CJ Wellington Metropolitan Region

This is the aerial view of Stockport and its surrounding suburbs. As you can see, the layout, infrastructure, and building patterns all are very diverse in Stockport. The reason is simple - Stockport's history in relation to urban development is full of experiments.

The history of Stockport officially began in 1787 on the banks of Tasman River. The town of Stockport was never really developed until the early 1800s when the first docks and international seaport was built in 1809. From that point onwards, Stockport saw rapid development and growth - spreading southeast, southwest, and north. Stockport University (now known as the University of Stockport) was built in 1831, the Stobhill Palace was built in 1832, the Stockport Fort was built in 1839, the Royal Stock Exchange was built in 1840, and the Royal Commercial Market Building was opened in 1845. With all the impressive development, Stockport High Street railway station was finally opened in 1856. The new railway station also came with a new direct rail route to Wellington Central station. The city's second railway terminal was built in 1880 - the Queen Street railway station.

Originally a network of horse-drawn trams, the electric tram system was opened in 1885 extending all the way out to Amersham, Ramsgate Beach, and Bearsden. The tram extension from Stockport University to Springburn was built in 1904, and another extension from Dennistoun to Upfield was opened in 1909. The tram route from High Street railway station to Rozelle via Gladesville was built in 1912 but eventually was closed (in 1954) due to low patronage numbers. In the 1960s, instead of dismantling the tram system and replace the entire network with new diesel buses, Stockport City Council decided to modernise all tram vehicles, upgrade all tram stations, and changed the road layout so trams and cars would be separate all the times. This move was bold at the time where many cities around the world dismantled their tram systems, including Wellington in 1969, in favour of diesel buses and new freeways. Today, Stockport is one of the major hubs in the Greater Wellington Region, with the other two being Wellington CBD and Croydon.

While it sounds all positive and daisy, urban planning and development had a very dark history in Stockport. Due to rapid urban decay and population decline within the inner city parts of Stockport, particularly Anniesland, the City Council decided to demolish many of its historic terraced houses to make the way for a new elevated freeway. A wide, 14-lane elevated freeway tore through Stockport in 1971 to connect it with the Wellington Ring Road freeway system which was just opened in 1966.

As a result of the new elevated freeway in Stockport, the City Council wants to demolish *all* historic terraced houses and old buildings by 1980. To do this, in 1972, they started the "Anniesland Project" where all terraced houses within the inner-city suburb of Anniesland were demolished within a month. New social housings, about 10 to 20 storeys high, were quickly built throughout Anniesland. Whilst they were building new highrise buildings in Anniesland, a new elevated freeway from Stockport to Swansea via Anniesland was built in 1974.

All older terraced houses in surrounding suburbs such as Springburn, Amersham, and Camden, were demolished and replaced with a uniformly designed, single detached, two-level houses of the same design by mid-1970s. This did not just happen in Stockport, other suburbs such as Ramsgate Beach, Leith, Ongar, North Weald, Epping, and south Fyshwick all followed suit.

Due to a significant public backlash, the City Council did not proceed any further and decided to cancel the Anniesland Project in 1977. As a result, other inner city suburbs with historic terraced houses such as Tottenham, Canonbury, West End, Dennistoun, and Stobhill all largely survived.

Due to the privatisation of the public social housing system in 1985, many social housings were left to disrepair and taken over by homeless residents. It was a ghastly period of time for Stockport until most social housings were finally vacated and demolished at the end of the 1990s.

However, due to the lack of Council funds and conflict of land ownership, Anniesland is now largely empty and vacant with overgrown grasses. Stockport City Council aims to buy back all land and rebuild Anniesland again by as soon as 2030.