This page links to some of our articles, papers and blog posts on the future of high streets and town centres. Please contact us if you would like to repost any of these elsewhere, or would like to commission a bespoke piece for your website or publication.
Some links are to external sites, and Urban Pollinators is not responsible for any content there except where specifically authored by us.
On this site:
- Critical creativity and the future of mainstreets (reflections on the Mainstreet Australia conference, May 2013)
- The Portas Review, one year on
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Beyond the butcher and the baker: local government gets re-imagining
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An Association of Agitators: the next step for our high streets?
Newspaper and magazine articles:
In praise of stench. Spitalfields Life, 10 November 2015
Saving our city centres, one local market at a time. The Guardian, 10 July 2015
HMV’s travails show the need for citizens to reclaim town and city space. The Guardian, 15 January 2012
The collaborative local economy. New Start, December 2012
Articles for the Huffington Post:
- How your high street can be a garden, a promenade, and a stage
- The high street predators of food bank Britain
- Television won’t save the high street – but it really doesn’t matter
- Simple steps towards local prosperity
- Forget Peppa Pig: it’s time to take the future of high streets seriously
- Worry about the business model, not the sales figures
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From Portas Pilots to High Street Camp: Changing the game in our town centres?
Journal articles:
- Life beyond retail: A new and better vision for town centres. Journal of Town and City Management, 2012 (link is to pre-publication proof).
- Pushing Portas Further: Life beyond the butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, 2013 (link to pre-publication proof).
Other publications:
- The high street: From shopping centre to social centre (Placemaking 2012 magazine)
- 21st Century Market Towns (Action for Market Towns)
Selected posts from Julian’s blog, Living with Rats
- October 2014: Without more than a vision, the people perish
- September 2014: Walking the way to better high streets
- April 2014: Who are the real investors in our cities?
- March 2014: Why we need urban development heretics
- September 2013: Is this vision of the future as smart as it gets?
- August 2013: In a pickle over parking
- July 2013: How a London canal can be a model for our high streets
- June 2013: An information commons: Putting the buzz back into libraries, post offices, high streets and local media
- May 2013: What makes a great street?
- April 2013: Making the most of a crisis
- February 2013: The greed that killed the high street
- January 2013: Should we mourn the loss of HMV?
- January 2013: Beyond the high street hangover
- December 2012: Shopping centres: at the heart of the community?
- November 2012: Why town centres need their libraries
- November 2012: The spirit of Townstock
- September 2012: Can nothing come of nothing in our cities?
- April 2012: From civic boosterism to shared spaces: can the new Titanic avoid the icebergs?
- April 2012: High street camp and why we have to think smarter, not bigger
- December 2011: Why small is bountiful – and can change systems
- November 2011: The last post for localism?
- October 2011: Empty spaces and meeting places: dealing with division
- October 2009: Saving our town centres
- January 2009: Let’s end the love affair with the hard hats