Unequal high streets? A spatial analysis of inequalities in health-related amenities in England from 2014-2024.

ABSTRACT The UK retail landscape has undergone a profound change in past decades with popular debates largely focusing on decline of the traditional retail spaces. This, predominantly driven by technological advancement and corresponding changes in consumer behaviour, was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent disruption to supply chains and cost of living crisis. This study provides a comprehensive, data-driven descriptive analysis and new evidence on the transformation and economic performance of British retail centres over the five-year pre- and post-pandemic period (2019–2023), which is a crucial period offering a valuable perspective within three different periods: pre-pandemic, the Covid-19 pandemic and the initial post-pandemic ‘recovery’. Using longitudinal retailer occupancy data, this study presents a picture of the British retail landscape that is far from uniform, and shows that the decline was predominantly driven by ongoing trends of digitalisation within retailing and services and exacerbated by the temporary closure of ‘non-essential’ shops during the pandemic. Our findings also provide empirical evidence that Covid-19, when combined with pre-existing trends, prompted further demise of many ‘traditional’ retailers on high streets, evidenced by increasing vacancies. On the contrary and importantly, we find several trends which are facilitating reorientation and growth in the traditional retail centres and have emerged in the past five years. These changes are conceptualised within existing frameworks of retail resilience to economic shocks in particular retail centres economic cycle and their evolutionary trajectories. The new evidence can be used to substantiate the wider debates on the economic performance of British retail centres and their regeneration in the ‘new retail’ post Covid-19 era.

Heritage Data Governance in Regeneration: Lessons from England’s High Street Heritage Action Zones

A playful and speculative drafting of a reflection on a walking as a practice by two practitioners who work with walking as a part of a trans disciplinary set of tactics and methods. Myer Taub is a theatre maker engaged in questions of digital theatre making, ecological research and performance outside the theatre, such as an ongoing treasure hunt series, that metaphorphoses according to site and situation, as does all of Taub's performance, staged in local bars to parking lots to the woolworths grocery store. Bettina Malcomess is a writer and an artist whose work looks for new archival vocabularies to rethink the densities of historical material, carrying out a series of gestures in their films and sound works that attempt to embody counterpoint voices. For both artists, the multiplicity of their practice methodologies is an attempt to respond to a present marked by urgent ecological and political questions, a time of crisis. During the Covid 19 pandemic, the artists began to take a series of intentional walks along Johannesburg's urban / natural edges, a continuation of walks Malcomess undertook in the co-authored book Not No Place: Johannesburg, Fragments of Spaces and Times (2013) and Taub's everyday practice of walking as a choice and as an excercise in embodied motion through the city. These walks led to an understanding of the city through it's hidden waterways and green belts, hidden within what Malcomess calls the city's 'uitvalgrond' (surplus ground). To encounter this hidden city meant getting dirty, and so the walks coalesced into the curated walking project, Dirty Walks. These curated walks involved setting up a client who expressed a wish to Malcomess, who curated the walks from a studio in Grant Avenue, Norwood, essentially a suburban high street. Taub would then meet the client, with Malcomess playing fixer or broker for the 'price' of the walk. This model of exchange, desire, dirt was complemented by an archiving of the walk in a drawer in the studio. Thus the project presented here is the repository of the dirty walks, including various walks done over the years between the artists and between the artists and their clients. The repository is organised as a series of images as evidence, a series of links to cogent research and most importantly a conversation between Taub and Malcomess that was staged for a video piece inside a theatre. The sound of this conversation is presented here without the mis-en-scene of the stage, where documentation of a dirty walk was projected while the authors continually repositioned themselved and changed seats, and lighting. The original video is available as a vimeo link held on the Dirty Walks Dischord Server, where evidence of former and new walks continues to multiply. This multiple staging of liveness and the digital on several platforms is an intentional mirroring of the multiplicty of pathways necessary for a walking methodology. The invitation to the reader to move between this site and the Dirty Walks dischord server reflects the complexity of an attempt to walk a city in crisis into being, an ecology of ruptures and fragmentation of the enmeshment of the natural borders and the human-made world, of failing infrastructure as metaphor and fact. This multi-scalar and multi-modal journal entry attempts to embody this fragmentation and invite thinking within the movement and crisis.

