward Hulton expanded his father's newspaper interests and sold his publishing business based in London and Manchester to Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere when he retired in 1923. Most of the Hulton newspapers were sold again soon afterwards to the Allied Newspapers consortium formed in 1924 (renamed Kemsley Newspapers in 1943 and bought by Roy Thomson in 1959). [5] [6] [7] [8]
Earlier names of the buildings associated with publishing that were incorporated into the development include Withy Grove Printing House, [9] the Chronicle Buildings, [10] [11] [12] Allied House, Kemsley House, Thomson House and Maxwell House. [13] [14] Kemsley House on the corner of Withy Grove and Corporation Street was developed gradually from 1929 and became the largest newspaper printing house in Europe. [4] [15] [16] [17] The site housed a printing press until 1988. [11] Robert Maxwell bought the property and subsequently closed it down. [18] The building was left unused for over a decade and fell derelict.
The property was subsequently redeveloped and reopened as a leisure centre as part of the redevelopment of Manchester following the 1996 IRA bombing. [19] [20]
We placed a very strong emphasis on developing cultural and entertainment opportunities to broaden the interest and attraction of the city centre. We saw the Shudehill site as a prime location for a large regional leisure and entertainment facility. It will add massively to the diversity of the area, its attractiveness as a place to visit and will enhance its competitive edge.
In 1998, the derelict building and surrounding site were bought for £10 million by Shudehill Developments, a joint venture by Co-operative Wholesale Society and Co-operative Insurance Society which owned buildings and land adjacent to the building. [10] [21] The building was renamed Printworks reflecting its past history and underwent a £110 million conversion to transform the property into an entertainment venue. [21] The frontage Pevsner describes as a "weakly Baroque Portland stone façade" was retained, [4] [15] [21] and part of an internal railway from the newspaper business and its turntable for transporting newspapers was incorporated into the new floor. [4]
In 2000, Printworks was opened by Sir Alex Ferguson and Lionel Richie as the venue for a variety of clubs, leisure facilities and eateries. [22] [23] The 365,000-square-foot (33,900 m2) facility is set over four floors. [9] [24] The building features a twenty-screen cinema complex (originally UCI, subsequently bought by Odeon and, in 2017, by Vue Cinemas) [25] which includes North West England's first IMAX screen, a Nuffield Health fitness club, a Hard Rock Cafe restaurant and Cargo nightclub. [9] [20] [21] The external lighting facing Exchange Square has been changed numerous times since opening. [24]
The property was sold to Resolution Property for £100 million in 2008, [9] [19] and was sold again to Land Securities for £93.9 million in 2012. [26]
The history of British newspapers begins in the 17th century with the emergence of regular publications covering news and gossip. The relaxation of government censorship in the late 17th century led to a rise in publications, which in turn led to an increase in regulation throughout the 18th century. The Times began publication in 1785 and became the leading newspaper of the early 19th century, before the lifting of taxes on newspapers and technological innovations led to a boom in newspaper publishing in the late 19th century. Mass education and increasing affluence led to new papers such as the Daily Mail emerging at the end of the 19th century, aimed at lower middle-class readers.
A media proprietor, also called a media executive, media mogul or media tycoon, is an entrepreneur who controls any means of public or commercial mass media, through the personal ownership or holding of a dominant position within a media conglomerate or enterprise. Those with significant control of a large media-based forum may also be called a business magnate. Since the advent of social media, influencers and entertainers who have garnered large followings on platforms have also been considered media proprietors.
The News of the World was a weekly national "red top" tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one of the highest English-language circulations. It was originally established as a broadsheet by John Browne Bell, who identified crime, sensation and vice as the themes that would sell most copies. The Bells sold to Henry Lascelles Carr in 1891; in 1969, it was bought from the Carrs by Rupert Murdoch's media firm News Limited. Reorganised into News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, the newspaper was transformed into a tabloid in 1984 and became the Sunday sister paper of The Sun.
DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing The Dundee Courier, The Evening Telegraph and The Sunday Post newspapers, and the comics Oor Wullie, The Broons, The Beano, The Dandy and Commando. It also owns the Aberdeen Journals Group which publishes the Press and Journal. The company owns several websites, including Findmypast, and owned the now defunct social media site Friends Reunited.
Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester, England, within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way, which collectively form an inner ring road. The City Centre ward had a population of 17,861 at the 2011 census.
The Scotsman is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its parent company, National World, also publishes the Edinburgh Evening News. It had an audited print circulation of 8,762 for July to December 2022. Its website, Scotsman.com, had an average of 138,000 unique visitors a day as of 2017. The title celebrated its bicentenary on 25 January 2017.
Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, was a Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street in London.
The Daily Sketch was a British national tabloid newspaper, founded in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet.
Tenpin Ltd is one of the largest ten-pin bowling brands in the United Kingdom, consisting of 53 bowling centres ranging from 12 to 36 lanes, which often have on-site bars serving food and drinks. They are principally located on retail and leisure parks alongside family leisure brands.
