Andrew Alexander, University of Surrey, 'Understanding the supermarket format: retail modernisation at the London Co-operative Society'

E-mail: A.Alexander@surrey.ac.uk

The development of the supermarket in Britain has received much needed attention of late in historical analyses of the retail industry. It is now widely acknowledged that the rapid growth of the supermarket, particularly during the 1960s, played an important role in changing the nature of retailing and the ways in which people shopped for food. This paper argues that using a detailed conceptualisation of the retail format, similar to those presented in contemporary retail studies which distinguish between “offering” and “know how” components of the format (see for example Goldman, 2001), enables a more comprehensive analysis of retailers’ early supermarket trading activities. In relation to the offering components, it is clear that the development of supermarket retailing provided new challenges in terms of the planning of store locations, the design of store environments and the provision of service, pricing strategy and wider marketing and promotion. Know-how components, encompassing systems and procedures underpinning the store operation and matters of retail culture were more hidden to consumers but could be equally fundamental to the successful operation of the supermarket format. The paper illustrates the argument by reference to a detailed examination of supermarket development at the London Co-operative Society between 1960 and 1965. The paper thus also contributes to our knowledge of the history of co-operative retailing in the post-war period.

Aaron M. Allen, University of Edinburgh, 'Occupational mapping of 1635 Edinburgh: an introduction'

E-mail: allen1745@hotmail.com

The focus of this study in occupational mapping is on combining locational data for early modern occupations with a contemporary town plan of Edinburgh, in order to study occupational distribution in the urban environment. Much work has recently been done on the social, economic and occupational structure of burghs, but very little has been done on the physical locations of the various work-types. By combining data from the a 1635 tax roll with the corresponding section of the 1647 Rothiemay map of Edinburgh, a new tool was formed for visualizing the distribution and physical patterns of urban occupations in the south-east quarter of Scotland’s capital.

Amy Barnett, University of Northampton, ‘The high street in eighteenth century Norwich’

E-mail: amy@kennedy-george.co.uk

The eighteenth century is seen as a pivotal period in patterns of consumption and the development of a retail practice.  Desire became equal to need, and fashion was as important (for some) as function.  While retailing in this period has gained recent attention, the notion of the 'high street' remains elusive in historical research.  This is in part because the phrase is both loaded and modern.  Retail was an integral part of the cultural life of the inhabitants of eighteenth century towns, and has been seen as vital in the transformation of towns during that period. (Borsay, 1989; Stobart et al, 2007).  Given the diversity of the towns at this time, is it possible to define the high street simply as a collection of shops?  Or perhaps, as a more complex clustering of different types of shop? And, in a city the size of Norwich (c.30k in 1700), is it possible that more than one functioning ‘high street’ existed at a given time?  This paper will attempt to answer some of these questions, and is divided into three main sections.  Firstly, the nature of retail across the whole city will be broadly outlined, and in doing so, any particularly dynamic areas of retail activity will be identified; the geographical relationship between retail and the city's cultural infrastructure will also be briefly explored.  Secondly, a more detailed mapping of the streets will show that, within the central area of the city, a few key streets formed the leading retail quarter during the eighteenth century, remaining unsurpassed in its choice of goods (cf. van Aert & van Damme).  In contrast, the outlying areas of the city were home to fewer retailers.  Finally, this survey work is related to contemporary household and shop accounts, alongside retail  advertising in city newspapers, in order to begin to redress the elusiveness of the high street in the eighteenth century.

Heather Barrett, University of Worcester, ‘Conserving the high street: benefit or burden?’

E-mail: h.barrett@worc.ac.uk

From the late-1960s onwards the high streets of many towns and cities in the U.K. have been influenced by local conservation policies designed to preserve and enhance the special architectural and historic qualities of these areas.  The desire to protect the special character of these valued townscapes developed as a reaction to the increasing scale, pace and uniformity of much of the commercial development occurring at the time.  However, at the level of the individual town or city, little detailed research has been undertaken into the impacts of conservation on the landscape of the high street. The paper examines the impact of conservation policy from the late-1960s to the present on the commercial core of one city, namely the city of Worcester in the U.K.  It examines the uneasy relationship between conservation and development and highlights some of the impacts of conservation policy on commercial development, focussing on the changing nature, location and architectural style of new development during this period.  The paper also highlights how influences at the local level have acted to mediate wider commercial development trends.  Finally, the paper will examine the extent to which conservation has been successful in maintaining the special character of commercial areas and halting the spread of `placelessness’.  The paper concludes by considering some of the issues facing conserved commercial areas in the future.

Richard Bent, Claire Seaman, Stuart Graham and Mauricio Silva, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, ' “Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see.”  George Lucas'

E-mail: CSeaman@qmu.ac.uk

The ‘decline’ and ‘cloning’ of the traditional high street coupled with the demise of the ‘small’ retailer is often cited as a negative aspect of modern society and even  regarded as a causal factor supporting many of societies current ills.  This paper challenges that assertion, arguing that our view of the traditional high street is often seen through ‘rose tinted spectacles’ and that in order to improve and proceed we should question the ‘traditional’ view of the independent high street operator.  The paper argues that in order for the high street to develop and provide new and innovative outlets amongst the large scale chains a better form of knowledge transfer, business development and support needs to be developed. The team firstly look at the process of knowledge transfer within the small and often family run business environment. It then introduces the Edinburgh Hedge Model which is designed to illustrate the barriers and issues to engagement and business development from the process of  transferring  knowledge and learning to and from the independent/small business. The paper concludes by considering suggestions for further developments that would support and improve engagement, enhancing the business/high street proposition and the development of strong sustainable and varied businesses.

