On the last Friday of every month, thousands of people descend on Stockport’s Old Town. Foodie Friday, the night out that feels a bit like a festival, features live music by the Victorian Market Hall and a strong line-up of food and drink traders - all of which adds to the night’s electric atmosphere.
It was after visiting the event some months back that Manchester DJ Luke Unabomber declared “Stockport is the new Berlin” - and the rest is history. Well, not quite, though it did inspire local artist Eric Jackson to create what he reckons is the first German language poster ever about the town.
Lapped up by his followers on Instagram, the ‘Das neue Berlin’ artwork depicts a cabaret dancer standing with a chair along Stockport’s Underbanks. It's a playful take from Jackson, who quit his job in journalism eight years ago to paint full time and create witty tourism posters of places around the region - but it’s also an ode to a town which has worked hard to rehabilitate its image.
Read more: Manchester brewery reveals more details on soon-to-launch Stockport site
A couple of years ago, the artist also updated his Stockport Alphabet piece - which gives special mention to landmarks like the blue pyramid, the hat museum and Strawberry Studios - to reflect the changes that have taken place. “In the original version, I wasn’t very complimentary about Underbanks, because although I’ve always loved the buildings around there, it was full of charity and sex shops; it was horrible, " he told us.
Today, the same street is home to a wealth of independent boutiques, bakeries and bars, many of which have tapped into the huge potential of the south Manchester town. “It was underinvested. Now, I absolutely love it, added Eric.
“Stockport is always changing, I’ve always liked it, but I thought the council was a bit reluctant to let anybody do anything interesting in Stockport, but the brakes are off now.”
And they really are. Progress on the £1bn regeneration of Stockport’s town centre continues apace - with work progressing on its redevelopment on Weir Mill - a Grade II-listed mill in the shadow of the town’s iconic viaduct - as well as a new transport interchange. Developers are also making headway with new homes throughout the borough and trains will finally stop again in Cheadle after plans for a £9m station were approved late last year.
The activity in Stockport has also caught the attention of the national press. Last month, Stockport was named in The Sunday Times’ Best Places to Live list, alongside Sale and Manchester. “What was once a standard former mill town has reinvented itself as a funky, family-friendly alternative to Manchester’s Northern Quarter,” the Times said.
As well as citing its major regeneration plans, an abundance of property, parks, nurseries and decent schools, the publication also points to the town's growing community of independent businesses - from restaurants and bars to shops and creative enterprises, which is “surpassed by no other town in Greater Manchester”.
“We hope you’ve noticed, but in case you haven’t, Stockport is changing”, reads a sign on Lower Hillgate, part of the Underbanks regeneration programme, which started over five years ago. Referred to by some as the ‘Soho of the North’ this corner of the town, spanning Little Underbank, Mealhouse Brow and Lower Hillgate, has changed considerably over the last five years and is often credited with breathing new life into the town.
Early adopters like Plant Shop, Rare Mags and SK1 Records all saw its potential when they set up several years ago, and in more recent years, new faces have sought to remind people of this “bohemian spirit”, as Tony Murray, owner of Old Town General Store, likes to call it.
Tony set up his clothing store in October 2020 following a night out with his wife in the town’s market area. “I sat in the Angel having a few pints, had a look around and realised that there were some very well-dressed people that weren’t buying their clothes in the town because there wasn’t anything like this available to them, " he says.
After quickly attracting a loyal customer-base, Tony found himself outgrowing the space and, after just two years, they moved down the street to Great Underbank. He reckons the success of the store, which sells a range of independent fashion brands and lifestyle goods, is down to the area's businesses bouncing off one another and buying into a new Stockport narrative.
“It’s just been so well received because so many things of a similar level have opened up around the same time and instantly helped each other. The old adage of ‘Stockport isn’t shit’ is actually true. That's generally what people used to think of the town centre, we didn’t have many nice bars or restaurants, and any shops were all very high street and all about the Merseyway.”
With cheaper rents and business rates, plus a council that Tony believes “wants independent business here”, he’s hopeful more will continue to pick the town over other suburbs and the city centre.
“It’s an opportunity for the town to embrace its bohemian spirit. It couldn’t get worse than it was, and what we’ve rediscovered in this town is pride - now people are proud to say they’re from Stockport. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a bit of a diamond in the rough, but that’s what it should be, it’s not pretending to be something that it’s not.”
Sophia Barrese, whose clothing shop, Top of The Town Vintage, sits opposite Tony’s former site on Lower Hillgate also believes the “magic” of Underbanks will draw more businesses in. “When I launched it online I envisaged it as bricks-and-mortar and it was kind of a no-brainer that it would be here,” she explains.
