Green Lanes 574-890 High Street Report

BPL N0033 CO L L A B O R AT I V E PL A N NI NG

Green Lanes 574–890

High Street Report

Consuelo Morales Madi Mukhametaliyev Lulan Shen

Rungarun Tiyanukulmongkhon Emmanuela Warren-zhang Dmitry Bolshakov

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BPL N0033 CO L L A B O R AT I V E PL A N NI NG

Green Lanes 574–890

High Street Report

Consuelo Morales Madi Mukhametaliyev Lulan Shen

Rungarun Tiyanukulmongkhon Emmanuela Warren-zhang Dmitry Bolshakov

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Foreword Context of the research High streets are places to enhance social value by provide opportunities for local business; promotes social cordiality and cultural exchange; they also encourage londoners to walk or take public transport. Unfortunately, according to Department for Business Innovation and Skill (2011), High streets are slowly losing their place within London and are quickly superseded by the unit of the town centres, foreshadowing the slow downfall of high streets.

What threats does high street face?

High street retailers are under threat as consumers are shopping more online and the cost of running a physical store on a high street is being compromised by rising business rates and legal minimum wages. According to National Statistics mentioned by Butler (2018) in the Guardian, 80,000 jobs have been lost from Britain’s high streets within the first half of 2018 and its believed to rise to 85,000.

Furthermore, Rachel Lund head of insights at the British Retail Consortium stated in the Guardian, they are witnessing increase competition and higher costs on high streets, accompanied by decline in footfall as consumers shop online (Butler., 2018; High streets for all 2017).

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Contents Introduction Green Lanes Location History Who lives around Green Lanes Methodology

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Part 1: Dimensions of the High Street 1. Workspace & Cultural Exchange 2. Affordable Retail Option 3. Social & Community Infrastructure 4. Gathering Space

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Part 2: London Plan’s Provisions Introduction Just Space’s Critique Assessing the London plan Draft London Plan 2017 Draft London Plan 2018

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Part 3: Indicators for High Streets Table of indicators

67 69

Reflection on the Project References

71 73

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Green Lanes 574–890 The part of the high street explored in the present study was a stretch of Green Lanes that spanned from building no 574 through to 890.

Land use types

Individual rental & business Superstores (chain stores)

Beauties (salon, barber shop) Petrol station Recycling point Non-identified Comm. service, education, health

Religious Establishment Restaurant & Cafes

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Location

574 Green Lanes, London N13 5RZ --> Pegasus Court, 890 Green Lanes, London N21 2RW Enfield Borough

Legend All London high streets Enfield Borough Site Location

Map of 600 London high streets (Design for London, LDA, High Street London. By Gort Scott, UCL (London: 2010) 32)

Map of 600 London high streets (Design for London, LDA, High Street London. By Gort Scott, UCL (London: 2010) 32)

The study area in this report is on the high street Green Lanes. Green Lanes, is a main road that runs through North London into part of the A105 road. It covers a distance of 6.3 miles between Newington Green and Winchmore Hill. Our high street (Green Lanes) lies within the ward of Winchmore Hill. Winchmore Hill is a village green surrounded local and chain store retails, it was also part of the Mini Holland Project, where a bike lane runs through the site.

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Historical Context Green Lanes runs from Newington Green to Bush Hill, and is London’s longest stretch of raod.

‘Drovers bringing animals to London for slaughter liked the road because it was less busy than other highways.’

Roman Period Originally could have been a drovers’ road along which cattle were walked.

Around 1860s Green Lane passes through the ward of Winchmore Hill, which was a small village ten miles from London, in the Borough of Enfield. To get to London you took the omnibus.

1907 The electric tram route north from Wood Green to Winchmore Hill opened in 1907.

Now Green lane now is utilized by cars, bikes and pedestirann. More over, with the new Hertford Loop line (Winchmore Hill station) journey time to central London went from an uncomfortable two hours to just twenty minutes Surrounding areas of Green Lanes were slowly developed with the introduction of rail

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Who lives around the high street Majority of the residents in the high street area belong to a working class age, this provides the local authorities and other businesses on the high street to attract and hire local employees. The diversity in age groups also creates opportunities for developing different facilities to suit their individual needs, for example: nursery schools for children and community centers for elderly people.

Legend

The high street is home to a wide range of ethnic groups along with a mix of residents with different religious background. This shows the highly integrated nature of the high-street as it is 10 miles from central London and used to be small village in the past.

Super Output Areas, Lower Layer E00006968, 021D E00007754, 022E E00007757, 022E E00007760, 022B E00007762, 022E E00007764, 026E E00007765, 022B E00007772, 026E E00007775, 022B E00007776, 029C E00007781, 029C E00007453, 026B E00007453, 026B

Age Groups (2011)

Ethnic Groups (2011)

Religions (2011) 19% 7% 0%

White Asian Other

Mixed

BAME

Black/African/ Carribean/Black British

59%

1%

1% 9% 2%

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45–64

16–29

65+

30–44

3%

Christian

Buddhist

Jewish

Muslim

Other

0–15

No Religion

Hindu

Sikh

Not Stated

Tenures (2011)

Majority of the tenures on the high street are either owned with a mortgage or a loan and are owned outright. This shows that majority of the tenures on the high street are affluent and well employed, which correlates with the high median household income of the neighborhood; however, there are still certain residents who’s needs the market place accommodations can not meet. Strong tenure profile in turn increases the overall real-estate prices of the properties on the high street and can gradually lead to gentrification of the area.

Owned Outright Mortgage/Loan

Social Rented Private Rented

Median Annual Household Income Estimate (£) 2012/13 43,970

45,880 39,100

37,970 34,000

Neighbourhood Median

Winchmore Hill

Palmers Green

Enfield 2017

London 2013 13

Methodology Primary Research Interviewing businesses along the high street The questionnaire was developed to understand whether businesses were thriving on the high street or not. At the beginning the survey asks general questions about the business, such as, when it was opened, number of employees working.