Corinna Budnarowska, Bournemouth University, 'Bournemouth Town Centre: A "Clone Town" or Potential Fashion Destination?'

E-mail: cbud@bournemouth.ac.uk 

Bournemouth, like many other towns in the UK, has appeared to have fallen victim to what the New Economics Foundation (NEF) are calling ‘clone town Britain’. High rents have put space at a premium, and in a bid to provide much needed High Street brands the town has begun to overlook the independent market, who now cannot afford to trade there. It may be the case that the shoppers actually only want to see large, recognisable High Street brands, but secondary research suggests that the consumer is looking for a 'different' shopping experience. The research considers the development of Independent store destinations, and in particular fashion destinations, and whether they are what the Bournemouth consumer actually wants. Destinations like this across the UK have recently seen somewhat of a resurgence, with such examples as Manchester's Afflecks Palace and Triangle, and Covent Garden's Seven Dials.

Kathy Burrell, De Montfort University, 'Specialist shops, Home and Ethnic identity: East European shops in the lives of Polish migrants'

E-mail: KBurrell@dmu.ac.uk

One of the most visible aspects of recent European Union ‘A8’ migration has been the proliferation of small shops, and also supermarkets, selling specialist Polish and other East European food and products. Almost every town in the UK has at least one such shop, with cities hosting several. The Normanton area of Derby, for example, has about ten shops along a one mile strip, all selling varying quantities of Polish food. These shops are hugely significant for several reasons: the opportunity for home building they offer new migrants, the ethnic marker they leave on local landscapes, and the ethnic positioning they bring, often being located in highly diverse areas. It is important, then, to understand the relationships that migrants build with these new shops, how they use them, and what they mean to them. This paper is based on a broader project researching Polish migration to the Midlands since the 1950s. While shops have not been the main focus of the research, in-depth interviews have revealed their enormous emotional importance to new Polish migrants.

Mohamed Sadok Chaieb, 'An old street and a new town in Tunis'

E-mail: archi_dart@yahoo.com

Tunis is a strategic town overlooking the two basins of the Mediterranean; it’s a town of about 2 million inhabitants, concentrating the fifth of the population of the country. First financial, cultural and industrial centre in the country; it is extending towards north and south to the suburbs of Ariana and Ben Arous. This town has always been protected by a lagoon (El Bohaira) from the sea, which constituted the only way to the sea. The Medina Founded in the late seventh century, it extended around the Kasbah hill and the Ezzitouna Mosque towards the north and the south, as it’s been always contained between its eastern and  western lakes. The western lake is the one communicating with the sea (Bouhairet Tounes). The French Town Tunis remained inside its walls till the nineteenth century with the arrival of the French, who decided to build their town on a reclaimed land beyond the walls of “Bab el Bahr”. They built by the end of the XIXth century a new town, with a main street extending from “Bab el Bahr” to the port. That street, which is now Bourguiba’s Avenue, was called Avenue de la Marine, then Avenue Jules Ferry, and symbolized the French protectorate in Tunisia, with some symbolic buildings, as the main Catholic Cathedral, the French residence, the theatre, etc. We talk then about a juxtaposition of two towns, one Arab, the other French. But although the French town was built within a modern grid, its main street is a continuity of the one starting within the old town with the “Ezzitouna Mosque” street, ending in “Bab el Bahr”, and continuing through to join “Bourguiba Avenue”. The transition is slowly done with some urban fragments ensuring a smooth process. The Port area The main street with a length of approximately 2 kilometres ends by the port. And as the northern side of the street stretched to constitute the new quarters of the new town, towards Le Passage and Lafayette, the southern side stretched towards the industrial area with the warehouses linked to the activities of the port. It was also reclaimed in the beginning on the lake, and constituted the quarters of the Sicilian and Sardinian workers recruited to work in the port. This quarter still bears the name of “Small Sicily”. New waterfront The port and its quarters constitute now a big barrier between the town and the sea. With the creation of a new port in Rades, in the lake of Tunis, and affirming the activities of the port of La Goulette, the old port has become too small for the maritime exchange, and Tunis doesn’t need it close to the centre of the town. This is typical of the industrialized towns on the sea, where industrial and transportation equipments are based on the free lands close to the sea. This phenomena pushed many towns to think of taking back their coast, and gave place to large development projects since the forties in the U.S. in towns like Baltimore and New York; it then interested northern European towns like Amsterdam and Manchester. In the seventies, it interested Mediterranean towns like Barcelona which already established again links with its old port. Marseille and Naples in the nineties got into similar projects. This context extended now to the southern shore of the Mediterranean, and we more and more need to conquer again old harbours which are now situated in precious land positions, with their big central potentials. Tunis, which has now two other ports beyond the city-centre, is preparing a big project with Gulf funds grabbing the opportunity to build a New City on its old port. How this main street is going to act as a link between the existing town and the projected one?

Clive Edwards, Loughborough University, 'Tottenham Court road:  London’s furniture street. Its rise and fall 1850-1950'

E-mail: C.Edwards@lboro.ac.uk

Tottenham Court Road has been associated with the retailing of furniture since the eighteenth century. It had its heyday between 1850 and 1950 and has had something of a renaissance in recent years. This paper considers the furniture retailers in this street in central London through a mix of retail history and geography. The theoretical approaches to retail location include, agglomeration theory, location theory, and central place theory. Using these methods, the paper will attempt to understand why this ‘furniture street’ developed as it did. The analysis is assisted by considerations of the networks of trade and industry including textile and trimming suppliers, furniture makers, as well as other transport and commercial infrastructures of the area. The paper will also consider the history of particular stores in the street as exemplars of the processes examined, and discuss why the street was often denigrated for its poor quality merchandise. In some cases, design reformers and novelists used Tottenham Court Road as a term of contempt for apparently cheap and nasty goods. Despite this, the street became synonymous with the London retail furniture trade for well over a century.

