Volume 1: Talking Shop
Overview
The facts:
• Between 1995 and 2000, the UK lost 20 per cent of some of its most vital institutions: corner shops, grocers, high street banks, post offices and pubs, amounting to a cumulative loss of over 30,000 local economic outlets.
• A further 28,000 outlets stand to be lost by 2005.
• Overall, on current trends, the number of local outlets will have dropped by nearly a third in the two decades to 2010.
• General stores closing at the rate of one per day.
• Between 1997 and 2002 specialist stores like butchers, bakers and fishmongers shut at the rate of 50 per week.
• Between 1992 and 2002, Britain lost one third of its bank-branch network – leaving nearly 1000 communities across the UK with no access to a local bank.
(New Economic Foundation)
Talking Shop is an art and regeneration project managed by Mid Pennine Arts (MPA), Pennine Lancashire’s strategic art agency. MPA recognises the instrumental role shops and small businesses play in bringing local people together within the social hub of their neighbourhood. To help sustain and celebrate the role of the Shopkeeper, this exciting and innovative art project has already raised the awareness that independent shops are the heart and soul of a community!
Talking Shop Foreword from Elevate
Creativity is at the heart of the Housing Market Renewal (HMR) programme. We are supporting the use of creative and imaginative techniques to engage local residents; young people and businesses to help build sustainable communities that will endure long into the future.
Working in partnership with the Local Authorities and organisations like Mid Pennine Arts means we can put visionary ideas into practice to improve neighbourhoods, enhance people’s lives and create places where people want to live, work, visit and relax.
Talking Shop is a pioneering creative project, which has enabled Elevate to listen to and celebrate Pennine Lancashire’s business community. We are committed to supporting this project as part of the delivery of the HMR programme.
Claire Tymon, Creative Community Engagement Manager, Elevate
Shopkeepers: where it all started…
Working closely with members of the Brierfield community in Pendle, a question was posed, ‘How do we draw attention to the town, raise its profile and encourage people to spend their time and money here rather than anywhere else’?
Brierfield is a town with a busy, vibrant high street with lots of choice of things to buy. Similar towns across Pennine Lancashire have an array of small family-run retail businesses, the majority under pressure to compete with the invading presence of larger superstores and growing housing regeneration which brings new types of communities to the area.
Using photography and film as artistic tools to document and celebrate the diversity of the local, independent shops, Shopkeepers (the project title) explored how a decision to ‘shop local’ would support and save, not only the shops, but also the community.
“We worked together as a team, Gavin taking the photographs and I filmed the shopkeepers, recording conversations that were humorous, tragic, historical and philosophical. The more we talked to people the more we began to understand the importance of the emotional exchange that takes place between shopkeeper and customer, about the money that sustains community, concerning choice, buying great products, feeding families, keeping in touch with one another and knowing the name of the person you’re speaking to not just because it’s on their name tag.”
Shopkeepers was about culture, identity, and a nation of shopkeepers and the blurred future they face. Shopkeepers represented the thoughts and feelings of a community living in a time of economic uncertainty. During the weeks the project took place, 4 of the 16 shops had closed down but we have their stories and their photos to tell the story.
The overwhelming support for this pilot project created a solid foundation from which to build upon and Talking Shop was born…
Lucy Bergman, filmmaker and project manager (Mid Pennine Arts til 2006)
Lets Talk Shop!
Talking Shop is not just an art project; it is a creative tool to put local independent shops on the regeneration agenda!
To use the arts to research and promote the social and economic importance of small, local shops and businesses in selected neighbourhoods of Lancashire, and to creatively investigate the impacts of regeneration on those shops and businesses.
Engaging shopkeepers to participate creatively with professional artists, the following publication meets this aim by celebrating the characters and stories and gives them a voice to help assist the need to support local retail. Each project became a unique creative model of support and engagement. Since 2005 we have visually documented a diverse range of local businesses and captured not only the stories but also the current issues. Through exhibitions we have begun to share this information to the public and also develop new challenging partnerships with economic professionals to foster the pathways to further support. This document will continue to promote the value of independent shopkeepers and help start a new phase of creative engagement across Lancashire.
Talking Shop: Volume I brings together the Pennine Lancashire case studies and has been made possible through the work of local artist, Anita Burrows who has drawn on the evaluation and academic theory as well as revisiting some of the early projects in Pendle.
Work is underway to celebrate and support the shops across Lancashire with the support and generosity of Lancashire County Council and Lancashire County Development Limited.
Nick Hunt, Director of Mid Pennine Arts
Revisits and Reflection
By Anita Burrows
“Part of my brief to evaluate the Pennine Lancashire projects was to revisit some of the shops which have been documented which included one of the initial sites of the first project in Pendle. The image on the right is of No.1 Market Street, the building that has replaced the former Lamberts market.
