How do you bring people back to town centres?

Published on Thursday 8 December 2011 12:10

As a new exhibition of Scotland’s high streets opens in Glasgow, Craig Brown hears that there is now hope the recent trend of decline can be reversed

THESE are tough times for high-street retailers. Once the bustling heart of any town, the economic downturn, rise of internet shopping and the dominance of big chains have forced countless independent traders out of business and shoppers into the frigid embrace of the supermarkets.

But in a quiet corner of Scotland, a high street resurgence is under way. Specialised high streets have emerged in Dumfries and Galloway, where towns have adopted a theme which is reflected in dozens of specialist shops – Wigtown is Scotland’s book town, Castle Douglas is a foodie destination and Kirkcudbright is an artists’ haven.

All three traditional market towns feature a host of quirky shops and businesses that cater to interested locals and attract visitors. These are the new faces of the high street. Family-run grocers and butchers might be losing out to Tesco Express in many areas, but second-hand book shops in Wigtown and art supply shops in Kirkcudbright are thriving, thanks to a fresh approach to retailing.

This weekend an exhibition looking at the evolution of the high street opens at The Lighthouse, Glasgow’s design and architecture centre. Karen Anderson, chairwoman of Architecture and Design Scotland, believes it is a timely display coming at a critical juncture in the history of local shopping. Although she favours a return to the old-fashioned high street with its eclectic mix of shops and businesses, which help foster a sense of community, Anderson acknowledges that specialised high streets might offer one solution to ailing communities.

“If there’s active measures to encourage some towns to get a bit niche and a bit different, I think some places could have that as a pull. There are places in Europe where the local authority has said, ‘We will actively promote this street for this.’

“I don’t think there is ever going to be a one-size-fits-all solution, but I do think that towns have to decide if the infrastructure they’ve got, which is essentially Victorian, Edwardian and sometimes even older, what is it going to the best fit for use.”

Similarly Glasgow’s Merchant City, although not a high street in the traditional sense, has developed as an artists’ quarter, giving a potentially soulless area a fresh injection of life.

Anderson would like to see retailers rewarded for such innovation: “In Barcelona they have a very developed scheme in which they give out prizes for the best-kept shop front or the oldest surviving retailer in the area. It’s an active thing, it’s saying we know you contribute to the community, and it’s a positive culture. That takes work, and people will say we don’t have the time, but we’re saying it’s worth the effort because you will reap the benefits in time.”

In England, towns including Lewes in East Sussex and Totnes in Devon, have adopted their own currency. Valued at the same rate as sterling, it can only be spent in locally owned shops, guaranteeing that the money benefits the community. In Wigan, shop owners have come up with a high street loyalty card, which allows users to collect points to get special services.

Anderson believes that such projects are helping towns re-establish a sense of identity. She argues that changes in shopping patterns and the loss of traditional industries and occupations, have led many towns to suffer a crisis of confidence. The problem, she says, has been compounded by local authority planning policies that avoided mixing developments of housing, shops and facilities, and preferred “zonal” approaches that produced out-of-town retail centres.

“Architecture and Design Scotland are saying that if you are serious about sustainable communities you need to bring in mixed use again. You need to create the West Ends of Glasgow, where you can work, play, shop and live in a distinct neighbourhood, and our old towns did that already, but they are threatened if you stay on the same zonal planning track.”

Featuring commissioned films from 15 towns and cities across Scotland, the Lighthouse exhibition gathers people’s ideas, memories and visions for their high streets.

It also explores how the current fabric of Scotland’s towns and cities still strongly reflect the traditional high street of markets, places of commerce and social exchange and looks at how the architecture and design of our streets have changed over the years, responding to developments in technology and the expectations of shoppers.

The display traces the roots of high street trading from the 12th century. Emma Halliday, who curated the exhibition, says: “Historically, these early Royal Burghs were developed as planned towns, and were all about trading and raising taxes for the king.

“So they started off with this linear street in the 12th and 13th century and they were all about the market place.

“That set the scene of a lot of the towns that we visited, a lot of whom were established around then, so the high streets they have now have their origins in that period. High-street shops, as we understand them in a modern context, did not emerge until the Georgian period.”

But, she points out, the transformation of the high street from rows of independent local traders to the atomised, patchwork of chain stores, small shops and, increasingly, vacancies, began as early as the 1950s, when changes in technology and business models began to have an impact.

