The Street Art of Stockport

Stockport is covered in street art, and once you see it you’ll start to notice it everywhere. There is even an official trail to follow which would make for a good place to start, but the art in this town is evolving.

You may have noticed some without it ever really registering, like the mural on a wall you pass every day on the way to the station, or the gable end of a building you drive past on a daily basis. Mosaics sitting just above your eyeline as you walk down an alley towards the Underbank, and a typographic explosion on a backstreet you didn’t even know was there.

Named “Town of Culture”

In 2023, Stockport was named Greater Manchester's “Town of Culture.” This accolade, awarded by Greater Manchester Combined Authority, brought funding and profile to arts and cultural projects across the borough for that year. A portion of the investment went into public art, specifically street art, as a way of transforming different areas of the town.

Several renowned street artists were commissioned to create artwork focused on storytelling and a connection to the history of the area, building up a ‘cultural corridor’ that now runs through different parts of Stockport, and the work on the Underbanks is perhaps the most central and visible result of that investment. The pieces there were funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Totally Stockport, and include a huge Jimi Hendrix mural (Hendrix played in the Underbanks in 1967) and a Garden Tiger Moth painted opposite Robinsons Brewery, chosen because of the relationship between moths and the barley used to brew beer. Every piece ties into its location with a story.

The GRIT Studios connection

Separate to the council-commissioned work, much of the driving force behind Stockport's street art scene appears to come from GRIT Studios, who are a community-driven, non-profit creative collective with premises on Canal Street.

They opened their first Stockport studio in 2021 in a building that had been derelict for ten years as part of a mission to create space for the town's artists and makers. From there, they started transforming Canal Street itself.

In 2023, GRIT and local street artist Jay Sharples launched Stockport Paint Jam, the town's first street art festival and over 20 new works were created in a day. It was a great success, and the following year brought 50 of the UK's top street artists to Stockport. The Canal Street area is now an outdoor gallery, featuring photorealistic portraits on gable ends, abstract pieces and nature murals that adorn gates and the buildings behind them.

Community pieces

Not all of Stockport's street art has come from professional artists working alone.

The “La Boca to La Stocka” mural on lower Hopes Carr is the largest hand-painted mural in the north of England and was created by five Argentine artists working alongside 12 local artists and over 100 Stockport residents of all ages, taking ten days to complete. The mural weaves together imagery from Stockport's industrial heritage including the viaduct and even Stockport County FC, alongside the colours and spirit of La Boca, the Buenos Aires neighbourhood that transformed itself through art and became one of Argentina's most celebrated cultural destinations.

Plastic Shed, a Stockport community benefit society that turns plastic waste into art, has taken a different approach again. Their standout mural near Merseyway is the UK's largest 100% recycled plastic bottle lid mural and was created with the help of over 40,000 people in Stockport. They now have a full trail of 10 murals across the borough, each one depicting a local pollinator.

Attracting big names…

Stencil art duo SNIK, whose large-scale works have appeared in Boston, Berlin, Rotterdam and London, unveiled their mural 'Solitude' on Virginia Mills in Higher Hillgate in 2025. It was Stockport's first large-scale public artwork by the artists and its official entry into the global map of cities hosting their work.

It's still growing

The most recent addition at the time of writing is under the Great Underbank bridge, outside Merseyway Shopping Centre. Artist Russ Meehan, also known as ‘Qubek’ is the Stockport-raised, Manchester-based street artist behind some of Greater Manchester's best-loved murals and has painted a day-to-night scene featuring some of Stockport's rare and native wildlife including a Willow tit, a Purple Hairstreak butterfly, a Pipistrelle bat, a Tawny Owl and a Lunar Hornet Moth.

If you've been walking under that bridge without looking up, go back!

Follow the trail

There have been official street art trail events held in the past, but I’d say the best way to experience it is just to walk around the the town with your eyes open and discover for yourself around Great Underbank, Merseyway, Canal Street, Hopes Carr and Higher Hillgate. Give yourself an hour or so and I promise you'll keep noticing things you hadn't seen before. There will be plenty more I haven’t listed here so please feel free to add in the comments below.

Photo credits: Maxine Riley