What purpose does it really serve?

When we speak of its evolution, when they came up they were less about shopping and more
about socialising. In bygone eras, the town centre used to be a market place, an "agora" for
hubbub and gossip as well as trade, where information, news and conversation were top of the
shopping list.
And then in the industrial age, people moved to cities and due to mass production, they
evolved as a places that became importantly about market.
High streets have been under assault since the 1980s, when governments capitulated to the
supermarket lobby and its craving to get retail out of town. Hypermarkets were the totems of
the motoring age. Since the purpose of interaction is already lost, they worked just fine.
High streets have buildings and roads, but the spaces in-between are what hold them together as a
place – the open spaces, streets, squares, green spaces and the network of pavements and
pedestrian thoroughfares that knit them together. All too often, these spaces are used as no more
than that – thoroughfares – and we start to forget that they can be so much more.

High streets and town centres have always been about much more than shopping. Retail is an
important part of the town centre mix, but people also come for many other reasons, such as to visit
cafes, restaurants, pubs, galleries, museums, cinemas, parks, hairdressers, beauty parlours, doctors
and dentists, libraries, banks, solicitors, and estate agents. And there’s a strong social factor too –
the high street is often the place where local people come together to meet friends and join in
community activities. It can provide a setting for shared experiences, and be a focal point of local
identity, community pride, and common heritage and values.

The UK high street is in trouble and has been for a number of years. According to the Centre
for Retail Research, more than 11,000 major high street outlets have ceased trading since
2008. The world recession, new internet shopping habits, out-of-town mega-malls, increases
in city centre business rates and decreases in wages all have a part to play in this. But so
also does what people actually want from their high streets. In recent years, we’ve
concentrated on the high street being a place for shopping and work, but look up at the clues
and you’ll see that there was a time when our city centres were used differently. There are
buildings that used to be Odeon cinemas, theatres, clubs and pubs, which now house phone
shops, or sit empty. Planners need to think about how people could once again use the high
street not only for shopping, but as a place for entertainment and leisure again.
The Portas Review, the Outer London Fund, The Mayor’s High Street Fund and
numerous other programmes have been specifically set up to distribute funding to
projects that look for alternative uses of empty retail space and for ideas that challenge
existing conventions.
Local authorities, architects and landscapers are all reimagining the British high street
in different ways up and down the country. Some trends are taking hold – such as the
prioritisation of green space, stylish street furniture and creative lighting design.

A high street with an active social scene – cafes, bars, restaurants, entertainment venues – is
more valuable and attractive to retailers. Footfall is generally higher and "dwell time", the
length of time a visitor spends in the area, is increased. Al of this adds to the general
atmosphere, making it a "destination", rather than simply an area for passing through:
ultimately, that exposes retailers' products and services to a captive audience for longer, which
may in turn lead to sales in the future.
Again, the primary role of high street as a source of convenient retail is diminishing, that means
its future is less determined and consumed by space for shops
The high street of the future should attract local people to take part in a variety of activities -
including dining, leisure and sport, culture and the arts, entertainment, medical services, and many
more uses. They should also contain business premises, offices, residential including affordable
housing.

As for the rest of us, we need to re-imagine our social function for the high street and
think beyond the borders of tried and tested town-planning designs. More parks,
inventive architecture, tasteful street art are all good places to start.
But maybe we can go further. Maybe the high street can become a playground for new
ideas, a location for interactive art installations, open air cinemas, public allotments,
communal kitchens for shared neighbourhood meals. Can we go even further than that?
Public forums for debating current affairs, free skill-sharing tutorials, people-powered
energy sources stations – it has the promise and potential to be a seedbed for testing
new forms of interaction between people and places. Can it become a place for leisure?
For fun? For health? For education even? The jury is still out – but anything is possible.

Sticky streets
“A street is sticky,” he says “if, as you move along, you’re constantly enticed to slow down,
stop and enjoy the public life around you. Things like patio dining, food carts, attractive
seating, street performers or just lively store windows that draw a crowd can contribute to
making a street more ‘sticky’.”
Rich mix of activities
The multipurpose café space is one such sticky place where the pedestrian (and cyclist!) is
invited in to slow down and enjoy social activities and art exhibitions alongside their cuppa.
Founded in 2010, Look mum no hands! (LMNH!) based at Old Street, London, located in a
former post office, combines café, bicycle workshop, bar, and exhibition space, and was one
of the first cycle cafés. As well as food and drink, LMNH! also offers a packed programme of
exhibitions, film screenings, live cycle sport and even cycle speed dating.
In order for our high streets to thrive, maybe we need to take a step back to what cafés such
as LMNH! are doing; creating a community space, not just a place to shop.

All of this is called the “experience economy”. The reality that retailers such as
Nickolds must consider as the “reinvent” is that shopping was always a reason for
congregating, somewhere to bump into old friends and new ones. It was always
Scarborough Fair. Rather than wander around replica airport terminals, people are
bound to buy most of their goods online. But high streets are switching to “people”
services that cannot be supplied by drone or Deliveroo.
The truth is that a screen is not a life. We do not want to sit at home all day punching
glass. There are no “experiences” to be had in a bypass car park. But the key must lie
in smart regulation. New high streets are emerging where developers and planners
concern themselves with character, as in London’s Marylebone High Street,
Manchester’s Northern Quarter or Birmingham’s Gas Street Basin.