Following with descriptive questions (qualitative data) about the high streets and the business itself, for example, ‘In a few words, how would you describe Green Lanes high street?’, ‘for what key traits do locals value your business’, ‘what are the key threats to your business locally?’, ‘do you get more customers on a weekday or on a weekend?’

There were also questions about the number of people that shop at these businesses (Quantitative data), for example, ‘How many customers on average do you get per day’, How many customers on average did you get per day 3 years ago (e.g. 10% more or less than currently)?’

Since a bike lane runs through the entire high street on either side, the questionnaire also asks about the impact it has on the businesses and public space, for example, ‘What is the impact of the new bike lane on your business, if any?’ and ‘What is the impact of public space outside your shop on your business, if any?’

Observations Observation methods were useful to the project in a variety of ways. It provided data of nonverbal expression of emotions, understanding the different interactions between people have within different spaces. According to Kawulich (2005) cited DeWALT and DeWALT (2002) stating “the goal for design of research using participant observation as a method is to develop a holistic understanding of the phenomena under study that is as objective and accurate as possible given the limitations of the method.” With this knowledge in mind the four specific points were chosen to on the high street to carry out pedestrian observation. The sites were divided into cluster one, two, three & four. Point one and four were chosen because they were the starting and ending point respectively to the high street. Point two was located outside the chain store Sainsbury; the reason for this was to investigate whether people would use the high street purley to shop at Sainsbury’s and leave or use 14

the high street for is other facilities (shopping at the local grocery store, or purchasing local coffee instead of starbucks, which is located within Sainsbury’s). Cluster three was chosen because all local retails and business were gathered along this particular area, therefore this would be the optimum place to observe pedestrian activity indoors and outdoors.

Secondary Research Data was extracted from the London Datastore such as: Demographic was collected from the Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) : The LSOA is a hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small area statistics in England and Wales. For our project we specifically looked at: Median income Ethnicity Age Religion Data was also collected from google maps to check for each business’s opening hours, customer reviews and load capacity.

Moreover, the project also gathered the most popular tweets on the High street.

Limitations Limitations the project faced while carrying out the surveys included the poor weather conditions that could have created bias within the data collected, for example, the observation of pedestrians were carried out on cold rainy days, this could have resulted in less footfall on the high street, distorting the narrative of the area. Moreover, the observation were carried out only 3 times; it is recommended that surveys should be taken at different times of the day and in different weather conditions, in order to properly deduce conclusions of an area.

Here is an extensive comment mentioning what kinds of research methodologies were used

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Part 1

Dimensions of High Street 1. Workspace & Cultural Exchange

2. Affordable Retail Option

3. Social & Community Infrastructure

4. Gathering Space

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1. Workspace & Cultural Exchange A high street has emerged as an economic driver of a settlement and historically has been vital in providing jobs and goods for the population.

Yet, with the changing nature of shopping, increasing rents and demographic turnover, job market structure on the high street is changing too. 70,000 jobs were lost in 2018 due to the high streets consumption slowdown, according to British Retail Consortium.

The team has conducted interviews with the local enterprises to examine how healthy do they feel, what are the opportunities and constraints, and what is their role in the local job market. Due to the nature

of the Winchmore Hill section of the Green Lanes, businesses here were found to be essential in fascilitating cultural exchange and diversity.

This observation ties to the concept of a ‘melting pot’, with the local economy acting as a mediator for adaptation and enablement of the ethnic minorities. But beyond that notion of assimilation, there are hints that the high street presents the opportunities for welfare, representation and assertion of self-identity. Those are the very opportunities that the vulnerable groups typically lack elswhere.

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Approach The methods included collection of primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with the local enterprises and observations of the indoor spaces. Secondary data was extracted from census (London Datastore).

Approximately 15% of the enterprises were interviewed, comprised of a varied mix of sectors typical of the area: barbeshops, groceries, pharmacies, coffeeshops, real estate agencies and other.

There is a number of findings in regards to the employment and cultural importance of the high street, in particular, resilience and business cycles of the local enterprises, as well as their dependancies on urban design interventions commisioned by London policies.

How many interviews?

Summary

17% 13 3–4 67 92% 77% 54% 20

of enterprises interviewed years is the average age of enterprises average employee headcount average daily number of customers of enterprices get more customers on weekends see bike lane/parking restriction as a major threat experienced decrease in turnover over last 3 years

What kinds of entreprises?

How old are the enterprises?

Food & Drink places

Average age

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With an average age of 13 years of the interviewed enterprises, it is apparent that many of them have established relationships with the local residents. Customers have approached us in a pharmacy during an interview, to emphasize how important these personal connections are for sustaining trust and loyalty to the shop.

Grocery Funeral Design & Hous. decoration

Vehicle related Newsagents Electronic devices Casino Fireworks

Indian

Turkish/ Kebab

Chinese

Cafe

Greek

Fast Food

Pub

DIverse offer of cuisines presents opportunities both for locals to enjoy variety of food and for ethnical minorities to find a job using informal connections within the communities. We have noticed a clusterization pattern, for instance, turkish takeaways tend to occupy units next to turkish barbershops. This might indicate use of cultural bonds in addressing ownership and logistics issues.

Which chainstores present?

What kinds of businesses?

Housing agency

Italian

Packaging Key maker Toy Shop Clothing Financial inc. insurance & solicitors

Ladbroke’s

Sainsbury’s

Waitrose

The local offer of goods and services is highly diversified, with the most of the units belonging to local businesses which tend to be more affordable as compared to the chain stores (see Affordable Retail section). The offer is heavily focused on basic needs such as grocery, vehicle services, yet presense of housing agencies, financial insitutions and design decorations suggest relatively high disposable income.