Paul S. Edwards, ‘Moving the Mall Downtown: Reviving America’s Post-War “Main Street”’

E-mail: pauleds@googlemail.com

Most of us envisage the American post-war city as a series of homogenous suburbs punctuated by multi-lane freeways and the occasional suburban shopping mall, surrounding a decaying downtown deserted outside of the Monday to Friday working day.  While this has become an accepted truism for good reason, America’s downtowns of the 1950s and 60s had an alternative development pattern mapped out for them.  Using the successful commercial model of the suburban shopping mall and drawing on the planning traditions of Daniel Burnham’s Chicago Plan and Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities, urban planners Victor Gruen in Fort Worth, Texas, Edmund Bacon in Philadelphia and developer James Rouse in the new town of Columbia, Maryland produced extensive plans for a new American downtown: one which catered for individual citizen-consumers and heterogeneous communities alike and, more importantly, brought Main Street back into American cities.  Although neither the Fort Worth nor Philadelphia plans were completed on the grand scale intended for them, both illustrate the possibilities for American downtowns and continue to influence the design of ever-reviving U.S. central cities today.  Although smaller in scale, Rouse’s plans for Columbia reached fruition and proved the inspiration for his later projects to regenerate downtown Baltimore’s Harborplace and Boston’s Faneuil Hall.  Using original architectural renderings and plans for these projects, this paper will interrogate the socialist-humanist utopian visions behind what promised to be a radical reinvention of America’s Main Streets.

Lucy Faire and Denise McHugh, University of Leicester, ‘Changing behaviour? People on the Nottingham and Leicester High Streets, 1930-1970’

E-mail: dm7@leicester.ac.uk

This paper examines the changing behaviour of people on the high street and its connecting central retail streets in Leicester and Nottingham in the mid-twentieth century.  These decades were critical for the British city centre: the rise of mass retailing and consumption coalesced with modernist planning and regulation to generate radical changes in the built environment. Urban, architectural and planning histories have emphasized the physical and material outcomes of these developments on the streetscapes and the perspective of governmental officials and architectural professionals regarding changes to the central shopping streets. This paper is concerned with the experience and perceptions of the ‘ordinary’ high street user and the way that these perceptions and experiences were affected by synchronic and diachronic change, and across different generations and social groups.  Using a combination of visual (documentary films and photographs) sources, reminiscence and written data, the paper will argue that material change in the city could act as both an endorsement of people’s use of the high street as well as modifying their behaviour.  Moreover, user behaviour was important in creating meaning and significance in this vital area of our cities.

Jan Hein Furnée, University of Amsterdam, ‘Shop windows as modern mass media. Visual culture and social change in The Hague, 1850-1890’

E-mail: w.j.h.furnee@uva.nl

In the second half of the nineteenth century, major shopping streets in European cities changed into key sites of modernity, reflecting a new visual culture that increasingly drew on the integration of information, education, ‘commodification’ and entertainment. Drawing on visual sources and local newspapers, this paper examines the shifting visual presentation of shop windows in the Dutch residential capital The Hague, and analyses their social-cultural meanings in the changing everyday lives of different classes and both sexes. The paper asserts that when it comes to integrating the study of nineteenth-century visual culture in mainstream social and cultural history, current historiography, exemplified by Vanessa Schwartz’ inspiring analysis of visual culture in fin-de-siècle Paris, tends to focus only on the way how new visual media promoted urban experiences of social emancipation and cohesion. Looking at The Hague, we indeed find evidence that shows how modern shop windows created an urban mass of spectators, which transgressed existing inequalities of class and gender. There is also evidence, however, which suggests that, in this specific city, shop windows also reflected, intensified and generated conflicts of social inequality and disintegration in many ways – both between and within the city’s upper-, middle- and lower classes, as well as between the sexes. By discussing some concrete examples, the paper proposes to reconsider current interpretations of urban ‘signs of modernity’.

Christine Harris, Bournemouth University, ‘The consumer experience, a study of Southampton'.

E-mail: charris@bournemouth.ac.uk

In Saxon times Southampton was a small trading port, today it is a regional shopping centre.  It has seen many changes over the years for example, the opening of West Quay which has enhanced the shopping experience, the Blitz that destroyed much of the city centre. The viability of the city has been dependent on a number of factors, its merit as a port, war, its popularity as a tourist destination, and the council’s willingness to change. This paper tracks the major changes in Southampton and considers how these have impinged on the Southampton shopper’s experience.  It examines the growth of the retail offer from Saxon times. The information in earlier times is patchy, but the Regency period is rich in descriptive data due to the city’s popularity with the London Set. From c1850 data in the form of census, directories and newspapers have been consulted. It is not however just the retail outlets that make a city a destination of choice, it is the other features, cultural aspects, facilities, and transport links. These aspects are also explored in order to determine the compete offer that was available to the consumer throughout the time period. From offering unique craft products and rare items from abroad it has turned into a clone town.  Southampton is due to see the opening of IKEA in spring 2009, and although this may increase visitors to the edge of the city the problem still remains, how does Southampton offer the customer a unique experience that gave its past success.

