Report on the geography of Britain’s high streets | Blog | Ordnance Survey (2024)

FAQs

What is a high street geography? ›

The high street geography

It bounds retail clusters using street naming and aims to deliberately exclude other retail functions like retail parks, industrial estates, and isolated shopping centres.

Squeezed Incomes

Rising shop prices and general inflation has led to a decline in discretionary spending. With a near 15% fall in the pound since the Brexit vote and other pressures inflation has been pushed to well over 10%. This is well above the Bank of England's 2% target.

In Britain, some 3,000 streets called High Street and about 2,300 streets with variations on the name (such as Upper High Street, High Street West) have been identified, giving a grand total of approximately 5,300. Of these, more than 600 High Streets are located in London's boroughs.

Three decades of decline because of the growth of out-of-town retail; the rise of megastores; and more recently a seismic shift towards online shopping, has left the high street vulnerable. Over reliant on retail, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the decline.

The 'High Street' in any British town or city is normally the central retail thoroughfare (or CBD) with a mix of large stores and smaller shops with a history going back at least 150+ years. Shops and stores can usually be found on either side of the road.

The perceived weaknesses of the high street model, its fragmented ownership, lack of centralised coordination, low rents and high vacancy rates become strengths as they lower the barriers to entry for new concepts and operators.

Figures from the Centre for Retail Research showed that more than 17,000 sites across the UK shut their doors for the last time – almost 50 per cent higher than in 2021. Moreover, most of these were not businesses going bust. Just 32 per cent of the closures followed insolvency proceedings.

High street shops have been under pressure from online retailers for years, and the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic have only exacerbated the situation. Thankfully, with the population now freely able to enter shops, there is hope that the high street can recover.

The physical retail sector has been in decline since the recession in 2008 and since 2016 more shops have been closing than opening each year. According to PWC, in the first six months of 2022, 6147 shops belonging to multiples and chains with 5 or more outlets left the UK high street.

At first the term high street did not apply to any one street in particular, but was a generic term used to indicate the most important road in a place. Most of the streets now known as High Street originally had another, more local name, but came to be called the more generic term as its use became widespread.

Why is the high street important? ›

These familiar, useful and fondly-regarded places play an important role in bringing citizens together and providing a social and community focal point for people all ages. The sight of unkempt, vacant shops and empty streets understandably arouses concern.

The perfect high street should have a bakery, post office, and restaurant according to Brits. It should also boast a butcher and a pub, with a library, fishmonger, and a zero-waste shop or refill store also on the wish list.

The high street is evolving

However, despite over 20% of UK shopping now taking place online, there will always be a need for physical brick-and-mortar stores – as long as the social element of shopping remains, and the level of customer service in store is unmatched by online retailers.

Arguably it is the evolution of e-commerce that drafted the final blow on the beating heart of our high streets.

A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about.

At first the term high street did not apply to any one street in particular, but was a generic term used to indicate the most important road in a place. Most of the streets now known as High Street originally had another, more local name, but came to be called the more generic term as its use became widespread.

Word forms: high streets plural. countable noun & noun, in names. The high street of a town is the main street where most of the stores and banks are. [mainly British]regional note: in AM, use main street.

Connecting with Space and Place. Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environments. Geographers explore both the physical properties of Earth's surface and the human societies spread across it.