Designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by Woodhouse, Willoughby and Langham in red brick and terracotta, it cost £142,000 to build and was built by J. Gerrard and Sons of Swinton.

It was placed on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register in 2001 and in 2010; Manchester City Council served a compulsory purchase order on the fire station's owner, Britannia Hotels.

It was sold to Allied London in 2015 and renovation commenced in 2018 with the building to be redeveloped as a mixed-use comprising leisure and hotel facilities.

[9] It was faced with red brick and terracotta by Burmantofts, a common choice for early 20th-century buildings in Manchester as it was cleanable and resisted the pollution and acid rain caused by local industry.

The similarities suggest the influence and adoption of a standard design by Henry Price's newly created City Architect's Department.

[20] The building has a 130-foot (40 m) hose tower[1] and a ventilation system designed by Musgrave and Company to prevent the odour from the horses' stalls entering the firemen's living quarters.

Fresh air was drawn in through the top of the fire station's tower, purified and circulated around the building.

[18] During the Second World War, the basement was converted into an air-raid shelter and an extension built in the yard to provide more space in the control room.

The exterior had been cleaned every year since the fire station opened, and as a result was in pristine condition when the building celebrated its Golden Jubilee on 6 October 1956.

[28][31] The last tenants of the bank section, a firm of solicitors, and the fire brigade's workshops, also vacated the building at about the same time.

[3][33][34] After the sale in 1986, the building was mainly used for storage whilst planning applications to convert it into a hotel were made in 1986, 1993, and 2001, with varying degrees of success.

[34] In February 2006, Argent proposed leasing the building from Britannia Hotels to transform it into a music and arts venue.

[39][40] Manchester City Council backed the plans and refused to rule out a compulsory purchase order (CPO) if the owner did not act to redevelop the building.

[35][38] A meeting of the city council in January 2010 approved a request for up to £5.25 million to cover the costs associated with the fire station's acquisition.

[54][55] Despite the plans being approved on 16 September 2010, the council continued to pursue a CPO[56][57] and solicited bids for a development partner in January 2011.

[63][64] In February 2013 after a public meeting, the Friends of London Road Fire Station (FoLRFS) was formed[65] to pressurise Britannia Hotels and persuade the council to attempt a second CPO.

The group organised an online petition, fundraising events, public meetings, an online survey to discover locals' views, an art exhibition and public engagement with its history, and published the outcome of a Freedom of Information Act request on what the council had done regarding surveying the building and issuing urgent-works notices.

In November 2013, Britannia applied to extend the 2010 planning permissions but despite objections the applications were approved on technical grounds in December 2013.

The council considered applying for a CPO for the second time in September 2014 and confirmed its intention to do so in December 2014 and meet with FoLRFS in early 2015.

FoLRFS received a grant from Locality's Community Assets in Difficult Ownership (CADO) programme to pay for public outreach work.

On 30 April 2015, FoLRFS met Pat Bartoli, head of the council's urban regeneration team and Howard Bernstein who praised their campaign.