A bright and breezy day in Chester – why not visit a car park?
Having previously visited a car park on one’s previous visit.
Pepper Street Car Park
So off we go into the Shopping Centre.
From high street style to independent finds, coffee breaks to long lunches, there’s so much to discover here. Plan your visit, explore what’s new, and enjoy a day that’s every bit as relaxed as it is rewarding.
Up in the lift, walking just one flight of stairs, right to the top.
Pepper Street Car Park
I was asked by SMBC to take folks on a short Stockport walk – beginning at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery and concluding at the Stockroom, a distance of less than a mile.
So here we are beginning at Stockport War Memorial Art Gallery a Grade II* listed building opened in 1927.
Designed in Neoclassical Greek Revival style with central tetrastyle Corinthian portico, the order loosely based on Temple of Apollo at Bassae
The Gallery has a long history of exhibitions from some of the art world’s finest artists. Today the gallery boasts an extensive exhibition program, which gives emerging artists a chance to showcase their work.
Designed by James Theodore Halliday of Halliday Paterson & Agate of Manchester.
Sculpture by Gilbert Ledward.
© National Portrait Gallery
Crossing over the Wellington Road South to the site of the former Mount Tabor Chapel 1868 designed by William Hill.
Closed in 1954 demolished in 1969.
The capitals of Chapel’s Corinthian columns, surround the site of the Cockleshell Hero memorial 2017 – sculptor Luke Perry.
The former Edgeley milkman James Conway took part in the Royal Marines’ most famous wartime raid, where he was one of the twelve men who paddled more than eighty miles in canoes up the Gironde to plant limpet mines on shipping in the German occupied French city of Bordeaux in 1942.
Down the hill to Stockport Town Hall 1908 another Grade II* listed building – designed by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas, built in a free English Baroque style.
Although much simpler than continental Baroque architecture, English Baroque designs were equally heavy, sensual and decorative.
Across the road the former Stockport Infirmary l832 Grade II listed – architect Richard Lane.
Currently named Millennium House, home to the Department of Works and Pensions.
Around the back of the Town hall we find Stopford House built in 1975 and designed by JS Rank OBE, Director of Development & Town Planning, Stockport Council.
The painting has recently been much improved by the folks from Merseyway Workshop along with local volunteers.
They also staged the hugely successful Stopford House Party in August.
Back down the road to the old Grand Central.
Formerly a large coal yard, replaced by a huge leisure facility and now a hotel and office complex, with a municipal swimming pool attached.
Next door the former Royal Mail sorting office.
The transformation of a building once dubbed Stockport’s ugliest has been completed, now known as The Mailbox.
When it was built in the 1970s, it was given extra reinforcement due to the risk of IRA letter bombs. The sorting office closed and moved sites in 2010, from when the building was vacant for nearly a decade.
The state-of-the-art development is now home to 117 ‘stunning’ new one and two-bedroom apartments and 12,500 square feet of commercial space. There is an atrium at its heart a roof terrace with views across the town centre.
It also has an eighteen -metre high green ‘living wall’ covering the front and other parts of the exterior, which with 114,500 plants is the largest of its kind by surface area in the North of England.
Over the road the Grade II listed former Central Library – architects Bradshaw Gass and Hope, funded by Andrew Carnegie, opened in October 1913.
Current plans are to use the building as a new home for the Stockport Music Service.
Adjacent is the Garrick Theatre.
The Stockport Garrick Theatre was founded on 24th of October 1901, by engineer Edwin Heys and his fellow actors: fugitives from the disbanded dramatic society of Stockport Unitarian Church. Meeting in what was then The Church Coffee Tavern on St Petersgate, Heys and his friends resolved to found a new society ‘to perform the best plays by the most capable amateur actors and with the finest scenic effects’.
The society purchased its current building, an old mill occupied by an assortment of small businesses, in 1920. Since then, the building’s labyrinthine interior has undergone various refurbishments to enhance the society’s ability to produce theatre to the highest standards possible.
The newly painted murals are by Captain Kris.
Next door the Hat Works – the UK’s only museum dedicated to the hatting industry, hats and headwear.
Occupying part of the Grade II listed Wellington Mill, a cotton mill of 1831 which became Ward’s Hat Works.
