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Deep ocean wind power on the way back.

I love the idea of this, hopefully town planners are coming to realise the post-war high streets are shit

I'm not sure concentrating commerce in the hands of loads of edge/out of town retailers is any better, it just moves the issue from one place to another. The problem of the last 30 years has been the extinguishing of smaller businesses in the favour of franchise restaurants, bigger retail chains etc who can all afford higher rents or big box retailers on the edge of town who offer wider choice, cheaper. Planners and councils need to encourage small businesses growth (maybe via rent controls) to make them viable again.

If we decide that the "old" concept of a highstreet is dead, we're basically just saying to Amazon, Tesco, Asda et al that they own retail completely.

I think now the "old" highstreet concept is the M&S, Topshop, HMV all in a row, the same in every town in the country, is obviously a dying idea it means we can leave that stuff to online or out of town shopping and re-invigorate town centers with green space and independent shops, cafes etc. It's roughly the same idea as the growing amount of pedestrianised streets around the country, make it a nice place to go and the shops will thrive.

Here they actually have refused to allow some international chains (we have very few local chains) to open and the ones that are have very specific operating terms and locations allowed to them.

The problem is, just assuming that independent shops will come if you make the environment nicer isn't the case. What happens is the next wave of chains will come in (see the "fast casual" restaurant franchises for example) which leaves you in the same place. When I lived in Kingston, every time a new area opened, it was filled with chains, albeit ones that weren't present in the other parts of town.

Councils need to do more to encourage new independent shops than just "build it and they will come". Preferential rates, maybe a scheme like some of the housing schemes where if developments are built, there are a set number of units available to indy shops/cafes/restaurants at a much lower rent.

With regards to local protections.. Unfortunately, it does lead to the same stuff as you get local companies starting groups of stores; we had a huge bankruptcy that took out something like 15% of the shops in the equivalent of Regent Street here.

Totally agree and it would be great to see incentives for independents rather than big chains. The main thing I like about this potential scheme in Stockton is that it's a step in the right direction, rather than just trying to sell the empty units to a new retail chain at a lower cost, realise there's a fundamental problem.

Worth looking into Totnes high street, they have been taking this approach for quite a few years.

I love the idea of this, hopefully town planners are coming to realise the post-war high streets are shit

I'm not sure concentrating commerce in the hands of loads of edge/out of town retailers is any better, it just moves the issue from one place to another.

I'm not sure how you get to this conclusion from that article. The aim isn't to drive any shops out of the town centre, in fact existing shops in the shopping centre are being offered a relocation a hundred metres down the road. The aim is to create a space which attracts people to the town centre to for social or other non-shopping reasons e.g., the library, and then drives commerce by those people shopping while they're there.

I’ve seen it in other places where a change of environment doesn’t change the shops or the sustainability of the chains. It was a general comment rather than for this specific development

Also Marylebone high street which has a carefully managed (probably 'curated') selection of shops.

To be fair though, that whole street is sponsored by this forum's very own golf club members.

Story of the year:

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19096068.red-cars-take-bridge-street-oxford/

Mad. What are the odds?

The post-war 'high street' really doesn't/didn't have much to do with what a high street should look like. I've posted about this scheme in the town planning thread, and I'm afraid I think that I think it's just a continuation of what this horrendous 'shopping centre' achieved, a hollowing out of the town centre. If you can get the same style of shops at an out-of-town 'retail park', then there really isn't much of a reason to go to the town centre. This is just the next step in the same process, it will lead to further decline, and it certainly isn't inevitable.

Goddess:

I doubt anyone else on here grew up in the North-East but with the help of people likeJohn Poulson and T.Dan Smith most of the town centres were marvels of brutalism.
What is happening is the natural evolution of retail at the moment things are just changing at a pace we are uncomfortable with.
https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/nostalgia/uptons-hinton-tower-house-remember-14817023

Just in case anyone else on here ever shopped at Geordie Jeans or been ice skating at Billingham Forum.

Mate of mine had his fingers skated over at the forum. Was proper grim.

My local shopping centre in Aylesbury was Friars Square; so brutal Clockwork Orange was filmed there but Kubrick binned the sequence as it was too bleak. This was our Wimpy!

https://www.bucksherald.co.uk/news/people/unseen-aylesbury-footage-stanley-kubrick-filming-clockwork-orange-uncovered-bucks-herald-archive-2918214

That building is wonderful ,were the Droogs eating a giant spiral sausage (a Wimpy delicacy) the cinema scene was filmed in West Norwood apparently.
Teeside can claim to be the inspiration for Brave New World and Blade Runner

If somebody built that now with modern materials it would win awards. Its awesome!

There is always the Blue Leanie

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Newsnight is doing a segment about this now.

I doubt anyone else on here grew up in the North-East

I grew up in Hull, a real mix of older stuff that had survived the war and ugly as sin 1950s architecture. Then each generation "redeveloped" parts of the city centre in whatever was in fashion at the time. Awful.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/world/europe/france-universities-culture-wars.html

The same bullshit about British and US universities but with a French twist and the same political opportunism.

I grew up in Hull too, mainly the 70's. What a depressing place it was.