“So when this came up two years ago, it just felt right. I know it sounds a little corny but I do think it’s the magic of it, it’s such a beautiful area and there’s so much heritage. It’s a lovely place to have a business and all the people who work along here are very supportive of one another.”
Sophia, who grew up in Marple, now lives closer to the town centre with her fiancé Joe Donovan - the drummer in Stockport band Blossoms - and is currently busy juggling her business alongside renovating their house. She thinks more people will start to move to Stockport as a result of national and regional coverage.
“I think there’s definitely a buzz about Stockport, so many great attributes is one place, so if you want something like city living you have Underbanks and the Market, but if you want a taste of country living, you are only 10 minutes from that too.”
Another business owner buying into this new vision for Stockport is Marc Welsby, co-owner of Runaway Brewery, which will be opening its first site in the town next week. Back in November it was revealed that the award-winning Manchester brewery was swapping Dantzic Street in the city centre for Astley Street in Stockport, and opening a brand new space overlooking the River Mersey, complete with a taproom, events space and beer garden.
Speaking ahead of next week’s launch, Mark said he wanted to move the operation to Stockport because of its strong mix of like-minded businesses. “We wanted to be part of a community, and while Manchester City Centre has a dynamic and exciting energy, it also changes so quickly, which means it’s a bit difficult for a business to become part of the place and you have to keep reinventing yourself,” he explained.
“We wanted to be something that was more relevant to an existing community where we know they enjoyed beer. Stockport also has this DIY feel to it, and there’s already several businesses there reflecting that spirit.
“Here, there’s people who are genuinely interested and invested in Stockport as a place. It’s not just big brands going in, so it’s not some generic, homogeneous experience. To us it feels like Stockport has a real soul.”
Runaway Brewery joins an esteemed line-up of Stockport institutions on an already established - and well-trodden - pub crawl. Stretching from the red-brick Alexandra in Edgeley, and stopping off at Little Underbanks' Queen’s Arms, and Arden Arms on the edge of the town’s Market Place, as well as a host of craft beer bars dotted around the town, the new brewery is set to be welcome with open arms.
Of course, the town’s burgeoning food scene has also played its part, not least Sam Buckley’s Where The Light Gets In. The foraged fine dining restaurant, which national critic Marina O’Loughlin said she would ‘cross continents to visit’, opened in a converted Victorian coffee warehouse on Rostron Brow in 2016 and successfully paved the way for the next generation.
Today, Stockport’s food scene is both rich and diverse. Whether it's the unapologetically authentic Mekong Cat, which serves up soothing bowls of noodles; Tyros, the much-loved takeaway run by an ex-footballer and tucked away behind a Cash Converters; or Sticky Fingers, the market hall bakery serving up freshly baked breads and Polish treats, there’s more than enough to rival the city centre.
Naturally, with the increased national and regional media coverage of the town, and gathering pace of redevelopment, including plans for apartments and homes at Weir Mill, Warren Street and St Thomas Gardens, the town - and borough more widely - is becoming an attractive destination for home buyers from further afield.
"I just think with everything going on in terms of the development of it around the market and the old town, Stockport is quite a good place to be, said one homeowner from Stockport, who we interviewed as part of our Where I Live series, in which we hear about readers' home buying journeys - from costs, to how they’ve made their house a home.
Last year, house prices in the area had an overall average price of £323,851, with the majority of sales being semi-detached properties selling for an average price point of £338,762. Some of the cheapest properties currently on the market are priced at £170,000, while at the higher end, large period homes in Stockport suburbs like Heaton Moor are fetching well over £1.1m.
For Sarah Yates, a first-time buyer from the area, the rising interest in the area forced her to think creatively. Having grown up in Hazel Grove, Sarah wanted to buy her own home in Stockport but soon realised that she was being priced out with her £145,000 budget.
"Originally I wanted to stay in the Hazel Grove area but the prices around there are obviously high because it's a more desirable area. The more that I was getting turned down on these houses it pushed me to look in different areas more towards the centre of Stockport. I started looking at houses in Edgeley and thought it is actually a decent area, it’s affordable, up and coming and it's by the train station and the motorway."
But, as far as gentrification goes, Martin Wilson who owns magazine shop Rare Mags on Lower Hillgate with his partner Holly Carter, isn’t worried. Having opened their shop five years ago, he admits Stockport has come a long way, but that it's still on a journey.
“When we started out, people were coming to us in genuine disbelief that there could be anything like this here in Stockport,” he says. “And then their follow-up question would be ‘where next?' and we wouldn’t really have anywhere to offer them in terms of onward retail or food and drink, though obviously you could tell them about some really nice old pubs.
“We’ve still got those, but we’ve also got a lot more to offer now too. I would say it still has a long way to go, but it’s got a path now. It doesn’t need to be an overnight success story, it’s better if it's long-term, organic and real.”
Read more:
