An alternative A to Z guide to 'the great Greater Manchester town'
17.04.2022 - 15:33
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
An artist has created a guide to Stockport with his take on an A-Z of the borough. Eric Jackson quit his job in journalism seven years ago to paint full-time, creating witty tourism posters of places around Greater Manchester.
The 65-year-old captures what makes our region brilliant, but at the same time, pokes fun at its quirks, which residents find all too relatable. For the Stockport Alphabet piece, he gives special mention to hats and the market hall, of course, along with the blue pyramid and the legendary Strawberry Studios.
Last year he updated the poster to reflect the ever-changing landscape of the town centre. “In the original version I did four years ago, I wasn’t very complimentary about Underbanks, because although I’ve always loved the buildings around there, it was full of charity and sex shops; it was horrible,” Eric said.
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“It was underinvested. Now, I absolutely love it. Stockport is always changing, I’ve always liked it, but I thought the council was a bit reluctant to let anybody do anything interesting in Stockport but the brakes are off now.”
Eric, who was born in Burnage but has lived in Cale Green for 34 years, has produced just shy of 100 posters since he began painting in 2015. “I am proud to be in Stockport, it’s not perfect, but I love where I live,” he added.
“Most of the places I’ve done I’ve got an affection for, even the ones I’m taking the mickey out of.” Whilst he was travel editor for the Manchester Evening News, Eric collected old stylised city posters, which inspired him to do a local take.
“One day I was sitting in the office at work, and I thought, I’ve got all these posters of places like