Before
After
Insight
High Street Renewal
High Street Renewal
Alternatives to accepting decline
Foreword
Why do we value the high street? Is it a nostalgic idea? We look at alternatives to accepting decline and practical ways adopted through our designs to help re-imagine the high street, creatively responding to limited budgets.
Not long ago, the local high street was at the heart of every thriving community, not just as a place to buy and sell goods, but a place of leisure, social and cultural exchange where the community came together to create spaces of conviviality. But today, many high streets across the UK have gone from boom to bust, suffering at the hands of big chain-stores, the rise of online shopping, higher rents and cash-strapped consumers. However, it’s important to acknowledge that while retail trends are changing, these changes do not necessarily lead to the death of the high street.
As retail advisor Mary Portas puts it, “there are alternatives to accepting decline”. Rather than a tabula rasa development of a fading high street, councils and local authorities can work closely with independent business owners, architects and designers to brighten up and improve an area through an inclusive and direct approach, a process that has been adopted by various councils and authorities across the country.
Enterprise and Skills Minister Matthew Hancock says “small businesses are the bedrock of the UK economy”, accounting for almost half of the jobs created through employing 14 million people in Britain. While chain-stores run the risk of creating homogeneous high streets, independent retailers are beneficial to the growth and sustainability of their local area as they know their clients and understand local trends. And of course, they also have a very good reason to want their communities to thrive.
In Archway, North London, for example, several independent shops and businesses are being treated to a new look as part of Islington Council’s £2 million regeneration scheme. It would be impossible to improve the high street without the participation of independent businesses, and Lyndon Goode Architects has been appointed to work directly with eleven businesses including a kebab shop, charity shop and gift shop to support the revival of the hardy high street. “It’s so comforting to know that your ideas are represented”, said Hakan Topkaya of Archway Kebabs, on what it was like to work with the architects. “Everything is on paper and people are listening to you, it’s a collaborative process”.
Regenerating High Streets
High street regeneration programmes have tended to focus on a ‘block’ of units, applying a lick of paint and a standard shopfront.
Our projects, such as in Archway, go further than this, re-imagining the high street, helping businesses to thrive, and building stronger, more resilient communities. We consider how designs might reflect the individuality of the businesses, respond to limited budgets, as well as an appetite for localism and convenience.
David Lyndon explains: “There has been a positive synergy between our designs for the high street, and the ways we’re looking at gap sites and housing in our other projects. It would be great to think that high streets could be repopulated inventively, with a blend of pop up shops, established businesses and affordable homes for local people.”
03
Constraints
With shopkeepers working hard to keep businesses profitable, close attention is paid to budgets. Cost input is obtained early on and changes are closely monitored.
At our project for a charity shop in London, we looked to creatively re-appropriate freely available materials, to produce an affordable and inventive design.
04
Regulations and codes
Understanding regulations, conservation area restrictions and listed building constraints can mean the difference between a mediocre and successful design.
We work hard to interpret and negotiate codes to deliver unique and desirable projects, paying particular attention to access to the shops (for buggies as well as for the less able).
01
Heritage
Through addressing and responding to a building’s place within the wider urban fabric, we are able to design units that complement their surroundings.
At Junction Road in Islington, there had been extensive photographic survey work undertaken during the construction of the Northern Line; where appropriate, we looked to protect heritage features and reinterpret the historic fabric.
05
Character
We work closely with shopkeepers to understand their business, including how they would like customers to experience their shop, how they would like to express their specialism, and how they could service their clients as best as possible.
For the Map Gift Shop, it was important that the shop frontage helped to differentiate from other online retailers.
02
Community
Understanding the desires and concerns of those impacted is key to a project’s success. Done properly and well, it will add value and create resilient communities.
Equally, members of the community are masters of their locale. Engaging and working with them will ensure that contextual issues will be highlighted from the outset - there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.
06
Collaboration
Key to the delivery of a successful project is a collaborative approach - between designer, shopkeeper and contractor - from the outset.
Building the brief together with the shopkeeper allows us to maximise the potential of a unit, and with clear communication and imagination, projects can be delivered smoothly, both in time and on budget.
Re-imaging the High Street
Hakan Topkaya talks about working with the practice on his project
As Portas suggests, “high streets will thrive if we re-imagine them”, and it is important to recognise and accept that the role of the high street in our daily lives has changed since its heyday around the turn of the century. While UK shoppers are expected to spend £107 billion online in 2014 and the out-of-town sector is growing rapidly, shopping on the local high street provides a very different experience. Convenience, specialist knowledge and a feeling of investing in one’s community all add value to the experience, something that is lost within the anonymity of big-box retailers.
While the historic form of the high street might seem to have died, there is much to be learned from the past, and much to be built upon too. The city is a ‘palimpsest’ of past forms layered on top of one another, and the crossroads of change that our high streets are currently facing are yet another layer in the urban collage. While failing businesses cannot necessarily be saved by a fresh lick of paint, many will flourish through a collaborative process that enables them to make the most out of what they have to offer, through small but sustainable improvements.
Through a participatory process, the community are encouraged to get involved in the uplift of their locale, which in turn reaffirms a collective identity that has so long been ingrained in the history of the local high street. Back in Archway, the various projects aim to re-imagine the high street through designs that reflect the individual character of each retailer, creatively responding to the ambitions of the businesses and reinterpreting the historic fabric of the local area.
Ian Morris, owner of Map Gift Shop, has been trading in Archway for 20 years, and he explains the unique role that his shop plays within the wider urban fabric. “The way the business is going, rather than us dealing online, is that the shop has very much become part of the community”, he says. “It’s taken a long time to become established here, but we’ve stuck it out and it has paid off, and the regeneration grant is a true celebration of 20 years in the area.”
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