For anybody who has driven on the M60 near Stockport you have most likely come across the town's iconic pyramid. The dazzling building is found on Yew Street and has been a head turner for over 30 years.
The pyramid opened its doors back in 1992 but construction began in the late eighties. It was meant to be one of five pyramids built in the area to create Manchester's own 'Valley of Kings' which is a nod to a valley in Egypt where a number of beautifully preserved tombs of royal subjects were found.
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The vision was part of a £20m scheme that would see five pyramids dotted along the River Mersey. The structures were to become modern landmarks that would stand the test of time and break from the monotonous 1960s architecture that had dominated the area.
John Pantall who was chairman of Stockport council’s land and property committee when construction was greenlit, said they saw it as a chance to 'bring life into the area'.
Speaking to the MEN in 2019, he said: “There were obviously different opinions at the time – as there were on the sub-committee – but we thought getting the imaginative modernistic design was the best solution,”
“At the time we didn’t want staid 1960s buildings, I think we had move beyond that, because in the 60s a lot of boring buildings were built and this is one where we thought it would bring life to the area.”
Alas, Stockport was left with just a solitary pyramid after the developers went into bankruptcy. The monument was repossessed by the Co-op who had paid for its construction and it lay empty during its first few years after completion.
It's looked at fondly now, but according to Coral Dranfield – former secretary of Stockport Heritage Trust, it's taken a while for locals to warm to the tall glass pyramid in their sky. “The reaction to it at the time was that nobody liked it, it was considered a bit of a monster, really, ” she told the MEN in 2019.
“But I never thought of it that way, I have always like modern things that are different, so personally I liked it.”
The building lay dormant and empty for three years before the Co-op decided to move in to set up their base of operation for their call centre in 1995. However, It was during this time when the pyramid gained its cursed status.
For a while, many believed the shiny building was a jinx thanks to the period of inactivity soon after construction, a series of failed development projects close to the site and the Co-op bank nearly collapsing in 2013. Many referred to the pyramid and the business park it surrounded as the 'Valley of Death' as tongue-in-cheek reference to a ‘pharaoh's curse’.
The curse was 'lifted' in 2005 with the sale of office blocks at Kings Reach business park near to the pyramid but it wasn't until 2018 when the pyramid, which is more accurately described as a ziggurat, saw some action.
In 2018 left the six story building and relocated to NOMA in Manchester city centre. The building was put up for sale for more than £4.5 and it was snapped up a year later by a Saudi Arabian investor who leased it out to business as an office building.
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