With Stockport's Merseyway shopping centre undergoing a multi-million pound revamp, the M.E.N. look back on the precinct's history.
The Merseyway shopping centre has for more than 55 years been Stockport's town centre's main retail destination. Construction began in 1965, and spanning across the 30ft River Mersey, it was at the time one of the most ambitious and pioneering shopping centre schemes in the UK.
Now, over half-a-century on, it's difficult to imagine how state-of-the-art the precinct was once considered. But with rooftop car parks, tree-lined pedestrian walkways and travellators, the new shopping centre was described in the Stockport County Express in 1965 as "space age".
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Building the shopping centre was quite a feat of engineering as it straddles a 500-metre length of the River Mersey running through the centre of Stockport – with just nine inches of concrete and a 10 metre drop keeping shoppers and water apart.
A series of concrete arches hold up the floor of the shopping centre above the river and need regular inspection and maintenance. The precinct was constructed over the original Merseyway road – a town centre road which was built in the 1930s above and along the river.
Before the road was built, the river cut the town centre in half, with a straight iron bridge forming the only pedestrian link. It was flanked by old mills on its northern side and by open space and a car park on most of its southern side, linking Bridge Street and Warren Street at the eastern end to Mersey Square on the western side.
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Only a few shops and stores lay along its route – most notably Marks and Spencer, Woolworths and Susan Smart's ladies outfitters. Before its epic construction, town centre shopping was largely confined to Princes Street, the Market, St Petersgate and the Underbanks.
The Merseyway shopping centre was built to reflect the exciting and modern aesthetic of 1960s design. Its foundation stone was laid in 1965, with the project finally being completed in 1970 at a cost of more than £10 million.
Its completion was an exciting time for Stockport, as it now had a new heart to its town centre for both commerce and socialising. Although its design wasn't to everyone's taste, it was certainly a modern and spacious retail space, with modernist architecture blog, Modern Mooch, describing Merseyway as "concrete poetry in motion, incorporating the surrounding topography and extant architecture with grace and aplomb."
But by the early 90s, the buildings within Merseyway were looking dated and so a huge revamp was launched. The work took two years to complete and transformed the covered mall and embellished the original buildings with contemporary additions.
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In 2005, as part of the centre's 40th birthday celebrations, a time capsule buried when the first brick was laid was revealed. Among the items found in the capsule were coins, plans and costs for building the shopping centre, a map of Stockport town centre, council handbooks and newsletters dated September 1965.
The same year the time capsule was opened, another was laid back in the ground alongside the original, packed with items from local schoolchildren. Now one of the oldest surviving shopping centres in the UK, in 2021, the MEN interviewed a number of Stockport's shoppers who felt the precinct was again in need of renovation and modernisation.
Thankfully, there are now plans to transform a run down part of Stockport’s Merseyway shopping precinct into a '21st century library and discovery centre'. The £14.5m makeover - paid for by the government’s Future High Streets Fund (FHSF) - has long been controversial as it means moving the current central library from its historic home on the A6.
But town hall bosses are determined to continue with plans for the new library - provisionally dubbed ‘Stockroom’. It will ‘repurpose’ units in Mereseyway’s Adlington Walk, with other facilities also including a performance area, sensory room and cafe among others.
Councillor David Meller, cabinet member for economy and regeneration, says Stockroom is going to play a huge part in the ongoing £1bn regeneration of the town centre. “We have £14.5m to change this particular space into something that can be really inspirational for people,” said Cllr Meller.
Does Merseyway shopping centre awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
The project will also see the extensive landscaping on the precinct, as well as essential maintenance on the Merseyway bridge which supports the shopping centre. New paving, lighting, public seating and planters are also planned as part of the refurbishment.
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