Background
The City Centre South area of Stoke-on-Trent is made up of the three neighbourhoods of Etruria, North Shelton and Hanley South, which includes City Waterside.
The area meanders alongside the Caldon Canal, which was opened in 1779 to transport limestone from quarries in the Peak District to the Potteries and the Midlands. Today, leisure cruisers branch off the busy Trent and Mersey Canal at Etruria on to the Caldon Canal and pass through the middle of City Centre South area, towards City Waterside before meandering 17 miles to the canal's end in Froghall, in the Peak District.
City Waterside is one of RENEW’s priority regeneration initiatives, and covers a large area straddling the canal that consists of cleared pottery manufacturing sites. The industrial heritage includes several ‘potbanks’ and the distinctive bottle kilns that were used to fire the pottery. Terraced housing hugs the hillside, and Victorian school buildings give a sense of historic community.
Many canalside factories have been demolished now and the land is available for redevelopment. Other historic factories are empty or under-used and could be imaginatively converted for residential use. Some businesses are working from poor quality buildings and would benefit from relocation - freeing up the land for mainly residential uses.
To find out more about RENEW’s exciting regeneration programme in City Waterside, click here.
To find out what’s happening in the North Shelton and Etruria area, visit our interactive map.
