1. Activity and adaptability: have reports of the
high street’s death been exaggerated?
Responding to changing
movement, living, working and leisure patterns
Professor Laura Vaughan, Ashley Dhanani & Ruthie Carlisle
Surbiton, Claremont Road c1914. Courtesy http://postcardsthenandnow.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/surbiton-surrey-
claremont-road-c1914.html

2. Beyond the cliché
INTRODUCTION

3. Perception of decline persists against backdrop
of nostalgia for past success. Is this correct?
Surbiton, Claremont Road. Image c1914. Courtesy http://postcardsthenandnow.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/surbiton-surrey-
claremont-road-c1914.html. Contemporary image © Google.

4. PART ONE: SPACE SYNTAX

5. Cities are very complex systems, but they grow from a simple idea: they are
large dense aggregates of buildings linked by space. The space takes the form
of a linear network, which we call a town plan or street network.

16. Not just retail: the high street as a generator of
socio-economic diversity – By-product activity
Business meeting
Catching a train/bus/tube
Of 199 survey respondents: Coffee/tea/drink
Do nothing/ hanging out
• 46% were shopping Doctors/hospital/dentist
Eat
• 86% of shoppers were Univariate Bar Chart
Split By: activity
Get money
Row exclusion: shoppers.svd Go for a w alk
combining with another activity 25
Gym/leisure centre/sports
Library
• Most common combinations: 11
Live here
10
– Coffee/tea/drink 8
Meet family/friends
On school lunch break
total count
– Going for a walk 6 Park/allotments/recreation ground
• Every-day activities
5 Passing through
4 Pay bills
• Interdependence, 3
2
Post a letter
Post office
by-product activities 1 Pub/bar
School/college/university
Observations
Take children to/from nursery/playschool
Take children to/from school
Visit family/friends
Wait for family/friends
Walk the dog
Window shop
Work here

17. Surbiton High Street Activity from 1869 to 2012
(inset: South Norwood stats for same period)
"Third Space" (cafes, takeaways, pubs etc.*
“Third Place”
120%
Offices & Commerce (e.g.
Offices and Commerce
solicitors, hairdressers, photographers
Industry (workshops, storage, builders’ merch. etc.
Industry
100%
Community Services
Community (Education, Health, Religious, Leisure)
Retail (shops, shop+production, banks etc
Retail
80%
120%
60%
100%
80%
40%
60%
40%
20% 20%
0%
1869 1915 1956 2012
0%
1876 1915 1956 2012
n= 190 n= 165 n= 196 n= 240 * Oldenberg (1999) The Great Good Place. The
importance of informal public gathering places.

18. PART THREE: HOW CAN THE
PAST INFORM THE FUTURE?

19. Built Form change and adaptation
c.1915
c.1875

22. The ‘hidden gem’: taking advantage of the internet to increase physical footfall

23. Suburban adaptability - sustainability
From Cinema to Bingo Hall to Pub Backyard workshops in high street interland.
The Coronation Hall, Surbiton (1911) © projectkevp. Allows for diversity of users and activities
• Future of centres is same as past: not to rely on retail alone but
to encourage greater mixing within the block or even unit
• Smaller centres have the potential to provide a more
targeted, genuinely sustainable growth, because of their scale
and urban form: enabling local/non-local transactions alongside
each other
• Adaptability of the built environment relates to flexibility of use
classes and ability of network to carry different movement scales

24. Adaptable Suburbs Project
Victor Buchli
Ruthie Carlisle
Ashley Dhanani
Claire Ellul
Sam Griffiths
Muki Haklay
David Jeevendrampillai
Patrick Rickles
Laura Vaughan
www.ucl.ac.uk/adaptablesuburbs
@AdaptableSuburb
@urban_formation