ABSTRACT The aim of the study is to investigate how a diverse mix of experiences can be optimised to maximise the reach of high streets by aligning with consumers’ preferences. Specifically, it identifies the combination of high street use classes that appeals to the greatest number of consumers and provides insights into which consumer segments are most effectively addressed by this combination. The analysis includes the preference alignment of Mosaic consumer segments, thereby deepening understanding of high street dynamics. To achieve this, survey data from 762 German consumers were analysed using Total Unduplicated Reach and Frequency (TURF) optimisation at the level of high street use classes. In a second step, the widely used Mosaic segmentation was applied to assess the preference alignment of different consumer groups. This study highlights the value of a diverse mix of use classes in supporting brick-and-mortar retail and emphasises the role of consumer segmentation in high street repositioning strategies. This offers retailers deeper insights into the complex dynamics of high streets and provide urban planners with a more holistic evidence base for transformation.

Purpose While urban planning research has examined how the built environment shapes crime patterns, less attention has been paid to its influence on fear of crime (FOC) at the micro-neighborhood scale, particularly in non-Western contexts. This study explores FOC in high mixed land-use areas in As-Salt City, Jordan, where such research is limited. Design/methodology/approach An exploratory mixed-methods approach focused on two high mixed-use streets with elevated crime rates: Lower Prince Hamza Street at Wadi Al Halabi and Prince Hasan Bin Talal Street at Al Jada’a. Data collection combined questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and participatory mapping to measure FOC, familiarity and the specific land uses that evoke fear. Findings Previous victimization had minimal impact on FOC, whereas familiarity with an area significantly reduced it. Higher FOC was associated with locations of dense pedestrian activity – particularly near cosmetic stores, car-related businesses and restaurants/cafés – and with environments dominated by unfamiliar individuals or predominantly male groups. These patterns call for gender-sensitive, community-informed safety planning that addresses the social effects of land-use clustering and pedestrian flows in mixed-use zones. Research limitations/implications Findings are context-specific to As-Salt and may not generalize to other settings, yet they highlight the value of integrating community perceptions into urban safety strategies. Future research should test these patterns in diverse cultural and spatial contexts using longitudinal and comparative methods. Originality/value By combining spatial analysis with participatory mapping, this study provides new evidence on FOC in a non-Western city, offering practical insights for planners and policymakers to mitigate perceived risks linked to specific land uses.

ABSTRACT As people age, many prefer to stay in their familiar homes and neighbourhoods to maintain well-being, using local services and facilities – an approach known as ‘ageing in place’. Despite the perceived decline of local high streets in the UK, they remain central locations offering essential services that can support this approach. This paper examines three case study high streets in Edinburgh, Scotland, exploring how these locales can influence ageing in place and subjective well-being for older adults. The findings reveal four key dimensions of well-being that high streets provide for the ageing population: social well-being, a sense of place, aesthetic enjoyment from being active outside the home, and a sense of mastery and autonomy in pursuing daily activities. The research highlights the potential of local high streets to sustain older people’s well-being, reinforcing their importance as urban spaces that support later life. Our study emphasises the important role high streets can play in shaping ageing-in-place policies, expanding the concept of ‘place’ beyond the home. This aligns with broader health policies in Scotland, where there is a growing focus on the role of place and communities in promoting strengths and resources they already have to support health and well-being.

