England’s first lockdown saw most high streets and town centre’s physical stores close, which resulted in a huge increase in online shopping. Whilst lockdown 2 is lighter, there are still huge disparities between what is classed as essential and non-essential and markets vs shops with...
As a trustee at The London Society, we hosted a panel discussion last week on London’s high streets. We know that the lockdown has affected current patterns of working, shopping and eating out. Local high streets are reporting some recovery, but central areas are still seeing footfall...
As reopening continues at pace across high streets and town centres, we adapt to new ways of moving around and accessing shops and services, it’s easy to lose track of what opened when. Whilst it often appeared that reopening dates were set at short notice,...
In 2019, Arup was commissioned to convene ‘The Future of Barking Town Centre Panel’, which was created to develop a vision for the future of the town centre in 2030. Whilst Barking is functioning well as a town centre, it is not fulfilling its potential. It...
Over the past 12 months, we’ve been managing several stakeholder engagement projects. Whilst talking to business owners, BID members, workers, market traders and high street users in very different places, we’ve uncovered interesting findings on how these places work and what interventions might be needed...
Last month we visited Ruddington, a large village five miles from Nottingham with a host of indie shops, local history museums and a country park. In 2019, the village launched its own street market and we went along to celebrate the market’s first birthday. We met...
2019 has been a busy year at the Assembly Line. We have worked on a number of interesting and diverse projects and we are now planning ahead for 2020.We have capacity for new projects from March onwards. If you would like to collaborate on a...
Hawkins Brown, an international practice of architects, interior designers, urban designers and researchers invited The Assembly Line in last month to talk about ‘The role of markets and the changing high street’. The objective of the talk was for their team to learn more about the...
I’ve been spending a lot of time in the north west this year. I know the region well having grown up there and worked in Manchester early in my career. Now based in London, I have been used to returning for quick weekends to see...
Photo credit: Kriss Lee Chatsworth Road Market Traders’ and Residents’ Association (CRTRA) were the first group in Hackney, East London to launch a start-up trader programme for local residents at its weekly market. As the market grew from its early stages and expanded, the team wanted to ensure...