Christine Jordan, De Montfort University, Leicester, 'History above, retail clone below: the retention of nineteenth century buildings in Leicester’s city centre’

E-mail: cjordan@dmu.ac.uk

This paper will focus on three of Leicester’s principal shopping streets and will consider the continuing shift of retail chains since the early part of the twentieth century, it will also explore the destruction and preservation of historic shop fronts and whether radical building alterations are any more or less likely to occur whether the owner is an individual or a retail chain?  The onslaught of such chains has eroded much of the character of Leicester’s city centre but at the same time upper storeys still retain much of the city’s nineteenth century architectural history.  Many of its nineteenth century retail buildings remain relatively intact. However, as in many other towns and cities this is relegated in some instances to merely the retention of the buildings façade above the ground floor.  The clone town and its obliteration of retail individuality would seem to be a late twentieth century phenomena which has proliferated in the twenty-first century but many national chains were well established by the 1950s and before. Some areas of Leicester’s city centre had already been demolished in the 1920s and ‘thirties to make way for Marks and Spencer, Woolworth’s, Lewis’s, C and A, Burton’s and others, who had already cut a swathe through Britain’s high streets.  The cloning was already in place, although not to such a large and varied extent. It is to be regretted that the local retailer struggles to survive against the coffee, fast food, fashion chains and charity shops who now dominate the high street.  Undesirable though this may be in terms of the erosion of a city’s character would the individual shopkeeper be any more sympathetic to a buildings architectural history and would this prevent the destruction of historic shop fronts? 

Delia Langstone, ‘Silver Bullet – Grey Town’

E-mail: delia@uel.ac.uk

Political rhetoric often results in determinist arguments surrounding the positive image of CCTV as a ‘silver bullet’ solution for crime and disorderly behaviour.  Gill and Spriggs stated “The Home Office endorsement of CCTV further diminished the need for planners to be seen to assess CCTV critically” (2005:64).  There are often endorsements of CCTV with reductions in crime figures attributed directly to the installation and subsequent effects of CCTV systems (Norris and Armstrong, 1999:63-64).  Webster identifies the various agencies involved in a network of activity that are “bound together by shared goals and values, with the key goal being the diffusion and operation of the technology” (Webster 2004:245).  The myth of CCTV combating major crime and the reality can be very different; the resource may be used to target what, in comparison to serious crimes, may be considered petty offences such as littering.  Cameras may be used to intervene in instances of undesirable behaviour such as underage smoking and public order transgressions (Davies, 1998:177).  The use of CCTV may result in the disproportionate targeting and exclusion of certain sections of society, for example ethnic minorities, youths and the homeless (Parker, 2000:69-70).  In city centres cameras are targeted to create environments that attract the ‘right sort’ of customer with the requisite spending power and eject the undesirable. This is seen as crucial to create a safe, ‘consumer oriented’ environment (Coleman and Sim, 2000:626).  As a result, spaces are changing: they are no longer places of diversity but surveilled sites of mass consumption.   This paper is based on a forthcoming chapter ‘Myths, Lies and Videotape’ that examines the claims made by a London Borough about the impact of CCTV on crime and fear of crime and seeks to dispel some of the myths surrounding its introduction into the high street.

Clé Lesger, University of Amsterdam, ‘Patterns of retail location in Amsterdam in the eighteenth century’

E-mail: c.lesger@uva.nl

In my paper is will use location theory and Nelson’s distinction between general, arterial and special accessibility to map and analyze the patterns of retail location in Amsterdam in the eighteenth century. In accordance with theory the main shopping streets were located in the city center, which was highly accessible to all residents and to consumers from the surrounding countryside and small cities. In the city center as well as along the main axes to markets and the city gates the retailing of shopping goods (textiles, consumer durables) was much more prominent than elsewhere in the city. In contrast, shops selling convenience goods (foodstuffs etc) were scattered all over the city. The correspondence of empirical data and location theory suggests that the urban government and institutions like guilds did not interfere with the location preferences of shopkeepers. An analysis of local acts and guild regulations corroborated this assumption. What did affect the location of shops and of main shopping streets was history, or, to put it more precisely, the morphological and socio-economic structure of Amsterdam as it came about in the preceding centuries. This legacy of the past acted as an intermediary between general location principles and the implantation of shops in the urban landscape.

Phil Lyon, Umeå University, Dave Kinney, Plymouth College of Art & Design and Anne Colquhoun, University of Abertay Dundee, 'High Street paradox: can fewer shops mean more consumer choice?'

E-mail: phil.lyon@kost.umu.se

UK High Streets are increasingly characterised not only by the similarity of constituent shops in different towns but by a reduction in diversity, and therefore mirror each other with a relatively small number of national retailers. This contrasts sharply with the large number of independent local retailers in town centres 100 or even 50 years ago and which created the impression of substantive differences between towns. This paper reports findings from a single town study of the contraction of retailer diversity – especially in relation to food shops. Unlike many UK towns, Dundee has a central nexus of shopping streets that is relatively unchanged over the years.  Using photographic evidence and street directories for 1908/9 and 1958/9, as well as reporting the current situation, features of the contraction are analysed and illustrated. In discussion, data are related to the frequently-voiced contention that consumers are now offered a greater choice of products. 

Ruth Marciniak and Allison Wylde, London Metropolitan University, ‘St Pancras International: a study of “lock in” and retail cloning’

