What's In Store For Our High Streets?

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic could last for years. The UK’s embattled high streets were already in crisis before the national lockdown and now find themselves having to adapt and futureproof further. We asked Nick Edwards, chair of landscape architecture, how can our high streets successfully reinvent themselves?

Oxford Street – enhancing biodiversity

How has the pandemic changed the thinking around design of high streets?

From a public realm perspective, we are seeing extensive interest in enhancing the setting for retail environments. We are providing more places for people to dwell, incorporating green infrastructure, promoting more sustainable modes of transport and encouraging retail to engage with and trade within the surrounding environment. For example, the collaboration between The Crown Estate, Westminster City Council and their design team resulted in an outstanding solution for a necessary temporary enhancement to Regent Street. The new layout safely supports pedestrian movement and the lush greening and new seating improves the shopping experience in one of London’s most famous retail destinations.

Are there particular typologies that are being considered or adopted for the future?

Local retail and locations that focus on quality of experience are likely to fare best under current and future conditions. With more people working from home and using shops, cafes and other retail services in their immediate vicinity, we are likely to see a strengthening of communityfocused neighbourhoods. Whilst there is a strong argument for why out of town might succeed with so many people travelling by car, the government will ultimately grasp the nettle and recognise that there needs to be a major overhaul in its application of business rates and its support for unsustainable densities and modes of movement. Yes. People will demand more from their high streets and there will be an increased understanding that they are not about streamlining exchanges with consumers but much more about providing a holistic experience. High streets will be increasingly seen as places with character, somewhere you can receive a high quality of service, where people can congregate, meet a friend, listen to a band, watch a performance, take some exercise, have something to eat or drink.

What could be done with the unused space that we may end up with?

There will be an element of rebalancing. Excess space could be used for housing, for craftspeople, services or a broad range of complementary uses. The high street would become all the richer were it to provide a broader range of local (and potentially global) products, a convenient food and beverage offer, internal and external markets, food halls, leisure uses, or tailored services, with smaller diverse businesses commandeering potentially characterful buildings and spaces.

How should we prepare for other future challenges?

Whilst many streets are being reconfigured to enable social distancing during the current pandemic, we have to recognise that many of our footways are too constricted to facilitate social interaction; a beneficial legacy might be one where more people can walk side by side and converse. Additional advantages in widening pavements include reducing the visual dominance of carriageways and making them easier to cross, leaving more space for buildings to physically and visually engage with the public realm and, by reducing the width from one footway to another, encouraging greater eye contact and interaction between people and activities across the street and throughout the civic centre.