“You start to see people getting refrigeration, so they don’t have to go to the shops every day. Then you get car ownership and people could start to do larger trips to them. Then there is self-service, which starts around the 1950s, that had a big impact on the high street, the move away from the over-the-counter interraction and the personal loyalty between customer and shop owner, that begins to disappear during this period.”

But while the exhibition explains how the high street has arrived at its current state, it also attempts to set the signposts for how it could adapt what is almost a thousand-year-old approach to retailing to the demands of the 21st century.

According to Professor Leigh Sparks, of Stirling University’s Institute for Retail Studies, who contributed to the exhibition, letting go of the high street’s past is difficult but necessary: “If you look at it, there are too many shops. We hang on to the notion that because it was a shop once, it should be a shop again.

“We’ve decentralised lots of things, whether it be council offices or football stadia, we’ve put those things outside, so there isn’t the footfall, the drivers aren’t there in these centres.

“So when we think about town centres, we have to be aware that we’re going to have to concentrate them more, try and build as much diversity as we can, because one of the issues is often that they look quite a lot the same. So how can we make them look different and how can we make them places that people want to go to?”

Halliday says that despite an uncertain prognosis, there is still a future for Scotland’s high streets: “They will have to evolve beyond retail and embrace other activities – cultural, learning. I think there is a very positive outlook for it, we just need some new ideas.”

• High Street is on at The Lighthouse, 11 Mitchell Lane, Glasgow, G1 3NU, from Friday, December 9 until April 17, 2012. Monday to Saturday, 10.30am to 5pm

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archie versace

Monday, December 12, 2011 at 01:14 PM

How do you bring back people to the town centres? Build a tram system...er...

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bieldmaster

Saturday, December 10, 2011 at 03:25 AM

Regeneration of town centre is simply achieved by building of up market ,21st century town housing .It is forecast, that that with the on going passage of time; accomodation for a burgeoning senior citizen population has to be resolved .From personal immediate observation experience the availability of such 'town housing' could be the basis upon which a differing mix of specialist market styled butcher,baker ,candle stick maker et-al would offer the daily requierments added to which suitable inclusion of N.H.S.dentistryoptician centres would be concentrated.With some creative imagination combined with a wiiligness by local authoritties to drive through change, the self created regeneration of town centres is to be welcomed. With no drive zonal areas being incorporated; ,malls streets would not be cluttered with unecessary cars.Off centre travel would be available ,nearbye access to rail travel would be a bonus for those wishing easier access to regional airports. Among the town centres "ripe" for such development is Kirkcaldy.Adam Smith, originaly a" langtonian townie" .He would have acknowledged the "Wealth of Nations"re-generation..

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Hector the Lessor

Friday, December 9, 2011 at 07:32 AM

Accept that the town centres are an essential part of the community and not a wee earner for councils of all political flavours. The mega malls are where you should raise your taxes. The town centres should be part services and part tourist orientated. You want an ironmonger who not only stocks weird and wonderful things for everyday use, but replaces the elements in kettles, sharpens scissors, shears and lawnmowers. Plus any other essential service that an ironmonger can produce and you would have to search far and wide to find another company. Small bakers producing delicious bread and maybe the odd Black Forest Gateau for the more dedicated customer. Butchers specialising in well hung meat, delicious sausages and haggis when the haggi are in season. Make a list, you have no chance of getting your favourite retailer into a small shopping town. Why, well the startup costs for any small business are horrendous. The insurance for liability and property is not too fine. The rates, in Scotland and now in England are enthusiastic and cannot be controlled for more than a few years. Apart from that without financial help, an understanding council, and appreciative community you are on a hiding to nothing. Apart from that I reckon open air markets are the way to go. Well that was my experience, it seems a pity but their is a limit to the costs legitimate traders can cover.

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Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head

Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 01:14 PM

How do you bring back people to the town centres? Simple. Scrap all the abject loonie leftie madness that has dominated city planning and traffic management for the past two decades and start embracing the car once again.

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WJohn

Thursday, December 8, 2011 at 07:42 AM

Stop calling the South West of Scotland “Dumfries and Galloway”. This is a political name thought up by politicians, probably in London. Also what it consists of keeps changing as the politicians have another think and want to shuffle the constituency boundaries. It is Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and slash or Dumfriesshire.

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