HUGE investment and exciting new plans for the home of The Cumberland News means the city's landscape is changing forever.

The Press Hall, which is situated at the rear of Newspaper House in Dalston Road, is currently in the process of being demolished.

The iconic building, which used to house the printing press and despatch areas, saw millions of newspaper editions come off the presses until 2018.

The printing of publications was moved to Newsquest’s state-of-the-art print centre in Cambuslang, Glasgow.

Parent company Newsquest and LOCALiQ are investing in a fantastic new office on the current Dalston Road site in Carlisle.

The White House, a separate office space in the grounds of Newspaper House, is being transformed into a state of the art newsroom and digital marketing agency for LOCALiQ.

The investment will secure the future of the News & Star and The Cumberland News as the leading local news publishers in Carlisle and North Cumbria.

It follows recent investment of £1.5m across the Newsquest network in 50 new digital reporters - three of those in Cumbria.

As part of the plans the city landscape will change forever.

The now empty former printing press and press hall building, in the industrial area of the Dalston Road site, is being demolished.

This will mean the iconic tower proudly displaying the News & Star and The Cumberland News logos will be pulled down and the branding will be moved to the White House.

A specialist demolition company is carrying out the work.

Newspaper House has a rich history, having been opened by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne on April 27 as the new Cumberland News office to replace the Carlisle city centre office on English Street.

The building, which proudly displays the News & Star and Cumberland News logos has been a notable part of the city’s skyline for a number of years and will be fondly remembered by those who worked at the Pres Hall and Newspaper House.

“I used to always think that we created a little miracle everyday”, said former Press Manager, David Gibson.

“You’ve got 24 hours to [make the paper]. It had to happen.

“You can’t say ‘we didn’t really write today, we’ll do it again tomorrow’. You had to print every single day.

“You didn’t think it was pressure at the time because we were all young an enthusiastic.

“It was a wonderful place to work.”

The Press Hall was extended in the 1990s to accommodate a a KBA Comet press that cost £7 million. It could print up to 60,000 newspapers in an hour.

The Print Hall was also used to temporarily print the Sun newspaper at one point while News International were installing their new presses.

The building house a “big operation” — even running its own distribution fleet — and had many visitors passing through, including curious school children who were wowed by the mysterious art of creating a newspaper.

David, who was Press Manager at the Press Hall for nine of the 27 years that he worked there recalled the time Princess Anne visited.

He said: “We all had to show her each little segment of the processes that we went through.

“I was in charge of what was called the graphics department, so I was the guy who actually got to say to her what we did.

“It was a big employer in Carlisle for a long time.

“It was always a pleasure because you always saw a lot of people coming through. About 40 to 50 years ago [making a newspaper] was a bit of a science.

“It was very much a black art. People didn’t really know what you were doing and it was all a mystery really.”.

Princess Anne returned to Newspaper House in 2015 as part of our 200th anniversary celebrations for The Cumberland News.

Vanessa Sims, editor of The Cumberland News, said: "This project is really exciting and will give our fantastic titles a modern state-of-the-art newsroom."