FROM construction to demolition - these pictures show how The Press' headquarters in Walmgate has come full circle in just over a quarter of a century.

Back in the 1980s, the then Yorkshire Evening Press was based in Coney Street alongside the River Ouse, where City Screen is based today.

But the site was outdated, with increasingly difficult access for the newspaper delivery vans, and so it was decided to relocate to a new HQ.

Any temptation to move to an out-of-town site was resisted, in the belief that the local newspaper should remain in the heart of the city - ideally within the city walls.

It so happened that MFI, which in those days was a booming furniture retailer, wanted to move out of its base in Walmgate to a bigger store on Hull Road and The Press acquired the site.

In 1988, York construction firm Shepherd set about building a huge new printworks and office complex, and staff moved in the following year.

In recent years, the changing face of the newspaper industry has left increasing parts of the site unoccupied, particularly after the printworks closed down and printing of The Press was transferred to Bradford.

Demolition experts moved in earlier this year, flattening first the newspaper reel store, then the printworks and finally some of the offices, leaving only the building fronting onto Walmgate, where editorial staff are temporarily based. Now a huge new student flats complex is to be built on the site.

At the same time, builders have moved in to the former Poads building, a Victorian structure adjacent to The Press building which once housed a canteen, cuttings library and training rooms. It is now being transformed into a modern office complex, to which editorial and advertising staff will relocate later in the year.

York Press:
The Press buildings being put up in 1988