Forgotten plan for town's Valley Of The Kings

The glass pyramid structure at the side of the M60 motorway in Stockport has been a familiar landmark for more than 30 years.

But long-forgotten plans show that the structure was not meant to stand alone, but was instead meant to be part of Stockport's very own 'Valley Of The Kings'.

The man who designed the structure, which became an office for the Co-operative Bank, said he initially planned to build five pyramids in a project dubbed the Kings Valley.

"Imagine what you seen now as a cake, and then cut it into four slices", said retired architect and builder of Stockport's pyramid, Ian Thorp.

The landmark, an unlikely source of inspiration for songs and poetry, is set to become one of the UK's largest curry houses, and possibly the world's first to be housed in a pyramid.

But it could have been one of five pyramids if things had played out a little differently.

Back in the late 1980s, his firm MHA Architects took part in a competition by Stockport Council to come up with a bold design for the plot off the Manchester Ring Road.

"They gave us a sketch, showing a cluster of four industrial units, with a low pitched, pyramid roof," Mr Thorp said.

He and his team decided to make a "much more positive statement out of it" and designed the towering glass and steel structure you see today.

These included four other smaller office pyramids by the entrance to the site.

"The area was quite rundown at the time, and there was nothing really to relate to, and I felt we need to have some sort of strong landmark", Mr Thorp said.

The project won the backing of councillors and planning permission was gained for three structures, the main pyramid, and two smaller ones by the site entrance.

But the scheme got off to a rocky start after the main contractor went bust, meaning the pyramid stood as a metal frame for several years until it was finished in 1992.

The Co-operative Bank took on the site as a home for its customer service staff in 1995.

Mr Thorp said he effectively lived on the building site for months to help oversee the geometrically complex building come together.

Sadly for the architect, the smaller pyramids were judged not to be economically viable and never progressed beyond the design stage.

"The Co-Op did have a second look at building those later on. It would have been nice to see the full scheme", Mr Thorp said.

Mr Thorp said he was pleased Stockport residents took to the pyramid, which he felt was "well-received".

"People look for it when you fly into Manchester Airport," he said.

The building was the site of "strange happenings" in the mid-1990s after a tortured willow tree that had begun to die in the atrium.

" At some point during this period, HRH Princess Diana was in the press because she had said something about the healing power of the pyramid shape, totally unrelated to Stockport", Mr Thorp said.

"The tree mysteriously came back to life, sprouting new leaves and branches and for some time, there was no credible explanation."

But it was later discovered one of the security staff had been watering the tree.

"Mystery solved," the architect said.

Mr Thorp, who is now retired and works for his old firm as an occasional consultant, said he is pleased to see the building have a future.

"It has lacked proper maintenance, and that needs dealing with, so it's time for a proper re-think, and if it's going to be an Indian restaurant, then that's great as a far as I'm concerned."

"I drive past it quite regularly collecting people from Stockport station and that sort of thing.

"Actually, if you look at that pyramid as it as it's turned out, at the end of the day I suspect it's more South American than Egyptian really."

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