IN FOCUS | Peeling back the layers to reinvent Stretford
Stretford is one of hundreds of places across the country where the property industry is transforming a post-retail hinterland into a thriving commuter metropolis.
From Birkenhead to Bury, projects aimed at attracting people back into ailing town centres are being delivered.
In Stretford, this involves redeveloping the suburb’s monolithic 1970s mall. At present, Stretford Mall is plagued by high levels of vacancy, a place where there are more empty stores than people.
Bruntwood, which is leading the regeneration project with the mall’s owner Trafford Council, is trying to change that.
“It is about creating something here that people want to visit,” said James Tootle, head of retail and leisure at Bruntwood.
“We think there is scope to bring something here that establishes a name for itself.”
The new Stretford
The amount of retail space will reduce by around a third. Credit: Place North West
Work to overhaul the shopping centre, which the council bought for around £50m in 2019, is underway.
The project will see the 350,000 sq ft monster reduced in size by around a third.
The mall’s makeover features plans for around 800 new homes, a bigger emphasis on leisure and F&B, a better retail experience, and all-important green space.
The project is in the early stages. The first phase has been funded by the government and will see the historic streetscape restored and the creation of a piazza – acting as Stretford’s new heart – by removing part of the mall’s roof.
The new Stretford will see a bigger focus placed on food and leisure, something that more successful shopping outlets like Liverpool ONE have been doing for some time.
This approach is intended to draw people in the same way shops used to. It will also increase dwell time and attract a younger demographic that might currently hold a dim view of the mall.
There will also be room for service-led offerings such as dentists, hairdressers, banks, and chemists.
“We want to be inclusive in terms of what we are doing and creating places that are accessible for everyone,” Tootle said.
Passion project
This is not a case of bringing the bulldozers in. It is about peeling back the layers of Stretford Mall to reveal the more desirable bits that lie underneath, according to Ernst ter Horst, associate at architect Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios.
Ter Horst moved to Stretford in 2006, finding himself priced out of Chorlton, and describes himself as a Stretfordian architect.
As a local resident, he is pouring his heart into delivering the kind of town centre he feels his neighbours deserve.
“It means so much,” he said. “The transformative effect is so great and it really resonates with people.”
Ter Horst believes the redevelopment of the mall could act as a shining example of how to reinvent town centres up and down the country.
Various councils grappling with similar challenges have visited the project to see how Bruntwood and Trafford are approaching the redevelopment of the mall.
“It is a model that needs to be addressed across the UK. Reinventing those malls and turning them inside out to face their neighbours and their communities,” ter Horst said.
Civic concern
There is a great deal of interest in this project among locals, too. According to Tootle, the very first consultation on the scheme held back in January 2020 saw the mall record its busiest day in a decade as people flocked to learn more about what the future of the shopping centre might look like.
On a recent site visit, one elderly lady stopped the group of hi-vis-clad people meandering around the mall to ask what was going on.
James Tootle (left) and Ernst ter Horst want to give the people of Stretford something to be proud of. Credit: Place North West
“Is it going to be like Altrincham?” she asked excitedly.
“Better,” Tootle replied.
One thing developers working in town centre regeneration must avoid is creating identikit towns. While there are fundamentals that will benefit most places – like decreasing the amount of retail space and improving public realm – each town is different and must be considered on its own merits.
The amount of public consultation that has gone into curating the Stretford vision is a testament to the project team’s desire to have the scheme shaped by those who live nearby.
“It is definitely not going to be a cut-and-paste job,” Tootle said. “What we have tried to do here is deliver something that is uniquely Stretford.”
Part of that is about attracting local businesses. Stretford Canteen, considered to be among the best restaurants in Greater Manchester, arrived at the mall earlier this year and is the kind of local success story Tootle wants to emulate going forward.
“[Stretford Canteen] is almost the perfect case study in [the type of thing that] is going to bring you to Stretford that you can’t get in Sale or in Urmston.
“We are not going to fill this with people that have a business in Stretford…but I would like to think there would be more Stretford Canteens out there.”
This attitude, coupled with a willingness to help out occupiers with things like flexible leases marks a move away from the attitude of the mall’s previous owners, which was all about bringing in the tenants who paid the most, according to Tootle.
“We are not about that,” he said. “We are trying to bring in an individual approach that judges a business on its merits and not just the covenant strength.”
Thinking ahead
In the 1970s, during a period of heightened consumerism, developers created great hulking shopping centres to satisfy society’s appetite for retail and accommodate those strong covenants.
More than 50 years on, today’s developers must keep in mind how things can change over time and ensure that future generations are able to adapt more easily if the market shifts again.
Some of the mall’s roof will be removed to reveal the historic streetscape. Credit: Place North West
“We need to keep evolving and make sure that what we do has intrinsic flexibility,” Ter Horst said.
“Who knows what we will be doing in 50 years, probably plugging ourselves into the matrix.”
To know what to do with places like Stretford, one must have an understanding of, or a philosophy on, the role of towns themselves.
Bruntwood believes that strong Greater Manchester towns can only be a good thing for the city centre.
“Manchester is going to keep growing and growing,” Tootle said. “But in order for it to do that, there needs to be a really strong network of towns that sit around the city centre that ultimately allow people to come and buy a house.”
The aim is for Stretford to be more than a commuter town. Bruntwood and Trafford want to create a place that people go to not just because it is where their house happens to be, but because they want to.
There is little doubt that improving the town centre will make it more desirable. Indeed, Stretford is already on the rise.
