Back Lanes Research Articles

Back lane geography: in praise of worlds behind

‘Gateshead’, the Tory playwright Samuel Johnson said, is ‘the dirty back lane leading to Newcastle’. What his derogatory dialectic misses is the significance of the back lane as a place in and of itself. Although not written about much, at least not in geography, I believe that these streets are important places to understand neighbourhoods and communities in the Northeast of England. Without the lives and places of the back lane a Northern town is only nominally northern. Sticking to the limitations imposed by the COVID lockdown restrictions at the time of writing, which asked people to remain indoors whenever possible, I chose to travel and explore the significance of these streets digitally. Using both autoethnographic reflections from memories of walking in these streets and Google Street View, I explore the hidden geographies of back lanes in Bensham, a neighbourhood of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, where I live.

FRONTING THE BACK LANE OF HERITAGE STREET: CASE STUDY OF PETALING STREET

Back lanes are ubiquitously found in every city as they are a required component according to the by-laws. The intention of back lane is to serve as a service road and consequently society tends to neglect and had led to a forgotten public space due to its lack of maintenance. Thus, this has discouraged the pedestrian movement as it is unsafe because the laneway is mainly hidden from public eye. Therefore, it became a space for undesirable activities to be taken place especially for hoodlums. In line with the Kuala Lumpur Tourism Master Plan 2015-2025, that gives emphasise to revitalise forgotten spaces, this research looks into the issues of back lanes in Petaling Street with the aims to unlock its potentials. The study adopted a qualitative approach through 2 phases. The first phase is through literature review to study and understand its historical background follows by site observation through photographs and recording of the site existing conditions. The second phase is through interviews with urban planning experts and business owners to discuss the historical value, issues and parameters to revitalize the back lane. The outcome of the research divulges that revitalization of back lane and shifting the front façade to the back lane or adapting to a double façade are able to greet the public with new urban social spaces and that tenants are able to utilize and give it a new meaning.

PERSPECTIVES ON MALAYSIA'S LACK OF IMPLEMENTATION OF GREEN BACK LANES

Malaysia has been utilising green back lanes since the ‘90s. In spite of the several benefits of these lanes, such as the formation of active spaces, decrease in runoff water, and visitor attractions, green back lanes are yet to be deployed in the residential regions of Malaysia, prompting the question as to why these lanes have not yet been installed extensively. The objectives of this research work were: to determine what experts opined regarding the installation of green back lanes in the country, study the scenarios which caused the absence of implementation, produce a report showing the outcomes and analysis, and offer suggestions. The researcher deployed the interview strategy for ascertaining the views and standpoints of architects, town planners, maintenance staffs, project managers, and marketers on the dearth of green back lane installation. The research emphasises on the aspects of cost, maintenance, and safety.

Sterilization and Traffic Management of The Ferry Port of Kalabahi

The Ferry Port of Kalabahi is a port managed by Service Unit of Transportation Center Business (BPTD) Region XIII Province of East Tenggara Timur . At this time in The Ferry Port Of Kalabahi there is no facility counters, counters available today still located outside the port area where it is out of the zoning system should be, the pickup can enter the dock area and wait on moveable bridges and catwalks, home moveable bridge that has not been sterile because there are still people who are not authorized to be in front of the moveable bridge. In addition, there is no orderly traffic in the Port of Kalabahi Ferries due to a meeting between the vehicle that will go to the dock with the introduction of two-wheelers / pickup that will come out of the harbor. To analyze this based orientation on Minister Of Transportation Regulation Number PM 29 of 2016 on Sterilization Port Of Ferries and Director-General Land Transportation Regulation Number: SK.242 / HK.104 / DRJD / 2010 on Technical Guidelines for Management of Traffic Ferries. The analysis used is the analysis of the zone system, traffic pattern analysis, and analysis equipment requirements and the number of support personnel sterilization and traffic management in the The Ferry Port of Kalabahi In order to ease the flow of traffic load both of which will enter the port area and the cargo to be out of the port area is to set back lanes of vehicles that will enter the dock area and vehicle introduction / pickup that will come out of the port area in addition to assign officers to manage traffic to run more orderly. Adding a user signs, weighbridge, Tollgate, road markings, safety officers in order to become a regular port.