E-mail: r.marciniak@londonmet.ac.uk and a.wylde@londonmet.ac.uk

The High-Speed rail network is a new phenomenon developing across Europe and beyond resulting in “destination stations” and the emergence of the “transumer”. This case study based at St Pancras International London, focused on decision making in the development of the station retail environment.  The theoretical framework is provided by path dependency and lock in, in relation to retail cloning in the high street. Path dependency suggests that past choices “have an enduring influence and shape emerging change initiatives” (Modell, Jacobs and Weisel (2007 p.455) and cause poor decision making and “lock in” to inferior technologies (Arthur 1989; Greener 2005).  Retail cloning relates to the replication of retail chain stores within town and city centres, due to the development of out of town shopping malls (New Economics Foundation, 2004). As a consequence, a demise in both the diversity of shops and decrease in numbers of independent traders is evident in many of today’s UK towns and cities (Judd and Kirby, 2005)  This study addresses gaps in the literature, which has largely focused on air terminals (see for example, Freathy & O’Connell, 2000; Omar & Kent’, 2001 and; Rowley & Slack, 1999). Together with, for example, Martin and Sunley (2006, p395), who say that there has been little “proper examination” of path dependency.  It is argued that destination rail stations are attractive for retailers, since customers, a potentially captive group, whilst waiting for a train, have little to do except shop. In fact Thomas (1997) suggests that shopping at transport hubs are manipulated by retailers who turn the dwell time, into the ‘happy hour’.  Rowley & Slack, (1999) suggest users happy about their primary activity, the journey, are more likely to focus on other activities, shopping.  Omar & Kent, (2001) say a state of heightened anticipation and excitement; caused in this case by the anticipation of a Eurostar weekend, can also result in increased purchasing.  Findings suggest path dependency and lock in together with a new type of retail cloning. Policy recommendations made include, improved change management and regeneration for railway stations.

Siobhán McAndrew, University of Manchester, ‘The evolution and impact of British retail planning regulation, 1979-2008’

E-mail: Siobhan.Mcandrew@manchester.ac.uk

The retail sector is heavily regulated via planning restrictions. Some argue that this provides beneficial certainty to investors and protected environmental amenities; others, that this has unduly benefited incumbent retailers and prevented beneficial regeneration opportunities and local diversity. In particular, it may have led to a distortion of competition in grocery retail - the subject of repeated competition authority investigation, comprising Supermarkets (2000), Safeway (2003), Morrisons/Somerfield (2005) and Groceries Market (2008). Retail planning regulation question overlaps the academic areas of urban economics, competition economics, and local governance, while also overlapping several policy areas: local economic development, national productivity, rural policy, land use planning and competition policy. The relevant trade-offs between retail productivity and quality of urban areas is perhaps impossible to determine. How can the optimal quality and diversity of retail space and retail offer be judged by democratic bodies; and the optimal level of ‘policy certainty’ for a centralised and complex planning regime, in the face of rapid industry change? The evolution of retail regulation from 1979 to the present is analysed, tracing strategies taken by major grocery retailers as they adapt to government policy and generate desired policy goals, thereby becoming partly ‘hybridised’. The strategic importance of retail location, land as an essential facility, and lobbying at a local and national level shall be illustrated through comparative histories of the major retailers. The attempt of the Government to correct policy in response to perceived overexpansion of retail space in 1992 and 1996, and to excessive policy complexity and poor retail productivity in 2005 and from 2007, is also traced. While a free-for-all was not a viable political option, government departments have perhaps been captured by visible stakeholders at the expense of the more diffuse interests of consumers and potential employees. The paper will conclude that obliquity in policy has often worked well; that increased devolution would enable experimentation by different local and regional authorities and thus improvements in policy tools; that the costs to the consumer of planning restrictions at the local level may have been extremely large; and that policy sclerosis has been in evidence with policy responding slowly to innovations in the industry. While excess policy uncertainty is damaging to investors, the price of ‘crude tuning’ by the Government of urban space is eternal vigilance.

David McEvoy, University of Bradford and Liverpool John Moores University, ‘Whatever happened to the hierarchy? The Manchester Conurbation 1966-2008’

E-mail: D.Mcevoy@Bradford.ac.uk

The retail hierarchy of the Manchester Conurbation c.1966 is identified on the basis of field survey of businesses by sector of activity. The current situation is identified using a variety of sources, including Experian Goad and some further field survey. Broad categories of change are identified including: the wholesale demise of many centres in inner urban areas; the survival of many suburban centres, but with a very different mix of functions; the emergence of a small number of new centres, including the Trafford Centre; and the continued importance of the original city and major town centres. Case studies of evolution and total transformation are noted, notably the emergence of ‘the curry mile’ in Rusholme. The overall pattern revealed is the survival of a slimmed down hierarchy, alongside newer retail locations such as retail parks and large isolated stores. The economic, social and regulatory forces which have promoted retail change over the four decades are discussed. The merits of revisiting the methodology of central place theory, largely ignored in contemporary academic studies of British retailing, are evaluated. The applicability of Berry’s model of the retail structure of the US city c.1966 to the present British situation is considered.

Ian Mitchell, ‘From High Street to Shopping Mall: the changing face of retailing in Derby since the 18^th century’

E-mail: ianandmarym@tiscali.co.uk

Sir Richard Phillips, visiting Derby in the 1820s, wrote, ‘I had never seen better shops in a country town’.  Derby’s main shopping streets in the 18^th and early 19^th centuries were grouped around the Market Place and the parish church of All Saints – now the Cathedral.  Nearly 200 years later the opening of the Westfield Centre in 2007 has meant that the shopping heart of the city has moved about a kilometre southwards, leaving the old heart of the city in danger of becoming a retail and commercial desert.  This drift southwards has not been a sudden development – much 20^th century retail development was outside the original core of the city.  Taking a long view from the early 18^th to the early 21^st centuries, this paper explores changes in the location of Derby’s shops, and changing perceptions of the city as a shopping centre.  Although Derby was always slightly in the shadow of its East Midlands rivals Nottingham and Leicester, it was an important cultural and leisure centre in the 18^th century.  This was reflected in its range and quality of shops.  It was a bustling market and industrial town in the Victorian period.  It now boasts a shopping mall to rival any in the Midlands.  But is this at the price of a loss of distinctiveness, so that Derby really is just a ‘clone town’?  And what has it meant for the traditional High Street shopkeepers in the older part of the city?  The paper offers some reflections on these and related issues.

Martin Purvis, University of Leeds, 'The "curse" of democracy: co-operative reactions to the development of private multiples in interwar Britain'

E-mail: geomcp@leeds.ac.uk

This paper seeks to complement recent research on competitive relationships between expanding multiples/bazaar stores and independent private retailers in interwar Britain, with attention to the impact of change on the co-operative sector. Many co-operatives were themselves significant multiple retailers on a local scale and were thus ostensibly better placed than most small shopkeepers to compete with growing private chains. However, co-operative practice and structures of ownership were increasingly called into question by the sector’s apparent inability to match the popularity of major national chains. In particular, co-operation struggled to replicate the attractions of successful bazaar stores, including Woolworth’s and Marks and Spencer. The limitations of co-operative innovation in this respect helped to generate wider debate within the movement about the movement’s profile on the high street and the need for rationalisation of its structures of ownership and decision-making. Calls for greater regional and national co-ordination followed, with the implication of a greater role for the wholesale societies in shaping retail policy and development. Some co-operative leaders even made unfavourable comparisons between the decisive leadership that characterised the most progressive private businesses and the movement’s tradition of collective democracy. The paper will thus explore both change in retail practice and the underlying internal tensions within co-operation.

Peter Shapely, Bangor University, ‘ “Our is bigger than yours!” Civic pride and the 1960s shopping precinct’

E-mail: his401@bangor.ac.uk

This paper will look at the ways in which the new wave of shopping precincts planned and built in the 1960s and 1970s were influenced by, and became a part of, the discourse of local civic pride. Focusing primarily on Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester, it will look at the discourse of civic pride and how this was applied to the new shopping centres, used by the developers and promoted through the local press. In this way, civic pride both influenced policy but was also reinforced by the new developments. They were seen as unique, offering something new, bold and imaginative. Although the general idea of the shopping precinct was replicated across the country, they were not part of a cloning exercise but were all distinct, different and (according to their developers and local councillors) better than anything else. They were part of a drive to rejuvenate and modernize the city centres and were used as examples of the distinctiveness of each particular city. The paper ill demonstrate how civic pride, so often seen as being at its zenith in the nineteenth century and as being sadly lacking in the post war period, was still influential in the 1960s, creating an influential discourse and shaping policy.

Gareth Shaw, University of Exeter, 'Queuing as a changing shopper experience: the case of grocery shopping in post-war Britain'

E-mail: G.Shaw@exeter.ac.uk

Queues and queuing are part of everyday routine and experienced by most shoppers.  However, little attention has been given to queuing as a consumer task or as a shopper experience.  The literature remains partial and rather fragmented.  This paper examines the changing experience of queuing in terms of the shift from counter service to self-service in Britain between 1945-1975.  It draws on original survey material using biographical questionnaire and oral histories to reconstruct past shopping patterns.  This provides a rich contextual framework to consider the experience of shopper queuing during a period of rapid changes in the retail grocery system.

Robin Shepherd, Bournemouth University, ‘Tidworth Community Area’

E-mail: rshepher@bournemouth.ac.uk

There are many examples of successfully deployed retail development as part of wider urban regeneration. Walker (2002) suggests that the link between retail and regeneration is ‘becoming recognised as one of the dominant mechanisms for the renewal of deprived areas and communities’.  In their article ‘Retail development and urban regeneration: a case study of Castle Vale’, Mitchell and Kirkup (2003) identify retail development as a key catalyst and stimulator of urban revitalisation. The Tidworth Community Area (TCA), South Salisbury Plain, is at an economic and social crossroads. The recognition of the need and desire of the MOD for a more secure and modern working and domestic environment has meant that the two main towns in the district have the opportunity to improve the social, economic and leisure environment for not only its personnel and families but also for the civilian population.  However, the TCA suffers from a number of overlapping social and economic difficulties that have combined to create an uncertain and unstable economy, which provides little incentive for either commercial or social stability let alone development.  Tesco, recognising the enhanced market potential offered by the MOD plans for the area, have sought and gained planning permission for a superstore development at the heart of Tidworth itself. The local and regional councils recognised in turn the further potential for a more general economic regeneration based on a much more complete retail offer using the Tesco store as an anchor.  Research undertaken by Bournemouth University’s Retail Research Group identified the principal categories of demand in the TCA footprint to allow a focused retail offering to be made, with a high degree of potential for success, recognising the importance of the confidence that Tesco have demonstrated in the strength of the present and particularly the future market. Without this commitment, the regeneration of the TCA as described would be unlikely to succeed. The research also provided the basis for the recommendation of a number of multiple retailers to populate the Tidworth Community Retail Hub to trade alongside existing independent retailers. While risking the accusation of ‘cloning’, the further social and community development recommendations of this report were designed to provide real ‘heart’ to Tidworth and the larger TCA. The development of the retail economy in the second, smaller, town of the TCA, Ludgershall, was less straightforward but was designed to be both complementary to and distinct from that of Tidworth.  The recommended development of both of these main conurbations of the TCA was thus designed to provide facilities, both commercial and social, that would enhance the entire area, providing the population of the rural as well as urban districts with significantly enhanced employment and leisure as well as retail opportunities.

Octavia Stepan, University of Architecture and Urban Planning “Ion Mincu”, Bucharest, 'Bucharest’s Calea Victoriei – from fame to oblivion?'