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Now & then An important part of the interviews was to study the impact of centralised London policies such as Mini-Holland bike lane on the local enterprises. The interview was structured in such a way as to avoid biases and opinionated answers and at the same time gain numerical evidence of the impact. Therefore, before proceeding to the questions about bike lane, enterprises were first asked to compare their current turnover with an average level of three years ago (before the Mini-Holland scheme was implemented). Strikingly, most of the businesses reported decrease of customers, with many experiencing two-fold contraction.

Later during the interview, entrepreneurs have reflected on the factors behind this trend. Most, but not every enterprise reported the bike lane as a direct cause of the decrease. Some have noted that the nature of their business (such as real estate) is not dependent on the number of parkings available, hence, the impact on them was indirect. Rather, they have noticed an overall footfall decrease in the area, than in turn indirectly affected number of visits to their units.

How many customers 3 years ago?

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People and businesses Representation of minorities

BAME workforce representation = 2.2 = 55/25

The team has collected data through interviews and observations to compile a demographic profile of the people employed on the high street. This profile was then compared to the demographic structure of the residents around the high street (7 adjacent LSOAs).

% BAME employees = 55% % BAME residents = 25%

It is apparent through the comparison that the share of BAME employees is higher than local BAME residents. Same is true for people of the 16-29 age group. This suggests that the high street might provide an important opportunity employment for young people and ethnic minorities. Whereas people of different background might possess education or transport means to work elsewhere, these social strata might rely heavily on the high street in purusing welfare or social security.

The are two limitations to these findings. First, that BAME or young people employed on the high street are not necessarily local residents, although this was usually the case during the interviews. Second, the demographic data of the area is extracted from the 2011 Census and is hence outdated. Nevertheless, such a comparison might be a useful monitoring tool after the new census will be published.

Tested indicators Employment density Floorspace / Number of employees: Values under 1.0 suggest underrepresentation BAME workforce representation % BAME employees / % BAME residents

Employment density Another useful indicator is employment density. It helps to trace how job density on a high street changes across different contexts and in time. With an average of 60 sq m of net internal area (NIA) and 3.5 employees per unit, the density level on the high street would be 17.1 sq m per one employee. This is in line with an average of 15-20 according to the general trend reported in the 2015 Employment Density Guide by the Homes and Communities Agency.

Untested indicators Cultural Exchange Defining community groups by discussion topics (social media data) and spatiotemporal patterns (agregated cellphone data). This will give insight in diversity of various grops and the extent to which social mixing is taking place.

Ethnicity & Age of business vs neigbhourhood

Rent vs Revenue Annual rent change / local business revenue change An indicator of how afforable the rent is for local businesses. Data on revenue could be collected by authorities from income tax reports. Rent growth being faster than revenue growth could signal threat to viability of the high street economy.

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2. Affordable Retail Option According to High Street for All (2107), accessible economic opportunities are highly varied on high street.

Especially on Green lanes high street, mostly there are local owners which provide local products, services and fair price for local residents and people who visit on high street while chain store business model sells higher price due to its operation cost (i.e. Pizza express, Starbucks) but some for example, Sainsbury provides lower prices and greater choices for products, services and also facilities (i.e. toilet, parking) which can promote for a commercial activity on high street.

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Approach Similarly to other sections, the team has approached Affordable Retail aspect with online research and observations. Local prices were recorded at chain stores and local shops, while income data was collected from the most recently available (2013/2014) London data store sources.

The observations depicts the relationship between product prices and purchasing power, which shows an affordability in daily life for local residents and potential newcomers.

Moreover, the calculation of daily income per local product or service (i.e. haircut, pizza, coffee, wine) and its benchmarking against another high street can act as a useful proxy of “retail affordability” of a street. This excercise has been conducted for Green Lanes

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Local Purchasing Power The affordability of the retail offer on the high street depends on both demand and supply. Income of the residents drives the demand for local goods and services.

People residing around the high-street (in the adjacent LSOAs) have relatively high income as compared to median London and Enfield borough levels. However, there is spatial variation of income, with less affluent citizens residing in the south-east, and more affluent in the north-west. This variation seems to correlate with the ethnic variety, with most BAME minorities residing in the south-east.

Income varies significantly from Northern to Southern part of the high street

Median Annual Household Income Estimate (£) 2012/13 43,970

45,880 39,100

37,970 34,000

Neighbourhood Median

Winchmore Hill

Palmers Green

Enfield 2017

On average, the neighborhood is relatively affluent as compared to the borough and city levels

London 2013

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Local Retail Structure A High Street of clusters Land uses map showing different type of non-residential uses

Retail uses in the high street

Definition of Retail Retail in the Green Lanes high street is considered as a non-residential use and an actor which provide products, goods, food and services for everyday needs of local residents and also visitors. There is intense competition among the local shops, except for some categories such as petrol stations (monopolised by Esso), and hence less flexible in terms of price. About 95% of all retail options are local shops and the 5% are chain brand such as Sainsbury’s, Waitrose. This Green Lanes section has a unique use pattern different from typical high streets, as the retail frontage here is not continuous, but rather clusterized, and con-sists of four different retail clusters, each with its distinct character and uses.

These specific features of an overall ‘Green Lanes high street as affordable retail options could be indicated in a following break-down; Cluster 1 - as affordable product & service options. Cluster 2 - as affordable high-end products and free parking lots Cluster 3 and 4 - as affordable quality local retail options for everyday life.

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Local retail option for everyday life Retail Cluster 1 as affordable product & service options

Retail Cluster 1

The intense competition on the high street drives the prices down, in line with the perfect competition theory. The degree of competition and economic concentration could be used as monitoring indicators by the local authorities.

Both sides of frontages elevation on high street in cluster 1 area showing the prices of products and shop options

Retail Cluster 2 as affordable high-end products & free parking lots

Retail Cluster 2

With the introduction of the bike lane, the free parking space along the local shops have been severely reduced.

