The Four Heatons are a suburb of Stockport and contain within Heaton Chapel, Heaton Norris, Heaton Mersey and Heaton Moor. The latter named also has an area attached called Moor Top which lies about half a mile away. Nearby lies Heaton Moor Golf Club which was opened to the public during Covid and was a regular walking route for us during that strange period.
Adjacent to the golf course is Mauldeth Hall, a Greek revival villa built in the 1830’s and is now the residence of the Consul General of the Peoples republic of China in Manchester. It lies just off Mauldeth Road which appears to the omnipresent road of the district. The whole Heatons area was originally badged under Salford before coming under the jurisdiction of Stockport in 1913.
Famous past or present residents include the Lord of the Rings actor Dominic Monaghan, tennis players Liam and Naomi Broady, crime author Val McDiermid and Mani from Stone Roses. I also recall cycling’s royal couple Laura and Jason Kenny using the area as a base when preparing for a recent Olympic Games.
Mani on stage. Image Credit NME.
Within the Moor Top catchment area on Heaton Moor Road there is a couple of Italian restaurants, an Indian, a Tapas bar, a Chinese takeaway and a decent chippy amongst others. Not too far away from there is the West Heaton Bowling, Tennis and Squash Club which has comedy nights and has live music on the first Friday of every month in the 80-capacity function room, but I have never yet visited.
Back in Moor Top, there is the local branch of Martin’s bakery which serve reasonable pies. After an exceedingly fraught morning in and out of the local estate agents when confirming the purchase of our current property I recall rewarding myself with a large flapjack from the aforementioned bakery! Further down is the Nook Café Bar which has acoustic acts playing and I have visited the establishment several times but never in correlation to any live performers.
A further few steps away is the terrific art deco cinema the Savoy. It was opened in 1923 and is built in a striking Baroque style in red brick with white terracotta. In 2006 it announced its closure due to low attendances and was touted to be replaced by a Varsity bar, which would have been a complete travesty. Commendably the locals did not accept that scenario and a Save Our Savoy campaign was launched which then subsequently saved the day resulting in a refurbished building reopening in 2015.
Savoy cinema. Image Credit manchestereveningnews.co.uk
We have now signed up as members and it is superbly run cinema and they have movies plus pizza nights alongside baby friendly movies and dementia screenings, the whole venue can also be hired out for weddings. Directly across the road you will find the Moor Top pub which is a handy location for summer drinks as they have a large beer garden.
Further down is a Co-op supermarket which we walked to regularly during Covid though people did struggle with the one-way system concept deployed in the shop! During that period, we also dangerously discovered their own brand of Honey I’m Comb ice cream!
Just nearby to there lies the Stockport Rock Salt Deli and Café Bar which opened in the summer of 2016. They serve hot food and cakes and have a decent size beer garden that is a veritable sun trap. They also occasionally have live music on and on 20/10/2018 we saw an act there called Spider Mike King. He has been a true stalwart of the Manchester music scene for almost six decades and his initial inspiration to becoming a musician was a chance meeting with Jimi Hendrix when he played one of his two Stockport shows in the late 1960’s.
Rock Salt Cafe. Image Credit useyourlocal.com