Stevenson Square – A Pedestrian Question

STEVENSON Square, is the peach ripe for plucking in the Northern Quarter. It could be a focus for the whole district. Or it could be nothing. 

Presently, the dour square houses a range of art shops, bars, and cafes, plus spectacular former warehouses but it could be so much more.

The place is rich with history. It was purchased in the eighteenth century as a rival to compete with the ‘serenity’ of St Ann’s Square. It was built up first as a residential area, but really began to boom as it took on a commercial aspect with textile warehouses and wholesalers moving in.

For a while Stevenson Square became popular with open-air speakers. Processions would swing away on routes around the city such as the one held on 1 May, 1892 - see panel below. Anti-fascist speakers raged against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini in the first half of the twentieth century.

The idea to pedestrianise the square has been mooted frequently but is it really the key to redeveloping the area?

Then came the sepia tinged seventies and the opening of the Arndale Centre in ’75, a decline of the area’s shops, and also the onset of Britain's rapid de-industrialisation.

Today the processions come in the form of a steady stream of empty buses while local businesses claim the area has been forgotten and neglected. The square still has a lot of unused commercial floor space, although slowly the Northern Quarter's centre of gravity is shifting back towards this old position.

Stevenson's Bus Graveyard

The square is home to the likes of Koffee Pot, Fred Aldous and Soup Kitchen with Slice Pizzeria, Chai Latte, Kraak Gallery and Eastern Bloc Records opening their doors in more recent times.

Mr Stevenson’s old square could potentially be a beautiful centre point to the area as it continues to expand up towards Piccadilly Basin. Indeed plans for redevelopment have been bandied around for years only to be stalled time and again.

The idea to pedestrianise the square has been mooted frequently but is it really the key to redeveloping the area?

Pedestrianisation can come in many forms – full pedestrianisation as with Market Street, part-time, where the area is closed to traffic during certain hours as with The Village, or Cross Street. The third option involves traffic calming, as on Thomas Street where the roads are narrow and reduced to one-way traffic and the number of parking spaces reduced.

Current development plans aren't always what local businesses want. Locals have been informed this January about impending work to widen the pavements and potentially plant a number of trees in the square – but that is as far as the plans go.

For Mike Smith of H. Blythe & Co. that’s not far enough.

"It’s disappointing that this is a step towards pedestrianising the square but we’re not going to get what we really want - which is full pedestrianisation," he told Confidential.

H. Blyth & Co Art Shop

“It’s a bit of a half-arsed effort which means what really needs to be done to reach the full potential of the area won’t be done. We’d like full pedestrianisation but still plenty of trees and more public art in the centre.

“The potential of the area is really interesting, there’s nowhere else like it in Manchester that has this open area with these wide streets.”

The potential of the area is in no doubt, as the Northern Quarter is seeing an increase in tourist footfall, albeit more for the bars than the waning retail. 

With the square’s trade traditionally leaning more towards retail, pedestrianisation could possibly make a difference. Come 5pm however when the shutters are rolled down on everywhere but Soup Kitchen, Hula and Noho, pedestrianisation could be a disaster. This is exactly what happens with Market Street. When the shops close it becomes a sterile canyon.

Stevenson's Wide Roads

Mark Aldous from the long-standing Fred Aldous art supplies shop believes transforming the square into a pedestrian friendly zone will help create a centre point for the Northern Quarter.

“There have been plans touted about and we’d love to see something happen, we’ve been pushing for it [pedestrianisation] to happen for quite a while,” said Mark.

“With everything happening on Thomas Street and then the over towards Lammars and Dale Street, it should be a centre point for the whole area.

 “I think something like Canal Street where it’s closed off in the evenings or weekends would be fine but all that’s really going to promote is the night time drinking aspects of the area. 

“I think the area will fall down long term if that’s all it’s known for, it’ll just become known as a party strip and people will drink and move on to the next place. What’s nice about the square is you’ve got a nice mix of premises at present.”

Fred AldousThe Aldous family has been supplying local artists from their Stevenson Square location for 46 years and are now considering creating a local business lobby group. Getting things together is a tough task though as the running of businesses comes first for any proprietor.

Whatever the long term benefits of improving the square it doesn’t pay the bills for anyone involved and no one so far has been prepared to front any sort of formal campaign.

Full pedestrianisation seems to be the consensus from local businesses. All the locals who spoke with Confidential were in favour of the idea. 

Eastern Bloc Records moved from Oldham Street to Stevenson Square in 2011. “It’s a much better atmosphere here than on Oldham Street it’s more artistic,” said John Berry, founder of Eastern Bloc.

“You’ve got the art shops and camera shops along with the café’s and graffiti artists decorating the old toilet block in the middle. There's a much better bohemian feel to the area.

“Personally I think pedestrianisation would be really good and it would add to the square to get the traffic out of it. Pedestrianising it up to Lever Street could work so there’s still access back and forth. You could have markets, and more artistic displays and a lot more going on.”

Subsequent to this article first going live Gavin Elliott of BDP sent Confidential this image (reproduced below and at the top of the page) of what a renewed Stevenson Square may look like. 

Stevenson Square mocked-up

A City Council Chief Executive report on the Northern Quarter from 25 June, 2008, suggested a similar scheme, with the main roads running north to south remaining open but the east to west Hilton Street closing. This would provide pedestrianisation in two discrete halves of Stevenson Square while avoiding the Market Street ghost town effect after shops close.

The council even partially costed the idea

View From Newton Street

The report read (click here); 'Stevenson Square itself, is also key to transforming the overall economic positioning of the area. Initial cost estimates for a scheme in the square (which would maintain Lever Street as a through route and allow a level  of traffic access into the two halves of the  square) of £1,625,000 (or around £350 per square metre).

'This assumes using a palette of natural materials and is based on the cost of schemes such as New York Street and Spring Gardens. The figure includes lighting, street furniture and trees, something for design and management fees, Traffic Regulation Orders (including associated legal costs) and approvals and inflation.

'The estimate does not include the cost of any statues/public art or of filling in the redundant public toilets.'

Whatever the future of the historic Stevenson Square, it's clear local businesses want to see more substantial action than a “half-arsed” concession providing trees.

The problem is that in a climate of major cuts to council budgets public money is hard to come by. Perhaps despite the day to day requirements the businesses need to organise and take a lead themselves. 

P.S. As this story was being circulated we received the following response from the City Council. A spokesperson, said: "We have recently consulted with local residents and businesses over the temporary relocation of the bus stop at the bottom Oldham Street to Stevenson Square while private development work takes place to the former Nobels Arcade building at the corner of Oldham Street and Piccadilly. For the future, we are also exploring the potential of a greening scheme for the area.  We will continue to work with local people as and when plans are established." 

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