IS STOCKPORT DYING OR ALREADY DEAD 

Stockport town centre there are so many shops are closing.

[@paulnorrington]

I lived at my parents place, SK8 from 1980-2003, then when I was 23 I moved to South Manchester and spent many years up and down the Fallowfield/Withington/Didsbury strip. In December 2021 I moved to SK3 and bought a house. Whilst I'm enjoying being back in Stockport it is a bit gutting to see how quiet Grand Central and Merseyway are compared to back in the 80s, 90s and early noughties. HMV remains though, pretty sure even if there was a nuclear war, HMV Merseyway would somehow survive. Strange times for sure though.

[@Stockybloke]

Hopefully with the new interchange coming and metro hopefully it may bring people back to the town centre. The foodie Friday is good and brings a lot of people into the market area.

[@daliamosesp]

they really need to rip the mersey shopping centre up. covering the river mersey was a disgrace. should have made it a feature.. can you imagine how nice riverside cafes, bars and shops would look!

[@Stockybloke]

Now that would be a feature👍

[@blaze7386]

hey at least we got Mcdonalds!

[@porkpie8667]

I challenge anyone to buy a mens shirt , trousers or jeans and shoes from an independent shop in Stockport . You would be best knocking it down . A walk around Stockport especially during the week . Will show you what's gone wrong with the country . If all the Mutts that attended foodie Friday spent £100 a year in the shops it would make a big difference. Stockport it's knackered

[@Stockybloke]

100% agree with you it will never be as busy as it’s been. It filling up with residential apartments.

[@jamesphlames7498]

I loved driving into Stockport with my Mum or Dad in the 80's and 90's. I remember when Grand Central was built with the laser tag, bowling alleys, swimming pool and cinema. I left the UK back in 2003 and haven't been back. The place looks so much different now from the videos i've watched.

[@carolsowter3384]

It’s not quite dead and it can be saved by the right people and that’s it’s residents. 👍

[@davidbennett906]

I think most town centre shops have suffered during the Covid lockdowns sadly, my own town of Preston being much the same. Tell me Stocky, does Strawberry recording Studios still exist? I was always a fan of 10cc who started it and used it as their base.

[@Stockybloke]

Hello David thank you for your feedback. Yes strawberry studios is still there. They are trying to smarten Hillgate up as there are so many empty shops.

[@davidbennett906]

@@Stockybloke Cheers Stocky, that's good to hear about the studios. Also goood to hear about the other improvements going on.

[@williebobs3830]

Born in Stockport. Moved around a Lot. Spent 12 yrs down south. Met 3 people who were also born in Stockport. We all had 1 thing in Common, we all hated the place. If i go through stockport on the train, my heart sinks.

[@Stockybloke]

I can think of hundreds of worse places to live, but I’m born and bred ❤️🎩🎩

[@nickolaskipworth8461]

I used to live in Stockport SK6. I moved in 1998. It has changed so much.

[@Stockybloke]

Hello Nickola Yes it has changed so much for the time you was here. Some for the better and a lot for the worst, Redrock is lovey inside but a eyesore on the out. They are improving the market area tho so fingers crossed 🤞 it will get better.

[@techtinkerin]

Problem is, before mid 2000s you actually had to go to places like Stocky to get things like toys, tools, clothes etc. eBay etc has basically layed waste to these places. I remember hundreds of trips here to places like index the catalogue shop, Olympus sports, toys я us etc. sad really but somewhat inevitable I suppose. Thanks for the wander round! :)

[@Stockybloke]

Your welcome Tech, it’s the internet has killed shopping and communication town centres don’t stand a chance sadly. 😟🙁

[@johneeeemarry34]

I use to visit Stockport at Christmas and during the summer to see my grandparents in the 70s and 80s.. BHS took luncheon vouchers, so loads of sweets.. Thorpe Cycle centre , That great cinema ,The football at county, The Joke shop on Hill gate, etc etc.. Nice place… I bumped into a guy from there in 2012 , he said the place had gone down hill a little bit, he seemed slightly upset about it.. He said there are more drug users now compared with the 70s.. Bad atmosphere, more crime…

[@Stockybloke]

Well, that’s the same everywhere. John more drug dealers more drug takers a lot more people about a lot more hard off people about. But it’s changing it is an up-and-coming area the building lots of apartments the old police station is now apartments apartments in the bus station. Lots going up everywhere so it’s changing slowly. Stocky

[@Paul-eb4jp]

The High Street as we knew it in many similar sized towns are dead, only big cities and out of town shopping centres have survived, C&A, Debenhams, BHS and Woolworths have gone completely from the UK, Online shopping has scuppered all towns. Stockport is now in transition, businesses other than shopping, there are gyms, a cinema, a bowling alley a virtual reality place and the night life is better than it's ever been, there's building going on all over the centre, I really don't agree that redrock is a monstrosity, it's also very succesful.

