Daniel Love explores how the once popular nightlife destination of Stalybridge, on the outskirts of Manchester, met its demise following an excess of violence, drugs and small-town mentality. Coupled with the decimation of the town centre shops has created a ghost town; a familiar problem across the country.
The rejuvenation of Stalybridge in 2001 turned the fairly quaint town, nestled in between Manchester and the Pennines, into a hub of evening entertainment. Sustaining over 20 town centre clubs and bars in its heyday, for a population of roughly 22,000, the nickname of ‘Staly Vegas’ was coined. But it wasn’t meant to last.
The town’s primary claims to fame once included the longest and shortest named pubs in the world (‘The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn’ and ‘Q’), the world’s oldest brass band and the creation of It’s a long way to Tipperary. Nowadays, it’s arguably more renowned for the fact you’ll get your head kicked in on the way home from the nightclubs.
Over the years, the tag began to closer resemble its Nevada based counterpart’s nickname of ‘Sin City’ as serious incidents forced the clubs to close one by one.
On a single night alone, a man was stabbed in the neck and other had his head stamped on outside one of the bigger nightclubs – Rififi. Obviously it had to be closed down, closely followed by another popular club, Pavilion, which saw its licence revoked for violent incidents. In 2011, CCTV footage captured two thugs significantly assaulting a cowering man at a bus stop.
Moving forward to the present, the trend from Greater Manchester Police’s statistics show a steady increase in cases of violent and sexual crime throughout 2014, with roughly between 4 and 11 each month falling on ‘the strip’.
Whilst these numbers may not seem too drastic or high, I can assure you as an eyewitness that there are still always problems after revellers are ejected from the clubs. The nightclub Koko Lounge, which is still open, had an impromptu lock-in after several clubbers were bottled inside and then the mayhem spilled onto the street in front. There was blood everywhere.
I could go on at length with such tales – even a packed takeaway was once liberated by a man wielding an iron bar.
On the other hand, leader of the Stalybridge Street Pastors Abigail Marabicio feels they have moved out of the darkest period. The organisation works wonders to reduce the damage done by the scene, donating their weekends from 9:30pm to 3am to care for and calm down the population.
Ms Marabicio says: “In the beginning perhaps, I’d say Stalybridge was a much more turbulent place.”
“But I think that it’s really changed since four years ago.” Either way, the problem is not completely wiped out, which it should be in today’s civilised society.
The knock-on effect of one club closing is the trouble moving to another, culminating in the current situation of just a few premises opening until late. And even then, they are incredibly empty. Decent people in their right minds are obviously deterred from coming out, or from travelling afar as they once did, reducing the town’s ‘tourism’ so to speak.
A major cause of the turbulence is what we could refer to as ‘small town mentality’, with bravado dictating the will to become the biggest fish in a small pond. It happens everywhere, but the problem isn’t really one to easily stamp out. In addition, an abundance of individuals often seem to congregate around the town, often searching for these kinds of trouble.
Furthermore, whilst drugs may sometimes have a numbing ‘chemical love’ effect on a person’s will to fight, others when mixed with alcohol, particularly cocaine, enhance the need to cause trouble. Embarrassingly, Lounge Bar once had to remove the door to the male toilets due to the incessant collection of drug takers in there last year. So it definitely is a problem in the town.
The situation during the day is no better either, and whilst the causes for daytime and night-time are linked, this has its own reasons. A formerly bustling town centre precinct is now almost deserted, save for the odd daytime drinker, gambler or the collection of homeless. Independent businesses closed down at an alarming rate as not enough people were coming into the town centre to spend money.
New shops would open but then fall foul of the same fate, with hair salons and bookmakers managing to be the most successful, but a small town doesn’t need four bookies within a stone’s throw.
It’s easy to point to the recession for reducing spending, but out-competition from supermarket juggernauts was the real slayer of the shops. As is the case across the country, conveniently locating everything you could ever need in one place may seem like a logical solution but it forced long standing, unique businesses to close.
But when you think about it, having a whole host of small shops can potentially provide a much wider selection of goods; not to mention the community spirit and cohesion it generates.
Opening in 2001, Tesco was the supermarket that trumped the town centre in this case. Speaking on behalf of the town’s proprietors is Jenny Walker, who ran a well-loved toy store in Stalybridge for 33 years; until it was forced to close in 2007. After building a close relationship with the other shops over the years, she felt firsthand the decline of the town.
Explaining that as was the case with her trade: “Tesco did toys at £5, so [people] didn’t need to go anywhere else, they could just carry on whilst doing their groceries. They could buy a toy, buy the wrapping paper, buy a card and not bother coming into the town centre.”
She adds that it was the same with all trades: “They can get it all under one roof so they don’t bother walking into town.”
An Aldi chain followed in recent years, providing even cheaper produce to rival those shops that had scraped survival. Mrs Walker says: “You can walk round any time and the car park at Aldi and the car park at Tesco are absolutely full, but there’s nobody walking around Stalybridge itself.”
Another factor she highlights was the rejuvenation of the adjacent town, Ashton Under Lyne, the ‘capital’ of Tameside relatively speaking.
Although ‘Staly Vegas’ did take the nightclub scene off Ashton’s hands, the investment into larger shopping facilities sent the daytime traffic in the opposite direction.
Unless Stalybridge can shake its wanton evening reputation and encourage trade during the day time, the town will continue to lose its identity that many were once proud of. Re-rejuvenation is perhaps what’s needed, to support local businesses, establish a better clientele and revert the town to being a popular entertainment hub. With a well deserved Vegas nickname.