James Gomer Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, GBE was a Welsh colliery owner and newspaper publisher.
Ian Robert Maxwell was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, politician, fraudster, and the father of the convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Winter Gardens is a large entertainment complex in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which includes a theatre, ballroom and conference facilities. Opened in 1878, it is a Grade II* listed building, operated by Blackpool Entertainment Company Limited on behalf of Blackpool Council, which purchased the property from Leisure Parcs Ltd as part of a £40 million deal in 2010.
Sir Edward Hulton, 1st Baronet was a British newspaper proprietor and thoroughbred racehorse owner.
The Empire News was a Sunday newspaper in the United Kingdom.
The Sunday Chronicle was a newspaper in the United Kingdom, published from 1885 to 1955.
Corporation Street is a major thoroughfare in Manchester city centre, England. It runs from Dantzic Street to the junction of Cross Street and Market Street. Major buildings located on or adjacent to the street include the Arndale Centre, Exchange Square, The Printworks, Urbis and New Century House next to the CIS Tower.
Manchester Evening Chronicle was a newspaper established by Sir Edward Hulton, a Manchester City chairman, a newspaper proprietor and a racehorse owner. It started publication in 1897, was renamed Evening Chronicle in 1914 but stayed in Manchester. It continued publication under various ownerships until 1963, when it was merged with the more successful Manchester Evening News and discontinued publication.
The Sporting Chronicle, known colloquially as The Chron, was a Manchester-based, daily, national horse racing newspaper which operated in Great Britain for 112 years until its closure in 1983 due to unsustainable losses. The last edition was published on 23 July of that year.
Edward Hulton (1838–1904) was a British newspaper proprietor in Victorian Manchester. Born the son of a weaver, he was an entrepreneur who established a vast newspaper empire and was the progenitor of a publishing dynasty.
Allied Newspapers Ltd. was a British media consortium with holdings including such national newspapers as The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. Formed in 1924 by the Welsh brothers William Berry, Lord Camrose, and Gomer Berry, along with Sir Edward Iliffe, Allied Newspapers later became Kemsley Newspapers, becoming the largest newspaper group in Britain. The consortium was acquired in 1959 by Roy Thomson, becoming part of Thomson Regional Newspapers.
In 1871 Ned Hulton began to publish the Sporting Chronicle, the first of a huge empire which he established in Manchester, which included the Sunday Chronicle, the Daily Dispatch and Athletic News. Hulton's new premises in Withy Grove in the heart of the city became the biggest printing house in Europe.
At the heart of this other Fleet Street was Withy Grove, Europe's biggest print centre, owned in turn by the Hulton, Kemsley and Thomson dynasties. In its day this Victorian mausoleum turned out no fewer than ten national titles ... Sporting Chronicle , Sunday Chronicle , Daily Dispatch, Daily Sketch , Empire News , The Daily Telegraph , The Sunday Times , Daily Mirror , Sunday Mirror (previously Pictorial) and News of the World ... Withy Grove dated from 1873
Withy Grove had a succession of owners, from founder Ned Hulton, to his son Sir Edward Hulton, briefly to the Daily Mail Trust and then to Lord Camrose and Viscount Kemsley as Allied Newspapers which became Kemsley Newspapers in 1945. Roy, later Lord, Thomson took over in 1959 and eventually Cap'n Bob took charge ... Withy Grove was eventually sold and revamped and is now the Printworks, a £150 million entertainment, restaurant and leisure complex.
Printworks was originally erected as Withy Grove Printing House in 1873.
The find has sparked a history trail leading to previously unseen documents and photographs of what used to be known as the Chronicle Buildings – once home to 4,000 print-workers, 10 million newspapers a week, and national titles such as The Daily Mirror and the Daily Telegraph.
What the 'alleged' opposition did not know, was office space in Thomson House and its adjoining Chronicle Buildings was actually the cheapest in town.
At one time Withy Grove was the biggest printing centre in Europe and was variously known as Allied House, Kemsley House, Thomson House and Maxwell House before becoming The Print Works, an entertainment centre.
The reunion will include a tour of The Printworks complex, which went through a number of different identities from Edward Hulton's, to Allied Newspapers, Kemsley House, Thomson House, then Maxwell House.
Built in 1929, Kemsley House was the largest newspaper printing house in Europe, turning out 11 million copies a week.
Maxwell, a boor and a bully, bought the former Kemsley House plant on Withy Grove (once the largest newspaper plant in Europe; now the Printworks entertainments centre) for a £1, simply to close it down.
The Printworks, designed by leading architects RTKL-UK Ltd, is an impressive host to leading leisure venues such as Boom Battle Bar and Treetop Adventure Golf. In addition, Vue Cinema offers a 20-screen complex featuring the latest cinema technology, including the first IMAX auditorium in North West England.
53°29′07″N2°14′29″W / 53.48528°N 2.24139°W