Both cotton spinning and hat making contributing to the economic development of Stockport in the C19th.
Across the way the long gone Carlton Cinema Architects: Francis Edison Drury and Joseph G Gomersall.
Opened on 28th July 1937.
In July 1948 the cinema was taken over by the Essoldo Cinemas chain. In 1954 the Essoldo became the town’s first CinemaScope cinema and for many years was the only cinema to offer full stereophonic sound. Richard Burton in The Robe was the first widescreen film to be shown, followed by Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire.
At the height of the Davy Crockett craze, in 1956, Fess Parker made a personal appearance at the Essoldo.
It was converted into a twin screen cinema in 1971, by converting the balcony into Screen 2, it was taken over by the Classic Cinemas chain in 1972. Its final owners were the Cannon Group who ran the cinema from 1982 to its final closure on June 21st 1990.
The cinema was demolished in 1994 and a small park occupied the site for several years.
By 2011, offices had been built on site.
Until March 2025 home to the Sky call centre.
Further down the road the former Wellington Hotel.
Known variously as Ups ‘n’ Downs, Glitz, Bentley’s and the Bees Knees.
Finally, partial occupation by a forlorn Pound Shop – defying economic trends by closing.
Street art by Cats and That.
Next to the Transport Interchange aka the Bus Station.
In collaboration with Transport for Greater Manchester and Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, the project redesigned a 10,000 sq m bus interchange, linking the rail station with new landscaped parks.
The development includes a fifteen-storey building with one hundred and ninety six apartments, commercial space, and parking. New parks and riverside spaces improve connectivity and enhance urban living, marking a transformative step in placemaking for Stockport.
Replacing the former Bus Station closed on Saturday 28th August 2021.
Down to the top of the Lowry Steps
LS Lowry snapped in 1962, the Viaduct in the not too distant distance – Grade II* listed structure and remains one of the world’s biggest brick structures.
Railway viaduct opened 1840 by GW Buck for Manchester and Birmingham Railway in brick and stone.
Twenty eight arches of total length over 540m – three spans at either end of 18ft, twenty two spans between of 63ft, and nearly 34m high above the river.
Said to contain eleven million bricks.
Stone moulded impost bands and rusticated faces to piers.
Took 21 months to build, at a cost of £72,700.
Widened to the west 1888 to 1889.
Historic England.
Down on the corner the former George Hotel.
Premises To Let as of 13th May 2018 – on the 2nd April 2018 the licence has lapsed, so this proved to be a barrier to it re-opening.
A former pub in Stockport town centre could be knocked down to make way for a tower stretching 17-storeys high. Plans have been sent to Stockport council for consideration and would bring 76 new apartments to the town replacing The George on Wellington Road, based opposite Merseyway Shopping Centre and near Stockport Viaduct.
Across the way the Heaton Lane Car Park is now rubble.
It is to become the site for the re-sited bus depot, as the current bus depot is demolished to make way for housing.
Though Place North West reports in August 2026:
Talks over a deal for a bus depot off Daw Bank have broken down after the council refused to meet the operator’s financial demands, prompting the authority to use compulsory purchase powers to acquire the site.
Despite protracted negotiations, Stockport Council and Stagecoach have failed to reach an agreement over an important piece of land the authority needs to deliver Stockport 8, a £350m, 1,300-home regeneration scheme.
Leaving Wellington Road we head for the Merseyway Precinct – 1965 architects Bernard Engle & Partners.
Where we find the Alan Boyson screen wall, screening the multi storey car park, now no longer above the Co-operative store, but above Primark.
Next in line the new occupants of Adlington Walk – Stockport’s fabulous Stockroom.
Stockroom is an exciting new creative and cultural centre in Stockport, designed for getting together, getting involved or just popping by for a brew. It has been developed with and for local people and the creative community to build an exceptional communal resource for entertainment and learning.
There’s room for everyone: to make noise, meet friends or find some peace, play, take part, think or do new things.
Part of Stockport’s £1 billion transformation, Stockroom is an ambitious £14.5 million cultural and creative centre that will breathe new life into the heart of the town.
Located in previously disused retail units, Stockroom has been brought to life through funding from UK Government’s Future High Streets Fund, which aims to rejuvenate town centres across the country.
The Stockroom have hosted a tribute to Alan Boyson, the exhibition The Marvel from Marple.