Urban streetscapes are among the most frequently encountered spatial environments in daily life, and their restorative visual features have a significant impact on well-being. Although existing studies have revealed the relationship between streetscape environments and perceived restorativeness, there remains a lack of scalable, data-driven methods for quantifying such perception at the street level. This study proposes an interpretable and replicable framework for predicting streetscape restorativeness by integrating semantic segmentation, perceptual evaluation, and machine learning techniques. Taking Liwan District of Guangzhou as a case study, street-view images (SVIs) were collected and processed using the Mask2Former model to extract the following five key visual metrics: greenness, openness, enclosure, walkability, and imageability. Based on the Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS), an online questionnaire was designed from four dimensions (fascination, being away, compatibility, and extent) to score a random sample of images. A random forest model was then trained to predict the perceptual levels of the full dataset, followed by K-means clustering to identify spatial distribution patterns. The results revealed that there were significant differences in visual characteristics among high, medium, and low restorativeness street types. The proposed framework enables scalable, data-driven evaluation of perceived restorativeness across diverse urban streetscapes. By embedding perceptual metrics into large-scale urban analysis, the framework offers a replicable and efficient approach for identifying streets with low restorative potential—thus providing urban planners and policymakers with a novel tool for prioritizing street-level renewal, improving public well-being, and supporting perception-oriented urban design without the need for labor-intensive fieldwork.

The impact of the ultra-low emission zone on high streets economy and social equality in Outer London

Patterns of persistence: Exploring spatial factors behind the longevity of British high streets

The social, cultural, civic, and economic impact of shopping malls has been heavily debated in comparison to the traditional town centers and high streets they often undermined and superseded. The study aims to assess how Singapore’s activity centers, including its shopping malls, have responded spatially and commercially to its diverse and evolving population. The research uses a mixed-methods approach of observational analysis, secondary data, and primary data scraped from websites. The research indicates that old-generation precincts in satellite towns have a greater number and diversity of stores and business ownership and, as a result, are more responsive to vernacular pluralism than new-generation shopping malls. Precincts also provide space for diverse optional, social, and stationary activities. In the downtown area, strata malls are the exception to standard shopping mall formulas. Many have developed an endogenous dynamic that has seen many of them evolve into eclectic and specialized spaces.

ABSTRACT This study investigates how polycrisis-induced strategic shifts in Scandinavian retail chains affect their dynamic capabilities and interconnectedness with high streets, and the implications for city center resilience and revitalization. The research addresses a significant gap in understanding how retail chains strategically adapt to polycrisis challenges in ways that could contribute to city center regeneration. By integrating dynamic capabilities theory with systems thinking and a multi-stakeholder place lens, we develop a holistic framework for analyzing retail adaptation within broader city center ecosystems. The study employs a qualitative longitudinal methodology, conducting 60 semi-structured interviews with 12 senior executives from seven Swedish retail chains across diverse sectors during 2020–2022. Using template analysis guided by sensemaking principles, we examined how retail chains developed collaborative capabilities in response to the evolving polycrisis conditions. Our findings reveal three key adaptive strategies: cost-sharing initiatives (including condominium-style property management and joint logistics operations), innovation alliances (such as cross-industry knowledge sharing and flexible pop-up concepts), and recognition of interdependency with local environments. The study demonstrates that retailers exercise nonlinear capability development, fundamentally altering the temporal logic of adaptation by requiring concurrent rather than sequential learning, experimentation, and transformational processes. We identify a paradigm shift from firm-centric to place-oriented approaches, where retail capabilities are co-created and shaped by specific city center contexts. The research contributes a novel ‘systems-based territorial capabilities perspective’ that operationalizes the synthesis of dynamic capabilities, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and systems theory. However, cultural inertia limits implementation, as retailers recognize their interdependence while not seeing themselves as primarily responsible for placemaking. The study suggests that successful city center revitalization requires transcending traditional isolated retail roles through collaborative territorial development processes that cross-leverage community assets.

