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| HMV's travails show the need for citizens to reclaim town and city space | HMV's travails show the need for citizens to reclaim town and city space |
| (3 months later) | |
| In my city, you'll find the HMV shop at the junction of two streets, Fargate and High Street. It's a handy spot. It's just across the way from Coles Corner, where lovers traditionally met, as immortalised by the singer Richard Hawley. Perhaps more importantly to many, it's by a bus stop. | In my city, you'll find the HMV shop at the junction of two streets, Fargate and High Street. It's a handy spot. It's just across the way from Coles Corner, where lovers traditionally met, as immortalised by the singer Richard Hawley. Perhaps more importantly to many, it's by a bus stop. |
| Head downhill along High Street towards the tram bridge at Park Square and you'll pass through Commercial Street. On the left is where Jessops is. Sorry, was. | Head downhill along High Street towards the tram bridge at Park Square and you'll pass through Commercial Street. On the left is where Jessops is. Sorry, was. |
| In all likelihood HMV will soon be a 'was' too. Both companies have called in administrators. Both have been struggling for ages, priced out of the market by the likes of Amazon, which can sell photographic and audio goods both more cheaply and more conveniently. | In all likelihood HMV will soon be a 'was' too. Both companies have called in administrators. Both have been struggling for ages, priced out of the market by the likes of Amazon, which can sell photographic and audio goods both more cheaply and more conveniently. |
| There has been no end of comment about the significance for our high streets of the demise of Jessops and HMV. Many have pointed out that their business model was broken: they simply couldn't compete with online retailers. | There has been no end of comment about the significance for our high streets of the demise of Jessops and HMV. Many have pointed out that their business model was broken: they simply couldn't compete with online retailers. |
| Some have muttered darkly about the unfair advantages enjoyed by distributors like Amazon, which not only find ways of slithering around corporation tax, but pay business rates far lower than town centre retailers (£44 per square metre for a fulfilment centre in Doncaster, compared with more than £1,000 per square metre for a town centre unit in Rochdale, according to Guardian Northerner regular Paul Turner-Mitchell). | Some have muttered darkly about the unfair advantages enjoyed by distributors like Amazon, which not only find ways of slithering around corporation tax, but pay business rates far lower than town centre retailers (£44 per square metre for a fulfilment centre in Doncaster, compared with more than £1,000 per square metre for a town centre unit in Rochdale, according to Guardian Northerner regular Paul Turner-Mitchell). |
| Others, such as Michael Bywater in the Independent, have turned to self-blame: we, the consumers, are the problem. We didn't value the high street, and now we're losing it. | Others, such as Michael Bywater in the Independent, have turned to self-blame: we, the consumers, are the problem. We didn't value the high street, and now we're losing it. |
| All three points are valid. Retail is changing, and some companies are unable to keep up. Business taxation is unbalanced, and for all its bluster about helping the high street, the government has turned down the opportunity to tackle the problem. And the way the places we live in are managed or mismanaged is perhaps the biggest issue of all. | All three points are valid. Retail is changing, and some companies are unable to keep up. Business taxation is unbalanced, and for all its bluster about helping the high street, the government has turned down the opportunity to tackle the problem. And the way the places we live in are managed or mismanaged is perhaps the biggest issue of all. |
| I used to pop into Jessops now and again. I haven't shopped at HMV for years – if I want to explore music, independent shops like Sheffield's Record Collector are far more enjoyable places to visit. I can find other retailers that can give me what Jessops and HMV did. | I used to pop into Jessops now and again. I haven't shopped at HMV for years – if I want to explore music, independent shops like Sheffield's Record Collector are far more enjoyable places to visit. I can find other retailers that can give me what Jessops and HMV did. |
| But there's still a sense of loss. Something familiar is disappearing: Sheffield city centre won't be the same. It's significant that much of the commentary on Jessops and HMV has referred to how long they've been there: Jessops, the family business started in 1935 or HMV, in our high streets since the first shop opened in 1921. We're reminded of Box Brownie cameras and ancient vinyl 78s that weigh a ton and are as faithful as Nipper the dog himself. | But there's still a sense of loss. Something familiar is disappearing: Sheffield city centre won't be the same. It's significant that much of the commentary on Jessops and HMV has referred to how long they've been there: Jessops, the family business started in 1935 or HMV, in our high streets since the first shop opened in 1921. We're reminded of Box Brownie cameras and ancient vinyl 78s that weigh a ton and are as faithful as Nipper the dog himself. |
| The loss of that familiarity changes the place and reminds us, in just the slightest whisper, of our own transience. It's not the disappearance of the individual shop but the sense of loss to the whole place that's disturbing. But as well as being a warning, it's an opportunity to remake and rethink and to replace what's lost with something new. | The loss of that familiarity changes the place and reminds us, in just the slightest whisper, of our own transience. It's not the disappearance of the individual shop but the sense of loss to the whole place that's disturbing. But as well as being a warning, it's an opportunity to remake and rethink and to replace what's lost with something new. |
| In a world where large-scale commercial property ownership depends on high rates of return in order to satisfy investors and cover costs (including the cost of taxation), the opportunities to make anew are restricted. Properties stand empty because it is not deemed commercially viable to fill them. Those who might want to do so but who don't have the track record or financial standing of bigger businesses are pushed to the margins. | In a world where large-scale commercial property ownership depends on high rates of return in order to satisfy investors and cover costs (including the cost of taxation), the opportunities to make anew are restricted. Properties stand empty because it is not deemed commercially viable to fill them. Those who might want to do so but who don't have the track record or financial standing of bigger businesses are pushed to the margins. |
| Michael Bywater got it right: 'In the end, it's about public space: what it is, who owns it, how we negotiate it and what it's for.' What's broken isn't just the retail model of HMV or Jessops, or the business rates system, or city centre parking, or any of the individual bugbears blamed for the demise of the high street. What's broken is our own ability as citizens to share in the ownership, management and use of the spaces we occupy. It's about the whole place, not just the shops. | Michael Bywater got it right: 'In the end, it's about public space: what it is, who owns it, how we negotiate it and what it's for.' What's broken isn't just the retail model of HMV or Jessops, or the business rates system, or city centre parking, or any of the individual bugbears blamed for the demise of the high street. What's broken is our own ability as citizens to share in the ownership, management and use of the spaces we occupy. It's about the whole place, not just the shops. |
| We don't have to retreat into existential angst or wait for some disembodied concept of 'the market' to come up with a solution. There are better ways. Ebenezer Howard's idea of garden cities was of locally controlled bodies that would manage commercial as well as public space, ensuring the benefits were shared by the towns' citizens and acting as long term stewards. A few towns, such as Letchworth where Howard first experimented, still work on this principle. | We don't have to retreat into existential angst or wait for some disembodied concept of 'the market' to come up with a solution. There are better ways. Ebenezer Howard's idea of garden cities was of locally controlled bodies that would manage commercial as well as public space, ensuring the benefits were shared by the towns' citizens and acting as long term stewards. A few towns, such as Letchworth where Howard first experimented, still work on this principle. |
| The rest of us need to shout louder about what we want our towns and cities to become. The loss of the past might be painful, but we should be far more worried about the risk of losing the future. | The rest of us need to shout louder about what we want our towns and cities to become. The loss of the past might be painful, but we should be far more worried about the risk of losing the future. |
| Julian Dobson runs the consultancy Urban Pollinators and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a voluntary board member at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. | Julian Dobson runs the consultancy Urban Pollinators and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a voluntary board member at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. |
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