Investigation launched after fire at former Hanley nightclub building

An investigation is under way after a large fire broke out at Trinity House on Trinity Street in Hanley, with firefighters, police and forensic investigators attending the scene.

Firefighters, police and forensic investigators attended a large fire at a commercial building on Trinity Street, Hanley, on Thursday evening. The road was closed and remained shut into Friday morning.

Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service was called at 7.10pm on Thursday 20 August following reports of smoke coming from the building. Five appliances and the service's aerial ladder platform attended, finding a fire on the first floor. Crews wearing breathing apparatus tackled the blaze using three main jets alongside the aerial ladder platform, and remained at the scene overnight to monitor and dampen down hotspots. Nobody was reported injured.

A spokesperson for the fire service said:

"We were called at 7.10pm yesterday (Thursday 20 August) to Trinity Street in Hanley following reports of smoke coming from a building. Five appliances and our aerial ladder platform (ALP) attended the scene and found a fire on the first floor. The fire was extinguished by crews wearing breathing apparatus using three main jets and the ALP. Thankfully nobody was reported injured. Crews remained at the scene overnight to monitor and dampen down any hotspots. An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing."

Staffordshire Police also attended, working alongside fire crews, and is now appealing for information. Officers were called five minutes after the fire service, at 7.15pm.

A police spokesperson said:

"We are appealing for information following a large fire in Stoke-on-Trent. We were called at 7.15pm yesterday (Thursday 20 August) to Trinity Street in Hanley following reports of a fire. Officers attended the scene alongside colleagues from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service. The fire was extinguished and thankfully nobody was reported injured."

Anyone with doorbell, dashcam or CCTV footage of the area at the time is asked to contact Staffordshire Police on 101, quoting incident 728 of 20 August, or via Live Chat on the force's website. Information can also be passed anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

The building

The fire hit Trinity House, on the junction of Trinity Street and Gitana Street, a building whose ground floor was most recently home to Groove Castle nightspot. Groove Castle opened in December 2023 but closed within twelve months, and the premises had previously traded as TTL nightclub before that.

By Friday morning, the front of the building showed scorch marks and some windows on the upper floors were missing.

The fire comes only weeks after Stoke-on-Trent City Council backed a planning application to convert the first, second, third and fourth floors of Trinity House into 19 flats, after an earlier scheme for 23 apartments across the whole building was refused in January. Those upper floors had been in long-standing office use.

Third building fire in the city this week

Trinity Street is the second significant building fire in Stoke-on-Trent this week, after crews closed High Street in Tunstall to tackle a blaze on Tuesday night. It also follows another building fire in Hanley in recent weeks, on Stafford Street on 9 July, which saw six fire engines, police and utility engineers called out.

The Staffordshire Signal will bring you further updates on the cause of the Trinity Street fire, and what it means for the flats scheme approved for the building, as they become available.

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