Welcome Welcome to the first edition of Totally Stockport, your town centre magazine, keeping you up to date with what’s happening in Stockport.
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A new Foodie event for Stockport
Totally Stockport is also the name of Stockport town centre’s Business Improvement District – a BID area - providing the means for Stockport to become a great town offering something for everyone and bringing more people into the town centre, more often for longer.
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Over the next five years, the BID delivery team will focus on putting on more events, tackling empty shops, improving security and making Stockport a more attractive town to locate a business. Read more about Stockport’s BID on page 12.
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Events
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Photos from the Folk Festival
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Interview James Blunt
BID
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Your Business Improvement District
Map
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The Town Navigator
People
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Local artist Eamonn Murphy
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Eating
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Where The Light Get In
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Business How Stockport is growing
Stockport has many great landmarks, from the historic viaduct to the iconic pyramid. We take a look at the man who illustrates Stockport.
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Fashion We look at sandals around Stockport
Stockport’s dining scene is also polishing up to be something of a diamond. Meet Sam Buckley. In October, Sam opened Where The Light Gets In, and indeed introduced a wholly unique dining experience to his more discerning diners.
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What’s On A listing for the next three months
Get In Touch If you have a story, news or an event in Stockport Town Centre why not drop us a line?
In every issue our Fashion pages will feature clothes, shoes or accessories that are all available from shops within the heart of Stockport. This issue we (hopefully) welcome the arrival of Summer by focussing on sandals. Enjoy a taste of Totally Stockport and look out for our next issue in August.
Exhibitions Strawberry Studios remembered
If you haven’t caught the train into Stockport for a while, try it. You will hit the ‘wow spot’ and I promise you won’t be disappointed. Step out at Stockport Exchange, Stockport’s latest area of development; more in line with Manchester’s Spinningfields than Stockport’s spinning jenny! Music is as much a part of Stockport’s DNA as hats! In this first issue we reflect on the great part Stockport has played on the music scene and celebrate 50 years of Strawberry Studios. And as James Blunt has just released his 5th album The Afterlove, he talks about his love of hats and skiing.
News
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www.totallystockport.co.uk paul.taylor@totallystockport.co.uk Tel: 0161 244 9896
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@totallysk
Totally-Stockport
The Chilli
Fiesta
T
he first day of Stockport’s Folk Festival coincided with the town’s first ever Chilli Fiesta, which attracted producers of a wide range of fiery fayre to come together in the Market Place to market their produce to an enthusiastic crowd of spice fans. Careful sampling of the products was the order of the day but these tastings clearly turned into sales as the organiser of the Chilli Fiesta - who himself had travelled up from London to introduce us to his amazing sauces - tweeted that he will definitely be bringing everyone back for a repeat in 2018.
JamB
“I try and get a hat from wherever I go”
Interview You’re in the UK now but you live in Ibiza, is that right? Yes, but I don’t get much work done there so for the last couple of years I’ve been writing and recording in London and Los Angeles to make this album. I like the fact that there were two versions of your last single, ‘Love Me Better’. There’s a slow version and someones done a remix haven’t they? Yeah, there’s a remix out there but I think that’s only supposed to be heard in dodgy nightclubs in Essex. The main version I did with Ryan Tedder, the lead singer of One Republic. We wrote it together in his hotel room in London and we had someone banging on the door to tell us to shut up. But the result was a song that we love, it’s a different sound for me. What’s the background to that song? I suppose the song is a bit about the grief I might get online - it starts off with the line “people say the meanest things” and ends up with me saying that it doesn’t really matter because I have someone at home who loves me better. And there’s a reference in there to your big song, “You’re Beautiful” Yeah, I sing “Saw you standing outside a bar. Would have said you’re beautiful but I’ve used that line before.” It’s a song that, fortunately, will be with me forever and without it you and I would probably not be talking now. It’s the cornerstone of my career but a burden at the same time. So this song has a bit of irony in it and hopefully a bit of humour which probably reflects who I am more than some of my more, erm, earnest songs.
mes Blunt
The album is called The Afterlove and you acknowledge that it does look a bit similar to a Bruce Springsteen cover... Yes, I can’t believe he copied my album cover. I love the fact you’ve embraced that... Yeah, we were going for a different design. I was trying to use my legs as the “A” of Afterlove and it didn’t quite work out so we knocked this together and then someone
...Talks Stockport
James Blunt has just released his fifth album The Afterlove, 14 years after his debut release, Back to Bedlam. Here he talks to Paul Willett of ImagineFm about his love of hats and skiing.