According to Rightmove, the average cost of a house in Stretford has risen 23% since 2020, compared with 11% in Urmston, 17% in Sale, and 19% in Altrincham.
Work to improve the town centre is likely to result in further price growth in the coming years, even with the addition of 800 new homes proposed as part of the masterplan.
This means that some people will have no choice but to cross Stretford off the list of viable places to live in Greater Manchester.
They will end up elsewhere, another under-performing Greater Manchester town, where the developers are yet to arrive.
Well done Trafford Council and Burntwood, this looks like a well thought out plan. When is someone going to develop a similar plan for the horrible Manchester Arndale?
By Anonymous
I hope that the final product matches the initial plans and enthusiasm. I’m sure it will and yes it will be something to be proud of. I wasn’t born in Stretford but I know that this has long been waited for… Now.. if only they could do something with that bloody urban motorway.. The A56. It would be then, nigh on perfect.
By Anonymous
Fascinating read, would they have got to this point without the levelling up fund monies?
By Anonymous
Absolute nightmare. 800 dwellings thrust upon the town centre. The roads will be cut down, and it’s already a congested nightmare. Read the comments on the consultation barely a positive one. Residents are massively against high rise buildings. It’s a step backwards but no one is listening
By Anonymous
The works on Kingsway are already having such a massive difference, connecting the centre through to the lovely Victoria Park area. So much potential in Stretford given the local services, transport yet access to the green spaces at the Mersey, Meadows, Turn Moss, Bridgewater Canal and Longford Park.
By Opening Up
The article failed to address the downsides of decreasing retail space and building new homes whilst also removing lanes from the main roads (I’m not convinced that residents will cycle instead)… Stretford doesn’t have the infrastructure for a more compact society. It’s roads, schools, doctors and dentists are full.
The mall didn’t need to be demolished it just needed to attract new businesses. This article compares Stretford to Urmston, Sale and Altrincham all of which are mainly outdoor retail space, have you seen them places in the winter? The elderly prefer Stretford due to it being indoor, the one uniqueness that these developers are removing!
Sadly a large amount of funding is going into this and I’m concerned that as the finished product will states will be good for the younger generation but at the expense of the older generation. I’m part of the younger generation but I don’t like to see anyone excluded.
By Anonymous
@openingup
It’s a shame that Kingsway couldn’t have been pedestrianised, however I know that would have been impossible. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. It will be much improved for pedestrians and cycling and I’d like to see the limit dropped to 20mph for this stretch.
They should have taken a leaf out of Poyntons book and made several crossing points where pedestrians have priority…maybe that’s the plan?
By Anonymous
Years ago , when I lived in Hale, I always used to come down to Stretford to shop it saved me many a trip into Manchester. There was something for everyone a good variety of shops. We could do with that again.
By C.shore Cindere77a.
This article is very one sided. It’s quite unbalanced and is only showing the positives. I’m all for the regeneration of Stretford but it’s not outlined here that Bruntwood plan to develop 800 dwellings (most of which will be in a building 12 storeys high and being coined as ‘affordable housing’). They won’t have gardens or any personal outdoor space. The height of planned buildings was not clearly documented in the initial proposals so the local residents that live on a surrounding streets to the mall (such as myself) feel cheated and that our voice is unimportant.
I don’t think the town planning committee have really thought about the existing residents instead they are focusing on the ‘imaginary’ folk that will ‘flock’ to Stretford once this is all complete. We already have stretched infrastructure in the town it’s very hard to get GP or Dentist appointments and what about schools??
By Anonymous
It all looks good ,but will the younger people from Stretford afford to still live here with house prices rising and wages going down for most people
By Errol Bowen
It’s ridiculous, they are going to build 3 block of flats around the mall and make the main access road 2 lanes smaller. That’s right cram 800 new homes into a community where the crime rate has risen a hell of a lot in the past year including a shooting. Try putting the funding back into the existing community rather than trying to pack more people into it. Who are you actually helping here?
By Mark
As it’s been mentioned above, I’m all for the regen works especially the introduction of more public realm and opening up Kings Street/Kingsway. But failing to mention the recent switch to tall apartment blocks on Chester Road and limiting of the public park from the original plans.
By Anonymous
It is completely naive of the planners to build 800 new homes on the 80% demolished shopping centre footprint and yet have no provision for the new householders to park their vehicles outside their homes or even have streets to give access for service/emergency vehicles etc. The ‘no car society’ has not arrived and never will. Developers in the comments above are not being open about how little retail space will be on offer. The pretty artists drawings on offer just show pavement cafes and very little else, they will not fulfill the needs of a much larger population on the doorstep never mind bring in shoppers from elsewhere within the borough never mind from surrounding towns as the precinct used to. Shops will probably just be of the local convenience type and no bargains on offer like in the bigger stores. Prior to construction of the precinct shops spread along both sides of King Street along both sides of Chester Rd and up Edge Lane. I am fully aware that shopping has changed but the tiny amount of retail in this new proposal is inadequate for the daily needs of the surrounding increasing population that this development will bring.
By Name Bill Sumner
I find it all rather condescending. Some of the parents at my daughters’ school act like they are some kind of local saviours. Build housing people from the area can afford to buy or rent not catering to southerners. Taking Government funding with which some will be spent on 800 private homes? How is that fair?
By Anonymous
I welcome the change compared to Sale, Urmston and Altrincham Stretford Mall has become a bit of a letdown with shops closing banks closing and now mainly surrounded by discount shops and charity shops.
So I hope the future is bright
By Anonymous