No more clone towns, please
High profile regeneration schemes such as the 2012 site in East London, along with new developments across our former manufacturing cities, are re-shaping the urban fabric of the UK. But local character and identity is often lost in the headlong rush to create our vibrant new communities, especially in smaller towns and cities. How do we avoid creating even more ‘clone towns’?
Retaining historic buildings clearly gives streets individuality and helps to create a sense of place. It is also more sustainable to retain and reuse the historic fabric. Yet, too often, the setting of historic features is diminished by street signs, hoardings, traffic and clutter.
Since the early 1990s the English Historic Towns Forum (EHTF) has fought a worthy, and largely unsung, campaign to promote better street design. This has focused on fine grain interventions and remodeling highway systems rather than drastic public realm reinventions. Existing heritage and character buildings have to be reused in new ways, it agrees, but it is the setting around them that remains crucial to good placemaking.
The EHTF looked to Europe for examples of good practice before launching its Historic Core Zones project as a pilot in 1997 in four English towns: Bury St Edmunds, Halifax, Lincoln and Shrewsbury. In 2008 work continues, with EHTF recommending that every town has a Public Realm Strategy adopted as supplementary planning guidance, and that each town designates one person to co-ordinate placemaking activity.
Halifax town centre
Of the four towns in the project, Halifax went furthest by introducing a ‘zone and loop’ traffic system. The town centre was divided into quarters surrounding a pedestrianised core. Cars were permitted to circulate on a one-way system within each quarter, but banned from passing between quarters.
The central Market Quarter has been made a pedestrian zone during the day by rising bollards controlled through the town centre CCTV network. The town centre was designated a 20mph zone, the resulting reduction in traffic speed allowing the use of less obtrusive traffic signs mounted on tubular hoops just 1.1 metres high.
Importantly, the Department for Transport gave Calderdale Council dispensation to either omit or reduce the level of traffic signs lighting, relying instead on highly reflective sign faces. The resulting non-regulation non-illuminated signs are not only less visually intrusive, but their reduced energy demands and need for maintenance gives them a far lower carbon footprint.
In addition, Halifax, along with the other towns in the project, introduced a range of smaller scale measures designed to improve permeability and pedestrian flows, including the widening of pavements, reduction of street clutter and minimising of road markings. Distinctiveness was enhanced by the use of traditional paving materials, in keeping with the historic buildings of the town concerned.
Bury St Edmunds
The Historic Core Zone project in Bury St Edmunds focused on creating better access to the historic core for public transport, pedestrians, cyclists and people with mobility problems. However, rather than ban cars from entry, it favoured managing the demand for spaces, and on creating a clearly identifiable zone within which it is obvious to drivers that special measures have been introduced.
Traffic speeds again were restricted to 20mph, and all unnecessary signs and road markings, including yellow lines, removed. The aim was to design in measures which would be as self-enforcing as possible, while conspicuous controls such as speed humps, were not used.
The scheme has been successful in restoring some of the historical feel of the town centre that had become lost through the dominance of vehicle traffic. Walking has been promoted, especially down the two main processional routes to the Abbey, which has been reconnected to the centre, rather than divided by a major road.
One key part of the core zone project has been the creation of gateways, or thresholds to the zone, which echo the historic concept of gateways to the town, Bury St Edmunds having lost its old town walls. Public art also played an important part in the scheme. An artist designed the new mountings for the distinctive signs and railings now used throughout the zone.
The concept of shared space, which causes drivers to pause to consider who has right of way, has been successful in slowing traffic, and allowing pedestrians to cross in the revitalised Angel Hill. A listed 1930s road sign (The Pillar of Salt) now forms a prominent feature, instead of being obscured by traffic.
Contemporary environments such as those found at Rieselfeld and Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, or in the Hammarby Sjostad suburb of Stockholm,suggest that the UK obsession with the recreation of historicist environments may be tired and, indeed, out of step
Willie Miller, urban designer
The lessons from Bolton
Locals tell designers what makes their town distinctive
A Local Distinctiveness Study provided the research baseline for Building Bolton, an urban design strategy carried out for Bolton Council by a research team led by Kevin Murray Associates, with Willie Miller Urban Design (WMUD) leading on a project to engage the community in thinking about and describing the distinctiveness of Bolton town centre. An interactive storytelling process was supported by filming and personal interviews.
The core of the WMUD work consisted of a series of workshops held with a cross section of different groups throughout Bolton. These assessed the degree of distinctiveness that the town centre possesses and defined the various elements of which that distinctiveness is composed. The method used in these workshops was the narrative technique of ‘storytelling’, drawn up by Drew Mackie Associates, and currently widely used in the business world.
‘In the context of new communities or new building, we think these techniques produce fine-grained results that suggest the need for sophisticated approaches to generating mixed use frameworks, pedestrian scale environments and the importance of meaning in relation to new development,’ says Willie Miller. ‘This is in contrast to the “let’s start designing” attitudes that tend to leave community issues unaddressed.’
There was a broad range of opinion on how distinctive Bolton’s town centre is, he says. On the one hand, it was seen as a not very special shopping centre with an increasing dominance of ‘anywhere’ national chain stores. The individuality of smaller local shops was seen to have diminished and, in turn, decreased the distinctiveness of the centre as a shopping experience. In particular, the proposed changes to the Market Halls were seen to detract from the ‘local’ feeling of the town centre.
On the other hand Bolton was seen to have a tight civic core with a few exceptional buildings that made it visually distinctive. The disposition of this core on a flat surface with few changes in level was also seen as factor that led to a distinctive and user-friendly experience.
‘It is easy to roll out theoretical urban design solutions for new communities based on ideas about Italian hill towns and medieval burgage plots, setting up a fine grain of mixed uses and enclosed pedestrian scale environments,’ says Miller. ‘The default urbanism of a four-sided enclosing street block is not always the best solution. Contemporary environments such as those found at Rieselfeld and Vauban in Freiburg, Germany, or in the Hammarby Sjˆstad suburb of Stockholm, suggest that the UK obsession with the recreation of historicist environments may be tired and indeed out of step.’
The lessons of historic towns should not be ignored by these new developments, he added, rather they need to be brought up to date and fine-tuned to contemporary circumstances.
Willie Miller’s conclusions from the Bolton study included:
- the city council controls the process from the outset rather than responding to private developers;
- the community is closely engaged in the development process at every level – there is a definite sense of pride and local distinctiveness;
- planners allow individual designs within an overall framework of design codes – generally the design of the buildings is simple, contemporary and refreshingly style-free in comparison to the UK preference for pastiche;
- there is a rich and diverse landscape with strong links to an adjacent country park – the overall feel of the development is green and open despite a grid layout and three-five storey buildings – and there is an integral SUDS which is an attractive central feature of the development;
- cyclists and pedestrians have priority throughout and there is a direct seven-minute tram link service to the city centre – in addition to this the speed limit is 18 mph (30 km/h) within the development;
- there is a predominance of underground car parking throughout or carports with storage above – even housing blocks at the rural edge of the development have basement parking;
- there is a wide range of community facilities including a kindergarten, children’s centre, sports area, churches, gymnasium, meeting centres, primary and secondary schools, sports clubs and a day nursery – the schools are the hub of the community;
- there is a district centre with shops and a church shared by Protestants and Catholics
- there is combined heat and power throughout with connection to a district heating system, combined with low energy buildings and considerable use of solar power.
The final report can be downloaded from www.williemiller.co.uk/the-distinctiveness-of-bolton
