Telegraph and Argus

Local newspaper offices and printing plant by local firm. From the 1920s, the Telegraph and Argus, with its sister title the Yorkshire Observer, occupied the adjacent mill building (Messrs Milligan, Forbes and Co., 1853). By the 1980s, new methods of printing and new machines demanded a new facility and the extension to the Victorian mill was commissioned. Project Architect, Arthur Griffin designed the building in two halves – the press hall, clad in partially reflective brown glass and a robust stone clad publishing and dispatch block. The extension took advantage of the change in level between Hall Ings and Drake Street, allowing heavy newsprint to be delivered at the lower level and the production process to deliver it for distribution on the other side of the building. Clearly referencing (if not copying) Foster's Willis Faber & Dumas regional headquarters in Ipswich (1971-75), the glazing delivered on the problem of context by simply reflecting the ornate neo-Gothic architecture of its surroundings. The extension was opened by the Duchess of Kent in July 1981. The press hall was vacated by the newspaper in 2020.