Reclaiming our town centres

Following a successful inaugural event and the birth of Common Good in December, we were keen to grasp this momentum and hit the ground running in 2022.

In March, we gathered at Stretford Public Hall (Grade II listed, and utterly beautiful), to discuss the post-pandemic futures of our northern town centres. We felt the topic and timing of the event was particularly apt, with localities nationally drawing up regeneration visions for their town centres in a bid to secure levelling-up funding.

And what better place to discuss what the future holds for northern town centres than Stretford in South Manchester, a former market town transformed in the 1960s under modernist principles (namely a huge shopping mall, lots of car parking and very wide roads) but finding itself in a state of decline for several years. Following the allocation of £17.6 million of Future High Street Funding in January 2021, one of 72 number northern towns to receive funding, Stretford has been subject to extensive regeneration strategizing and finds itself at the next turning point in the town’s history.

As ever, our aim was to gather the thoughts and opinions of as wide a variety of people as possible, particularly individuals, businesses and organisations based locally who are actively involved in the day-to-day activity of the town. We were therefore delighted to have Simon Borkin (Director at the community-owned Stretford Public Hall) and James Gibson (owner of local bar and venue HEAD) on board, alongside designers, architects, a local councillor, and academics all involved in regeneration more broadly. More about this fine bunch later.

The afternoon started with Hayley from @skyliner delivering a wonderful walking tour of Stretford Town Centre, providing us with a fascinating insight into the town’s history, the development of the mall, and a discussion of the issues faced by the town today. The tour conveniently ended at Stretford Public Hall, where the Common Good team (with a large amount of technical support from staff at the Hall) welcomed attendees. It was refreshing to have such a good turnout, with some recognisable faces, some completely new, and a fair few locals too!

Simon kicked us off, discussing the Public Hall’s revival and the vital role it now plays in providing a community-owned space at the heart of the town – run by the people, for the people! He was followed by Jim, who took us on his and HEAD’s journey converting an old bank in a 60’s office block, to a thriving local bar and venue. Both shared their own views on the planned renewal of Stretford, emphasizing the importance of creating space for community organisations and locally owned, independent businesses in regeneration. 

Up next, Ernst ter Horst of Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects gave us the inside scoop on masterplan proposals for Stretford Town Centre, a project he’d been involved in for several years. Emanating from the presentation was a desire to return the town to its roots, taking the roof off the mall, and reinstating the historic fine grain which so successfully allows street life and activity to flourish. The commitment to new town centre homes was clear, ranging in tenure and size, as well as the public spaces and social infrastructure required to create sustainable places. Without labelling the approach with a “x-minute neighbourhood” tag, it’s clear the ambition for Stretford is to create a town centre where people want to spend time, not just money. 

This idea appeared to resonate with Lindsay Humblet of design studio Planit-IE, who gave a somewhat philosophical presentation on the importance of high-quality public realm in improving the performance and success of town centres. Using Greater Manchester towns Altrincham and Oldham as examples, Lindsay sent a clear message that high-quality public realm, and space for people, was the setting through which most people will experience and perceive a place. Improve the setting, and you’ll improve the perception. Lindsay also initiated a thought- provoking discussion on the metrics through which we measure the “success” of town centres, calling for a shift from traditional economic measures towards a more people/environmentally focused set of metrics, with some great suggestions and examples of how such a model could be implemented.

A panel discussion chaired by Catherine Dewar followed the designers presentations. The speakers were joined by Nawaz Khan, Regeneration Team Lead at Oldham Council to bring a local political perspective to the conversation.  The conversation veered from celebrating the trailblazing effect of HEAD and the role of local people to take on empty properties (both the Town Hall and units in Stretford Mall) to bring life back to high streets. We were joined by a number of locals in the room who vocally joined in…hooray! This is what we want to hear at Common Good.  

We are about facilitating discussion from all involved in places and that fundamentally has to include the people who live, work and play in these places.  

Finally, we were honoured to be joined by Professor Loretta Lees.  It was touch and go whether she would be able to join us as she couldn’t travel that evening.  Loretta is an urban geographer and urbanist known internationally for her work on gentrification and regeneration, and here she was on the big screen at a Common Good event.

So our 2nd Common Good event was marked by trailblazers, vocal members of the local community and a valuable discussion around how to regenerate places whilst avoiding the gentrification trap.  Is it possible?  We heard from people who loved locally and were committed to making their town centre a viable and active place.  We heard from architects and landscape architects about the value of design leading change in town centres bookended by a local expert, looking in fine detail at places and an international expert in the way places will and must change.  Food for thought. 

We decided that next time we wouldn’t follow the speakers/panel structure and give more space for local people to be central to the event, encouraging local knowledge sharing, and most importantly voicing and capturing local opinions. Good learning for us which played out well the next time we met in Birkenhead…