Not Buying It: What Does The ‘Death’ Of One High Street Really Tell Us?

“There’s actually no such thing as the average high street,” she says. “You can say footfall’s gone down 20% across the UK, but in some towns it’s gone down by 40% whilst some towns have actually increased their footfall.

“While we might talk generically about high streets and town centres, you’ve got to look closely at what’s happening in your local town, in your local high street. It’s not a nationwide problem although it’s usually perceived as that.”

Cathy – alongside several other researchers – has identified the factors that impact our town centres and high streets. 

The list stretches to more than 200 factors. These are the 15 most influential ones: 

1. Footfall (number of pedestrians in the town centre) 
2. Accessibility (how well connected the high street is for pedestrians/motorists/public transport
3. Types of retailers in the town centre
4. Construction of out-of-town shopping centres
5. Convenience 
6. Leadership (vision and strategy for the town centre) 
7. Opening hours 
8. Shopping hours 
9. Place attractiveness 
10. Retailer offer 
11. Supermarket impact
12. Economy 
13. Centre size
14. Area development strategies 
15. Internet shopping

“Internet shopping is definitely having an impact, but it’s actually much more complementary and the introduction of services like click and collect have actually been a great boost,” Parker explained. “Meanwhile, if I decide to drive to an out-of-town mall, I can’t be anywhere else while I’m there. 

It’s not just where the shops are – but when they’re open – that is increasingly impacting how we interact with our high streets. 

Take a walk through Weston-super-Mare mid-morning on a weekday and the high street feels busy, but with such a high proportion of residents working nine to five it’s easy to see how the traditional high street is rendered more or less inaccessible to a sizeable proportion of the population. 

Factor in that, with Bristol just minutes away by train, many residents now commute into the city for work, and there’s a whole group of people who are unable to make use of the high street (or spend any money there) for five days of the week. 

Our obsession with retail is part of the problem, too. Once high streets housed people, doctor’s surgeries, small hospitals, hotels, and community centres – a whole host of other services that had nothing to do with shopping, and were open beyond trading hours. 

“The shops all close at around 5pm, and because the shops are closed the cafes are closed, and nobody comes into the town centre because there’s nothing here for them. If we had people actually living in High Street, making use of that space, I think we’d see a bit more life in the town,” John Crockford-Hawley said. 

“At the moment there’s nothing to do, which leaves it open to misuse, which eventually leads to people being even more put-off from the idea of coming into the town outside of shop opening hours.”

What does the future hold?

When it comes to watching Weston’s high street evolve, there are few people who are better placed to observe the changes than Sam Walker, the latest owner of department store Walker Ling in a family line that stretches back 127 years.