Thanks to @SKOldTown on Twitter
Improvised signage in Lower Hillgate. This Unit collapsed in November 2013. An interesting symptom of urban decay. The pattern of use once suggested antiques, new furniture and a flourishing second hand market which continues at weekends. With repopulation Stockport might support a year round antiques market for the region. There are some very interesting shops as the hill rises, but the TESCO sponsored 300 bus makes the pedestrian status of the road very insecure. There are some shops dedicated to drug paraphernalia and sex supplies. There are also a superb niche magazine shop, a Christian bookshop, superb tech supplies and ladies hairdressing. Tandem offers great coffee with a cycling theme. Cool - or hot as you wish.
As whats left of mainstream retail heads for the suburbia generated by ring road building, this area is potentially the shopping district (I nearly wrote centre) of Stockport.
ReplyDeleteSo what does the LA want it to look like? - the repaired ruts of the 300 bus, a lost bus stop next to no shops, oddly placed rubbish bins, white van deliveries, fly parking, Potemkin shops, lease for sale ads, parking poles, urban ruins, yellow road paint marking, piecemeal refurbishments, "heritage" lampposts, collapsed buildings, cctv cameras...
The LA could do worse than look at Beverley in Yorkshire, like Stockport in the shadow of a larger neighbour (Hull). It's 900m between the two churches either side of town, of which 200m is quiet and pleasant cobbled urban street, and 100m is an A road which has been narrowed to provide a 5m wide pavement. The intervening 600m is fully pedestrianised (no 300 bus, no white vans, no cars) and as a result is bustling with commercial activity in its local and chain shops all day and into the evening. Little Underbank AND Lower Hillgate from the White Lion to Wellington Street is only 325m. As Stockport widens highways and builds more 'relief' roads, anywhere with any sense is pedestrianizing, because whatever local traders may think, the overwhelming evidence is that pedestrianization is good for business.