Merseyway revamp designs revealed

Stockport Council is inviting public views on the first phase of a proposed overhaul of the Merseyway shopping centre, designed to create improved access and facilities.

Focussing on Adlington Walk, which is a covered area off the main shopping mall linking to Chestergate, the plans are to create community and welfare facilities in the town centre.

These will include a lobby-style entrance, a new stair and lift core, overhauling existing retail units, public realm improvements, and new toilets.

There will also be a soft play area, new seating, buggy stores, parent-and-child facilities, and a multi-faith prayer room.

Designed by architect AEW, the plans are the first part of a wider proposal which will see the Merseyway modernised and overhauled to improve access, including linking to the town’s new transport interchange, due to complete in 2022.

Merseyway May 2019 3

Although there have been a number of high-profile store closures since the council bought the centre out of administration in April 2017, including BHS, Marks & Spencer, New Look, and Next, Stockport has set out a plan to revitalise the centre with a series of interventions.

These include the redevelopment of the former Next block which forms a prominent part of the shopping centre, which will be split into four units, while last month, the council agreed to progress with its purchase of the former BHS store.

Consultation events will be held on the plans at Arden Walk in the Merseyway between 10am and 4pm on Wednesday 22 May and Friday 24 May, where members of the public can give their views to representatives from the council, the architect, and asset manager CBRE.

The Merseyway has secured a number of tenants in recent months, including X-Gen VR. The 2,300 sq ft virtual reality gaming centre, set to open in June, includes a VR arcade along with private rooms, where visitors can pay an entry fee for 15, 30, and 60-minute sessions.

The VR gaming centre follows the opening of Tessuti in a 5,000 sq ft unit before Christmas. Other tenants, including Thorntons, EE, WH Smith, and TUi have also committed to lease renewals in recent months.

Merseyway May 2019 2

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Looks fantastic, hopefully this will come to fruition. This tired eyesore of a shopping centre badly needs revitalising and modernising to suit today’s shoppers who look for an experience nowadays instead of coming to town purely to shop.

By Mark

The CGIs don’t look promising- it looks 1970s and dated and inward looking a missed opportunity to address the streets around.

By Metro Mark

Stockport centre is an eyesore and a miserable place to spend time. Why can’t we open up the Mersey river again. Costly perhaps but what an appealing thought.

By Golda

Very uninspiring and an opportunity lost unfortunately. Hopefully there will be significantly revised proposals following the consultation event.

By Dover

Goodness me…this is so low in aspiration; its depressing, actually its beyond depressing as this might get built.
Someone obviously this is the future of retailing when it looks like it was designed in Russia 40 years ago.
Golda has a point about opening it up.

By anonymous

They need to be much more ambitious, starting with the appointment of a top class architectural practice to masterplan the whole area. A practice like Feilden Clegg Bradley or Glenn Howells rather than AEW!

Piecemeal interventions will have little or no impact and releasing a couple of poor quality sketchup images hardly sets the right tone

By Dave

I thought progress was about moving forward? This just looks like a retrograde step back to the 60s and 70s when concrete was in fashion. I grew up there and remember the vibrant attractive centre it was. C’mon Stockport be innovative instead of this boring awful proposal!

By Fake News

save money bring down the rents and keep as it is SIMPLE

By J Moon

Don’t let Stockport Council anywhere near new architectural designs just look at the awful Red Rock.

By Anonymous

If you have an unsightly wart on your face you don’t dress it up, you cut it out. Why can’t we make Stockport a destination place with some imagination and ambition.

By Zoro

After years of not much happening at all its good to see lots of investment going in to the town centre, but the Council and its partners need to seriously think about design. This doesn’t look.

By NT

There are other local Architectural practices…we don’t always need to appoint practices who come to Manchester when the going is good and walk away as soon as things slow down; neither do we need to turn to the usual suspects who Hoover up work, then don’t give the project the time or respect it deserves…we all know who they are.