E-mail: octaviaana@yahoo.com

Located at the junction of oriental and occidental influences Bucharest encloses in its urban structure characteristics that never cess to stand prove for its origins. Even though the first written documentation about Bucharest is dated in 1459 and the ancient buildings remained are from the 16th century, the medieval street pattern still exists and can be distinguished form the later 19th century Haussmann-style interventions and from the aggressive communist urban pattern cuts. The paper will focus on a particular Bucharest high street whose origins belong to the Byzantine street tissue: Victory high street (calea Victoriei). It is a reference line on city’s map; around it streets disappeared or changed. Facing Bucharest transformations and evolution calea Victoriei preserved its initial path, but undergone changes in terms of land use, functions, owners and architecture. Looking at a higher scale the street follows Dambovita river corniche and connects Bucharest with the resorts from the Carpathian Mountains. This could be an explanation for its growing fame in the 19th and 20th century and for gathering along its frontages important institutions and monuments that benefit of a special architecture. During those times it was the city guiding line, the generative direction, the place where everybody wanted to be and where everybody met, where every whisper became a rumour and every rumour became news. What happened during the 20th and the 21^st century that made Victory high street fame and glory fade away in front of other high streets? The paper will analyse form urban planning, functional and architectural point of view Victory high street path in time, special attention being given to past or recent interventions that affect its present situation.

Jon Stobart, University of Northampton, ‘Making the High Street: William West’s walking tours of Birmingham, 1830’

E-mail: Jon.Stobart@northampton.ac.uk

Guidebooks have long been used as a way of directing the visitor through the town. Some, like John Gay’s Trivia, formed a general introduction to the social mores of street life. Others offered detailed itineraries for tours through the town, directing the walker along the improved streets of the town and calling at the most important locations including civic and ecclesiastical buildings, leisure facilities, charitable institutions and increasingly shops. As both practical guides and a form of armchair tourism, these books were important in constructing and broadcasting the image of the town as sites of modern consumption, be it of culture, leisure or material goods. It is perhaps then that they have received relatively little attention: the gaze of historians falling instead on the more serious town histories or guidebooks for tourist destinations such as the Lake District (Sweet, 1997; Whyte, 2000). In this paper, I want to focus in detail on the itineraries of Birmingham presented in William West’s History of Warwickshire (1830). He traces six circuits of the town, each centred on the Royal Hotel and each accompanied by a rhetoric of modernisation which highlights the achievements of the town. In particular, I want to focus on his treatment of New Street – the principal shopping street of the town, lined with ‘well stocked shops, in articles of taste, of luxury, and of general consumption’ (p.210). My purpose is partly to compare his descriptions with the listings appearing in contemporary trade directories. More particularly, though, I consider the ways in which he constructed the high street as a site of consumption: in highlighting certain features and obscuring others, he both emphasised the grandeur of the street and dressed shopping in a cloak of cultural and architectural respectability.

Nelleke Teughels, ‘Food retailing and the construction of identity: the shop architecture and window displays of Belgium’s first chain store (1870-1940)’

E-mail: nelleke.teughels@vub.ac.be

While traditional food retailing persists up to this day in Europe, the emergence of chain stores around 1870 caused a true revolution. Until recently, this radical change was primarily studied in economic terms. Food retailing in relation to cultural and social distinction has remained largely out of scope. These aspects were introduced with the concept of the "consumer revolution", which supports the view that not only what people ate but also where they purchased their food was strongly related to their aspirations, their social relationships and the construction of identity. This new form of retailing, introduced in Belgium by Delhaize Frères et Cie "Le Lion", held the promise of making food products more easily accessible to broader layers of society. However, it is doubtful that it erased most of the social differences with regard to food purchase. Social divergence is visible in the appearance and organisation of the stores, the choice of goods on sale and the advertising strategies and style, which Delhaize used to create the desired image. Using iconography and social semiotics, this paper offers a detailed analysis of the changes in the exterior of the branches of Delhaize between 1870 and 1940. By analysing shop architecture and window displays, including the offer of goods on sale, posters and other forms of publicity in the shop windows of one particular branch in Brussels, I want to contribute to the exploration of the changing nature of the high street during this period.

Bram Vannieuwenhuyze, University of Ghent, ‘The High street in medieval Brabant: mirror of urban development and traffic directions?’

E-mail: Bram.Vannieuwenhuyze@UGent.be

The Dutch street name Hoogstraat (High street) existed in nearly every medieval town and in several villages of the Low Countries. Toponymists and historians explained this name in many ways. Some referred to the geographical location of the street, while others stressed its old age or importance. In my PhD-thesis on the medieval town development of Brussels, I defended a new theory on the Brussels Hoogstraat. It was an artificially created artery which leaded straight through the former landscape and joined the 12^th- and 13^th-century town to its southern hinterland. The straight Hoogstraat replaced older winding roads and was constructed because of the importance of the southern grain traffic and the strong political links between Brussels and the ecclesiastical centres Cambrai and Nivelles (also located in the South).  In this paper I propose to study if this theory can be applied to other medieval Hoogstraten. I will only deal with the towns of the medieval duchy of Brabant (actually part of Belgium and the Netherlands), e.g. Antwerp, Leuven, ‘s-Hertogenbosch etc. These examples will indicate how the study of the location of the Hoogstraten can help to explain medieval urban town development.

Pamela Watson, Bournemouth University, Clare Kavanagh, Kavanagh & Kavanagh Event Management, James Hampton, Wimborne Minster Chamber of Trade, 'The Wimborne Food Festival: Using an event to bring people back to the High Street'

E-mail: watsonp@bournemouth.ac.uk

Wimborne Minster is an historic market town in East Dorset.  Like many similar small towns, it has found shoppers by-passing its High Street to shop at out-of-town supermarkets, or in larger centres.  The town’s Chamber of Trade sought a way to bring these people back into the town’s shopping precinct, and to show them the variety and quality of produce and other merchandise available locally.  A Chamber sub-committee was formed, which included local traders, a locally-based event management organisation and a faculty member of Bournemouth University’s School of Services Management.  The ensuing event was the inaugural Wimborne Food Festival, held as part of the Dorset Food Week, in October 2007. This paper discusses the challenges faced by the festival committee in organising such an event from the ground up, their successes and failures, and the community response.  It also discusses the impact of bringing people back into the town centre, traders’ impressions of the value of such an event, and the future of the festival.