[@Stockybloke]

Hi Paul I’m not saying that Redrock isn’t successful because it is with everything that’s in it. It just doesn’t match with the attached buildings and all built at the same time, I’m sure there were better plans put forward..

[@broadband01]

i remember those shops that have all gone ,,,i i remember when the precinct was packed,,,,depressing how stockport has changed the plaza they cant touch because its a listed building and lowry steps but thats all thats left of the old bus station ,,they have a monstrosity of the interchange there

[@Stockybloke]

Yep they are all younger council bosses so they done see the old ways as being good. Such a shame.😞☹️😢

[@888ssss]

it has passed on. nobody will want to move here apart from plucky property developers and migrants.

[@Stockybloke]

Thanks for your comment

[@888ssss]

good video btw@@Stockybloke

[@stevenmaloney3787]

Hi Greg: some very good content you've created on your channel my Friend. I used to make regular weekend visits to Stockport Hillgate area to Double 4 Records to see Dave & John for my records. And there was Richer Sounds across the way including a DJ supply shop a faceing Double 4. Stockport was in the 90's a really good shopping area sadly today it's suffered alike many other shopping retail areas even my local Wythenshawe Civic Centre Shopping area no longer the same as it once was. Many Shopps in The Trafford Center closed too. I'm a local myself, just of M56 Junction 4. Take care my friend from me Steve in Manchester 🇬🇧.

[@Stockybloke]

Hi Steven Thank very much for the compliment, I do have to agree that loads of shops closing downtown in towns and cities. The internet has forced them to its a sad site to see.

[@MikeHarrisHazchem77]

It's dead as a shopping destination of old. It's transforming into a different animal.

[@Stockybloke]

I agree with you Mike is build apartments everywhere and shops are all closing

[@mondo2417]

Hi S/B , its a shame , why don`t these greedy councils just leave things alone , nobody can afford their big ideas.

[@Stockybloke]

Because there greedy 👍

[@RichieWellock]

Stockport died to what it once was a long time back, Before Totally Stockport took over promoting Stockers. Since they took over the dead stockers was well lets say cremated by them, for the unfortune store holders hanging on by teeth and nails, I was one of them. If promoting a town by ice sculpturers and a lots of frogs is a way of promoting a town they live in cloud cookoo land. stores and people want free parking or people just go straight down that A6 to some were else. ps instead of free parking they are discouraging parking in total.

[@Stockybloke]

Totally agree Richie the council started raising the prices in the car parks that used to be free. Because of there greed and now it’s backfired as it’s driven the public away from the town centre to the likes of the Trafford centre because it’s free parking.

[@jamesweber4938]

I have been in the Swan with two necks many times. I like to have a pint there every time we come to the U.K.

[@Stockybloke]

It’s a cozy little pub and great beer 🍺

[@streetstarstudiosuk]

Lots to Blame... online shopping, business rates are extortionate in Stockport, they let too many "bargain shops" open up, put the quality shops out of business to simply fold themselves when footfall diminished. Its a shame.

[@Stockybloke]

Brilliantly put StreetStar👍👍

[@missmuffet3874]

These films sadden me. All our town centres gone now. x

[@Stockybloke]

They certainly have muffet. Time are changing 😢x

[@user-nr9lm4ms2r]

It's coming alive again.

[@williamkennedy5492]

A trip down memory Lane, i moved into the SK5 area so Stockport was an easy place to get to, with those big stores closing what future is there ? I can remember the overhead cafe ! Timothy Whites, Debs C and A, BHS, woollies perhaps all gone due corporate greed. And mismanagement. Now i see we are housing illegal immigrants in the town, i wonder what barmy gov civil servant thought that one up and why did the council agree to it. Especially now diphtheria has been confirm amongst the illegals at Marston and now they have been shipped out all over the place. Are we at risk ? Having said that i will always remember my first visit to Stockport i thought it was a great place ! Thanks for the video it was a pleasure to watch and recall Stockport as it once was - a Thriving town going places.

[@Stockybloke]

Hi William thank you so much for your feedback it was a trip down memory lane for myself. I’m also doing a monthly blog on the interchange if you’d like to take a look 👀, and please subscribe and colour the 🔔 to get notified when I post a new video. Thanks again William 👍👍

[@martinfallon1867]

Buillion centre closed down the guy in the bed&sofa shop been paying Stockport council 15000 grand a year rates since2010 get it right

[@Stockybloke]

They have turned Stockport town centre into Sherwood Forest 🌳

[@user-zq1kx3lv1l]

C & A was never on Prince's Street, the store you were outside of at 5-17 was Debenham's! get your fact correct!

