Before you start
Our town centres have experienced dramatic changes in the last 25 years – challenges from “Out of Town” retail, supermarkets, financial crises and internet shopping have had a notable impact on our high streets. Many of the familiar names of the past are no more and those which remain form part of an increasingly clone like landscape that would be familiar to shoppers across the whole country.
Investigations of change can concentrate on both spatial and temporal variations. Spatial changes are perhaps the easier to conduct as they are generally based on “what is here today” however these can be limited to snapshots of places at one point in time. Temporal change may give rise to more interesting questions which may include more contemporary issues. Where possible it is valuable to give some consideration to both spatial and temporal changes in the same investigation.