However, this had less affect on chain stores, since they tend to have large parking plots besides (free to customers). Hence the more affordable local offers are exposed to economic vulnerability. It is important to not that chain stores do not equate ‘unaffordable’. Even within the superstores, affordability varies (Starbucks fresh cup vs. supermarket can, see on page 30).

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Frontage elevation on high street within cluster 2 area showing product offer and pricing

Both sides of high street’s frontages’ elevation in cluster 3 area showing the price of food, drinks and other products from observation

Green Lanes High Street

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Green Lanes Cluster 3 a factor of purchasing power. Another comparison that incorporates income as affordable quality difference, shows that Green Lanes high street could be much less affordalocal retail options ble option than Marylebone high street (with £56,650/year) or about £155/day for everyday life income (LSOAs, 2013). This is because The data from LSOAs (2017) shows that Green Lanes high street income (Neighbourhood median) is £43,970/year. This suggests a purchasing power of £120 products worth in Green Lanes high street, which is different from other high streets. Marylebone high street, for example, is illustrative of how less affordable central London locations could be in terms of prices of daily products.

However, the comparison above is based on Green Lanes residents’ income as

Green Lanes residents income is less than in the more central high streets while the price of coffee does not differ as much, for instance. Hence, both incomes and prices are important indicators of the affordability of the high street, and should be coupled together for any affordability assessment.

Retail Cluster 3

Green Lanes High Street (contd.)

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Green Lanes Cluster 4 as affordable quality local retail options for everyday life Green Lanes high street provides a great choice of di-verse and affordable food and drinks which can be rep-resentative of local lifestyles and consumption patterns. An existing community’s food purchasing power per day proposed by the suggested personal finance from Credit Counselling Society (2108) is 20% of income. When applied to the local income, the daily budget is suffi-cient for whole meal (coffee, pizza, main course, and a glass of wine) or one proper meal for everyday lunch or dinner (for students, for example).

There are two caveats to these indicators. First, this consumption basket is only illustrative (ideal) and could be different in real life. Second, the cheapest prices were used for daily meal calculation. Realistically, higher pric-es would apply.

Both the local existing residents and the new potential demographic (like students) are impor-tant, because both could affect vitality of high streets in future.

Green Lanes High Street

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Retail Cluster 4 Both sides of frontages elevation on high street in cluster 4 area (part 1)

Green Lanes High Street

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Benchmarking affordability: Marelybone vs Green Lanes What can Green Lanes’ (GL) residents afford locally?

How affordable are products & services for Green Lanes’ residents and Marelybone High Street’s residents?

Green Lanes median income LSOAs (2017) is £120 p/day

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Marelybone HS median income LSOAs (2013) is £155 p/day

3. Social & Community Infrastructure High street should play a convenient nature for surrounding people in terms of transport. People should be able to access to the high street mainly through sustainable travel method like walking or cycling, meantime, the high street should be a place of transit and connectivity, and the transport connections linking the surrounding places to other locations across London.

Two sections of the high street showing transport infrastructure provision on the high street

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Approach In order to investigate how the social infrastructures served citizens, the counting and interviews have been conducted to generate the result. Both research have been carried out on weekdays and weekends to test the differences. Other influential factors such as weather, location and cycling facilities (such as bicycle stand) has been taken into account as well.

From the section map, there are 2-way vehicle lanes, bus shelter space, pavement and cycle lanes. This cycle lane is part of mini Holland project, intended to provide social infrastructures to encourage sustainable travel. This project has also been informed for residents and business along the site. After a long time carefully investigation and design, this project has been implemented. However, during the study, we found out that this cycle lane is not well-used by people. According to our observation, there were only maximum 6 cyclist for both way during counting. Plus, the cycle lane has adverse impact on local business as well.

One specific business has claimed policies that encouraged the construction of the cycle lane has resulted in the removal of the free parking space which used to be in front of the business. Unfortunately, this has slowly lead to its bankruptcy. In addition, questionnaires carried out with the businesses all received negative feedback on the impact the cycle lanes has on their business. Therefore, this shows that planners must conduct in depth analysis on the character of an area before implementing certain infrastructures which could potentially do more harm than good. In addition, apart from the main traffic junction, there are little cycle-parking facilities along the high street which reduces the opportunities for cyclists to access local businesses. Therefore, we are proposing to redevelop the cycle lane to give the original street environment back to individuals or even, improve it.

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“It’s exclusive of many people, for example, the elderly. And hardly anybody uses it. Some still use the pavement or the road to cycle. And it restricts parking near the shop, which affects our turbover. Big shops like Sainsbury’s do not experience this, because they have their own parking” — Local Interviewee

Transport for Community Transport plays an essential role in social infrastruc-ture (social infrastructure). In the view of the radius map of stations on Green lane, the range covers most of the high street and surrounding neighborhoods. However, during the investigation, bus services were predominantly the main public transport used by the residents. Firstly, the high street lacks ease of access to its tube stations. The nearest tube station is a 40 minute walk away from the starting point of the high street, and an hour from the endpoint. Hence, it is clearly indicated that Green lane is not within the catchment area of the London underground. Secondly, the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) service which is a 10 minute walk away from the high street it does not provide an efficient number of trains and waiting time can take up to 15-30 minutes. Reducing residents incentive to take public transport, hence we counted a large number of car flows that drive through the high street, indicating a wider use of private cars. All in all, the transport system on and around the Green Lane failed to serve the needs of local residents.

Proportion on PPP projects investment into social infrastructures in the uk

Transport

Defence

Education

Others

O Winchmore Hill Rail Station

Transport Accessibility Map National Rail Station: 800m Bus stop: 400m

Health

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Community “Land Uses” Based on several planning guides, such as, High Streets For All and the London Plan, education, health, religion and other related services are significant to the infrastructure on the high street.

They provide spaces for social and economic exchange.These services always act beyond their formal role as a business entity, providing a service for people to create social and cultural exchange.

