A town centre is the commercial or geographical centre or core area of a town. Town centres are traditionally associated with shopping or retail. They are also the centre of communications with major public transport hubs such as train or bus stations. Public buildings including town halls, museums and libraries are often found in town centres.
Town centres are symbolic to settlements as a whole and often contain the best examples of architecture, main landmark buildings, statues and public spaces associated with a place.
In some areas of Canada, particularly large, urban areas, town centres refer to alternate commercial areas to the city's downtown. These centres are usually located within a large neighbourhood and characterized by medium-high density commercial and residential property.[ example needed ]
The first example in the UK of a purposely planned commercial or town centre is Newcastle's Grainger Town in the 1840s.
As changes in shopping patterns occurred, town centres have been forced to adapt and meet those changes. Comprehensive redevelopment of many British town centres occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, which often resulted in development of larger store formats, often with modernist styles of architecture significantly different from their surroundings.
Other major changes included the development of indoor shopping malls in major towns and cities. Examples include the Manchester Arndale Centre, the St. James Centre in Edinburgh and the Bullring Centre in Birmingham. They tended to be constructed in a Brutalist or Modernist fashion reflecting the architectural styles of the period.
During the Thatcher government of the 1980s, a change in planning policy allowed competing out-of-town shopping and leisure centres to be developed. Examples include the Metro Centre in Gateshead, the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley, and the Gyle Centre in Edinburgh. Developments of this type have, in a number of places, resulted in a decline in traditional town centres.
The preponderance of chain stores using the same corporate identity, livery and so on in most or all of their outlets has led to a lack of diversity in many towns and cities, with the phrase clone town being used.
Today, there is a focus on the redevelopment of town centres and the creation of a greater mix of uses in the centres. Planning policy focus aims to maintain town centres as vibrant successful places, which are accessible to everyone by means other than the private car. [1] [2]
Many town centres have undergone major redevelopment, with environmental improvements and increased retail floorspace. Major town centre shopping malls, such as the Arndale Centre and the Bullring Centre, have also undergone major redevelopment to improve their image.
The Bull Ring is a major shopping area in central Birmingham England, and has been an important feature of Birmingham since the Middle Ages, when its market was first held. Two shopping centres have been built in the area; in the 1960s, and then in 2003; the latter is styled as one word, Bullring. When combined with Grand Central it is the United Kingdom's largest city centre based shopping centre.
A shopping mall is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, it began to be used as a generic term for the large enclosed shopping centers that were becoming commonplace at the time. In the U.K., such complexes are considered shopping centres, though "shopping center" covers many more sizes and types of centers than the North American "mall". Other countries may follow U.S. usage and others follow U.K. usage. In Canadian English, and oftentimes in Australia and New Zealand, 'mall' may be used informally but 'shopping centre' or merely 'centre' will feature in the name of the complex. The term 'mall' is less-commonly a part of the name of the complex.
A shopping center or shopping centre, also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof.
Southside Wandsworth is a shopping centre in the district of Wandsworth in London, England. When it was built it was the largest indoor shopping centre in Europe and is currently the fifth largest indoor shopping centre in London after Westfield Stratford, Westfield London, the Whitgift Centre and Brent Cross.
Lower Town (also spelled "Lowertown" is a neighbourhood in Rideau-Vanier Ward in central Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to the east of downtown. It is the oldest part of the city. It is bounded by Rideau Street to the south, the Ottawa River to the west and north and the Rideau River to the east. It includes the commercial Byward Market area in the south-western part, and is predominantly residential in the north and east.
The Merrion Centre is a shopping centre located in the Arena Quarter area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Since opening in 1964, the centre has been owned and managed by Town Centre Securities. Originally open air, the centre had a roof installed during the 1970s.
Oakland City Center is an office, shopping and hotel complex in Downtown Oakland, Oakland, California. The complex is the product of a redevelopment project begun in the late 1950s. It covers twelve city blocks between Broadway on the east, Martin Luther King Jr. Way on the west, Frank H. Ogawa Plaza on 14th Street on the north side of the complex and the Oakland Convention Center and Marriott Hotel extend south to 10th Street. An hourly parking garage is located beneath the complex's shopping mall. The mall features an upscale fitness and racquet club, in addition to numerous take-out restaurants and other stores. The complex is served by the 12th Street/Oakland City Center BART station.
Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some degree physically and functionally integrated, and that provides pedestrian connections. Mixed-use development may be applied to a single building, a block or neighborhood, or in zoning policy across an entire city or other administrative unit. These projects may be completed by a private developer, (quasi-) governmental agency, or a combination thereof. A mixed-use development may be a new construction, reuse of an existing building or brownfield site, or a combination.
Manchester Arndale is a large shopping centre in Manchester, England. It was constructed in phases between 1972 and 1979, at a cost of £100 million. Manchester Arndale is the largest of the chain of Arndale Centres built across the UK in the 1960s and 1970s. It was redeveloped after the 1996 Manchester bombing.
Greyfield land is underused real estate assets or land. The term was first coined in the UK in urban design theory in the late 1990s, and later adopted in the US about a decade later, with the name coming from the "sea" of empty asphalt concrete that often accompanies these sites. The word greyfield is a relative neologism as compared to more commonly known terms such as brownfield and greenfield.
The Frenchgate Shopping Centre is a large shopping centre located in the city centre of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is named after the street of the same name that formed one of the old gates of medieval Doncaster.
Activity centre is a term used in urban planning and design for a mixed-use urban area where there is a concentration of commercial and other land uses. For example, the central business districts of cities (CBD) are also known as “Central Activities Districts” (CAD) (also known as Downtown in North America or "Central Activities Zone" in the United Kingdom in recognition of the fact that commercial functions are not the only things that occur there. The term activity centre can also be used to designate an area for mixed-use development, whatever its current land use happens to be.
Downtown Guelph is the central business district of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by Wellington St. E. to the south, Woolwich St. to the East, Dublin St. to the west and Norwich St. to the North. Downtown Guelph is known for its distinctive limestone architecture and heritage buildings. Many of Guelph's historically designated properties are in or near the downtown area.
The architecture of Toronto is an eclectic combination of architectural styles, ranging from 19th century Georgian architecture to 21st century postmodern architecture and beyond.
In the United Kingdom, an out-of-town shopping centre is an enclosed shopping centre located outside of a town centre. The impact of out-of-town shopping centres in the United Kingdom is studied in the context of urban planning, town centre redevelopment, the retail industry and even public health and gender divides. Due to its significance for these issues, it has been included in the school exam curriculum in geography. There are only about sixteen out-of-town enclosed shopping centres in the United Kingdom. Under current policy, no more will be built. All other British shopping centres are in town and city centres.
The Mall Luton is in the centre of Luton, in Bedfordshire, England. It was formerly an Arndale Centre, until it was purchased by Capital & Regional in January 2006. It was temporarily called The Mall Arndale, but is now referred to as The Mall Luton, although local people still refer to it as "The Arndale".
Waverley Market is a shopping centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Main Street is a metonym used to denote a primary retail street of a village, town or small city in many parts of the world. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in the central business district, and is most often used in reference to retailing and socializing.
The Carousel Mall, also known as Central City Mall, was a mixed-use two-story shopping mall located in San Bernardino, California, along the city's former main downtown street.
The architecture of Vancouver and the Greater Vancouver area holds a combination of modern architectural styles, ranging from the 20th century Edwardian style to the 21st century modernist style and beyond. Initially, the city's architects embraced styles and ideas developed in Europe and the United States with only limited local variation.
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