[@Stockybloke]

Actually, the store I was on about was British Home stores not Debenhams.

[@kylebewley7790]

I’m from Stockport. Born in 1990. Looks completely dead to how it was in the 90s/2000s growing up. I don’t remember it ever being so quiet. What’s crazy to me is how little has changed in Stockport as a whole over 20 years. It’s still looks the same. Probably why it’s on the decline tbf. Not enough investment.

[@Stockybloke]

Totally agree Kyle I was born in stepping hill in 1960s and not much has changed in that time, Stockport had ungrounded toilets in the precinct and a bandstand, escalators to help you go to the higher level of all the shops. 👎👎

[@fraserm803]

Christ we were there in the seventies & 80s but i dont think ive been to that dreadful place for over 25 yrs.

[@Stockybloke]

@@fraserm803 hi Fraser you wouldn’t recognise the place anymore. So many things and places have changed.

[@fraserm803]

and btw i still live in stocky area.

[@janettetaylor8760]

I move to Stockport 11yrs ago and I have to say I avoid Stockport Merseyway shopping centre it's just a awful place it's looks like it struck in the 60'S. It's need a huge amount of money to do up knock everything down and started from the beginning..

[@Stockybloke]

It’s the rates that are killing the shops now

[@johneeeemarry34]

The opposite idea is more economically realistic and culturally preferable.. Return it so it looks exactly like it did in the early 60s and not the mish mash it’s turned into….Half the amount of retail units and put them in the same place , then convert the empty ones to residential use.. The last thing Britain needs is brand new 2025 style retail parks in its city centres…. Embrace the 60s, it was a better time in our history.. 2020s architecture will always remind people of this appalling decade…

[@WorldRenownedPsychicBearMedium]

What happened to Argos? Thorntons and oasis? I remember the old underground toilets where their strengthening it. I was born there in the 80ts and seems its changed so much. Seems they put so much money into train-station no money left to save businesses

[@Stockybloke]

Yes I remember the underground toilets and the bandstand. I was born in the 60s Still remember my first bus journey into Stockport from reddish was tuppence 😅👍

[@anthonyforshaw2860]

You called the old bhs c&a. C&a was on the other side where McDonald's was.

[@Stockybloke]

Yeah somebody else pointed that out as well. It’s an age thing 😄😄

[@PK-yf3hd]

Where are your young people? From my usual vantage point of technical ignorance I , even so , know the most uplifting and satisfying architecture is Victorian, Tudor and neo classical. Leeds abounds in the former ,as does manchester,as did every other sizeable place in the north before bombing and council vandalism intervened.quite simply, we need to re create these styles in public places ,on a human scale with squares ,arcades,basement cafes,veranda restaurants ..independent traders in streets and markets......free rents until they make a profit..fountain and garden features and statues(preferably non political.).it would involve local building,art and horticultural colleges and create pride,investment and beauty. What's not to like?

[@Stockybloke]

Think you have some wonderful ideas, you seriously should be in parliament or Council definitely Paul 👍👌

[@DownUndaWhereTheresThunda]

We left in 2018 an emigrated down under sad to see how much it has declined!

[@Stockybloke]

It’s slowly improving Richie starting with the market place and bus station

[@DownUndaWhereTheresThunda]

@@Stockybloke Good to hear

[@notemucp]

We’re coming back. Such a shame what happened to the town honestly. That £1B investment will hopefully probe well, love the video got yourself a new subscriber!

[@Stockybloke]

Hello and welcome to my channel, can I thank you for your great feedback and for subscribing. Where are you coming back from? If you don’t mind me asking.

[@notemucp]

@@Stockybloke I meant the town itself is coming back. Stockport is coming back to life is what I meant :)

[@Stockybloke]

@@notemucp I see what you mean 😃😃 hopefully it will be a much better place, if they can control the scrotes under control.

[@paulmather1980]

i remember princess street when people were shouder to shoulder, now it's dead i am afraid the hgh street as we knew it is finished

[@Stockybloke]

It was finished when the internet was born. No coming back for that.

[@paulmather1980]

very true, problem is its so much cheaper and delivered to your door, not the same as browsing though@@Stockybloke

[@mikebridge.679]

Hi Greg. As you mention Debenhams I’ve heard from a couple of different people that it’s going to be part of NHS. It’s going to be a new Emergency A&E to take the pressure off Stepping Hill. Have you heard anything ?