By anonymous

What about shops in Merseyway,there are a lot of empty shops

By mavis mcdermott

Did it not occur to anyone that those of us who live in Stockport but work outside the town (and have a genuine interest in its future) cannot attend between 10:00am and 4:00pm? Most consultation events tend to go on until 7pm. Mersey Way after dark isn’t that bad.

By Dave McCall

Stockport town centre was the hub.of activerty for all ages.now we have empty shops.ni comunity cafe.s for the senior citizens.good stores have all gone.now we have two get two buses to go to places like M&S & ROMAN DRESS SHOP.&many o more.you into stockport now & its busy with people .half the shops .are empty of people.shop assistance are stood around with lack of customers.&this new red rock.have you seen the prices they are asking.you can keep the new adventure.but think of the people who prefer the the stockport centre before BHS &M&S went.&all the other shops.it had a buss about the place.busy busy all the time.think again stockport council.& bring these main stores back again. NOT HAPPY.

By mrs s walker

This looks vey uninspiring, it’s just tweaking and dated. We’ve one Carbuncle Cup already; could SMBC be after a collection, I ponder?
Adlington Walk is the only decent part of this now shabby Merseyway complex. Stockport already has too many shops, many many have been empty for years. Less shops needed. More of the river should be opened up.

By PHIL ROW

Please don’t put anymore of these architectural disasters on Stockports’ shoulders. This town has been smashed and bashed around and totally stripped of it’s identity so please for once can the town have architectural design that belongs in a town that owns a 200 year old market place and stop trying to make a silk purse out of the sows ear that’s already been created.

By Miss Munroe

You shoukd never have covered up the river. It could have been cleaned and become a beautiful feature if Stockport just like other towns with rivers. Just looks an eyesore now and we don’t need another ugly redroack building.

By Beryl smith

I 100% agree with the council’s vision for mersey way. Modernisation is the way forward, make the town more than just a shopping experience. While I disagree with the naming of the square by red rock, i think that red rock in itself is a fantastic development

By Andy Hopper

More wasted taxpayers money just look at the Redrock ugly cheap looking plastic building looks like it’s falling down. No decent shops nothing in Stockport worth going for there now.

By Carole Jones

1971 called. It want its design back please.

By D

Wow ! Love the new plans – is the clock tower being removed ? When with the changes begin ? Leaving the 1970’s – moving into the new style of high street / shopping / living

By Angela coppock

This is putting lipstick on a pig. When is this town going to build a 21st century signature building? One that stands above all as instantly identifiable as STOCKPORT.
The last signature building in Stockport was built late last century and even that, was part of a failed project. Where are the people with vision? Stockport, home of the square box movement of construction..Depressing.

By Dave Moran

The design looks dreadful and will soon date. Ideally the whole precinct needs to be demolished and rebuilt with attractive buildings, surely there are some designers around who can manage that? There would have to be vast changes to tempt me back into Stockport to shop, there is nothing whatsoever there to interest me now.

By Pat Taylor

This is the opportunity to open up the river,and have walkways alongside,and bridges at frequent intervals..to access both sides of the shopping area…the river is world famous, and it starts here, so come on,make it a feature, now it is a lot cleaner..the reason it was covered over,in the 30s, was because,it was literally used to dump industrial waste in to from the many factories, now it is cleaner,lets see it..

By Anonymous

Things started going downhill for the Merseyway Precinct with the 1990’s redevelopment imo.

By Simon Ireland

The redevelopment of Merseyway several years ago was never completed and has been a mess ever since. The only parts that were completed are Adlington Walk and the entrance from Mersey Square at Argos. Probably ran out of money.

By Anonymous

Well i dont no what yur planners are thinking.4shops have signed up for a new lease.tessuti .there never see anybody in the shop.so i can.t see staying long.&vr gaming places.dont seen 2 be doing much either.there.s more empty shops .the whole place is rubbish.all the good shops have gone.and the people of stockport have 2 travel 2 the trafford centre or handford dean.for decent shops.so if your going to re -vamp the precinct .hurry up and get on with it.and lets get some decent shops back again.

By Anonymous

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