HIGH STREET REGENERATION | STRATEGY
Bromley Council had a limited budget and a long high street. The question was not what to design, but where money would do the most good. This report gave them a way to decide.
We knew Penge well, having lived in south east London and worked with Bromley Council during our time as advisors to the Mayor of London on high street regeneration. The council asked us to develop a strategy for a shopfront improvement scheme: identify the buildings that could benefit, and recommend the best way to use the available funds.
The budget was tight and the high street long, so every pound had to earn its place. We brought in Untitled Practice, an award-winning architectural practice we had worked with in Sidcup and later in Ealing and Northolt, for architectural judgement.
We walked the high street and mapped what people actually see from the main entry points into Penge. Spend followed visibility, not a wish list. A shop few pass or hidden in the middle of a parade was a lower priority than a corner building everyone sees.
We met the traders, talked with locals and shopped in the area ourselves. What people really think about their high street is invaluable, and you only learn it by being there and listening.
From our research, we created a flow chart like an information vending machine to make it simple to decide if a shop was a good choice for improvement based on the recommended solutions in the different areas. We wanted to create a report that made the council’s decisions easy to make and justify. That’s what we mean when we say we are helpful by design.
"Rather than treat individual businesses to make-overs, this scheme should be viewed as a way of making Penge look and feel proud of itself again."
One idea held every recommendation together. Not a collection of improvements, but a high street that looks like it belongs to the people who use it.
The car park was quiet because few people could find the entrance. A painted sign in the style of Penge's old wall advertising solved a practical problem and added character in one move.
Some shops had already been painted in bright colours, but piecemeal. Filling the gaps ties whole groups of buildings together, so the same money lifts a block rather than a single unit.
Unified signage levels across parades, with the focus on corner sites and landmark businesses, because those are the buildings everyone sees on the way in and out of Penge.
Every recommendation in the report can be traced back to what people see, what locals said, and what the budget could realistically deliver.