Lesley Whitworth, University of Brighton, ‘Magdalen Street, Norwich 1958-59: a mid-century experiment in urban revitalisation’

E-mail: L.K.Whitworth@bton.ac.uk

This paper will examine the circumstances in which an entire street was drawn into a process of refurbishment and re-presentation in a little-known experiment that took place before the current concern with ‘clone town’ uniformity became as prevalent as it is now.  Instigated by the Civic Trust in conjunction with Norwich City Council, the project was carried out through the auspices of consultant architect and designer Misha Black OBE, RDI, PPSIA. Completed in the same year as Wilfred Burns’ British Shopping Centres: New Trends in Layout and Distribution was published, the approach taken in Magdalen Street could not have differed more profoundly from the precinct-based, wholesale reconstruction undertaken in Coventry (although admittedly devastated Coventry had constituted a substantially blank canvas).  Great emphasis was placed on the involvement of interested parties, and a significant amount of time and care was invested in the initial negotiations with owners and occupants.  Overall the scheme was considered to be cost-effective, and very little resistance was encountered on the grounds of cost.  It was felt to offer a viable model for similar cases of urban rejuvenation.  Subsequent to its completion, and a sign of satisfaction, was the re-establishment of the long-defunct Traders’ Association, with a view to ensuring the maintenance of the improvements.

Paul Whysall, Nottingham Trent University, ‘An inner city district centre: another side of the ‘clone town’ coin?’

E-mail: paul.whysall@ntu.ac.uk

The proliferation of a generally consistent mix of High Street retail names in major centres, the so-called ‘clone town’ phenomenon, unquestionably raises issues about the urban environmental quality and consumer choice.  However this is perhaps one side of the coin in terms of spatial retail concentration.  The concentration of multiples in larger centres has been paralleled by their retreat from many district centres, including those in deprived inner city neighbourhoods.  The case study presented here of retail occupancy in Nottingham’s Hyson Green area charts changes in occupancy over a 30 years (1973-2003) using Goad Plan data.   Hyson Green typifies many British inner city centres: a linear shopping street along a busy thoroughfare set in a multiply-deprived area containing a mix of traditional terraced housing and newer properties.  However during the period of study significant changes occurred:  extensive 1960s system-built housing was cleared allowing an Asda superstore to open fronting Radford Road in 1990, and, after considerable upheaval during construction, Nottingham’s first modern tram line opened along Radford Road in 2004. Summarising key findings it emerges that:

§       There has been a marked loss of national and local retail chain outlets from the centre.

§       Mainstream retail outlets contract from 138 to 48 progressively over time.

§       Vacancies increase over time, notwithstanding some evidence of the rate of growth of vacancies slowing in more recent years.

§       The contraction of consumer service outlets is not statistically significant over time, with a number of peaks and troughs occurring within a broad context of decline. Second-hand and other non-retail uses often provided short-term alternatives to retail occupancy.

Samodelkin Yakov, Moscow Institute of Business Development, ‘The images of death from the closed town in Novouralsk’

E-mail: selfpetrovich@mail.ru

Novouralsk is one of the youngest towns in the Ural region. Novouralsk was founded in 1954. This town wasn’t marked on the geographical map so the town was built with the plant where the production was produced for Russian Nuclear weapons. Novouralsk is the symbol of the Cold War like the Berlin’s wall. The town was built by the  prisoners  and young people who was sent by the  Communist Party of the Soviet Union. There were prisoners (10000) and young people (25000).  Formed the unique town where wires (walls) were for as the prisoners and as young people (free men). There were two groups of the builders who got the regulated timetable for every day.  At the first time the Cold War became the common property of history but now 90000 inhabitants live in and behind the concrete wall. It’s very interesting to know their ideas about the death. There are specific architecture and sculpture in Novouralsk. For example, there are many monuments for victims of the Civil war, victims of the Second World War, victims of accident at see, victims of accident at nuclear station in Chernobyl, victims of local wars, victims of accident at constructors.  These monuments are the reasons for great success of xenophobia, homophobia, fascism ideas in Novouralsk and entire in Russia. It’s thought that new town for new free-loving people have to be with life-asserting architecture and optimistic sculptures. The town-planing need to exchange for the creation of the image of lives.

Anna Zhelnina, European University at St.Petersburg, 'Transformation of Retail, Transformation of Society: changing shopping spaces in Post-Soviet Russia'

E-mail: azhelnina@gmail.com

After the fall of the Soviet system there were significant changes in all spheres of Russian society: transformation of the social and political structure, education, labor. But none of them has reacted so quickly to the changing circumstances as retail trade: the most visible sign of social transformations is the change in organization of retail spaces and consumption practices in the urban environment. In the early 90s the law on free trade, increasing import and mass employment of citizens in the individual entrepreneurship have led to the appearance of a new form of retail organization: big cities’ squares became uncontrolled open markets. At the same time new luxurious shops and boutiques came to being showing the new social strata: the ‘nouveau riches’. Since those times there were some significant changes in urban retail space organization: the state is becoming more powerful and is getting back control over the retail spaces. That leads to the fight for ‘civilized retail’: that is the new retail formats such as shopping mall, super- and hypermarkets that occupy the territory of big cities pushing away the open spontaneous markets. The patterns of space organization and communication in different retail formats are different, and the changes in retail space organization can be analyzed as visible, practical expression of transformations in social organization.