I visited the former site of Lamberts Market in the hope of discovering information about some of the retail businesses that used to reside there. I began by chatting to a few people as I walked around the area with my camera; it was lunch time on a Wednesday. My first conversation was with a woman who had lived locally for a long time and she reminisced about the former market that was present a long time ago.
I got to know where a few of the stallholders had moved to, including the former greengrocer of the old Lambert's Market. He told me how happy he was to be back trading after having been closed for a year but had managed to relocate successfully picking up most of his previous customers in the first two weeks of being open. The local paper helped by printing a free advert and he was very appreciative of this. He told me that business was good and he was very happy. He asked if shopkeepers in other areas were suffering like Nelson. The greengrocer had worked in Nelson for over 20 years. He thought the idea of opening up the pedestrian street to traffic again was a good one, it would ironically be safer and his customers would be able to park outside his shop.”
The films made alongside the postcard packs provide more detail of the history and the social networks connected to these businesses over the years. The conversations reveal committed people, aware of customer loyalty and providing a service and the difficulty in keeping going when the competition has a huge power base for buying in bulk. However these shopkeepers recognised their strength as offering a particular personal face to face service, providing knowledge and advice from the perspective of many years of experience.
Oswaldtwistle by Gayle Knight
Gayle Knight, project manager for the Oswaldtwistle Talking Shop, revisited the shops in 2008 and compiled a case study of the shops on Union Road. The gentleman featured in the chair reported that, “business was more or less ticking over as ever it was.”
A few of the businesses had ceased trading however and the closure of the Post Office had a negative effect on many of shops located near to it. Over the time of Gayle’s documentation, both Post Offices had closed and although one had been re-sited in the Co-op many traders reported that people could drive to the Co-op and therefore they missed out on passing trade.
Gayle reports that on the whole the outlook for a small business was concerning, eight shops had closed in the intervening period, 5 premises were now used for completely new business, two had new owners, two were in the process of selling and three new businesses had opened on premises not visited before.
Gayle suggested that a shopkeepers forum would perhaps help develop relationships between the traders and contribute to promotion.
Theory behind the practice!
Throughout Britain local economies are being killed by various economic and political forces, with enormous human, social and environmental consequences. Can they be brought back to life?
This first Volume of Talking Shop highlights how working with artists can help and support local, independent businesses, both strategically and at a local level celebrate their existence. On an academic level key statements that follow, help place the innovative role Talking Shop plays within the wider regeneration context and debate as a tool for engagement:
There has been criticism of the more universal solutions to urban problems, and it is now understood that the key to encouraging development lies at the neighbourhood level. In their book ‘Sustainable Cities’ (1994), Haughton and Hunter refer to the term ‘organic planning’ to describe how successful sustainable neighbourhood regeneration is achievable by rejecting the blueprint solutions from outside parties and concentrating on ideas generated locally which respect local conditions. What better way to advocate a role for Talking Shop as a means for consulting independent retailers and local communities.
The following are quotes from academic theorists who recognise the importance of local distinctiveness in regeneration.
‘A recognition of how refurbishing the old fostered distinctiveness, identity and could generate money.' Charles Landry, The Creative City.
‘Local life, in fact, is all about communicating across boundaries, even if one lives in an economic 'ghetto' of rich or poor. Part of the process of looking around is listening to each other.’ Lucy Lippard, The Lure of the Local
‘The key to developing sustainable urban forms lies in encouraging development at the neighbourhood level. Through the inclusion of the neighbourhood in planning for their locality, grass roots expertise and knowledge are utilised, so respecting local conditions and valuing local social processes.’
Tim Hall, Urban Geography
Saturday, January 17, 2009
ABOUT THE TALKING SHOP PROJECT
TALKING SHOP
PENNINE LANCASHIRE
Project Overview
Pennine Lancashire had been chosen as the place of the research because of the proposed regeneration and housing market renewal expected to take place over the next few years.
The pilot project "Shopkeepers" was delivered in 2005 in Pendle, this project consisted of documentary photographs and film which present the viewer with information connected to the independent shops participating in the project.
Talking Shop began in 2006 when Gavin Parry and Lucy Bergman documented the local shops and businesses in particular wards in Burnley which were to undergo regeneration and were part of a large area due for housing renewal.
In Accrington two artists initiated their own project to record and document the shops on Blackburn Road in Accrington. They called their project "Untitled Exchanges" where they decided to use the idea of a found £1 coin to direct the process of their engagement.
The project initiated in Rossendale involved shops in rural communities. Two artists worked with ten different schools throughout the area.
An offshoot project was also delivered in Oswaldtwistle, a neighbouring town of Accrington. The shops along Union Road were documented and a play was commissioned specially and performed in Oswaldtwistle Mills.
Gayle Knight revisited Oswaldtwistle in 2008 and compiled a case study of the shops on Union Road. This gentleman in the chair reported that “business was more or less ticking over as ever it was".