Otherwise open to access the Library service and archives, eat drink and play, use a computer, or a lavatory, read whilst relaxing in a comfy chair, stay cool or warm, stare into space either upstairs or downstairs.
Whatever floats your personal boat, though currently unsuitable for floating actual boats.
Mention must be made of near neighbours the Merseyway Workshop – the plant planters who we met up at Stopford House.
The Merseyway Workshop is a community focused, inspiring place for innovation and collaboration.
A DIY-style hub on Stockport’s pedestrianised high-street. Offering open use of creative workshops, drop-in activity sessions and skill exchanges.
Working in clay and wood, access to a fully equipped B&W darkroom and so much more.
One short mile or so a cornucopia of history – layer upon layer of exciting architecture.
Get out take a walk take a look!
St. Anns Road North in Heald Green is in the North West region of England. The postcode is within the Heald Green ward/electoral division, which is in the constituency of Cheadle.
It literally was all fields around here once – save for a Lunatic Asylum and a cottage or two.
There is still a Griffin Inn, in which to sup yourself insensible.
I often cycle along here on my way to who knows where – today I stoped to take some snaps.
Having an interest in suburban housing its vagaries and typologies – I have recored Penrhyn Bay several times, along with Woodford, Whitley Lodge Estate, Killingworth, and East Didsbury.
This area was once described to me as built by Cowboys for Indians – though statistically there are more Pakistani residents.
This is a dormitory suburb of Manchester and nearby Stockport and is oh so close to the airport, polite and professional well presented and aspirational.
Once this was a Modern paradigm.
Subsequently the plaything of the upwardly mobile – extending in all directions, adding period details way out of period, or embracing the current vogue for the refined and smoothly rendered grey-ification of their homes.
Welcome to the land of the performance vehicle, impressive impressed drive, carriage lamp and bay window, overlooking a well clipped lawn.
Warrington Borough Council New Town House Buttermarket Street WA1 2NH
A true brute of a building, relentlessly repeated pre-cast concrete panels and partially mirrored windows, in a predictable grid.
A pale grey monolith on the wrong side of town.
Built in 1976 to house the Warrington & Runcorn Development Corporation.
2007 voted the ugliest kid in town.
Now due for demolition, by way of a suicide note addressed to itself.
It will not be missed by the majority of residents.
Good, it’s horrible and worthy of demolition.
No doubt the Brutalist-loving nutters will be out in force to protect this.
Nobody actually likes brutalist buildings.
They just pretend to like them to make themselves look cool, it’s like craft beer and food that comes in tiny portions.
One lone voice in its defence.
I have started a petition to save this place.
We can’t lose all our Brutalist Architecture to the steel and glass brigade – viva the New Town House.
The weary workers are already rehoused in One Time Square.
So I went to take a walk around, before the wrecking ball arrives.
The council said there were:
No operational reasons to keep the building in council use or occupied beyond this point, allowing the site to be cleared for redevelopment.
Justifying the demolition, Warrington said the building has poor energy efficiency, high service costs, and is inflexible for modern office and business working
Cost estimates for refurbishment, M&E installation, and energy efficiency measures to keep the building in office use stand at £5m; even if this is actioned, the building would still have limitations for flexible modern working practices and energy efficiency.
The council had explored renting the building out but said: there was no demand for office space of this scale and quality; a sale was also considered but the council found market demand was not significant.
Residential is the most likely outcome for the site, and it will be built into a masterplan for an area including Scotland Road, Town Hill, and Cockhedge. The council said it would look to sell the site in future.
Woodville Road WA142AF
The BT Hunters – They came in search of paradise and found BT.
Many thanks to my partner in victimless crime – Mr Ryan Lloyd.
This is an atypical single storey building, with a raised central hall and butterfly roof, quite something.
Lots of utilitarian detail, mixing brick, glass and concrete, with pragmatic infrastructure grills and grids.
The upper glazed area an extended asymmetric, external delight.
To set the pulse racing a series of gorgeous Rose Carmine panels.
