andyhinch
Well-Known Member
Nothing wrong with Edgeley.
Stockport
- Thread starter dickie davies
- Start date
On a par with Antartica.
I'm sure somebody was paid by Stockport Council to write this, but I don't think it's that far from the truth.
I was born at Stepping Hill in the summer of 1994 and from then on I spent my entire childhood in Edgeley. I went to Cheadle Heath and Avondale schools (Avey became Stockport Academy when I was in third year) and started my last set of A-levels in 2011, just as Phil Foden started there. After school and on the weekends, all me and my friends did during the 2000s was play music on our Walkman phones, explore as much of the area as we could, and play football wherever there was a flat patch of grass. Everything between Hollywood Park, Alexandra Park, and Gorsey Bank was our “kingdom”. We’d go as far as Power League in one direction or Heaton Norris Park in the other, if we were feeling brave enough to go down the Mersey.
In the later years of high school, when I’d stopped hanging round with my friends who played football and found new friends who were a bit nerdier and more introverted and into things like MySpace and skinny jeans, we'd walk about Merseyway and sit on the steps at the top of the multi-storey carpark until the druggies came along and told us to fuck off. At which point we'd go to Poole's on St. Petersgate, get my mate's pack of ten Richmond superkings, and sit on Stockport Gardens with all the other goths until the sun went down. When we finished high school and our friendship groups splintered, all we had for entertainment during my college years were the Crucible on Edward St (which has recently been knocked down), and that horrible, horrible Cineworld at Grand Central.
My point is that there was basically fuck all for kids to do and even less for parents to do in Stockport during the late 2000s. The youth clubs got closed down and the arcade next to Stockport station got demolished when Brannigan’s went. By 2010 on the weekends, you either went out for a meal with your family, went to a house party on another estate, or you did fuck all. Merseyway was dead, the town centre had no nightlife (unless you fancied going watching some fights outside the Chestergate). We used to joke that the best place to “go out” in Stockport was the train station because it meant you were going into Manchester, where the actual action was. If people want to know why kids become vandals, they should find videos of what it was like to be a teenager in Stockport after the 2008 crash.
Just after my 18th birthday in 2012, my parents decided to move to Manchester. I was starting at Salford uni in September and my mum already worked over on the Crescent. I was upset because I struggle with major changes, but Stockport was dead and my friendship group was about to splinter again because we’d finished college, so it was definitely the only option. While I lived in Manchester, though, I kept seeing Stockport grow, bit by bit. I’d go back to Stockport via train every other weekend to visit mates. Every time I reached the viaduct and looked out the window, something new was happening. I remember when Primark moved in – I’d get the train back to Manchester from Davenport or Woodsmoor on Saturday morning and it would be packed with teenagers from New Mills and Buxton who were all coming to Stockport and not Manchester.
We moved back to Edgeley in 2018 to care for my dear granddad, whose dementia had now fully set in. As much as I didn’t want to leave Manchester, I was actually really struck by how much life had come back to Stockport once we returned. Redrock had been built and had finally encouraged people to spend money locally and spend their evenings anywhere but Parrswood. Yeah, it looks like shit, but you can’t turn your nose up at a 12-screen cinema, dozens of restaurants, a gym, and car parking all under one roof. They’ve just put an arcade and bowling alley back in as well. The Merseyway main high street is half-empty, which is a shame, but I don’t think that’s unique to Stockport really, and they’re currently building more shops and a library on those currently empty sites anyway.
They’re building new flats right in the town centre and are encouraging people to actually live in the SK1 postcode again. I’m not happy with the development that’s planned down by Wear Mill because there’s gonna be a big building right in front of the viaduct, but there are whisperings of an absolutely massive affordable housing development being built right under its shadow over the next 10-15 years – the bus depot is currently being completely redone on one side, and the other side will be all flats and housing. For people who know Stockport, the big development will be all round the Comfortable Gill, Replay, The Last Monsoon and the fire station, all the way up to Ironsides. I know someone who’s pretty friendly with the owner of The Last Monsoon and they were apparently given an order in 2021 to move their premises at some point over the next 5 years so that development could get under way. The council don’t seem to be messing about.
The main thing I see at the moment in the town centre these days though is kids actually having fun and having somewhere to go. Unfortunately, when I was a kid all we had left were entertainment complexes that were built years before we were born that were rotting on the inside, not exactly safe places after dark, and badly in need of refurbishment. People are coming back to the town centre in a big way, and they’re actually staying there. I don’t live in Edgeley anymore, I’m more towards Heaviley and Offerton, and it means everything I could need – shops, parks, cinemas, train station – are within touching distance. I think it is actually an exciting place to be. Every time I turn around a new pub or restaurant has opened; the marketplace is making a huge bid to be the size it was back in the 60s; new businesses are opening on Underbank. As Manchester becomes more like London and Birmingham and becomes more and more hostile to families, people are wanting the trendy, entertainment-based nights out but without all the traffic and city air. Stockport’s really providing that.
I couldn’t be happier, personally! It’ll always have its faults and its, erm, charms, but I’m glad Stockport has actual life being breathed back into it. Heck, Peaky Blinders, It’s a Sin, that mystery show for teenagers that’s gone out my head, and now a Life on Mars spin-off have all come here to film scenes for their hit TV shows. 15 years ago, all Stockport had was its faults, little charms that only locals knew about, and old, horrible buildings. But things are feeling good again round here. When I was in my early 20s I couldn’t ever imagine coming back because all I remembered was how little it had to offer when I was in my teens, but my partner and I are about to buy our forever home here because it’s somehow become a place for both of us. And she’s from north London, so even as an outsider she’s really taken to the area. And with Stockport County back in the EFL, I imagine little old Castle St. will finally see some proper business like it did when the likes of Leeds and Sunderland came to town.
I think you've also got to credit bands like Blossoms and of course our boy Phil proudly declaring that they're from Stockport. We can all giggle at little jibes like Kevin's, when he joked about Phil's hair - not just because they're funny and accurate but because we know that every time someone mentions Stockport in the press, it's more attention and more publicity that's turning it into a place people want to come to.
Stockport – it’s where it’s at!
Johnny Mars Bar
Well-Known Member
It's got some rough areas and some lovely areas, same as anywhere really.
andyhinch
Well-Known Member
I credit the Blossoms (pub) for many great nights when I was growing up :-)
Gremlin
Well-Known Member
Try the Lebanese place in Stockport - I get lunch there occasionally as a treat and it does very good food.I went on Stockport market last Friday great night no trouble anywhere loads of people out ,also went to new kebab house on edgeley top food 10/10,
StrutterBlue
Well-Known Member
People on here slagging Stockport off but probably live by Cheetham hill 
Bluemanc100
Well-Known Member
Maybe I’m confusing the school that’s gone with Dialstone
JULES
Well-Known Member
trying to remember things now, banks lane school, offerton palais?, woodbank park, woodlands park, and what was the boys club? sure there was a club called the tabernacle? as far as I remember it was a fun place to grow up in as a 9 year old.