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sent me an image of Brice Springsteen’s Greatest Hits cover and yes, hah! There are similarities... You’ve got a tour coming up and I’m looking at the dates and okay, you’re not playing Stockport this time but... you’re not playing Manchester either?! Am I not actually playing Stockport itself? No That’s ridiculous! I can’t believe that. You’re playing Leeds. Well that’s only a short journey away isn’t it? Have you never been to Stockport? If I’m honest, I don’t think I ever have. If I were a better liar I would be immediately saying yes. On the train from London to Manchester you will have gone through Stockport. And we’re famous for hats. I collect hats! Really? I genuinely do. On every tour I try and get a hat from wherever I go. Hats kind of define the culture. But what hats come from Stockport? We’re famous for making them. We have a hat museum. Wow! I’m coming. You’ve sold it. I hear that you’re a keen skier.. Yes. In fact for this album I took Ed Sheeran skiing with me and by day I taught him how to ski and by night he taught me how to write songs - which is why there are a couple of songs involving Ed Sheeran on this album. Would you ever go on the TV show ‘The Jump’? I’d be tempted but it seems to be an accident waiting to happen. It sounds like it would be a blast when you were there though... Well yeah, they’re all on a skiing holiday. Did you learn to ski in the army? I did, the army sent me to Switzerland for four winters and no-one invaded Switzerland during that time, so the Swiss slept well under the blanket of my security. Since then I’ve bought a place out there and they’ve actually named a chair lift after me. I had to launch it by smashing a bottle of champagne on it. And at the top of my own chair lift I’ve opened a restaurant with Lawrence Dallaglio, the ex-rugby player and Carl Fogarty the motorcycle World Champion. You are one of the funniest people on Twitter and I love the way you respond to the criticism you get, lots of people only respond to the good tweets... Well I can’t find any good ones. You must get loads of good tweets. Well yes, my mum tweets to me a lot under a pseudonym, but I know it’s her but there are a lot of bad ones to work on and I’m just laughing at it. Twitter is a place where lots of people voice opinions that they should probably keep to themselves and if you put music out, like I do, you should expect some grief. It’s really easy to focus on the negative tweets and I laugh at myself for doing that when I should really be focussing on the fact that I’m going on tour and tens of thousands of people will be turning up. And obviously I don’t write my own tweets, Justin Bieber writes them for me. And I’m much better at them after a drink.
BID
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The Man Who
illustrates Stockport T
here is a good chance that you will have seen Eamonn Murphy’s work. You might not have been at his exhibition at the War Memorial Art Gallery last November when his Stopfordia series of illustrations were formally launched to the public but it has been well featured across social media and the town itself in the months since. Surprisingly, the man who has immortalised swathes of Stockport in his clean, striking style has only lived here for three years, having moved between Chester, ‘down South’ and Sale before landing in Heaton Norris. I met Eamonn in the bar at the new Holiday Inn Express. We sat below one of his works - a print of the Blossoms (pub) - while other examples of his Stockport portfolio are scattered throughout the public spaces. “I really got involved in doing these towards the beginning of last year, when I was doing the Heaton Arts Trail. I’d done some architectural work before but I thought for that I’d focus on Stockport because I felt it needed it. I think there’s such a rich diversity of architecture in Stockport and we need to bring it to people’s attention. They should value it! A lot of people were surprised that I had the audacity to suggest we had iconic buildings in Stockport but there’s so much.” But Eamonn hasn’t restricted himself to the Old Town, the viaduct and The Plaza, one of this writer’s favourite pieces is of Stopford House, even if the image is so close to abstraction that you’d be hard
people
pressed to recognise it and Eamonn accepts that this sort of building isn’t celebrated by everyone, “People have some kind of aversion to concrete and I understand that it doesn’t weather as well as brick or sandstone but I like the scale and the presence of so many concrete buildings. The problem is that there’s so many bad ones.” Perhaps it is the case that when concrete was a new building material, people were very ambitious with it, they had big ideas... “Yes, look at Merseyway! It lead the way in that style of shopping centre.” Eamonn isn’t entirely clear on which landmark was his first image of Stockport, but it was one of the big-hitters, “Probably the Plaza, the library, the Town Hall, one of those. I set out to do a series from the start. Then for the exhibition I needed a lot more so I created 16 in total.” As you might expect, the images are computer generated,. “Yes, I work in Adobe Illustrator to create a series of lines, shaped, gradients, colours of an image. I do paint but I tend to concentrate more on the digital medium.” Looking at Eamonn’s collection online, I notice that he has now moved on to doing pretty much every individual building around the market area. I suggest that this must be massively time-consuming. “It is, yes. It depends on the level of details and I like to pare things down as much as possible, to simplify things but there are certain details that are the defining aspects of a building. So for that
