Book contents
- The Life and Death of the Shopping City
- Modern British Histories
- The Life and Death of the Shopping City
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Reconstructing Retail in the 1940s
- 2 Cities in the Age of Affluence
- 3 Making the Modern Shopping City
- 4 The Politics of Partnership
- 5 Landscapes of Leisure
- 6 Demand and Discontent in the Shopping City
- 7 Triumph of the Shopping City
- Conclusion
- List of Archives and Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - Demand and Discontent in the Shopping City
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 March 2022
- The Life and Death of the Shopping City
- Modern British Histories
- The Life and Death of the Shopping City
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Reconstructing Retail in the 1940s
- 2 Cities in the Age of Affluence
- 3 Making the Modern Shopping City
- 4 The Politics of Partnership
- 5 Landscapes of Leisure
- 6 Demand and Discontent in the Shopping City
- 7 Triumph of the Shopping City
- Conclusion
- List of Archives and Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter examines public responses to new urban shopping spaces and interrogates the idea of voracious consumer demand which underpinned major retail developments. I show that the projections of ‘demand’ which were put together in support of redevelopment were not borne out by the poor trading experience of many new shopping facilities after opening. The politically embarrassing failures of high-profile ‘white elephants’ prompted both government and the development industry to take much more seriously the complexities and limits of ‘demand’ in the affluent society. The chapter also probes some broader questions about the nature of Britain’s post-war affluent society. By the later 1960s, it was already clear that projections of inexorably expanding prosperity were misjudged, and the installation of expensive new shopping facilities at the heart of British urban life began to look somewhat misplaced. I highlight the rising currents of protest against the commercially driven course of urban transformation which became increasingly pronounced at this time. Citizens, activists and academics began to critique the encroachment of the retail economy over ever more of the city’s shared spaces. The chapter also considers the political implications of the widespread installation of enclosed, privately owned shopping spaces across the urban centres of post-war Britain.
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- The Life and Death of the Shopping CityPublic Planning and Private Redevelopment in Britain since 1945, pp. 244 - 281Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022