Regeneration Strategies
Geography: Edexcel A Level, topic 5.3.6
Regeneration Strategies - Urban Areas
In urban areas, regeneration strategies usually fall into four main categories:
Retail-led
- Retail-led regeneration strategies usually involve:
- Major shopping malls, such as Westfield in London, Derby and Bradford and the Trafford Centre in Manchester.
- Street or food markets, such as Borough Market in London, Spitalfields Market in London or Christmas markets.
Tourism/leisure-led
- Tourism or leisure led regeneration projects are often based around historic sites.
- Belfast's Titanic Quarter and castle sites in Warwick and Cardiff are examples of a tourism-led strategy.
Sport-led
- Some examples of a sport-led regeneration strategy are London's Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park in Stratford and in Manchester, Sports City, which includes Manchester City's Etihad Stadium and the National Velodrome for Cycling.
Culture-led
- Culture-led developments usually try to re-work old buildings.
- Sage Gateshead is a landmark music venue in North East England.
- Liverpool and Hull have both been the European Capital of Culture in a culture-led strategy of regeneration.
- The Lowry Theatre in Salford is also an example of this kind of regeneration.
Regeneration Strategies - Rural Areas
In rural areas, regeneration strategies also usually fall into four main categories:
Media-led
- The hosting of Downton Abbey at Highclere Castle in Hampshire and at Bampton in Oxfordshire have helped the surrounding region.
- Some Harry Potter scenes were filmed at Alnwick Castle in the North East of England.
Tourism/leisure-led
- Some custom-built facilities aiming to attract tourists can regenerate local areas.
- Center Parcs and Butlins build custom built facilities with activities for families and tourists.
- Similarly, B&Bs in villages like Ambleside can attract tourists.
- The Soho House group opened a Soho Farmhouse in a rural area to attract tourists there.
Sport-led
- Outdoor activity centres in forest parks can regenerate areas.
- Activities like Go Ape (high wire climbing and zip wires) and forest parks like Thetford in Norfolk can attract people to an area.
- In North Wales, at Blaenau Ffestiniog, visitors can do outdoor activities in old mine workings and quarries.
Culture-led
- Exploiting famous people is one way of regenerating rural areas.
- Thomas Hardy is associated with Dorchester.
- Bronte Country in Yorkshire is marketed as the location where the Brontes wrote their famous novels.
Regeneration Strategies - Rebranding
Rebranding tries to change how a place is perceived by visitors, whilst also regenerating the area. Various media can be used to alter this perception. This is done differently in urban and rural areas:
Urban areas
- De-industrialised cities often use their industrial history as an asset. Creating museums to exploit their history is one way to do this.
- Old industrial buildings can be converted into apartments or offices. WeWork, the office group, built their strategy around making old industrial buildings 'cool'.
- Old canal basins and river quaysides can be turned into shops and hotels. In Ambleside, Cumbria, the mill has been turned into an attractive feature.
Rural areas - agriculture
- Post-production countryside areas are rural areas that no longer make most of their income from farming, fishing, mining or forestry. Some agricultural ways to rebrand are:
- Farming unusual animals like llamas or alpacas.
- Growing non-food crops like speciality flowers.
- Farm shops and initiatives like Stockley Farm, where people can visit and pet animals.
Rural areas - non-agricultural
- Some non-agricultural methods of rebranding and regenerating rural areas are:
- Converting redundant farm buildings into offices.
- Tea shops.
- Campsites (e.g. the popular campsites in Abersoch in Wales).
- Paintballing or clay pigeon shooting.
- Music festivals like Glastonbury, CarFest or Houghton.
- Art festivals.
Rural areas - environmental schemes
- Some environmental ways of rebranding and regenerating rural areas are:
- Environmental Stewardship Schemes are land management schemes, which aim to improve water quality and farm wildlife.
- Planting woodland, which is administered by the Forestry Commission. Many areas like the New Forest are visited because of their woodland.
- Ecovillages, like Poundbury in Dorset, which aim to be environmentally and socially responsible. Poundbury was supported by Prince Charles.
Test yourself on Regeneration Strategies
Which of these are examples of a sport-led regeneration strategies?
What do Liverpool and Hull have in common?
Which of these is an example of sport-led regeneration?
Downton Abbey is set at Highclere Castle. What is this an example of?
Which of the following are NOT agricultural rebranding methods?