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Consuming communities: the neighbourhood unit and the role of retail spaces on British housing estates, 1944–1958

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2015

JAMES GREENHALGH
JAMES GREENHALGH*
Affiliation:
School of History and Heritage, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS, UK
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Abstract

This article challenges perceptions about the origins and objectives of the ‘neighbourhood unit principle’ that emerged in 1944, by focusing on the location and purpose of shops. It argues that the positioning of retail spaces was central, but largely overlooked, to the socio-spatial schema that lay at the heart of the neighbourhood principle. Planners saw shops as a hub of face-to-face interaction, through which nebulous objectives like ‘community spirit’ might be engendered. However, planners did not account for the way that their need-based model of shopping might be undermined by the consumer habits of inhabitants and the changing objectives of retailers.

Type
Dyos Prize winner 2014
Information
Urban History , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 158 - 174
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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