However, the services provided on the high street are restricted; in terms of health facilities, there are two NHS clinics, one vet and two pharmacies. The insufficient provision of services could be due to the lack of financial support by the local council to the high street. Marginalized businesses cannot afford to support themselves nor perform important social roles. In conclusion, Green Lane’s high street does not provide adequate cultural, sport and leisure services.

13% Is the proportion of services taken up by community and religious uses out of the overall services

Community uses

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Post Office

Police Station

Indian

Dancing School

Medical & Health

Library

Infrastructure for Safety Safety plays an important part contributing to good social infrastructures, and lighting can assist safety to a large extent (Jacobs, 1961). High street normally has better facilities which lead to relative low crime rate (Greater Lodnon Authority, 2017). There are 48 crimes happened in Janurary, 2019 around the Green Lane, which compare to other areas are relative safe. And all crime locations are approximate for reasons of privacy.

(Data source: street check, 2019)

Crime Area

Street Lighting on Green Lanes

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Enfield’s ‘Mini-Holland’ Some of the shops had to close as a consequence of Mini-Holland’s installation

Mini-Hollands are a scheme that aims to extend cycling infrastructure (namely, lanes) into the outter boroughs of London — Enfield, Kingston and Waltham Forest (tfl.gov.uk). This is done through the allocation of investment of £30m to each of the boroughs, as part of Mayor of London’s Healthy Streets agenda.

Whilst the intentions of the programme may be deemed benevolent, nonetheless the addition of a piece of cycling infrastructure in the Green Lanes (574–890) has been controversial.

an image of a disused cycling infrastructure piece, are presented in the graph.

The research group’s explanation of the lack of cycling activity lies in our perception of this lane as being “out of context” for this High Street. When looking at the demographics breakdown of the area, it can be seen that many people are indeed rather old and are unlikely to use the bicycle lane.

This is supported by anecdotal evidence from some of the shop owners during interviews.

Lack of usage of the lane, however, is not an issue for the High Street per se. Online research showed During the working group’s initial unstructured that the issue has been rather big with the local observation of the area, one of the starking findings enterprises and local people. A campaign group was the fact that the cycling lane was barely used. It called “Save Our Green Lanes” was set up, which was noted that within the hour of the observation filed a judicial review against the in but lost it process only one or two cyclists were seen. (road.cc., 2016).

After these initial findings, a structured observation was set up, where, along Green Lanes Sentiment against the lane was discovered among (574–890), three points were selected to conduct business owners, with 8 out of 12 interviewed entraffic counts by transport mode — pedestrian, terprises identifying some degree of decrease in the automobile and cycle. The findings, which picture amount of customes they were observing.

Vehicular, Pedestrian and Cycling flows in the graphs to the right were recorded at four points, each taking place for 10 minutes. Numbers on and above the charts representthe number of units of transport that passed through the corresponding point within the 10 minutes timespan.

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Max number of cyclists observed in 10 mins

Cyclists, Monday Cyclists, Sunday

The four observation points are shown in dashed line, whilst the bicycle lane’s location is shown in red

It can be seen that car and pedestrian transport modes are much more prominent as compared to cycling.

Pedestrians, Sunday

Cars, Sunday

Pedestrians, Monday

Cars, Monday

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4. Gathering Space High streets are social places, where people interact with neighbours and visitors. High streets offer multiples experiences every day, having a vital role for cities. According to High Street for All (2017) high streets are especially important for marginalised and under-represented groups.

Gathering spaces are present in cities in both outdoor (public space) and indoor (buildings), and high streets group a variety of them. In this specific section of Green Lanes, gathering spaces can be found with different shapes along the high street. The following analysis shows the main points where the community come together.

The following study was divided into indoor and outdoor spaces in order to have an understanding of both aspects of Green Lanes. The methodology used was based mostly on quantitative observation; however, due to the complexity of approaching to a large number of indoor spaces, the research was complemented with data from Google.

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Approach In order to understand how this section of Green Lanes perform as a place where people gather, we explore firstly the physical space that allows those social interactions to happen. Thus, the gathering spaces were classified into two physical areas. The first corresponds to indoor spaces, which offer different functions that bring the community together. The second is outdoor spaces, which are areas that regard to the public realm. After having identified how gathering spaces are shaped, Green Lanes is explored through different methodologies according to each classification.

Outdoor Spaces Regarding to outdoor spaces, the public realm was studied along the whole section to identify through observation the main points were people gather. Pedestrian counting was carried out in four points, and from there it was possible to determine two main outdoor gathering spaces which correspond to the two “pocket squares” in the retail clusters number 3 and 4. Once identify the outdoor key areas, a systematic observation was developed recording pedestrian flows and stationary activities.

Indoor Spaces Indoor spaces were observed through two different methodologies.

The first one was an observation at different times to measure what were the most used venues. This observation provides us with three main places along the High Street, indicated on the map, with which quantitative observation was used to record how many people spend time on those venues. The second was through data collected from the Google Maps visitors record, using this information more places could be evaluated and in a large range of time.

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Indoor & Outdoor Spaces The map highlights the main places for people to gather in indoor venues and marks the two principal gathering areas in the public realm, which are simultaneous two of the retail clusters.

The Three Wishes Starbucks

Library Cluster 4

Cluster 3

Cluster 3

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Indoor Spaces: Opening Times Potential venues and their opening times Chain Store - The graph depicts the opening times of the Chain Store on the High streets; the results show that chain stores are usually open till 21:00 pm or 22:00

s (chain s tore store per s) u S

munity servic e Com

Beauty industries - The beauty industries generally have shorter opening hours, beauty stores along the high street seem to all open at the same time (9:00 am) but close at varies times from (16:00 pm- 19:00 pm).

Retail businesses - Retail businesses on the high street open at different hours and close at different hours, the earliest opening hour is at 6:00 am and the latest closes at 23:00 pm. Only one business is opened for 24 hours.

