Can libraries save the high street

John Harris, who we like now because of his thoughtful pieces on libraries, wrote in Saturday’s Guardian on the future of Britain’s high streets.

“In countless towns, and parts of our cities, the basic story is simple enough: first, the big chain stores saw off independent shops, but now they themselves are either ailing, or off somewhere else. The result, to use a phrase invented by the New Economics Foundation (Nef), is a passage “from clone town to ghost town”,”

Towards the end of the piece are some visions of the future for the high street in Britain. One commentator, Matthew Hopkinson, whose company walks the streets of our towns and cities to see what the evidence is, has some interesting ideas.

His vision of the future is: “[The high street] is going to be full of services, and social aspects,” – hairdressers, salons, cafes and restaurants, doctors.

“And it’ll become very leisure-focused. If there’s an area where people like the architecture, and they can socialise, and not just shop, that’s what will happen. You’ll get a place where people will go for community.”

And where there isn’t the money to sustain this type of vision?: “That’s where you’ll get the analogy of Shitsville, Tennessee,” says Hopkinson, referring to what’s happened in the US with thousands of businesses closing down, leaving empty shops. “If you haven’t got nice buildings, or any events, or any reason to go there unless you live or work there, you’ve got a problem.”

You can see where my thinking is going. Where’s a good place for people to go to for ‘community’, and events? Something to go to on your local high street for reasons other than buying a product? A public library, that’s where.