Stockport (Stockport)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	Stockport
Date:	29/12/08 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good transport links

Disadvantages: Can be dirty

Stockport is the place I grew up, and lived there for the first 18 years of my life.

It's mainly a suburb type area in south Manchester (Greater Manchester is technically the county, though the postcodes are all SK for Stockport - don't ask).

The city centre itself has a wide range of typical high street shops and is surrounded by pubs and places like McDonalds. Generally it is not particularly clean or attractive. There is also a town hall and a couple of theatres.

Close to the centre is a place called Grand Central which has a few restaurants, a swimming pool, cinema etc. There was also a very popular club called Heaven & Hell which had a reputation for letting people in under age and was very popular with chavs who didn't want to go into Manchester. This was closed a few years ago because of bankruptcy apparently, though the owner must have made a fortune as on the specially designated teen nights there were queues all down the streets.

Stockport also has a train station with a Pumpkin cafe and about 4-5 platforms, including the mysterious Platform 0 which tends to confuse people a lot. There are lots of northern trains that go via Stockport as most trains to Manchester and Liverpool stop there.

It also has a big bus station with buses that go to various parts of Manchester and the outer/inner areas.

Generally the city centre, whilst not exactly rough, tends to feature quite a lot of chavs and doesn't have anything that that you'd particularly go there for; it's more if you lived there and wanted to go shopping, out to the pub, catch a train or bus, etc.

Away from the city centre Stockport has a lot of small towns and villages which vary a lot in terms of style and living quality. For example my family lives in a leafy place with quite a few parks, though the schools are quite bad and the village itself has mainly estate agents and charity shops. Other places in Stockport can be more grey and concrete. The house prices vary a lot; in some areas you can get a house for just over £100,000; other places are substantially over £1 million.

Overall, it's not a place you'd go to visit and it depends where you live as to how good it is! It does have good access to both Manchester and country areas like the Peak District though, for those who like the best of both worlds (city and country).

Summary: Nothing special, but it's home