[@Stockybloke]

Hi Mike yes I’ve also heard that it will go over the A6 and onto where the temp bus station is now and that little multi story car park is.

[@user-zq1kx3lv1l]

That store, that you said was C. & A. was in fact British Home Stores, C & A was a two story store building, opposite B.H.S. I am sorry, but you were incorrect in your narration, at this point in the video. You need to do your research, before starting your video, and carry some notes with you, instead of doing it on the fly. As some of us old one's still remember these facts.

[@Stockybloke]

I don’t need to do my home work at all Brian, that’s the point of the video for people to react and correct me.

[@jenjenlouisexx7811]

When did this actually get filmed? Xx

[@Stockybloke]

Approximately a month ago in May 2022

[@triathlonfat2fit]

Stockport has suffered due to its location with massive shopping centres not far away and nothing unique to draw people to the area anymore. Local people using the shops but that can’t keep a whole shopping mall going. Wouldn’t be shocked if it closed down and was turned into something else soon.

[@Stockybloke]

But I live here people could visit me, I wouldn’t charge just they must subscribe to my KZbin 🤣🤣👍

[@johnmcdonald4005]

When it first was built , it was booming in the early 70s , but it never moved on , it stayed the same , they opened up the peel centre , and they took the bigger shops ,I had a black cab in Stockport for 25 years , and trade has slowly dwindled off over last ten years , I sold my cab and plate 2 years ago . Bus station is being rebuilt and tram is supposedly planned to come in to it . All the big shops that have closed are earmarked for apartments , such a shame ,if primary wasn’t there , the foot fall that comes in would be a lot less , animo et fide 👊

[@johnmcdonald4005]

Primark

[@triathlonfat2fit]

@@Stockybloke with all your blogs I would say the food market is booming with tasty delights that tease the tastebuds and leave you wanting more 🤜🏻

[@Stockybloke]

@@triathlonfat2fit it’s like any other town I suppose lots of coffee shop and eateries.

[@Cragman75]

Far too many empty shops, not nice (

[@Stockybloke]

Hi Craig and I can’t see it getting any better mate 🙁

[@patricklawler9582]

Outdated...just a suburb now even Wilmslow is lively than this place but this is old industrial district of Manchester..not Cheshire..

[@Stockybloke]

Thanks for you comment Patrick all I can say is I hope it helps turn Stockport around for the better.🤞🤞

[@ashleyberry1116]

at 03:40 you say that's the old C&A whilst looking at the old British Home stores building. C&A was where Mcdonalds and all those shops now are.

[@Stockybloke]

Yeah I know it was behind me, my mouth wasn’t in sink with my brain. That seems to be happening a lot as I get older. 😳😳

[@adonisculture]

Primark has been carrying Merseyway since it opened

[@Stockybloke]

Primary and Specsavers are the only shops that was busy on my last visit.

[@adonisculture]

@@Stockybloke they go to spec savers because they can’t believe what they’re seeing

[@markige]

I’d put forward the argument Primark is what actually destroyed it

[@corky1548]

Should make loads of curry places eat all you can bit like Manchester food places

[@Stockybloke]

If they work in Manchester then I’m sure they will work in Stockport.

[@denisebell8422]

I thought C&A was on the other side ? 🤔

[@Stockybloke]

Yeah it was Denise I got mixed up. Where do you live?

[@pixelfascination]

@ 5 minutes in. The shoe market, do you remember when that was Toy & Hobby? At the time the biggest toyshop in the town?. I think after that it was a record shop for a few years around 98-2000.

[@Stockybloke]

That rack my brains took me back a bit toy and hobby oh yeah.

[@kylebewley7790]

Wouldn’t say it was the biggest. Toys r us was bigger.

[@Stockybloke]

@@kylebewley7790 when it was toy and hobby the peel centre wasn’t there Kyle

[@kylebewley7790]

@@Stockybloke ahh ok 👌 my bad

[@pixelfascination]

@@kylebewley7790 Toys R US came after Toy & Hobby I think.

[@janetmcleod2781]

C@A was on the other side of the precinct

[@Stockybloke]

Yeah realised that afterwards 😃

[@graceabuk5216]

Oh my god I went to stockport before

[@Stockybloke]

did you like it?

[@jamesphlames7498]

I loved driving into Stockport with my Mum or Dad in the 80's and 90's. I remember when Grand Central was built with the laser tag, bowling alleys, swimming pool and cinema. I left the UK back in 2003 and haven't been back. The place looks so much different now from the videos i've watched.

[@Stockybloke]

@@jamesphlames7498 totally changed James so many new buildings gone up you’d hardly recognise it. 👍