A born and bred Northern pair consisting of Sophie – a keen coffee drinker who loves art, gardening and Dolly Parton – and John – avid Manchester music fan, chocoholic and football knowledge mastermind, in 2021 we stumbled across an empty building on a backstreet of Stockport.

It was the start of something special.

A few months later we collected the keys to Granville Works. An unloved building in the centre of Stockport that had been derelict for over 10 years. Located next to a scrap yard on a street filled with litter, fly tipping and graffiti , it’s fair to say people weren’t queuing up to buy it. The building was in desperate need of some attention. As was the surrounding area.

But instead of seeing its long list of issues, we saw sunlight flooding in from windows on both sides of the building, industrial wooden floors and quirky little staircases. We saw the cobbled street opposite and the beautiful tall trees and pockets of wildlife. And we saw potential. Huge potential.

GRIT Studios CIC was born.

A melting pot of crafters and grafters, we offer studio space with a difference. Think of an artistic allotment where there’s no physical borders and everyone shares skills and experience. A space to learn and grow.

We’re home to 20 makers (painters, willow weavers, ceramicists and more) whose warmth and creativity is now spilling out of the studio into the local streets.

We started with a community clean up. Supported by Stockport Council, we found that this brought 25 local people out of their houses and workplaces and into the streets.

The workers began talking to residents, and people began to talk about creative ways that, together, we could make the streetscape look more beautiful.

“We’ve both lived and worked on this street for over 20 years and I’ve never spoken to Kurt (Scrap yard worker) until today. What a nice man.” Alberta Street Resident

The litter pick started something. The residents’ ambitions have grown. We’re now recycling and reusing what we can to create pocket gardens throughout the local area to encourage more wildlife and increase biodiversity.

We’ve also installed some art works - covered walls in colourful tiles, painted our shutters and rescued some old planters from an abandoned Pizza Hut (full permission granted of course!)

With reduced litter and more greenery, new residents have moved in…foxes, badgers and a growing number of birds have all been spotted in recent weeks, to great excitement! There are plans for some bird boxes, bat boxes and hedgehogs’ homes over the next few months in the hope of welcoming more wildlife.

We didn’t spot any bees or butterflies in the area last summer, but our plans for pockets of wildflowers should help with that this year. We’ve been saving some old tyres that were dumped on the road – stacked up they’ll make great wildflower planters.

We’re also hoping to introduce a vegetable and herb patch which will be accessible for everyone, as well as a communal bench, so we can all sit and enjoy a well-earned brew!

Placemaking is at the very heart of what we do. Our ethos is to be pro-active community catalysts. Our hope is that through captivating the interest of local people, we will create ownership of previously unloved streets and places for people to explore and build resilience. Leading to towns where people feel safe and connected to each other and our natural world can thrive.

Grit Studio Stockport is in SK1 3BZ. This is our neighbourhood. A little run down and rough around the edges, but it is our place.