#highstcamp

I shall be following this hashtag today.
Useful for those exploring town and city centres and their 'vital and viable' futures - or otherwise...
This event is going to explore a lot of things relevant to town centres.
I was led here via the Twitter feed of @juliandobson who writes on such things and others.

A very useful SLIDESHARE to get you started today... Mission:Explore obviously has a potential use here too....

Mary Portas was blogged about a while back, and there are hopes that town centres can get a new lease of life.

I was out and about in Lowestoft Town Centre yesterday, and it seemed to be fairly busy - there was a good indoor market setting up, and a lot of folks out and about... the haddock and chips was fairly top notch too.... I also walked through Southwold too, a lot of tourists out, and a plant sale in the centre...

Mary Portas

Pilots of Mary Portas' idea of Town Teams are beginning to get a step nearer.

Local towns have been among those bidding for some of the available money to develop their town centres.
Towns need support if they are to compete against the changes to the way that we shop.

I saw this article this morning and thought that might be one way to inject a little fun into the High Street.

Shops could be renamed with punny or imaginative names - an alternative way of rebranding the High Street perhaps ?

Can anyone come up with some other examples from their own towns ?
Good ones that I've seen are Balti Towers in Derby, and Sam & Ella's Sandwich Bar in Sheffield.

Also reminded of the old favourite SHOP HORROR website which I've blogged before.