At every visit we make to one of our commissioned locations, we learn something new. Often, they are new ideas, innovations, and initiatives that we can share with local teams in other places.
We publish our findings in the News Centre and categorise each article as case studies. You can find our latest case studies below, but three notable examples are:
Aberdeen is a beacon for the way it has taken up the ‘place partnership’ approach to tackling vacancy on its central Union Street, particularly with its upper floors study and follow-on initiative. The impact it is having is something that we think other places with unused and underutilised upper floors (as an issue) could draw on for sure.
Crewe is an example of a place that has focused on arts & crafts, creative, culture and community uses in its initial work to tackle town centre vacancy. This is not to say that retail, hospitality, and services have not been part of the story too; they all have and will continue to be. What we call the ‘alternative’ or additional use types, however, are what we focused on to make a start on that road to reduce the number of empty units and build the momentum required to move others forward.
Tredegar is also tackling vacancy with a slightly different focus, working on ‘look’ initiatives including public realm, street furniture painting and other refresh work, plus creating stunning pieces of wall art. Their aim here is to improve the town centre environment to help attract customers and visitors, and to create a great first impression for new would-be business occupiers and investors.
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A special town…
So very excited to be headed back to the special town that is Tredegar this week. In the diary are plans to… See the latest in the ongoing refurb of an important, heritage public space at the heart of town; … Continue reading →
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Tredegar…
It’s one of the (many) reasons I love my job…! Just the variety of elements that went to make up the latest two-day visit for our tackling #highstreet vacancy work in the special town that is Tredegar. Continue reading →
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Wall art…
…what’s that got to do with filling empty shops…? Typically the ‘next steps’ we draft for #TheVacantShopsAcademy tackling #highstreet vacancy locations are only half about the empty units themselves. The rest are more general #placemaking topics: markets, street scene, events, … Continue reading →
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ArtSpace…
It’s just great to see. In Crewe town centre this week with #TheVacantShopsAcademy so a first chance to visit this new community-focused pop up art gallery, and talk to the ArtSpace team about their experiences so far and plans into … Continue reading →
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Street art, next gen…
Always enjoy our out & about time with #TheVacantShopsAcademy in Abertillery and Tredegar (and today also looking in on Brynmawr). Learned lots as ever with new #highstreet #placemaking projects to see (of which more in the next post). But struck … Continue reading →
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Railway town…
By chance out & about on successive days in locations that place branding specialists would I think include those two words in any brief for. 🚈 So while you’re in a town centre should you see references to its #heritage … Continue reading →
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Alternative or better still, ‘additional uses’…
Arts & crafts, creative, culture, community, history & heritage, leisure, education, health, health & wellbeing. 🧶 How much of a role are these playing in your town and city centre. Does one of them have the potential to be a … Continue reading →
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Open in Crewe…?
Really excited to be able to play a part in the next stage of Crewe town centre’s revival… …especially as the heart of our role with #TheVacantShopsAcademy is exploring opportunities for #popupshop or ‘meanwhile… use’ of some of the empty … Continue reading →
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Go Aberdeen…!
An exciting and inspiring update this week from the tackling #highstreet vacancy-focused initiative on Union Street, Aberdeen. 💡 It’s a brilliant illustration of what can be achieved when a place – #property agents, landlords, businesses, community, council, BID, chamber – … Continue reading →
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Tredegar, Aberdeen, Totally Locally….
Some week that was… …and it’s why I love this job…! 💡 Three things, connected in a way and all of which taught us a lot. Tredegar is a #TheVacantShopsAcademy commission but a town centre where we’d thought our typical … Continue reading →








