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Britain's Regional Shopping Centres: New Urban Forms?

2000; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 37; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0042098002186

1360-063X

Michelle Lowe,

Cultural Industries and Urban Development

There have been a number of recent attempts to represent Britain's regional shopping centres as potentially being the cores of new towns. Using the example of the Merry Hill Centre in the West Midlands, this paper debates that issue. The paper suggests that new town centres such as the one in formation at Merry Hill pose a number of challenges to UK planning policy. Such centres might fruitfully be regarded as developing 'edge cities' and are likely to have a considerable impact on Britain's urban futures into the 21st century and beyond. This paper serves as a plea that, whatever our prejudices, it is surely now time to take these new urban forms seriously.