Healthy High Streets Updated

Thanks to Kate Stockings for sending me an update of a fieldwork activity which she developed around Healthy High Streets and which has now been updated. 

She also led me to two new research reports.

First is an updated research report on Healthy High Streets. (PDF download)

This was produced by the Royal Society for Public Health.

This report sets the scene nicely:

The high street is a British institution. Its origins can be traced back to the 18th century, but it became central to communities around mid-19th century, when they offered an alternative to noisy and often unclean markets. The ways communities have used the high street have also changed with time. In the 1960s, the shops and facilities on the high streets were needed for everyday life – like buying new clothes or paying a bill at the bank. Now, with online shopping and banking apps, going to the high street has become a choice. People no longer visit them out of necessity, but because they seek experiences or social activities.

This references a useful English Heritage web feature on the development of the High Street.

Also an interactive tool to help develop resilience in different types of High Street. (PDF download)

The second one is from Health Equity North. (PDF download)

It includes a useful definition of the High Street.

This is an important aspect of the work for me as I teach in a school which has a significant number of students who are not familiar with the UK and need this explained for them:

A high street can be defined through its physical spatial properties and its role in the social fabric of the community. It can be thought of as both the physical and social centre of a community, where people go to fulfil their needs. The primary difference between a high street in a small town and one in a large city is that in a city there may be more than one “centre” while in a town there is usually only one.