Stoke-on-Trent (Hanley), Staffordshire

The drive from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Stoke-on-Trent was meant to be 11 minutes (3 miles), but it was more like 30 minutes.  What was really confusing driving to Stoke-on-Trent were the signs for the civic centre and the city centre.  Were we on the right road?  After several detours we found ourselves parking up under Go Outdoors after making a failed attempt at parking in another carpark.  There was a strange smell in the carpark and if we had stayed there much longer I’m sure we would have got high.

We were hungry and had a quick wander to see what food options were on offer.  In the end we went to Nom Restaurant, which was surprisingly busy for a wet Wednesday afternoon.  I had a burger which was lovely and Neil had a Pulled Pork Dog.  The food was nice and we shared a dessert.  Thankfully our waiter wasn’t as over eager as the person who seated us – what’s with this over-friendly American style service?  I’m just happy with polite service.

It was at the restaurant, Neil jokingly said to me that after the journey we’d had, we might be in the wrong place.  I had to admit to him his joke may in fact be the truth.  After all the driving round I still had no idea whereabouts we were in Stoke.  It was only after the trip, and I looked it up on Wikipedia, that I found out we in fact were in the right place after all. Apparently Hanley is considered the main shopping area for Stoke.

The weather had turned a bit drizzly when we left the restaurant and we went in search of charity shops.  There are quite a few in the Hanley part of Stoke.  Sadly Neil didn’t find anything, but I’m still kicking myself for not picking up a Silver Reed typewriter in a travel box for £5.  Damn! 

The main shopping area in Hanley is pedestrianised which is handy, although it’s worth checking out the side streets around the main shopping centre as you will find the more interesting shops.  I have to confess we didn’t actually go into the main indoor shopping centre – as soon as I saw it was one of those INTU run places, my brain checked out.  Living in Manchester and having the Trafford Centre nearby, which is also run by INTU, I get very bored with traipsing around mainstream high street chains.  So any chance I have to avoid them, I take it.  In this case it paid off. 

First of all, Webberley’s bookshop – it is fabulous.  Not only is it an independent book shop, but one wing of the shop is bizarrely dedicated to jigsaws and another has a big art supplies section.  I just love shops like this which cover several bases for no real apparent reason.  I could have spent ages in there.

I was a very happy bunny to find there was a branch of Abakhan in Hanley.  For the uninitiated it’s a fabric shop where you can pick up cheap materials for creative projects.  There are branches in the North West and weirdly Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.  I picked up a piece of ‘yellow cats and bow ties’ fabric that I had seen previously in John Lewis for more than double the price I paid for it in here.  Result!

Another place I have to mention is the Tontines Building – it’s a beautiful classic style Victorian building which used to be a meat market.  Now it is home to two rather disparate businesses – Waterstones on one side and Wetherspoon’s Reginald Mitchell Pub on the other.  Sadly it was the Wetherspoon’s side that was doing the brisker trade.  I do wonder if they ever get any crossover business?

I did notice in Hanley there were plenty of pubs and they were doing a fine job of occupying the local nutters who seemed to frequent them during the day time.  I’m sure you could have an interesting pub crawl in this town – definitely one for the brave.

Hanley is a bit of hodgepodge of buildings and architectural styles, from the lovely Edwardian former post office to nondescript 60s office blocks.  Not the prettiest place to go really and definitely not your standard day out material.  However it functions well as a town centre to serve the needs of the local community.  Although technically it’s a city centre, to me it doesn’t have that city centre wow factor.  Maybe it’s due to the fact Stoke-on-Trent is made up of six towns and received city status less than 100 years ago.  If it had been one town from the beginning it would have developed into a very different city.

Stoke-on-Trent, whilst it was very confusing getting there, was OK in the end.  I’m so glad we didn’t get sucked into the shopping centre, as we could have easily missed Webberley’s and Abakhan.  Part of me is still tempted to revisit just to see if that typewriter is there – maybe next time when I’m passing through.