Market Place series, I did put quite a lot into each one, yes.” It might seem that Eamonn’s continuation with his Stockport work is moving him into areas with little commercial potential from an artist’s point of view, but he’s both aware of, and comfortable with, that fact. “Absolutely. But that’s the game. I’m creating a body of work that has longevity. It’s not ‘what am I going to sell this week?’ Eamonn is currently working on a series based around the Heatons, having been asked to create a dozen railway-style posters for the rebuilt Heaton Chapel Station. But this is not to suggest that despite having produced “between 40 and 50” Stockport images he considers he’s finished with the town, there’s plenty more to come. “When I did the exhibition I asked people to nominate buildings that meant something to them and asked them to explain why. I had a lot of really good responses so I have a load of buildings there I still want to do, I want to share those stories.” So which is Eamonn’s favourite Stockport image? “I think it would be the old Post Office building. I love that building and I like the artwork I did of it, the simplicity of it. Again, I pared it right down but the essence of the building is there.” A selection of Eamonn Murphy’s work can be bought at Staircase House and Stockport Museum. But the entire collection is available online at www.stopfordia.com”
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What a difference a year makes! Welcome to the changing face of Stockport where a BID, a converted coffee warehouse and a couple of new hotels are part of the reason we are grinning like a Cheshire cat!
Stockport A
A Town of Investment and
cross the UK there is unprecedented uncertainty: we have a general election coming up and no one can yet be certain where Brexit may take us. But one thing we can be certain of is that over the past 12 months we have seen the beginnings of great changes taking place in Stockport, creating a Stockport fit for future prosperity. There are words that I am reading over and over again in relation to Stockport – investment, growth, stability, regeneration, development – painting a complex but positive picture of how Stockport is being transformed for visitors, residents and businesses. Greater Manchester will have a directly appointed Mayor to lead the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). The first such appointment outside of the capital, and part of the agreed devolution plans relinquishing total central control, Manchester and Greater Manchester now has greater power.
On April 3rd, the former chief executive of Stockport Council, Eamonn Boylan, was appointed as the first chief executive of the new Greater Manchester Combined Authority. Eamonn will lead Greater Manchester through devolution into a new era of growth for residents and businesses. Prior to his latest appointment Mr Boylan stated that “Stockport is one of the best located places in the north west”. He also added: “There is a lot of excitement around the developments in the town centre;
if the town centre is good enough then people will come here.” And that is exactly what is happening in Stockport right now.
Stockport’s first ‘wow’ spot Anyone choosing to take the train to Stockport will have already arrived on the ‘wow’ spot at Stockport’s new town gateway – the transformation is amazing. Stockport Exchange is quickly becoming known as Stockport’s very own Spinningfields, an open public area bordered by a fantastic Grade A 45,000 sq.ft. office development and introducing Stockport’s first international hotel chain, Holiday Inn Express. For business, the new Holiday Inn Express is a great place for a meeting or to set up a temporary office. Great Wi-Fi connection, high desks, lounge areas, great views and coffee on tap. So much is happening to make Stockport a great town for everyone, there’s never been a better time to get involved and support your local shops and businesses. A great place for business Stockport is already recognised by over 12,500 or so companies as a great place for business and the location of choice for an unprecedented number of 2nd, 3rd, 4th and even 6th generation families. From Global organisations and worldwide brands to established SMEs and budding entrepreneurs, Stockport is a town of opportunity. It is surrounded by
an eclectic offering of business parks, some tipping their hat to the town’s heritage, while park and lakeside settings nod towards the neighbouring Peak District.
Stockport has, in the past, been regarded as the poor relation to Manchester whereas in reality the businesses and residents of the borough benefit from being in close proximity to the city. Stockport is changing and, while Stockport Council are driving many of the changes, it is only in developing collaborative partnerships that a sustainable programme of continuous improvement can be achieved. Over the next five to seven years around £900m will be ploughed into projects across Stockport, bringing 5,000 jobs and over 1,000 new homes. The redevelopment and investment is already being backed up by more businesses moving to Stockport. Orbit Developments, Stockport’s largest commercial landlord, is seeing space taken at a record rate across Stockport. So Stockport is changing. Improving access, its business offering, its leisure facility and its night-time economy. With easy access to the motorway network and the UK’s 3rd largest airport on the doorstep, connectivity has ever been better – a great place to live, work and enjoy.
Business
“Over the next five to seven years around £900m will be ploughed into projects across Stockport, bringing 5,000 jobs and over 1,000 new homes.”
Opportunity
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