A few of the businesses had ceased trading however and the closure of the Post Office had a negative effect on many of the shops located near to it. Over the time of Gayle’s documentation both Post Offices had closed and although one had been re-sited in the Co-op many traders reported that people could drive to the Co-op and therefore they missed out on passing trade.
Gayle reports that on the whole the outlook for small businesses was concerning, eight shops had closed in the intervening period, 5 premises were now used for completely new business, two had new owners, two were in the process of selling and three new businesses had opened on premises not visited before.
Gayle suggested that a shopkeepers forum would perhaps help develop relationships between the traders and contribute to promotion.
Burnley, Accrington and Rossendale have been similarly affected. Some of the shops have closed and as one drives through areas of Burnley it is easy to see that a huge regeneration programme is underway.
There has been criticism of the more universal solutions to urban problems and it is now understood that the key to encouraging development lies at the neighbourhood level (Haughton and Hunter 1994). In their book "Sustainable Cities" they refer to the term "organic planning" to describe how successful sustainable neighbourhood regeneration is achievable by rejecting the blueprint solutions from outside and concentrating on ideas generated locally which respect local conditions. What better way to advocate a role for "Talking Shop" as a means for consulting independent retailers and local communities.
The following are quotes from urbanists who recognise the importance of local distinctiveness in planning regeneration.
"A recognition of how refurbishing the old fostered distinctiveness, identity, and could generate money."
Charles Landry, The Creative City
"Local life, in fact, is all about communicating across boundaries, even if one lives in an economic "ghetto" of rich or poor. Part of the process of looking around is listening to each other. ”
Lucy Lippard, The Lure Of The Local
"The key to developing sustainable urban forms lies in encouraging development at the neighbourhood level. Through the inclusion of the neighbourhood in planning for their locality, grass roots expertise and knowledge are utilised, so respecting local conditions and valuing local social processes."
Tim Hall, Urban Geography
PENNINE LANCASHIRE
Project Overview
Pennine Lancashire had been chosen as the place of the research because of the proposed regeneration and housing market renewal expected to take place over the next few years.
The pilot project "Shopkeepers" was delivered in 2005 in Pendle, this project consisted of documentary photographs and film which present the viewer with information connected to the independent shops participating in the project.
Talking Shop began in 2006 when Gavin Parry and Lucy Bergman documented the local shops and businesses in particular wards in Burnley which were to undergo regeneration and were part of a large area due for housing renewal.
In Accrington two artists initiated their own project to record and document the shops on Blackburn Road in Accrington. They called their project "Untitled Exchanges" where they decided to use the idea of a found £1 coin to direct the process of their engagement.
The project initiated in Rossendale involved shops in rural communities. Two artists worked with ten different schools throughout the area.
An offshoot project was also delivered in Oswaldtwistle, a neighbouring town of Accrington. The shops along Union Road were documented and a play was commissioned specially and performed in Oswaldtwistle Mills.
Gayle Knight revisited Oswaldtwistle in 2008 and compiled a case study of the shops on Union Road. This gentleman in the chair reported that “business was more or less ticking over as ever it was".
A few of the businesses had ceased trading however and the closure of the Post Office had a negative effect on many of the shops located near to it. Over the time of Gayle’s documentation both Post Offices had closed and although one had been re-sited in the Co-op many traders reported that people could drive to the Co-op and therefore they missed out on passing trade.
Gayle reports that on the whole the outlook for small businesses was concerning, eight shops had closed in the intervening period, 5 premises were now used for completely new business, two had new owners, two were in the process of selling and three new businesses had opened on premises not visited before.
Gayle suggested that a shopkeepers forum would perhaps help develop relationships between the traders and contribute to promotion.
Burnley, Accrington and Rossendale have been similarly affected. Some of the shops have closed and as one drives through areas of Burnley it is easy to see that a huge regeneration programme is underway.
There has been criticism of the more universal solutions to urban problems and it is now understood that the key to encouraging development lies at the neighbourhood level (Haughton and Hunter 1994). In their book "Sustainable Cities" they refer to the term "organic planning" to describe how successful sustainable neighbourhood regeneration is achievable by rejecting the blueprint solutions from outside and concentrating on ideas generated locally which respect local conditions. What better way to advocate a role for "Talking Shop" as a means for consulting independent retailers and local communities.
The following are quotes from urbanists who recognise the importance of local distinctiveness in planning regeneration.
"A recognition of how refurbishing the old fostered distinctiveness, identity, and could generate money."
Charles Landry, The Creative City
"Local life, in fact, is all about communicating across boundaries, even if one lives in an economic "ghetto" of rich or poor. Part of the process of looking around is listening to each other. ”
Lucy Lippard, The Lure Of The Local
"The key to developing sustainable urban forms lies in encouraging development at the neighbourhood level. Through the inclusion of the neighbourhood in planning for their locality, grass roots expertise and knowledge are utilised, so respecting local conditions and valuing local social processes."
Tim Hall, Urban Geography
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