Food & drink – There are many food stores along the high street, they mainly have three-time slots. Slot one usually opens in the early morning (6:00 am) and close in the late afternoon (17:00 pm); Slot two usually have short opening hours that open after 12:00 pm and close around 18:00 pm; Slot three open after 18:00 pm running through till midnight.

ual rental and bus ivid ine d In ss

Community service – Community services usually have short opening hours.

rant and Ca fes stau Re

These diagrams show the opening times of each land use classification.

Rings that have different transparencies within the same circle represent multiple shops of the same function that either open or close at the same time.

ty Industry Beau

Community service Restaurant and Cafes Individual rental and business Beauty industry Superstores (chain stores) Religious establishment Petrol station

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Indoor Gathering Spaces: Main Venues After regular visits to Green Lanes, three main places where the community meets were identified. Below there is a sample of a Wednesday in January where the composition in terms of gender is shown.

A balanced composition is observed between men and women in the Starbucks; it is also seen that the age range is around 15-18 years and they form mixed groups in the interior.

In the library and in the pub acalled The Three Wishes, the composition is dominated by gender. In the first case, it is dominated by women, forming groups in the interior. In the second case, it is a gathering space that is strongly dominated by men.

The Three Wishes Wed 17:00 Women 2 Men 31

The Three Wishes

Starbucks Wed 16:30 Women 9 Men 4

Starbucks

Library Library Wed 16:00 Women 15 Men 8

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Indoor Gathering Spaces: Load Capacity of Venues It is useful to examine daily cycle of the local enterprises. First, it hints the most demanded goods and services. Second, it suggests implications for vitality and safety of the high street. Although opening times can inform us about the supply side (what’s on offer and when), visit statistics is perhaps more insightful on what’s actually demanded (and when).

Of course, supply follows demand, but not necessarily in all cases and not immediately. For example, for some shop owners it might be convenient to operate at a certain time, no matter what the demand is. Hence, demand indicators might be useful in monitoring and early signaling of the local economic cycles.

9:00–11:00 Breakfast Time The first map is showing load capacity during breakfast time grouping the data from 9:00 am to 11:00 am.

The three following plans show the load capacity in food and drink venues that have data in Google Maps. The information is registered every one hour, and from it, the data was organised in three main meal times: breakfast, lunch and dinner time. Thus, the hourly indexes were grouped among the three ranges mentioned above.

Afterwards, the load capacity percentages were organised into three intensity levels: 20%, 50% and 100%, varying in size the circles respectively as indicated in the diagram.

From the plans, two main results are observed; first, during dinner time, the highest concentration of users is observed. Second, the most active areas per users are grouped in the clusters.

100% The maps show load capacity in every venue where Google Maps provides data. Each circle is showing three range of load capacity percentage: 20%, 50% and 100%.

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50% 20%

100% 50% 20%

12:00–15:00 Lunchtime The second map is during lunch time between 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm.

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100% 50% 20%

19:00–23:00 Dinner Time The third map is during dinner time between 7:00 pm. to 11:00 pm.

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The team has collected available visit statistics (capacity load) of the enterprises on high street from Google Maps.

Understandably, this data was only available for the most reviewed food and drink venues. Nevertheless, it is a reasonable proxy of the local economy, as the most reviewed places tend to have more customers. The data was collected for Fridays, as it captures both the weekday and evening dynamics. One green shape indicates one venue. The further a shape deviates from the centre of the graph, the more loaded is its capacity, the more visitors a venue attracts. Outer dashed line boundary indicates maximum (100%) capacity.

As can be seen on the graph, most venues are open considerably late (this includes pubs, bars and restaurants). In fact, evenings seem to be the most attractive on Fridays, drawing significantly more customers than during lunchtime. This is a good signal for safety, as increased footfall and activity make crimes less likely after dark. Collection and analysis of this data in a similar manner, for every day of the week and on an annual basis, can inform local authorities of how the high street operates and how its nature changes in time.

Capacity loads of enterprises during different times of the day

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Outdoor Gathering Spaces: Clusters The following diagrams show the two small squares which are contained in the High Street; they are called clusters because they are also the places where fine grain retail is concentrated and therefore are the most active spaces along this section of Green Lanes.

Below is a sample of a Wednesday in January where all pedestrian tracing and stationary people are recorded for 10 minutes making the distinction by gender.

From the observations made, an intense pedestrian movement is detected, and in a lower degree presence of stationary activity. Nevertheless, it is still a valuable gathering space probably for short time activities.

The method used could be more informative if it were done systematically in different seasons of the year, in this way it could inform how the public space varies and possibly during summer time more activity is observed.

Sample of Wednesday at 17:10 - 17:20 Men walking: 17

Women walking: 30

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Men standing: 3

Women standing: 4

7

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The maps record both stationary (in dots) and people walking (movement tracing line). The first map shows cluster 4 and the second map show Cluster 3.

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Sample of Wednesday at 16:30 - 16:40 Men walking: 33

Women walking: 26

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Men standing: 3

Women standing: 11

14

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the photos illustrate a sequence of social dynamics in the public realm, specifically in the cluster 3 where people gather and use the street furniture.

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Source: london.gov.uk

Part 2

London Plan’s Provisions 55

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Introduction London Plan is a crucial policy document that governs the planning of the city. Providing strategic planning framework for the Local Authorities’ own Plans, it covers a range of topics:

2. Spatial Development Patterns 3. Design 4. Housing 5. Social Infrastructure 6. Economy 7. Heritage & Culture 8. Green Infrastructure & Natural Environment 9. Sustainable Infrastructure 10. Transport 11. Funding the London Plan 12. Monitoring The general criticism of the London Plan is that there is a lack of policies that would protect the value of the high street and there is an unbalanced focus on town centres rather than the high streets, which as seen as more valuable. Following on this, the present section will seek to further explore Just Spaces’ criticisms of the Draft London Plan, and then analyse the Plan’s provisions for high streets’ values — as identified in chapter.

