Inside the abandoned shopping centre that hides a ‘secret time capsule village’

Stockport Village in Greater Manchester was home to the UK’s first cannabis cafe along with colourful murals, bustling shops and a gym before its closure

A forgotten shopping centre is hiding a secret village which was once bustling with corner shops, a gym and a historic cafe.

Stockport Village has been abandoned and left to decay since it closed to the public 15 years ago.

But the derelict shopping hub in Greater Manchester remains a time capsule of its heyday with many shop fronts still well preserved.

Hidden behind a row of shops, the hidden village was once home to the UK’s first cannabis cafe and colourful murals, reports Manchester Evening News.

An urban explorer, known as Exploring With Lewis, said he was “mind blown” when visiting the area which he captured on video.

“I never knew this place even existed at first. My friend told me about it and I was intrigued,” he added.

“When you go into abandoned places, you expect a shell but going into Stockport Village was just mind-blowing. It was crazy, it was like time had stood still.”

Footage shows a mural describing Stockport as ‘Skunkport’ and the Dutch Experience cafe which was opened in 2001 by the ‘Medical Marijuana Cooperative’.

On the day of the opening, police raided the premises and shut it down.

But it continued to be a popular haunt, often attracting more than a hundred people at any given time.

The cafe closed its doors for good shortly after another raid in 2007 and now lies in disarray.

“It’s pretty wild that this place existed back then and is still here today, hidden away,” explorer Lewis said.

Another shop in the village precinct has remnants of what it used to be. While its windows are now boarded up, signs indicate it was once home to the Outline fitness gym.

Billboards promising a selection of facilities including circuit weights, sun beds and sauna baths, are still on show.

According to building documents, the health club once stretched 16,000 sq ft across four floors. It’s not clear when the gym shut its doors, but the gym building was set alight in 2009.

Unoccupied at the time, police believed the fire had been started deliberately by youths. Fire officers declared the building to be “in a massive state of disrepair”.

Other shops to take up space at Stockport Village included a bridal shop and a gift shop.

Explorer Lewis expects the precinct will not remain in place for much longer now.

Planning documents show that Eamar Developments has submitted proposals to convert the premises and additional space surrounding it into a scheme of ten commercial units plus 52 apartments.

The proposals were granted in April 2021, which would include demolition of the buildings.

Lewis said: “It’s a shame but sometimes these buildings get in such a state of disrepair that there’s no other option.

“That’s why I like to do what I do, because I’m about documenting these locations that not many people get to see for themselves.”

Speaking about his exploring hobby, he added: “I’m not about breaking into places. I try to be as respectful as I can. I am there to explore. I will never force my way into a building, if I can’t get in then I will just move on.

“As explorers, we do tend to get a bit of a bad rep sometimes. People will often say we’re trespassing, but I would say that what we’re doing is a civil matter, I don’t damage anything, I take pictures to document it and that’s it.”

But, the nature of the hobby comes with risks such as injury, police encounters and takedown requests, Lewis said.

“We will often get police asking us to move on or take pictures down and we’ll do it no problem,” he said.

“We do take risks but we don’t break in or trash anything.

“The biggest injury I’ve ever had is when I fractured my big toe and I wasn’t even exploring a building.

“We had just come out of an abandoned mansion in Macclesfield, and I was too busy looking at my phone and fell right into a pothole outside of it.

“But, I’m an explorer after all. I just picked myself up and continued on. I’ve seen some really beautiful places because of this – some real time capsules of places that I would never have known existed otherwise.

“I’ve tended to stay in and around Stockport when I can but there’s not that many abandoned places left in Stockport now. It feels like everything is being turned into flats.

“It looks like I may need to start venturing outside of Stockport now and see what’s out there further afield for me to discover.”