The angular porch displayed the BT Logo of 1991:
On 2 April 1991, the company unveiled a new trading name: BT accompanied by a new corporate identity designed by Wolff Olins and organisational structure focused on specific market sectors, reflecting the needs of different customers – the individual, the small business or the multinational corporation. The reorganisation was named ‘Project Sovereign’ to reflect the company’s commitment to meetings customers’ needs – ‘The Customer Is King’. Together with a succession of strategic alliances with telecommunications companies worldwide, these changes gave BT the ability to expand overseas.
Which prompted a brief yet uninformed discussion concerning the history of Telecom’s Corporate Identity.
So here’s a brief rundown logo lovers:
Previously the GPO was the umbrella grouping for both telephone and mail.
Sketch for the redesign of the GPO logo by MacDonald Gill in 1934 . The first approved version had two concentric circles but this was soon reduced to one. The annotations also mentions the typeface used as “Gill Sans” which had been created by MacDonald Gills’ brother Eric.
The previous telecommunications arm of the Post Office disappeared in 1981 when the British Telecommunications Corporation was formed.
I digress, so back to the building let’s have a good old look around whilst we’re here.
Where’s Ryan?
Having started in the middle, let’s fast forward to the end – the beginning will have to wait.
We take up our walk along Fred’s Way once more by Mirrlees Fields.
Following the brook along the narrow shallow valley, betwixt and between houses.
Briefly opening out into green open space.
Crossing the road and entering the detached world of the detached house.
No two the same or your money back!
Diving feet first into Happy Valley, home to the Lady Brook stream.
And quickly out again.
Emerging once again into the space between spaces.
The suburban idyll of the Dairyground Estate home to very few semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers; those on state benefit/unemployed, and lowest grade workers.
But home to an interesting array of Post War housing.
Including examples of the style de jour, à la mode conversions and updates extended and rendered, black, white and grey symbols of success or extensive extended credit facilities.
Though the more traditional fairy tale variant still has a space and place, in the corner of some well behaved cul de sac.
Under the railway – through a low tunnel darkly.
We struck oil, black gold, Texas Tea – Tate Oil.
The area of Little Australia – so called as all the roads are named after towns in Australia, is bordered by the West Coast Main Line to the north, the Bramhall oil terminal to the east, Bramhall village centre to the west and Moorend Golf Club to the south.
We emerged into a warren of obfuscation, dead ends and conflicting signs, having made enquiries of the passing populace, we realigned with the new bypass.
Passing over the conveniently placed footbridge over the bypass and beyond.
Emerging amongst faux beams and real Monkey Puzzles.
It was at this point that, unbeknownst to us, we followed a twisted sign, misdirecting us along an overgrown path – to Handforth.
We failed, in the end we failed to arrive to arrive at the end.
Heading west like headless chickens towards the Turkey Farm.
Making our way mistakenly to Handforth Dean Retail Park – rear of.
Crossing slip roads with no pedestrian access and the forbidden territory of an industrial sized gymnasium car park.
Woodford will just have to wait, another day another dolorous excursion.
We walked wearily back to Stockport.
Deneway almost but not quite, literally on my doorstep:
High above the Mersey Valley and 70 meters above sea level Deneway Estate stands proud, affording views of the Pennine White Peak to the south east and nothing but some other houses in all other directions.
Built in 1964, by architects Mortimer & Partners it was an award winner from the word go – coming first in an Ideal Homes sponsored competition.
Very much in the tradition of the Span Estates, it consists of small groups of two and three storey terraced homes, with communal open, well tended front gardens. At the entrance to the estate stands a single low tower block of flats.
The architecture sits quietly and confidently in the landscape, well behaved, prim and proper. Interiors are open plan and afforded ample daylight by generous windows. Detailing is tiled and wood panelled, with low pitched roofs.
Jump the train, walk, cycle, bus or tram, but arrive with eyes and heart wide open to enjoy this suburban gem – it’s right up my street.
This was my very first piece that appeared on the old Manchester Modernist site way back in 2014.
Six years later I walked up the road again and found the flats clad in a funny colour cladding and the plaques moved, much else was as was. I assume, that under deed of covenant, fencing and guerilla gardening within open areas is verboten, along with fancy extensions.
The estate therefore retains its original integrity.
The sun in the meantime however – had gone in.
Here are the pages of Ideal Home which featured this award winning estate.
We recently took a look around Redrock, today we visit the next door neighbour – the car park ramp.
Replacing the old Debenham’s ramp.
