The Notebook: Will Kinnear on how high streets can move away from the drab
Where the City’s movers and shakers get a few things off their chest. Today, Will Kinnear, founder and director of flexible workspace firm HEWN, takes the pen.
A high street is for everyday life, not just for Christmas
Leading up to Christmas ’tis the season the high street comes alive – but are there lessons it can teach so our main shopping streets thrive all year round?
Walking down Oxford Street earlier this year was depressing, once the nation’s high street – a destination itself – the sea of vacant, clearance and sweet shops was a world away from the place my parents would make pilgrimage to. The same depressing phenomenon presents in Glasgow, Liverpool, Stoke and across London. Our high streets need to reinvent themselves and bring themselves up to speed with new demands.
During the pandemic, our high streets found some value again, as curiosity to get out of the house took hold. Some areas have succeeded in using this as a launchpad for transformation.
To reinvent we need to curate a place for communities to live, work and play; the high street cannot be dominated by a single demographic depending on time of day – an illness so many suffer. To do this requires active intervention by councils and other stakeholders.
People follow people. Active frontage should be a key aspect of any strategy, the retail sector have always understood this, which is why we are seeing stores move away from hardcore selling to interaction, education and even play. Apple really kicked this off, with in-store demonstration and courses: people go to Apple not necessarily to buy but to learn how to use their equipment, installing a brand loyalty along the way.
Instagram and Tiktok shape consumer habits, places need to be beautiful, or at least look interesting. This doesn’t necessarily mean great expense. After the Olympics, Forest Gate high street was given a more uniform appearance – rendering it more attractive. This can be an area-wide strategy, but it can also be a shop strategy. Despite a cost of living crisis, we are seeing the rise of quality brands like Flannels – a luxury, designer-fashion department store – whose windows are LED screen’s with commercials but also art – framing the perfect ‘social post’.
The high street is competing with the online sphere: with this in mind, a key aspect of a high street strategy should be technology, from free wifi to geolocating Bluetooth tech with offers of experiences, savings or ‘first-looks’.
Flexible workspaces can be community spaces too
It’s not just retail. The high street needs to host flexible workspaces, whose occupants will spend locally if able to. Sutton Council have recently teamed up with Oru Space who are in the midst of a triumphant regeneration of a huge former BHS site – there are traditional offices, amongst a nursery, café, restaurant and wellbeing offer from Yoga to alternative therapies. Likewise, Patch in Twickenham doubles up as a community space for local clubs and events. Or, in Islington Square, a reinvented former post-office with a unique mix of retail, office and housing.
Community ownership
The new high streets aren’t vying for tourists but local spend, central to this is community ownership from more community projects to regularly changing artwork. Argent at Kings Cross have really led the way, with regularly changing campaigns from Bloomsbury Football Club to Queer Stories and local heroes.
The contrast walking down London’s high streets this weekend to September time is stark. Presently there is a buzz, an energy, aided by luminous lights – active frontage and even empty units being utilised as pop-up shops. What this always demonstrates to me is that we can absolutely do it when there is the reason to do so. The reason need not just be Christmas: if we pull together the right teams, with a core mission to activate and create community.
A podcast recommendation:
Rugby Pod, it’s an insightful, funny and in-depth discussion. It’s a bit of light relief in a the complex world we find ourselves in.