The decline and revitalization of vitality in historic districts of small- and medium-sized cities undergoing rapid urbanization is a frontier issue in global heritage conservation and urban regeneration. Using the East Street Historic District in Mengzi, Yunnan, as a case study, this study proposes a “space–function–time” coupling framework. Topological accessibility is quantified through space syntax metrics—Integration Value (2021) and Integration Value (2025), as well as Choice Value (2021) and Choice Value (2025)—while functional aggregation is represented by POI kernel density analysis. A “Deviation Degree–Change in Deviation Degree” model is developed to track the dynamic evolution before and after the implementation of the conservation plan (2021–2025). The findings indicate that (1) the linear correlation between Integration Value and POI density decreases from a moderate level (r = 0.42) in 2021 to a weak correlation (r = 0.32) in 2025, revealing that the spatial–functional coordination mechanism in small- and medium-sized city historic districts is considerably more fragile than in large cities; (2) Identifying streets with abnormal deviations: The primary street, Renmin Middle Road, exhibits a deviation degree as high as 4.160 due to excessive commercial aggregation, resulting in a “high accessibility–high load” imbalance. The secondary street, Dashu Street, although demonstrating a relatively high Integration Value (0.663), shows a “high accessibility–low vitality” condition due to insufficient functional facilities; (3) the Deviation Degree–Change in Deviation Degree model accurately identifies High Deviation Streets, Medium Deviation Streets, and Low Deviation Streets, and provides quantitative thresholds for planning feedback. This study introduces the Deviation Degree–Change in Deviation Degree model for the first time into the evaluation of historic district renewal in small- and medium-sized cities, establishing a closed-loop “diagnosis–intervention–reassessment” tool. The proposed framework offers both a methodological and operational paradigm for precision-oriented urban regeneration in historic districts.

ABSTRACT UK High Streets, long central to urban life, face increasing uncertainty due to shifts in retail. Public spaces are crucial to high streets and town centres, connecting the activities within and around them. As part of broader research investigating the role of public space in high street vitality, this paper proposes a checklist assessment method to evaluate high street success alongside public space quality, drawing upon findings from relevant literature. This study employs a case study approach, analysing data from four medium-sized towns in the Midlands, England. The research conducted using this checklist method demonstrates results consistent with the literature, indicating a positive interdependency between high street success and public space quality, making it a reliable tool for assessing urban vitality.

To review the evidence base, clinical performance claims, and usability and safety of self-tests available for sale on the UK high street. Cross sectional review of self-tests-regulation, evidence of performance, usability, and safety. Tests were identified from supermarkets, pharmacies, and health and wellbeing shops within a 10 mile radius of the University of Birmingham Edgbaston Campus in 2023. Accuracy claims of self-tests, samples used to derive accuracy measures, and regulatory requirements were summarised. Ergonomics, usability and safety concerns about the equipment and instructions, including interpretability and readability, were evaluated. Details of clinical and lay person study reports (population, sample size, reference or comparator tests, test process) were summarised, and methods were assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Studies 2 (QUADAS-2) tool. Thirty five self-tests were identified (30 obtained), which used seven different sample types and tested for 20 different biomarkers. Accuracy claims were made in instructions for use documents for 24/30 tests: accuracy for 19, sensitivity for 17, and specificity for 16. Performance claims of ≥98% were made on accuracy for 53% (10/19) of tests, 41% (7/17) on sensitivity, and 63% (10/16) on specificity. Where reference standards were reported in instructions for use documents, 29% (5/17) evaluated the accuracy of self-tests against similar rapid tests. For usability or safety, 18/30 self-tests had at least one high risk concern, 11 because of equipment, 10 because of the sampling process, and 15 owing to instructions or interpretation. Nine sets of clinical and lay person study reports were obtained (covering 12 tests). Across documents (nine clinical study reports and six lay person study reports) and QUADAS-2 domains, 73% were rated as having unclear risk of bias owing to poor reporting, and 58% were rated as having high applicability concerns because of inappropriate study designs. Participant descriptions were particularly inadequate in clinical study reports. Even within lay person study reports, few demographics (up to four) were presented. Some populations were unrepresentative of the intended user, inappropriate reference standards and thresholds were used, and mentions of blinding were scarce. This investigation highlights the need for improved regulatory oversight and clearer standards to ensure the safety and reliability of self-tests available on the UK market. Concerns about their ergonomics and usability might lead to test errors. Manufacturers' unwillingness to provide public access to study documents raises ethical concerns. Additionally, inadequate study design and reporting in available documentation hinders the ability to assess the evidence base supporting the use of self-tests. As the availability and use of self-tests continues to rise, improved regulatory oversight is urgently needed to protect the public from the effects of poor performing diagnostic self-tests.

