Looking down on Little Underbank

From St Petersgate bridge.

A contribution to the Look down theme at City Daily Photos.

Rooftops of Stockport

The view from St Petersgate bridge over Royal Oak Yard and High Bank Side towards the car park on the top of the Merseyway Shopping Centre and Primark.

A contribution to Our World Tuesday.

Bibbity Bobbity Bootique

It looks as if I'm bit too late to catch the closing down sale at the Bibbity Bobbity Bootique on Little Underbank.

A contribution to signs, signs.

Eat Me Sweets

This is the Eat Me Sweet Shop on the corner of Great Underbank and Bridge Street. It used to be called Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe - see the wider view in our post of 15th June 2013. Until the 1970s it had been a branch of Boots the Chemist.

A contribution to Shop Window theme on City Daily Photos and Our World Tuesday.

El Al over Great Underbank

Walking down Chestergate towards Great Underbank last week I spotted this plane coming in and took a quick photograph as it came over.

I just managed to get a second shot. From the identification letters G-OBTH I was later able to establish that it was an El Al Airlines plane on a flight from Palma de Mallorca that landed at Manchester Airport just a couple of minutes later.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday.

B is for Bank

The Bank on Bridge Street viewed from Great Underbank.

The Grade II listed building was built in 1900.

According to the Barclays' Archive:

The Union Bank was established in 1836 with a capital of £6 million divided into 24,000 shares of £25 each. Although the original intention of the Union Bank was to confine itself to Manchester, after twenty years this policy was changed, and its first branch opened at Knutsford in 1856. The bank flourished with the growth of industry and acquired several smaller banks in Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire. It became an affiliated bank within the Barclays Group in 1919, when 99% of its capital was acquired under an arrangement whereby Union Bank shareholders were given shares in Barclays to replace their Union Bank shares. This was Barclays' last major acquisition before the Treasury put a block on major banking mergers in 1920. The Union Bank continued to be managed and marketed separately until 1940 when it was fully absorbed into Barclays.

In recent years the building has been home to the appropriately named Bank Fashion Store.

Bank Fashion which had previously been owned by JD Sports was put into administration in January 2015. It had 84 stores of which 20 have been closed. According to a sign on the window the next nearest still trading store is in Denton.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Shadows down High Bank

The steep footpath leading from St Peter's down the side of High Bank to the Underbank.

At the top is the bridge from St Petersgate going over Chestergate to the car parks on the roof of the Merseyway Shopping Centre.

A contribution to Shadow Shot Sunday.

Architectural style in Stockport

The Three Shires on Great Underbank was built around 1580 as a half-timbered town house for the Leghs of Adlington Hall. A shopfront was inserted in 1824.

At various times it has housed a confectioners, bakehouse, surgery, solicitors, restaurant and wine bar. Since 2011 it has been Huffy's Cafe Bar & Restaurant.

The modern building on the left houses Prickett's solicitors.

Visit other contributions to the Style theme at City Daily Photo.

High Bank Side Path

The footpath leading from Chestergate under the High Bankside retaining wall towards St Petersgate and St Mary's church.

View the original photograph from which this was created on Geograph.

A contribution to Good Fences and The Weekend in Black and White.

N is for NatWest Bank and National Cycle Network

This is Great Underbank. In the background is Underbank Hall, now the NatWest bank. In the foreground are two benches either side of a lamppost and a litter bin. Behind them in front of a wall and next to two Sheffield stands is a National Cycle Network Milepost.

Underbank Hall was the Elizabethan town house of the Arderne family of Bredbury. The original house must have been larger as an inventory of 1619 lists more rooms than survive today. The hall was sold for 3,000 guineas in September 1823 to the banking firm of Christy Lloyd & Co which became the Stockport and East Cheshire Bank in the following year. In 1829, the Stockport and Cheshire Bank became part of the Manchester and Liverpool District Banking Company. By 1880 this bank had 54 branches, in Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. The bank changed its name to the District Bank in 1924 and in 1962 was acquired by the National Provincial Bank. Then in 1970 this bank merged with the Westminster Bank to form the National Westminster Bank, which is now known simply as NatWest.

1000 Millennium cast iron mileposts were funded by the Royal Bank of Scotland to mark the creation of the National Cycle Network, and are found along the cycles routes through the UK.

This recently erected milepost is on the National Cycleway Network Route #62 and Trans Pennine Trail, 20 miles from Lymm and 10 from Broadbottom. This one is of the Cockerel design and apart from having a red top is so far unpainted.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Yorkshire Building Society

The earliest fore-runner of the Yorkshire Building Society started life in 1864 as the Huddersfield Equitable Permanent Benefit Building Society.

The West Yorkshire Building Society was established in 1866 at the Royal Hotel, Dewsbury and in 1885 the Bradford Self Help Permanent Building Society was established in St. George's Hall Coffee Tavern.

The Huddersfield and Bradford Building Societies merged in 1975 and then in 1982 merged with the West Yorkshire Building Society to form the Yorkshire Building Society.

