If you go down to the woods today* …….or Wednesday in Stockport

So, yes, I know Jimmy Kennedy’s line on going down to the woods is a lyric too far for Stockport Interchange, but there are trees, and bushes as well as a roof top garden all slowing maturing after a year.

And it is a popular place, and not just with people catching buses.

When I was there this week there were people using it as a meeting place, with some just sitting outside taking in the sun and more than a few just pausing between arriving and moving off into the town centre.

And there was even a couple with a picnic, or to be very accurate, a flask, some sandwiches and two cream cakes.  Still not sure if the hamper was meant to be eaten at the end of the destination or a sort of elevenses between breakfast and dinner.

Or perhaps it was destined for the roof garden with the an afternoon taking in views of the trains crossing the viaduct.

Now over the years I have stood in a heap of bus stations, some more desolate than others, and a few quite threatening, none compare with Stockport’s which has been designed with flair, imagination and style.

It replaces the old one which did the biz for 40 years and has that advantage that you can keep dry while waiting and is light and welcoming.

And according to my wikipedia so pleased was everyone with the Interchange that the public  were allowed access weeks before the official completion in the Sping of  2024, and mighty happy they were.

I leave others to add detailed comments on the walking and cycling links, the rooftop park, the 18 bus stands with the capacity to accommodate 164 bus departures per hour, cycle storage facilities and the travel shop which I used to talk to a very helpful member of staff who confirmed that the railway station was closed.

But that is another story.

Location; Stockport Interchange

Pictures; buses people and architecture, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*If you go down in the woods today,

You're sure of a big surprise.

If you go down in the woods today,

You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was

Will gather there for certain because

Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic. Teddy Bears' Picnic, melody written 1907, John Walter Bratton, , lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy, 1932

**Stockport Interchange, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockport_Interchange

In Stockport with a bit of history ……

 Well, less the history and more the successor to Stockport’s bus station which after 40 years of receiving and sending buses out across Greater Manchester shut up shop at 3.15 am on August 29th, 2021.

Information Centre, 2025

I would like to say I was there with a tear in my eye and an old unused bus ticket, but I wasn’t.

Busy morning, 2025

Nor was I there when its reincarnation welcomed travellers in March 2024.

My Wikipedia tells me that “Stockport Interchange is a transport hub in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. As well as a bus station, it includes walking and cycling links, a rooftop park, and a mixed use residential and commercial building.

The interchange includes an accessible, covered passenger concourse with seated waiting areas, 18 bus stands with the capacity to accommodate 164 bus departures per hour, cycle storage facilities and a travel shop.

The development also includes a 2-acre landscaped park on its roof, located above the bus station. Following a public vote, it was named Viaduct Park. 

A brace of buses, 2025

A waterside walking and cycling route with a spiral ramp provides access from the River Mersey and the Trans Pennine Trail to the park and onward to the town centre.”*

All of which shows I missed a lot by not being there and indeed not actually going till this morning.

And there’s the rub, because I quite forgot to explore the garden, and missed making the interchange with the railway station.

If I am honest the bus station was always an after thought which just fitted into the big adventure which had been to travel into Manchester Piccadilly Railway Station from the nearest destination.

I know there are other contenders of which Ardwick and Ashburys are closer, and in the case of Ashburys there would be a sentimental link back to the days over fifty years ago when we lived off Grey Mare Lane and used the station.

Waiting, 2025

But I reasoned going to Stockport would allow me to visit the Interchange, and then take the train into the city to check out how much the skyline had changed since the 1970s.

Alas it failed to happen.

Stockport Railway Station had been closed for three weeks and wouldn’t reopen till Saturday.

And if that wasn’t enough, I discovered you had to pay 20p to use the Interchanges’ lavatory.  Now in this age of contactless payment I had long ago stopped carrying cash and was only saved by the intervention of a kindly old man who offered me the money as he left the lavatory.

So full marks Stockport’s Interchange for a magnificent bus station with its garden and fine views of the river, but perhaps it needs to revisit its policy of spending a penny and if abandoning the charge is not going to happen at least find an alternative way of paying.

Location; Stockport

Pictures; of the Interchange, 2025, from the collection of Andrew Simpson