Linking the old world of Merseyway with the shiny new NCP.
I don’t drive no car so I have to make do with the ecologically sound and ever so affordable means of pedestrian trespass, proceeding incautiously I recorded my journey into the unknown.
Returning safely to Basecamp I investigated further, circumnavigating the drainage area.
I have to admit that I am over fond of this small sacred space, a modern impenetrable temple of Brutalism. My ambition is to stage an art/music event within, just wait and see/hear if I don’t!
The magnum opus of the architect Arthur Farebrother, who was a parishioner. The church is executed in monumental style and has a powerful and little-altered interior which owes a debt to Dom Paul Bellott’s design for the Benedictine Abbey of Quarr, Isle of Wight.
The parish was formed in 1958 and fundraising for building a church started almost immediately. The church was designed by Arthur Farebrother, a parishioner, and the contractors were Browns of Wilmslow, a craft firm with a high reputation particularly for woodwork and carving. The building was finally opened in 1964.
Holy Angels is a building of great presence, of pale brick executed in free early Gothic style with Romanesque overtones. It has a powerful pylon-like west tower, transeptal chapel, attached southwest baptistery with a conical copper-clad roof, and a plain presbytery attached on the north side. The interior is dominated by the powerful brick arches which continue into the ceiling as vaulting. Narrow processional aisles and ambulatory. The north side confessionals are framed by a timber surround. Elevated forward altar with choir seating around in an arc. The simple modern furnishings are probably original.
I was in search of All Saints just along the way in Hale Road, but came upon Holy Angles looming large on the corner.
A commanding essay in pale brick, though referencing architecture of the Middle Ages, it has a transitional modernity in its angular Arts and Crafts details.
Hale Rd Hale Barns Altrincham WA15 8SP
As Hale Barns grew in the 1950s and 1960s it was clear that the small daughter church was less than adequate in terms of size and facilities, and under the leadership of the Rev Fred Cox, the then Vicar, a new church was planned for the site. Designed by Brian Brunskill, All Saints Church was consecrated in 1967.
Outside it can seem a rather stark building, of brown brick, set back from the busy Hale Road but inside it is full of light and space. The influence has clearly been that of the French architect Le Corbusier, and there is a wonderful interplay of curved and straight walling. At first there was no stained glass, but in the early 1980s glass by the Japanese artist Sumiko was installed in the north windows. This includes a stylised tree-of-life design. In the baptistry there is some Victorian glass brought from St Mary’s Church.
In 2009 a radical and daring re-ordering of the building was completed. The church was carpeted and new furniture of high quality, designed and made by Treske, woodcarvers of Thirsk, North Yorkshire, was installed. The tree-of-life design in the 1980s glass has been echoed in the glass inserts to the Lectern and High Altar and also in the metal uprights of the Altar Rail. All the fittings are moveable, giving a flexible space. This flexibility give opportunities to explore how the building itself can enrich worship at different seasons of the Church’s year.
My first time in Hale Barns – hence my first visit to All Saints.
Small in scale, but large in ambition – a wonderful exercise in the calm controlled use of brick, rich in small details, along with an expressive mix of warm curves within a rigid grid.
Of particular note is the sculptural concrete bell tower, the exterior use of pebbles in the porch which flow into the interior space, along with a discrete palette of grey tiling.
It demands to be circumnavigated – fresh surprises await around each turn, simple hard landscaping of flags, softer restrained planting and open areas of lawn, so very well tended.
Let’s take a look around.
Here are some images of the reworked interior taken from the All Saints gallery.
We begin our journey through bricks and mortar, domestic fashions and fads, time and tide in Rainham.
Ward’s Construction, along with many others throughout the country, offer the aspirational suburbanite an opportunity to own the very latest in modern design.
Large open plan rooms lit by large open glazed windows, quality cladding – mixing traditional materials with go ahead get it now design. Double fronted, remote garage, modest manageable, grassed gardens.
For those on slightly more limited means the DH2 offers affordable modernity, along with everything you would expect from a Ward’s Home.
Homes of distinction.
Fast forward to April 2020 – St Ann’s Road Heald Green Cheshire
National Cycle Route 558 brings me here – sanctioned lockdown exercise for the mobile moocher.