It has subsequently merged with the Haywards Heath Building Society (1992), Barnsley Building Society (2008), the Chelsea Building Society (2010) and the Norwich & Peterborough Building Society (2011).

More detailed information can be found on the YBS website.

The Stockport branch occupies the corner of Great Underbank and Deanery Way and the gable end carries a ghost sign that is now difficult to decipher - see the post from 26th December 2013.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

39 Great Underbank

This redbrick building on Great Underbank used to be a branch of the Britannia Building Society.

The Britannia was taken over by the Co-op Bank last year - a move that some blame in part as the main reason for the bank's current lack of fortune.

Consequently this building is now for sale.

A contribution to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.

The Top of the White Lion

I showed you a photograph of the White Lion in December 2013.

It has been empty for some years but currently it is surrounded by scaffolding so maybe it is being refurbished ready for opening again, although it may be just essential remedial work to the fabric that is being carried out.

Rather than show all the scaffolding I thought I'd zoom in on the dome at the top.

A contribution to The Weekend in Black and White.

Stockport roofs

Looking over Stockport from High Bank/High Street. The dome in the centre foreground is that of the White Lion.

A contribution to Skywatch Friday and Scenic Weekends.

Photo of the Year 2013

I've chosen this photograph of St Petersgate Bridge over Little Underbank as my Photo of the Year.

It originally appeared in a post about the Queens Head. The overside of the bridge has been recently refurbished as can be seen in my post of 29th December.

But it depicts more than just the bridge. There's the old men on the bench opposite the women smoking and gossiping outside the pub. Just beyond them is a Victorian post box. Further on is a glimpse of Winter's clock.

See photographs from other members of the City Daily Photoblogging community at the January Gallery - Photo of the Year.

A contribution to Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

St Petersgate Bridge re-opened

Following my post St Petersgate Bridge Repairs Almost Finished I've been back to see it again. On Christmas Eve the roadway was temporarily blocked by the dustman's cart.

The railings have all been given a new coat of paint. In the background can be seen the dome of the White Lion. You can see under the bridge and the other side of the railings in my post about the Queens Head.

St Petersgate Bridge was constructed in 1866-8. The designer was R Rawlinson, and the engineer was Brierley of Blackburn. The cost was around £6,000. A contemporary description of the bridge notes 'six arches, the central one over the Underbank-street being of cast-iron, with perforated parapets and a sufficiency of ornament to prevent its being (as many bridges over public streets are) an eyesore and offensive to good taste'. The Stockport coat of arms on the bridge cartouche was adopted in 1836, and was said to be the arms of the Stopford or Stockport family, Barons of Stockport (later superseded by a coat of arms granted by the College of Arms in two stages in 1932 & 1959).

A contribution to Sunday Bridges at San Francisco Bay Daily Photo.

Ghost sign on Deanery Way/Union Road

Last week when I showed you the sign of the White Lion part of a ghost sign was spotted in the background.

I've been back to take another look at it. The sign is very faded and I'm not able to decipher it. Union Road became Deanery Way when the Merseyway Shopping Centre was built. The buildings to right of here, including the Grosvernor Inn were demolished but I've not been able to find any old photos showing this building on the corner of Great Underbank. It is now occupied mainly by the Yorkshire Building Society.

A contribution to signs, signs.

Signs at the White Lion

Since I posted yesterday about the White Lion I've discovered the photograph I took of the sign in November 2012.

I've only now noticed the remnants of a "ghost sign" on the building opposite. I'll have to get a closer look at that another time.

According to a leaflet about the "Stockport Town Centre Heritage Trail" it seems in 1815 the then landlord of the White Lion fired a cannon to inform the town's people of the British victory at the battle of Waterloo and at a "Wife Sale" in 1831, William Clayton sold his wife for five shillings to a J Booth. She was handed over with a halter round her neck.

A contribution to signs, signs.

W is for White Lion

There has been a pub on the site of the White Lion since the 14th century. The present building was erected in 1904. A hearty blend of late medieval and Baroque features in a typically exhuberant Edwardian fashion, it is Grade II listed.

Alas, it has been closed for more than a year.

See also the follow up post Signs at the White Lion.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday.

Q is for the Queen's Head

According to the Stockport Historic Environment Database 10-12 Little Underbank was built in the late C18 or early C19 on the south side of Little Underbank. The 1849 1:1056 Ordnance Survey map shows the building originally abutted a larger building on its east side, identified as the Queen's Head Public House. The latter was demolished when St Petersgate Bridge was built in 1866-8, and it appears that at this point the public house moved into No. 12 Little Underbank. The pub fixtures and fittings confirm this, being of a later C19 date. There has been some late C20 remodelling retaining many original features.

The interior of the Queen's Head has a long narrow plan with an altered later-C19 bar with an original spirits fountain. The L-shaped public bar has fixed seating with matchboard backs. A matchboard partition to the rear separates a small Snug with fixed seating to the left and a small men's lavatory to the right, and a stair with stone steps. At the back is a parlour with fixed upholstered seating and rectangular top light framed by heavy moulded plasterwork.

A contribution to ABC Wednesday and to signs, signs.