Part of the Meet Marple project.
Rockey Street: Meet Jay, the owner of Marple’s newest rock’n’blues bar.
Name of business:
Rockey Street Blues Bar
Where did the name come from?
It’s named after a real street in Johannesburg, South Africa. Back in the day Rockey Street was the epicentre of Joburg’s 24/7 party scene and I wanted to bring some of that flavour to Marple. It’s not “Rocky Street” misspelled!
What do you sell?
Booze & music! We have high quality lagers, IPAs, stouts and ciders as well as a great atmosphere. We have an established weekly open mic evening, we do really popular karaoke events, and we’ve just started a monthly motorbike meet too.
How many people are in your team?
Myself (Jay) and 4 others across the week.
How long have you been open?
We opened last year, 29th October 2023 – coming up to our first birthday and I’m sure we’ll have something big planned to mark the occasion.
Are you from Marple?
Not quite – I’m originally from Johannesburg as you can guess when you know the story behind the name of the bar. I grew up down south in Surrey, moved up here to Offerton, then met and married a Marple lady so now I’m here!
What do you like about having your business in Marple/living in Marple?
It’s got such a close-knit community, particularly with the business owners who support each other and often are collaboratively focused, it makes working here much more pleasant – it’s genuinely a nice place to be.
Is there anything exciting going on at the moment?
We’ve got our new, locally brewed Beartown Lager arriving on tap soon, and we’re going to be consistently presenting live music again on a regular basis.
You can find Rockey Street at 54 Market Street, on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/rockeystreet_) and on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rockeystreetbar.
