Birmingham is a ‘clone town‘.
If you’ve walked around the city centre over recent years you’ll notice that the vast majority of buildings that you pass on the high street are chain stores, and truly independent stores are few and far between. They’re getting fewer by the day.
The result is a homogeneity of shopping options, and the feeling as a ‘punter’ that you could be walking up and down just about any high street in any city in the UK. That’s where the term ‘clone town’ comes from - towns and cities are becoming indistinguishble clones of eachother.
I’ve spoken to a one or two of those few independents that remain in Birmingham’s city centre and the message is that despite their businesses being successful it would be difficult for other independents to move in there at the moment, and that the situation is heavily weighted against the independent, rather than for it.
I think that’s a shame, but is it just a fait accompli? Market forces favour shops that are co-branded, that can share overheads by spreading the load across multiple outlets.
If you’re in the city centre this weekend, print off a copy of Clone Town Survey which is an amusing, yet slightly worrying, equation-based way of measuring a town’s ‘clone rating’, and you can do it just walking around the city centre in about 30 minutes. A distraction from last minute Christmas shopping?
Stuart Hitch totted up a score of 14.5 (that’s a high clone town rating).
I’d be interested to see what anyone else comes up with…
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5 Comments
Few observations on this:
Isn’t the centre of Brum full of independent retail outlets? Is the focus on shops a bit misleaading here and likely to skew the assessment tool you point to? Independent shops may well be on the decline but that doesn’t mean enterprise isn’t flourishing. Isn’t every market stall holder an independent retailer?
Here are some figures gleaned from the council’s info on markets:
Bull Ring indoor market: 140 stalls
Rag Market: 350 stalls + 17 shops
Bull Ring open market: 130 stalls
So that’s 637 independent retail outlets for a start that serve the needs of a very wide range of Birmingham’s communities. You also have Martineau Galleries by Dale End with the Oasis Market and outdoor stalls (can’t find exact number of outlets for this). However in this case the upcoming demolition/re-development of this space is more than likely to see a decline in the number of independent retailers (background and external links here).
I do take the general point though about one city High Street looking much like the next but in Brum we’re lucky to live in a city big enough to have more to it than just one central High Street.
Some recent research on this subject has been done by the Work Foundation. I’ve yet to digest it but the summary looks interesting enough:
“This paper looks at the concept of ‘distinctiveness’ — the idea that the specialisms and characteristics of individual places can help cities build and sustain a distinctive identity. It argues for three conceptions of distinctiveness: functional, physical and intangible. But it cautions against flashy iconic developments or image campaigns which are not based on an underlying reality.”
Dave
Valid points Dave. I think that the ‘clone town’ concept is based around the impressions of a place - the feeling one gets of visiting a town or city. What you see at eye level does have an impact on what you think about when you think of a place in my opinion. This ties into a little video post I intend to put up when I can get my imovie in gear….
This is one of my major problems with Birmingham. After living in Amsterdam where that city is littered with private businesses it’s saddening to now live in a city where the small independents are swallowed up by the ’shoppingham’ mentality. For example - stand by the Bull and take your pick from 4 HMV’s with a 2min walking radius - crazy.
Yes the council can push the statistics about the markets but come on - how many knock of trainers and mobile phone covers can one buy.
Visit Manchester, Bristol or Liverpool to see how big cities can have the best of both worlds.
Not the issue being argued but i’m currently in the middle of my uni work and i’m feeling a tad homesick for Birmingham. but theres 3Hmv’s in town not four. (and you can get from the bull to the top of the ramp in 2mins at normal walking pace, fair play, i’d say like 4mins haha)
Won’t a better game add up the number of starbucks in town.
I can count;
1-Top of Colmore Row
2-Bottom of Colmore Row
3-New Street
4-Martineau Place
5-Bullring
6-Bullring Borders
7-Bullring Selfridges (replacing cafe nero this week if you didn’t know)
8-Pallasades
I’m convinced theres one if not two more. Now theres your clone town haha.
Your photos remind me of an episode of the Simpsons where the family are walking around Springfield Mall and as the scene pans all the shop fronts change to Starbucks. One of many reasons why for years the Simpsons has been excellent TV, IMO.