Both Draft London Plan 2017 and 2018 will be explored for this purpose and any changes to provisions will be assessed and highlighted.

“Town Centre”

91

“Street”

32 “High Street”

13

“High Street” word combination is only mentioned 13 times in the Draft London Plan, compared, for instance, with “Town Centre”, which is mentioned 91 times, 7x times as frequently

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Just Space’s Critique One of the important sources of critique of London Plan was Just Space’s response to Draft London Plan. Below is a summary of points raised by the response document that were found to be useful to the analysis of the impact of London Plan on the High Street.

— It is recognised that High Streets are facing threats in the form of changing retail habits. The undermining of the economic base of High Streets may lead to London losing the precious social value that High Streets possess. With 47% of businesses being outside Central London and with High Streets (and areas within 200 meters thereof) supporting 1.45 million jobs, with its known beneficial effects on minorities, vulnerabilities of High Streets to the present pressures might mean the loss of their important values.

— Much of the very few policies that are related to High Streets in the London Plan are about the High Streets that fall within Town Centre boundaries. However, as Just Space notes, “Nearly 70 per cent of London’s high streets don’t fall within a town centre boundary” (Just Space, 2018) and so provisions for the high streets outside of these boundaries are overlooked.

— The purpose of policies related to high streets should be to “protect and sustain capacity” of the high street, which is envisioned to be similar to industrial land policies. In context of high streets’ social value, it is seen as a very important point, given the dependance of minority groups (for example, BAME) on the high streets’ provisions.

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“See Professor Suzi Hall’s work revealing that ‘High Streets’ are more important than Town Centres for services, employment, vitality and vibrancy.”

Just Space Comments on Draft New London Plan (2018)

Analyzing London Plan The Plan’s provisions for high streets was assessed with the use of a matrix tool. The first set of policies that were directly relevant to high streets was identified through a “ctr + F” search through the Draft London Plan 2017 document, with policies recorded and located according to the High Street’s value dimensions (as identified in chapter 1). This set of policies was then assessed in terms of its content and a judgement was made as to whether these policies were able to “provide” for high streets”, basing this judgement on the general criticism of Just Space’s Response to London Plan.

The second set of policies that is featured in the table were those that were identified as related to the five dimensions of high streets, but did not actually mention them as such, Those were placed in a matrix and a graph was produced to identify what dimensions were addressed by these policies.

Third step to the analysis consisted of looking into the latest Draft London Plan 2018. A comparison was produced to highlight how many more times was the term “high street” mentioned in the new iteration of the plan. Amendments to include “high street” in specific policies were highlighted.

Based on these steps, conclusions were drawn as to whether Just Space’s criticisms were valid and whether London Plan actually included sufficient provisions for the high streets.

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Draft London Plan 2017 Workspace Policies that “mentioned” High Street There is some evidence of London Plan’s ability to recognise of the value of High Streets was observed during the analysis of the Plan.

For instance, policy 2.6.1 “recognises the social value of High Streets”.

There is also recognition of High Street as one of the “key centres” for shopping, accessing services, leisure and employment.

London Plan shows some recognition of the need for a place-based approach, which is seen, for instance, in policy 2.9.2 that stipulates that “Town centre strategies should be tailored to each town centre”.

However, London Plan’s policy focuses primarily on Town Centres rather than High Streets. This is evident from policy 2.8.1 that claims that London Plan “takes a strong town centres first approach” (Draft London Plan for Consultation, 2017). Whilst town centres are evidently important spatial formations that have value similar to that of high streets, Just Space (Just Space Response to Draft London Plan, 2018) presents evidence that “High Streets are more important than Town Centres for services, employment, vitality and vibrancy”, based on Prof Suzi Hall’s work. As reported by Just Space’s Mr Michael Edwards (2019), there are no provisions for High Streets were offered in by the Draft London Plan.

Policy GG2 Making the best use of land Policy GG5 Growing a good economy, specifically: B. Seek to ensure that London’s economy diversifies and that the benefits of economic success are shared more equitably across London.

C Plan for sufficient employment and industrial space in the right locations to support economic development and regeneration.

Table presenting Draft London Plan’s 2017 policies relevant to High Streets but those that omitted including any provisions for HS within them

There is a general lack of understanding of local context from the perspective of metropolitan level policy. Example of this was the introduction of cycling “Mini-Holland” in the Borough of Enfield through the grant scheme by TfL, which proved to have detrimental effects on Green Lanes’ (574-890) local business base.

“Policy SD8 Town Centres (B) In Development Plans, boroughs should: 1) define the detailed boundary of town centres in policy maps including the overall extent of the town centre (taking into consideration associated high streets which have particular economic or social value) along with specific policy-related designations such as primary shopping areas, primary and secondary frontages and night-time economy in light of demand/capacity assessments for town centre uses and housing” 60

“Economy 6.9.4 The Mayor has established the London Markets Board to help ensure that markets continue to flourish, support growth in town centres and associated high streets, and remain vibrant attractions for all Londoners and visitors to the capital.”

There are a few policies in London Plan 2017 that do recognise High Streets but they are framed somewhat subordinate to the main focus — Town Centres

Social and Communty Gathering Infrastructure Spaces

Affordable Retail Option

Place for Cultural Exchange

Policy S2 Health and social care facilities

Policy HC6 Supporting the night-time economy

Policy GG2 Making the best use of land

Policy GG1 Building strong and inclusive communities

Policy G7 Green Infrastructure and Natural Environment Trees and woodlands: B. In their Development Plans, boroughs should: 1) protect ‘veteran’ trees and ancient woodland where these are not already part of a protected site 2) identify opportunities for tree planting in strategic locations.

