LITTLE UNDERBANK Acrylic on 3 canvases 315 x 125 cm. 2015 with further editing Feb 2017. Painted over a period of 8 months from the ever changing view from Studio 7 MMU Market Place Studios. The Exchange buildings have not been built and some trees not yet felled. Signed DC in the place of existing town wall graffiti.




LITTLE UNDERBANK Acrylic on canvas. Chestergate with rear entrance to Primark. The A6 arch is visible as is the bridge across to Merseyway Car Park from Tatton Street

Palette used as if it was a post-it note with testers; cadmium yellow mid, burnt orange (quinacridone) mars black and cadmium orange. Date 2015

 (detail) steps down to Little Underbank near the Egerton Arms. The brick wall is set on the sandstone face of Royal Oak Yard. This corner is still used as a location to dump waste into R.O.Y.



Little Underbank (detail) with its rendered first floor windows and grey slate tiled roofs. A plane heads for Manchester Airport reflected in a puddle on a flat roof

(detail) St Petersgate Bridge



(detail) view across to Rock Row and Stockport Plaza and part of Edgely through the railway viaduct At lower left part of the old road at the top of High Bankside with its steps.

Dates on buildings found in Little Underbank

1769

When new building work is done to make Little Underbank great then dates always inspire confidence and are a signifier of urban pride. The name of the architect is also of interest.

Is there a lost cross alleyway at Little Underbank leading to Royal Oak Yard?

Little Underbank: sketch plan. The grey dotted line is directly in line with the steps descending from St Petersgate Bridge and indicates a blocked right of way. This area was once very permeable. Narrow passageways are a commonplace of medieval street patterns.

A sight line from steps descending from St Petersgate Bridge across to an alley that might have crossed Little Underbank. This is a pedestrian crossroad.



A letter box was a very useful way of using the blocked access to the alley. The heritage trail logo sits here.

The four Brows at Little Underbank: Mealhouse, Rostron, Coopers and Dumvilles

Mealhouse Brow leading up the Market Hall. Sympathetic restoration has retained heritage typologies and some characteristic paint palettes around shop windows. Skate boarding supplies and three antique shops co-exist in this tiny curving street. At the exit there was once a town gaol. 




 

Mealhouse Brow leading up the Market Hall. An opportunity to insert pedestrian steps next to the planned piazza to the left




Rostron Brow is still one of the most beautiful streets in Britain. Where else can we walk up to the church tower from shadow to light? This is not an accident, but a skilful understanding of gradient and the structures of the flanking buildings

Coopers Brow; approach from Little Underbank




Coopers Brow; the ramp and steps diminish to less than a metre in width at the summit of this view. A range of materials flank the passage way; brick and sandstone in particular. A true heritage experience





Dumvilles Brow. A very recent addition to Little Underbank above the entrance to the brewery




Dumvilles Brow. The rewards of this climb are really wonderful. St. Mary's sails like a ship through a sea of slate roofs and chimneys. Narrow access increases the drama of this urban walk. Speech bubbles of early signage built into the brickwork make interesting documents on the past uses and owners of a once densely populated area.

Little Underbank is like a mid Victorian stage set

Little Underbank as seen from the roof of St Ann's Hospice Shop. St Petersgate Bridge opened in 1868 frames the bend in the street that joins Great Underbank. A medieval highway with a gentle gradient for horse drawn traffic and pedestrians.

The Trustee Savings Bank building is a key landmark at the crossroads where money to made and spent in Stockport could be transacted at the front door of Stockport; Hillgate. Robinson's Brewery follows on the downward slope, right

The gradient of Little Underbank as it enters the medieval town. The view is of a zone that was a product of Victorian heritage rebuilding, Classical inserts and a series or road schemes into the late 20th century. It is visibly a road, but possibly not the useful route it once was. This road led to Manchester. Now it leads to Chestergate and onwards  to Stockport Plaza

The drama of Little Underbank comes from the use of the sandstone gorge to build a colossal 18th and 19th century high rise business district at St Petersgate and in Royal Oak Yard. One of the most important heritage districts outside Manchester. The builder created a little Athenian acropolis from the natural sandstone hill



There are some unlet shops in little Underbank which are literally stage sets; windows that convey the illusion of a prosperous terrace selling high quality grocery items such as cheeses selling pictures of bicycles because cycling may be commonplace in this place and a florist for customers to take imaginary flowers to their imaginary homes, families and friends