Town centre boulevards on riverside?
WILL ‘riverside boulevards and cafes’ grace the banks of the Mersey as it flows through Stockport town centre? Opening up the river under Merseyway has been voiced since the council became owners and is an echoing call.
Rochdale Council have done something similar with their main shopping street, so why not Stockport? Or so the argument goes.
One objection is that the river is so far beneath the Merseyway any development would have to be below the footway, and would have unlovely views of the concrete supports which hold up the footway decking.
Still, a downstairs location was successful with the Mark Addy pub on the Irwell in Salford, on the site of an old prison.
Merseyway was first built as a road over the river to relieve congestion in the years 1936-40. It joined Mersey Square between the old Fire station and Mersey Tavern, on the corner of Chestergate.
By the 1960s the area was redeveloped as a pedestrian shopping precinct, with moving outdoor escalators and very swish shops. Some of them are built over the river as it curves round instead of running straight down the centre of the pedestrian area as people imagine.
To make way for the new Merseyway Precinct our famous landmark fire station was demolished in 1967, after 65 years use, including many memorable fires, a fire engine plunging off Wellington Road and killing Superintendent Beckwith, whose memorial is on the bridge, and the very busy years of Manchester’s Blitz.
Maybe a hole in Mersey Square similar to the one made recently on Warren Street could allow access to a riverside pub or restaurant here, as lots of light shines in where the Mersey flows out beneath the arch of Wellington Road Bridge?
The arches of Wellington Road viaduct are hollow and legend says that a stagecoach is bricked up in one of them beside the old Wellington Inn which has been derelict for many years. Pity it couldn’t have been part of the development.
Council officers are very cautious, with plans merely to improve the junction of Warren Street and Knightsbridge opposite Asda where removal of advertising hoardings may open up views of the River Goyt, just before it joins the Tame and becomes the Mersey. »»Look on magazine shelves in your local newsagents for Stockport & District Heritage Magazine, where at only £2.80 you will find a satisfying feast of fascinating facts about the area you never suspected!