In the sixty or so years that have passed something has happened to those suburban dream homes.
An ever expanding middle class fuelled by bigger pay packets, low, low, lower taxation and bumper inheritance payouts, wants more.
More house, more car, more style – conspicuous consumption of everything and more – extend yourself, express yourself!
Right here in one unexceptional road is the apotheosis of today’s Homes of Distinction.
St Michael and All Angels Church.
1 Woodland Rd, West Kirby, Birkenhead, Wirral CH48 6ER
The architect was called Stuart Macauley, a partner in a practice based in Bebington – my thanks to local lad John Feeley who was taught by Stuart at Sunday school.
St Michael and All Angels is a well established Church of England church situated in the heart of Newton, on the border of West Kirby, Wirral.
Our vision is to know Jesus better and make him known to others. We do this by worshipping God, standing up for and sharing the joy of Jesus, loving others and making a real difference in the church and in our community.
What can I expect when I visit St Michaels?
When you come to St Michaels you will find a warm and friendly group of people committed to making church exciting, life-changing, and enjoyable. There are services for the whole family that include contemporary worship (including a café church service), a time of biblical teaching, and an opportunity to make a decision to follow Jesus Christ. Each service is approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes in length.
We wandered away from West Kirby along the highways and bye-ways to Newton.
Newton consists of a village hall, post office, public house and a general store. The local park, aptly named Newton Park, has a football pitch, outdoor basketball courts and a playground for children. Wirral Council also has several allotments in Newton that are provided for residents to grow their own vegetables and plants.
And a most surprising elevated, elevating and angular church.
Such a revelation following several rows of well behaved semis and open fields, my extensive yet limited research can find no record of architectural authorship or attribution.
Perhaps simply delivered by hand or hands unseen in 1963.
190 Wilmslow Rd, Heald Green, Cheadle SK8 3BH
The original Long Lane Post Office is still there but not here:
However – I digress.
One fine day, some time ago there popped into my consciousness a Sixties retail mosaic in the Heald Green area – I tracked down its precise whereabouts online, in the modern manner.
Thinks – one fine day, just you wait and see I’ll pay a visit to the Heald Green area.
So today I did, it started off fine and finished up less so.
Jumped the 368 from Stockport Bus Station alighted at The Griffin.
Walked aways up the road and there it was, almost intact – it’s original name obliterated with lilac exterior emulsion – did it once read healds?
Why of course it did – the local dairy and retailers were the shop’s original owners.
A few tesserae are missing otherwise the piece is as was – a wobbly jumble of text, shape and colour.
Self service – at your service.
Where the Victorians modelled their stations on cathedrals, temples and palaces.
Modern Man models his on shopping centre and office blocks.
Richards and MacKenzie – The Railway Station
Though it seems to me that Macclesfield Station, in its earlier and current states, refuses to dovetail neatly into either of these sloppy binary paradigms.
The former – single storey buildings, fitting unostentatiously into the topographic and practical constraints of the site. A neat, tightly packed rhythm of brick arches with a compact and bijou porch welcoming the expectant traveller.
The latter a functionalist block, fully utilitarian crossings with lift access columns, embodying a particularly industrial demeanour.
From the golden age of steam to the moribund years of diesel, Macclesfield sits comfortably somewhere, betwixt and between ugly duckling and fully fledged swan.
Nestled in the lea of the East Cheshire Highlands, offering practical everyday transport solutions to the beleaguered commuter.
No frills, no thrills.
The London and North Western Railway opened the line between Manchester and Macclesfield on 19 June 1849 – Macclesfield Central was born. Later it would become a key station on the Stafford branch of the West Coast Main Line, remodelled in 1960 and rebranded as the much snappier Macclesfield Station.
Which it proudly announces topically and typographically to the world.
Welcome to Macclesfield a town that is clearly going places, and so are you.
The station won the Best Kept Station in Cheshire Award for 2007, but was reported in summer 2011 to be distinctly shabby, with peeling paintwork.
And yet there is something in the constituent Platonic steel, glass and concrete forms that never ceases to amuse and amaze me, this is Brutalism on a human and provincial scale.
The raw concrete softened with three or four shades of grey, as a concession to the delicate suburban sensibilities of this once silk-fuelled town.
Take a trip with me – join the Cheshire train set.
