The high street is in the grip of an existential crisis. For years business commentators have lined up to sign its death certificate since Jeff Bezos came up with the concept of an online “everything store”.
Then the first lockdown happened and travel restrictions meant that high streets were suddenly central to our lives, not just to our towns. Queues formed outside bakeries when the supermarket ran out of fresh bread, the off-licence was suddenly prized for its stock of loo roll, and we discovered bargains at the local grocery on our daily walks.
Perhaps the high street isn’t dead after all; like the rest of us, it’s just taking some time out to find out what’s really important. It’s clear that we still want places to meet people — pubs, cafés, restaurants — but will we still need all those offices and gyms?
Will Kinnear, a director of Hewn, a firm of chartered surveyors that advise on the reuse of commercial spaces, says: “The high street needs to be reset by understanding how towns and cities were originally formed, with retail blended with other uses — leisure, workspaces and residential.
“It’s an exciting opportunity to reimagine our towns and cities — and fundamentally rebuild our communities by utilising the infrastructure that is already in place.”
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One thing that is desperately needed is housing, which is partly why planning rules have been relaxed to make it easier to convert disused commercial buildings into new homes.
As of this month permitted development rights (PDR) apply to class E buildings that have been standing empty for at least three months. This means that they no longer need full planning permission to be turned into residential dwellings, as long as they meet space and light standards. This category covers shops, professional/financial services, cafés and restaurants, medical clinics, crèches and nurseries, and indoor sports and fitness venues.
Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, said that he wanted to help high streets to “adapt and thrive” after successive lockdowns led to the closure of thousands of businesses, and the expansion of PDR has delivered 60,000 new homes over the past four years.
Before this, offices could be turned into homes without full planning permission, but the results have been controversial, as some developers used it as an opportunity to build dark, cramped flats for profit.
Areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks will be exempt from the new rules, but conservation areas will not. The National Trust says that it is “particularly disappointed” about this. The trust’s heritage director, Ingrid Samuel, says: “Councils will be practically powerless to prevent business premises being turned into poor-quality housing that damages local character and is in unsustainable locations.”
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Rising house prices mean that residential land tends to be much more valuable than commercial, so it isn’t likely that vital services such as pharmacies and crèches will return to these buildings and they could be wiped from our high streets for ever, the Royal Town Planning Institute warns.
However, there are those who think that homes on high streets will bring people — and therefore life and footfall — back to declining town centres. Anthony Breach, an analyst at the Centre for Cities, a think tank, says that they would be a “big boost” for places outside the southeast of England because cities such as Preston in Lancashire tend to have too many shops lying empty.
The most important question is: would you be happy living on a high street? Boxy and noisy, perhaps, but centrally located and at the heart of urban life, these homes are the future.
From off licence to des res
Digging out the basement of a former Threshers wine merchants on Crabtree Lane in Fulham, southwest London, turned a street corner store into a family home for Richard and Jo Cardiff. “We bought the property and the freehold in 2013 and used it for five years as a joinery shop,” says New Zealander Richard, 49, who has a background in construction, and worked with architect, Michael Brooke from Smith Brooke, to find clever ways to carve up the space.
Negotiating five party wall agreements, among other legal issues, added a year’s delay before work could start. When it did, the Cardiffs made use of the strong relationships they had built up with local suppliers and tradespeople, sourcing many of their materials within just a few miles’ radius of their street corner.
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A cantilevered glass and timber staircase leads down to what was the shop basement, now four double bedrooms, a family bathroom, two en suite shower rooms and a home office.
The kitchen/living area is in the former shop on the ground floor. The Cardiffs designed and built the kitchen cupboards, painted in Farrow & Ball Down Pipe, made the marble island unit for the breakfast bar and fitted a mirror underneath to reflect light back into the room.
The planning officer wouldn’t allow frosted glass and wanted clear glass to retain the look of the former shop, but Richard and Jo pushed for reeded glass from blinds4uk.co.uk: “You can sort of see out, but when you’re on the outside, you can’t see in at all.”
£1.95 million, Marsh & Parsons