Owing to stiff competition from other platforms such as e-commerce and direct sellers, apparel retailers face declining sales. While numerous studies have evaluated the drivers of consumer behavior for apparel, few studies have focused on footfall drivers for offline retail formats. This study seeks to provide a comprehensive view of the antecedents of footfall on the basis of published research and its impact on store performance. The methodology adopted is a systematic literature review based on the SPAR-4-SLR framework and bibliometric analysis of research publications from 1970-2024. Pareto analysis of publication data was used to evaluate the impact of research across countries, organizations, and publishers. The volume of research on apparel stores is significantly greater than research on retail footfall, with the bulk of research publications published in North America and Southeast Asia. The content analysis evaluated published literature on retail footfall to identify themes in the research. The predominant antecedents of retail footfall among organized apparel retail outlets identified through the study are location, retail agglomeration, promotions, and unforeseen events such as COVID-19. The findings call for research on standalone organized retail formats in high streets or other commercial zones instead of agglomerations such as malls. There is also a need for research on footfall in unorganized retail agglomerations such as bazaars and thrift stores. Furthermore, research on footfall in South Asia is limited to primary data and observational studies. In contrast, studies in Western Europe and developed nations employ various data sources, including geospatial data, location intelligence, and other technologies.

Purpose This paper aims to explore through an ecosystem lens how value can be co-created in independent pop-up retail, thus enhancing the community-based retail offer. It considers value co-creation between pop-up owners, supply side stakeholders and customers operating in a challenging retail environment, offering useful insights for those involved in researching and managing high streets and temporary retail space. Design/methodology/approach Adopting a qualitative approach, the study draws upon interviews with 87 participants involved in pop-up initiatives in the UK. This includes 28 interviews with supply-side stakeholders such as landlords and community representatives, 23 with pop-up owners and 36 with pop-up customers. Findings This study finds that pop-up business models are heterogeneous. Value is co-created through the multiple symbiotic relationships the pop-up has with stakeholders in the community ecosystem in which they are embedded. Further value is co-created through the customer/pop-up owner interactions and the unique, temporary retail experience. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore qualitatively, value co-creation in a novel temporary retail setting, which considers both the supply-side and demand-side perspective within a retail ecosystem. Previous studies have focused on customer experiences of pop-ups rather than considering how the pop-up offer can be managed and enhanced through the relationships pop-up owners have with wider community stakeholders, as well as customers. Adopting a holistic perspective to value creation is key given the challenging retail environment many communities are experiencing.

This article discusses how consumers’ shopping habits have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and examines how these changes have affected the United Kingdom’s local commercial centres. The focus of the article is on the shifts in commercial consumption during the pandemic and the resultant rise in importance of the charity shop. The application of experiential marketing by the charity sector via their retail sites is examined to understand their elevation of importance during the pandemic. Research undertaken evidences that these shops provided needed experiences for their customers during a public health crisis, and this article fills a significant gap in scholarship conducted exploring the use of experiential marketing within the charity sector. Primary research was gathered through online and in-person surveys and analysed using thematic analysis to understand underlying opinions about charity shops and their place on the Withington high street, an urban residential community in the city of Manchester in the northwest of England. The results of this study indicate that the ways in which charity shops use experiential marketing could be extended to the larger retail environment as a method to gain higher footfall within local commercial retail areas which benefits greater engagement with the public areas within communities.

This paper contributes to debates on the role of universities within cities and develops a broader understanding of them as anchor institutions. As the UK high street faces a period of continued, challenging change, a case study approach is adopted in examining the role of universities as anchor institutions in shaping the future of urban centres. Following on from the House of Lords’ Built Environment Committee’s ‘High Streets: Life Beyond Retail’ 2024 report emphasising the importance of engaged local communities in the future of the high street, to which the authors contributed, this paper focuses on the UK Government’s Future High Streets initiative through a case examination of one university’s role in shaping a successful Future High Streets project from conception to the early stages of delivery. Taking Sheffield as a case study, the paper highlights the university’s multifaceted role as a key city stakeholder and reveals the benefits of the institution’s involvement through knowledge exchange and enhanced capacity, before tentatively suggesting future directions in university–city regeneration projects. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.

Young people’s perspective on the influence of alcohol, tobacco, vaping and fast food industries