Stockport office to be replaced with 278-home ‘modern mansion block’

Smashing. Get the materials right and dont skimp on the details and this will be great. I wish there were more proposals like this.

This is actually a really attractive scheme, more of this please

More of thisssss! Amazing.

Why can’t Manchester do this?

Fantastic!

Ollier Smurthwaite Architects are without doubt one of the best architects in Manchester, constantly designing fantastic looking buildings.

I’d love Ollier Smurthwaite Architects to design a tower for MCR. Come on Renaker, Salboy, Gary Neville, etc, make that phone call.

Boring design. Looks like a 1990s social sheltered housing scheme.

Thank god not another coloured lego block generic building like the ones in the town center

The Mansion Block typology is underrated and underutilised (up here at least), but a walk around some of the posher parts of central London show that it’s a great way of adding real density at a human-scale and with characterful design that can sometimes be absent from towers. Great stuff from OSA here

Unbelievable design and another great one by Ollier Smurthwaite. Very attractive and a breath of fresh air.

Manchester needs so many more mansion block apartments, with decent balconies or juliet balconies, and communal garden space.

Looks great and wish more development were made to look this way instead of ugly concrete blocks like some are in Stockport.

Nice to see not just a bloody glass box

Can’t say I’m sorry to see the back of this building. It was always at odds with local architectural design anyway.

What about parking for all the residents it’s already a joke trying to park anywhere in this area, any new build should have to have enough parking for it’s residents. Stockport council need to sort the parking situation out it’s a disgrace. Keep building with no thought for parking also we need more schools, hospitals and doctors surgeries, no more building till these much needed facilities are provided.!!!!!!

What about the 300+ parking slaces that will be needed

All very well building more and more apartments but is the infrastructure in place for the bigger popopopulation that’s coming to Stockport?

This would create more traffic on an already over congested road like the A6.

I am sorry but this is really poor from OSA, they are capable of much better. All the research and they produce a building that looks like a Dickensian mental health unit.

When will they be available? xx

You need to stop building Apartments and build some social Houses and Bungalows.

Good looking scheme that, as others have said, don’t go cheap and this will look amazing

Stunning design, more people in town centres is the way forward, reducing car usage and bringing business back.

Can we enshrine into law Ollier Smurthwaite Architects leading on design nationwide?

Wow so happy to see this beautiful scheme in Stockport good luck to Cheshire homes

It looks like a good scheme, but claiming the legacy of Richard Norman Shaw is a bit of a stretch!
If memory serves, Albert Hall Mansions has flats with windows on more than one elevation and therefore cross-ventilation; I doubt any or even many of these will.

Having lived in and around Stockport and passed St Christopher house many times driving on the A6 ,it never looked fully occupied, and looked an eyesore to be honest, I would prefer the architect drawings of the site ,and it would increase the aesthetics of the area, the only concern is the road traffic noise residents will have to contend with ,including emergency services flying up the A6 ,as well as the traffic congestion, where will the entrance to the site be, and after construction?

I think this is a great idea but the development should utilise this iconic building which is part of Stockports heritage most of which are rapidly disappearing. Convert to apartments.

So if I’ve got things right. Build in urban areas on brownfield sites but build bungalows and houses but don’t build them near busy roads but make sure there’s loads of parking but don’t build homes in the Green Belt. Seems straightforward.

Excellent as you would expect from OSA – and will great detailing. Good execution is key.
The development also helps restore the street line here.

More apartments and homes in the air. Stockport needs family homes, with gardens for children.

Hope they are going to supply plenty of parking 😕

Trying to fit more residents into a space too close to a multitude of flats in town centre

What about the 17 story building on the site of the Ge9designed by said Architect that’s gone very quiet as well as flat iron building so can’t see this happening..I get Stockport wants to be low rise boring town..Trying to be Wilmslow..wrong place that’s Cheshire.This would suit Cheadle hulme not the deprived central SK…

Sounds like a brilliant scheme. I remember St Christopher’s House being built. Looking forward to seeing progress.

How will it affect nearby houses,will cause chaos on the A6,which is bad enough now

I do agree that Manchester city centre needs more of this and less of SimpsonHaugh.
Very nice scheme.

We need more of this everywhere in Manchester and suburbs.

More gridlock on an already busy A6.Where is the parking for these flats as well as usual GP / schools?
Is there a public consultation on this ?

What are prices as doubt they will be “affordable housing “

@ July 11, 2026 at 8:16 pm
By Anonymous

Stockport is culturally Cheshire. This scheme is precisely the kind that should be in the town scheme – gentle density mid rise. Certainly not ‘boring low rise’.

It’s a huge office block now. Why do people think this is going to make the roads worse? Likely fewer vehicle movements than in its authorised use. And why does anyone want to save the current building? It’s a nothing building of no real merit at all. I genuinely think some people will grasp at any straw to oppose new residential development. Maybe converting offices to flats is easier. I challenge those people who want that, to give up their current home (probably a house) and go and live in a converted office building like that.

Suppose the prices will be out of the reach of the normal Joe, affordable housing would be great

And are the architects also designing fantastic new road structures to manage the multi multi more vehicles that this pretty stupid scheme is going to generate,,,or are they like every other architect that have been given the blessing of Stockport Council, going to do absolutely NOTHING, except add to the already congested old roads of Stockport

@ July 13, 2026 at 4:28 pm
By Anonymous

Or they can use the train? Can people obsessed with roads please think of aesthetics first a change?

No regard for Screwfix customers during the construction phase!

Amazing design. We should just get Ollier Smurthwaite to design the rest of Greater Manchester. Hands above all the others out there.

come on now….it’s not that good. Its a not very thorough, pseudo, Victorian, pastiche; it could have been done using AI….
For those who would like to see an Ollier Smurthwaite taller building, take a look at the monstrosities on Chester Road, between the Mancunian Way and Cornbrook, that the did for Gary Jackson…..a blight on the streetscape.

People seem to be going berserk about traditional looking design with fanboy / fangirl comments for a particular architect. Why?

It’s just a pretend old building. Not one of their best.

@ July 24, 2026 at 7:14 pm
By Anonymous

As someone who is a broad church when it comes to architecture (Stephenson Hamilton Ridley’s buildings for Cheethams and Halle are imo superb), I think OSAs recent roll of buildings are some of the best being developed anywhere today. And if it’s trad inspired, well so what? It’s literate with good detailing.

Trad design has undergone a renaissance – and has dramatically improved in quality with young architects leading the charge.

What about the disruption it will cause,including rodents because of demolition, parking would be a problem, whilst it was an office block, there wasn’t enough parking,so would be more disruption for nearby residents.