C O N T E X T 1 7 1 : M A R C H 2 0 2 2 13 HIGH STREETS Opposite: A south London former shopping parade: most of the units have been converted to housing. (Photo: Rob Cowan) Editorial High streets, but not as we know them Is axe throwing compatiblewithdrinking alcohol?The question is relevant – bear with me – to the future of high streets. Axe throwing is a fairly new leisure activity that often takes place in high-street buildings which used to serve other functions. It is rather like darts: you throw a sharpmetal axe at awooden target and score points according to where it lands. In some axe-throwing venues alcohol is allowed, whereas in others the licencing authorities have refused it. The arguments in favour of serving alcohol: first, the places where axes are thrown are caged off with chain-link fencing to prevent wayward hatchets from flying into neighbouring groups; second, the behaviour of customers, and the number of drinks consumed, can be monitored by staff; third, the staff can also look out for signs of customers being drunk beforehand. The argument against combining axe-throwing with alcohol: Aaargh! A high street is the most important and liveliest shopping and commercial street of a town, or of a city district. The UK used to have thousands of them. Today many have lost much of their life and their commercial activity, mainly due to online and out-of-town shopping. Does it matter? If they are not needed for shopping, why now write them off? In many cases that will happen, but it other cases the high street has a value beyond being a place to buy things. They have a critical mass of activities with community and social value. They bring people together in ways that strengthen the links between people, and with the places where they live. Historic buildings are usually a big part of that. The buildings’ quality may inspire us; they may evoke the history of the place; they may provide accommodation of a size and quality that we could not build today; they may be well located in relation to pedestrian routes and public transport; and they may provide more flexible accommodation than the highly controlled and enclosed shopping centres that we were once told were the future of in-town retailing. IHBC members know how to manage change on the high street in ways that make the most of those historic assets. The cover of this issue of Context shows a former shop unit with a trompe l’oeil image in the window. It is an effective way of, to some extent, disguising the blankness of the frontage and suggesting how the building might be used. Done on any large scale, though, we would be in a world of Potemkin villages, as they call false facades of the type built in 1787 by Prince Potemkin to impress Catherine II of Russia – or, as some suspect, to conceal the fact that towns for which she had provided large sums of money had not been built. Avoiding such deadness will depend on imaginative thinking about what activities can replace traditional shopping on high streets. If that includes convivial axe throwing, so be it.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=