From hotbeds of depravity to hidden treasures: the narrative evolution of Melbourne’s laneways

Places are both sustained and shaped by the stories we tell about them. In turn, stories of place are influenced by cultural, political, and socioeconomic forces. A form of ‘unplanned’ urban architecture, over almost two centuries Melbourne’s inner-city laneways have been inscribed with multiple layers of narrative. This paper tracks the unfolding tensions around these evolving urban spaces, from Melbourne’s founding up until the present day. Drawing upon site visits, theorists of place, narrative and memory, and analysis of select historical and contemporary texts, the articles explores how the uses of Melbourne’s back lanes have changed over time, and how these changes have been both reflected in, and influenced by, narratives of place. From their genesis as makeshift service lanes, to their early reputation as sites of moral disorder; from shanty towns to celebrated tourist destinations; from public health risks to sites of urban renewal and cultural memorialisation – the transformation of these atmospheric passageways illustratesthe fluid and contested nature of place, and its intrinsic yet unstable relationship with narrative. In considering how narrative has been deployed to stake or negate claims to the laneways, the article traces the role and impact of various actors: government, social reformers, slum residents, novelists, journalists and media outlets, business interests, street artists, and people experiencing homelessness. Melbourne’s inner-urban back lanes emerge as liminal sites where questions of spatial exclusion, cultural capital, and belonging are navigated in complex and shifting ways.

FIGURE-GROUND MAPPING TO IDENTIFY URBAN FABRIC CHARACTERISTICS OF GEORGE TOWN HERITAGE ZONE

The traditional Penang shophouses with its unique architecture elements constitutes the largest portion of the heritage zone which form a massive and coherently unique urban fabric. Conservation guidelines have been enforced to preserve the pre-war shophouses, by implementing classification of heritage buildings, façade/structural restoration, height control and so on. Are these measures truly effective to ensure meaningful intervention within the existing urban fabric? Preservation and conservation of the physical elements of existing shophouse will remain a superficial effort if no attempt is made to understand first the urban sense of place, the town planning language, the very fabric that weaves the solid formed by buildings with the void spaces of roads, parks, courtyards, foot paths and back lanes. Hebbert (2016) reckons figure-ground plans as the commonest type of image used in town planning, so common that it is easy to overlook their peculiar characteristics. This paper aims to revisit the power of figure-ground mapping and illustrates how its imaging will lead todeciphering the unique fabric of George Town. The author also employs an “Integrated Approach” (Trancik, 1986) by layering the two-dimensional solidvoid mappings with linkage study and sense of place to analyse unique patterns of two case study archetypes that reveal exceptional urban spatial characteristics of George Town that few have come to appreciate.

Social Interaction in the Back Lanes of China Town

The back lane is often associated with annoying, disgusting, narrow and dark. This paper concerns the use of the back lanes of the old shop houses in China Town, Kuala Lumpur. The instruments used in collecting data include observation, unstructured interview and literature review. The use and physical characteristics of back lanes were identified. It was found that the back lanes of China Town in Kuala Lumpur showed the success of turning back streets into lively alleys. Thus, the back lane could be considered as part of urban design strategies and not as leftover spaces.Keywords: back lane; social place; pedestrian; urban eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i13.151

Morphological Adaptation Types of Small-industrial Clusters to Traditional Urban Tissue - The 2000s′ Gold Jewelry Manufacturing in Seoul CBD, Korea

This study tries to explain how small-scale gold jewelry mills adapted themselves to Seoul′s existing urban tissues, which were the residential area in the CBD. There are four manufacturing processes; designing and engraving, waxing and casting, and cutting and polishing. Firstly, three morphological cluster types could be identified in respect to the gold jewelry firms′ location; circulation type, finger type, and agglomeration type. Secondly, the robustness of the urban form elements (land use, buildings, plots, and streets) varied respectively. Small gold manufacturing firms of the circulation and finger type could easily adapt themselves to the existing urban tissues without new building construction. However, a few plots in the agglomeration type merged. A few old buildings in the merged plots were destroyed and were built into a new big one in which all gold processes could be carried out. The distance between shop and factory was generally farther than with other types. Finally, the existing street patterns influenced the clustering adaptation of small gold mills. Most of the buildings of the circulation type and finger type were located along dead-end streets and back lanes without changing the street patterns.

Back Lanes as Social Spaces in Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

The back lane is often associated with annoying, disgusting, narrow and dark. This paper concerns the use of the back lanes of the old shop houses in China Town, Kuala Lumpur. The instruments used in collecting data include observation, unstructured interview and literature review. The use and physical characteristics of back lanes were identified. It was found that the back lanes of China Town in Kuala Lumpur showed the success of turning back streets into lively alleys. Thus, the back lane could be considered as part of urban design strategies and not as leftover spaces.