Policy S3 Education and childcare facilities Policy S4 Play and informal recreation Policy S6 Public toilets Chapter 10 Transport Policy T2 Healthy Streets Policy T3 Transport capacity, connectivity and safeguarding Policy T6.2 Office parking Policy T6.3 Retail parking

Policy E4 Land for industry, logistics and services to support London’s economic function Policy E8 Sector growth opportunities and clusters Policy E10 Visitor infrastructure: This policy is important for high streets, because with better visitor infrastructure inplace the more high streets can draw coutomers from outside the local community

Policy GG2 Making the best use of land

Policy E11 Skills and opportunities for all Policy GG2 Making the best use of land

Policy GG2 Making the best use of land Policy GG5 Growing a good economy, specifically: G. Maximise London’s existing and future public transport, walking and cycling network, as well as its network of town centres, to support agglomeration and economic activity.

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Policy G7 – Chapter 8 Green Infrastructure and Natural Environment Trees and woodlands:

Example of a policy taken from the previous table and amended to ensure provisions for High Street’s “Place for cultural exchange” dimension are ensured within London Plan’s policy

B. In their Development Plans, boroughs should: 1) protect ‘veteran’ trees and ancient woodland where these are not already part of a protected site; 2) identify opportunities for tree planting in strategic locations.

This will help enhance a high street ‘s legibility to encourage more social activity

9 How many policies were relevant to high streets but ommitted it and how many

8 7 6 5

Chapter 1 4 Chapter 5 3

Chapter 6

2

Chapter 7 Chapter 8

1

Chapter 10

0 Workspace

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Social & Community

Affordable Retail

Place for Cultural Exchange

Gathering Space

Draft London Plan 2018 Draft London Plan 2018 offers “Minor Changes” proposed in based on the initial feedback and one of the major changes from the first draft was the inclusion of High Streets in SD6, which shifter from “Town Centres” to “Town Centres and High Streets”. Specific allocations for high street were introduced in SD 2.6.1 (B), yet this poilcy still simply recognised the value of high street in terms of its community and cultural exchange; and only does so for the “high streets within town centres”.

Therefore, despite the clearly evident increase in attention towards high street, the “center of mass” of London Plan’s policies is shifted towards Town Centres, rather than high streets.

“High Street”

“High Street”

25

Draft London Plan 2017

Draft London Plan 2018

13

In Draft London Plan with proposed changes, the word combination “High Street” was used 25 times, up 12 times from the previous London Plan Draft of 2017

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Conclusions There is some evidence of London Plan’s ability to recognise of the value of High Streets was observed during the analysis of the Plan.

For instance, policy 2.6.1 “recognises the social value of High Streets”.

There is also recognition of High Street as one of the “key centres” for shopping, accessing services, leisure and employment.

Draft London Plan (2017) shows some recognition of the need for a place-based approach, which is seen, for instance, in policy 2.9.2 that stipulates that “Town centre strategies should be tailored to each town centre”.

However, London Plan’s policy focuses primarily on Town Centres rather than High Streets. This is evident from policy 2.8.1 that claims that London Plan “takes a strong town centres first approach” (Draft London Plan for Consultation, 2017). Whilst town centres are evidently important spatial formations that have value similar to that of high streets, Just Space (Just Space Response to Draft London Plan, 2018) presents evidence that “High Streets are more important than Town Centres for services, employment, vitality and vibrancy”, based on Prof Suzi Hall’s work. As reported by Just Space’s Mr Michael Edwards (2019), there are no provisions for High Streets were offered in by the Draft London Plan.

There is a general lack of understanding of local context from the perspective of metropolitan level policy. Example of this was the introduction of cycling “Mini-Holland” in the Borough of Enfield through the grant scheme by TfL, which proved to have detrimental effects on Green Lanes’ (574-890) local business base.

The latest Draft London Plan with proposed amendments (2018) shows evidence of an increased understanding of high streets’ value, in that it is included in more policies. Some new policies (for instance, SD 2.6.1 (B)) were entirely new and offered protections to high streets. However, the is still a general lack of policies that would offer a comprehensive protection to the identified values of high street as identified in the first chapter still persists. There is also an overall lack of place-specificity to those policies.

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Part 3

Indicators for High Streets 67

Monitoring High Streets This chapter offers a summary of indicators that could be used by local authorities in monitoring high street performance. Some of these may reasonably be used as KPI to incentivise sustainable development and planning.

Some of the marked indicators were tested on the green lanes high street as discussed thought the report (please refer back to the relevant section)

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Proposed Indicators

Monitoring Tested KPI

Table summarising all the indicators proposed in this document and divided by the 5 (merged into 4 in the first part) dimensions of the high street

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Reflection on the project Very often planners tend to propose and design change to places. Such “change management” paradigm of planning has been the main driver behind it. The London Plan, for instance, is managing the growth of the population, infrastructure, housing market, urban extent and other aspects of the city through its policy. Opportunity Area SPDs are another, extreme example of growth management through planning policy.

But it is sometimes the case that policy should be focusing on preservation rather than envisioning and accommodating expansion. This High Street (Green Lanes 574–890) study has been an exemplar to this tension in planning practice.

Explored through a combination of primary and secondary research methods, a distincts combination of traits and values to the high street were uncovered and were classified according to the 5 dimensions (high street as affordable workpace etc...). These dimensions in turn underpin the unique social value the phenomenon of high street retains in London, accommodating often marginalised groups and offering them opportunities that other urban formations cannot.

But this unique high street “ecosystem” is rather fragile. In light of such pressures as shift of retailing online or ever-rising business rates, the very building fabric of the high street — its local shops — may be easily shattered and destroyed. This takes us back to the initial issue that planning policy must also have tools to preserve what is vitally important in a city and accept other policy paradigms. It is the hope of the project team — Consuelo Morales, Madi Mukhametaliyev, Lulan Shen, Rungarun Tiyanukulmongkhon, Emmanuela Warren-zhang, Dmitry Bolshakov — that this project was able to highlight the issue.

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