Back Lanes as Social Spaces in Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

The back lane is often associated with annoying, disgusting, narrow and dark. This paper concerns the use of the back lanes of the old shop houses in China Town, Kuala Lumpur. The instruments used in collecting data include observation, unstructured interview and literature review. The use and physical characteristics of back lanes were identified. It was found that the back lanes of China Town in Kuala Lumpur showed the success of turning back streets into lively alleys. Thus, the back lane could be considered as part of urban design strategies and not as leftover spaces.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: back lane; social place; pedestrian; urban

Art Installation as a Catalyst to Activities and Positive Behaviour in Back Lanes of Shah Alam Commercial Areas

This paper represents on women behavior safety enigma, also an on-going progress study of the cultural landscape in the context of the historic city where knowledge unfolds. The study has tracked women’s experience of place, which responses on the visual elements that become an incredibly diverse culture surrounding and norms. Eventually, the historic city seems meet their expectations in cultural aspects a safe building has resulted for living and work environment. Therefore, having known their understanding influence on structure-building façade concluded and rediscovered the perception that adds value contributes in the urban setting.

A Critical Essay to the selected text – “Araby” What makes the protagonist in “Araby” a lonely person? Has he gained anything from his journey?

The present study has been covered an overview and the analysis of the short story “Araby” to find out what makes the protagonist a lonely person, by plot points, characters and themes, and then it has been included a discussion about the gain of the protagonist from the journey. The story starts in the drab life that people live on North Richmond Street. The narrator, a boy who is unnamed, believed to be at the age of around twelve (Cummings), describes the street where he lives at the very beginning of the story. He then thinks about the priest who died in the house before his family moved in, and the games that he and his friends played in the street, recalling how they were running through the back lanes of the houses and hid in the shadows to avoid people in their neighborhood, especially the boy’s uncle, and the sister of his friend Mangan. Mangan’s sister is always in the thoughts of the narrator although they talk little. The paper enables us to have an opportunity to reflect on our life: if we reflect the “gain” again in the more critical direction, we should not regard the loss of innocence as any gain: the innocence that we cannot easily retrieve it from society must be protected before it is lost; to a large extent, innocence may not be negative if we consider it as a source of happiness.

From Backdoors and Back Lanes to Backchannels: Reappraising British Talks with the Provisional IRA, 1970–1974

Following the outbreak of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the British government established an office dedicated to gathering the views of political groups there, below the level of the state. By looking at the numerous contacts, conduits and intermediaries that existed (however temporarily) between the British government and the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) before the 1975 ceasefire, this article illustrates that an almost continuous conversation was taking place. It also demonstrates that these contacts were centred on Dáithí Ó Conaill, the then Sinn Féin Vice President, and that these ‘talks’, when taken as a whole, can better explain the events that culminated in the 1975 ceasefire.

Recreating place: Little Lon

In 1948, Little Lon was razed to the ground. Almost every visible vestige of the vibrant, multicultural, working-class community of Little Lon was lost. All that remained in popular consciousness was an image of Little Lon as a slum, riddled with poverty, prostitution and drug addiction. This myth has been challenged in Melbourne Museum's new exhibition The Melbourne Story, in which two weatherboard cottages, representative of those that populated the back lanes of Little Lon in the nineteenth century, have been created. The cottages' small, crowded, poorly lit rooms are dressed with a mixture of props and collection objects, and peopled through audio and text panels. This paper addresses the rationale behind the museum's decision to recreate a physical environment in which to tell the story of Little Lon. It shows how working with resources gathered from a variety of historical sources has created a vivid glimpse of life in Little Lon.

Picturing filth and disorder: Photography and urban governance in Toronto

In July of 1911, just nine months after his appointment to the post of Medical Health Officer for the City of Toronto, Dr Charles Hastings issued a report on an investigation of slum conditions in the city. 1 The investigation found that Toronto had many of the conditions that were associated with the slums of 'great cities' in Europe and America: tenement houses, overcrowding, dark rooms, filthy yards and lanes and outdoor privies. The central downtown area around City Hall and the business district, referred to as ‘The Ward’, was overcrowded with poor and working-class immigrants, and in this area alone, sixty-three tenement houses were discovered, and 108 houses were declared unfit for habitation.2 The investigators discovered common lodging houses where sometimes more than twenty 'foreigners' lived under conditions that were described as a threat to the sanitary welfare of the city. They also reported on areas where outdoor privies overflowed into nearby yards and lanes. Photographs of dilapidated houses, narrow, muddy back lanes and backyards littered with refuse were included in the report as evidence of the written descriptions and statistical data. Both the public and city council recognised the thirty-two page document as a thorough and significant study of one of the city's most pressing concerns (figure 1).3

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