![]()
Pop-ups. Part 2: In the Mainstreamby Sue Cambie Feb 2010
Browse this article:
Sue Cambie discusses pop-ups, ‘the blink and you’ll miss them’ phenomenon of temporary businesses and their value to the visitor economy. Following on from Pop-ups. Part 1: Creating Micro Tourism, which examined their history and the use of social media marketing to promote guerrilla-style pop-ups, Part Two explores similar themes in the mainstream and discussed public funding, planning issues and working in partnerships. An examination of pop-ups in Camden gives an interesting insight into pop-ups in practice. Recapping on the pop-up trend, it has been around for sometime and the current recession has added fuel to their popularity, as businesses and individuals look at different ways to generate income without great capital outlay. Pop-ups, in effect, act as micro-events by creating mini destinations which can add to the visitor economy as people look to satiate desires to collect as many experiences as possible ‘now’ in fluidly changing times – a condition termed ‘Liquid Modernity’ by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman [1].
From the novel beginnings of early pop-up guerrilla stores, they have moved into the mainstream consciousness as retailers and budding entrepreneurs set up temporary shops, art galleries, bars, restaurants and more. There is even a nationwide website for pop-up commercial property lets [2]. Most pop-up operators use the Internet for the majority of their marketing, with extensive usage of social media because of its ability to virally reach a wide audience.
Deeper reaches into the mainstream arena came in 2009 when central UK Government funding [3] was announced to essentially create pop-ups in empty shops. The government-backed initiative is to help beat the negative impact the recession is having on UK town centres by promoting temporary use of empty premises. In terms of town centre and destination management, from a visual standpoint there is an immediate element of ‘the importance of keeping up appearances’ – maintaining attractiveness for locals, visitors and new business, mixed with longer-term goals for area regeneration. With the recession forcing many businesses to close, and leaving in its wake a plethora of vacant premises [4] in town centres across the UK, the knock-on effects go beyond the obvious immediate economic difficulties. Good town centre management is therefore paramount. One of central Government’s responses has been to encourage the re-opening of empty shops with temporary facilities for communities. In April 2009, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) issued a booklet, ‘Looking After Our Town Centres’ [5], targeted at town centre managers and their local partners.
This handbook is intended to give practical guidance on keeping town centres dynamic and vibrant, aimed at helping ‘protect the future of local businesses while continuing to attract local people and visitors onto their streets.’ [5] It encourages creative uses and thinking for filling empty spaces during the downturn such as temporarily using empty shops for meeting places, learning centres and showrooms for local artists etc. Examples in Dursley, Gloucestershire are cited, where empty shops were turned into temporary art galleries, Margate Council’s ‘creative squat’ where artists installed fake shopfronts into empty ones and Chorley’s summer-long music workshop. Others, including Eastbourne Borough Council, have turned empty shops into town centre information hubs. The booklet points out that many UK cities and towns are tourist destinations, and therefore it is important that they remain attractive and safe in financially turbulent times. Highlighting the importance of good management of town centres in achieving this, not only during the recession but beyond, DCLG recommendations include: - encouraging more flexibility and innovation
- enabling temporary uses of vacant premises through the planning system, using Local Development Orders (see below)
- the importance of forming partnerships between local people, local businesses and local service providers.
‘Looking After Our Town Centres’ also contains an announcement that the Government is [5]:
'planning to establish a fund to provide access to small-scale grants to help with cleaning and decorating vacant premises, basic refit for temporary uses, publicity posters, and other activities that can help town centres attract and retain visitors.'
On 23 August 2009, the UK Government made the fund available via DCLG, distributing £3 million of public money as grants to local councils in areas hit hardest by the recession. Split equally between 57 boroughs, it is to be used for ‘creative ideas’ to transform ‘boarded up shops into something useful.’ [3]Running in tandem with the Government’s empty shops fund, Arts Council England (ACE), in the same month, committed £500,000 of their Grants for the Arts [6] fund in support for Art in Empty Spaces. Priority will be given to applicants that are in receipt of confirmed DCLG funding or with at least 10% partnership funding from one or more other sources. The first ACE grants are being handed out from early 2010 as the process moves out of the application phase. With this particular round of funding, the Arts Council England is not just looking for pop-ups to be part of a short-term fix. Cultural interventions have been recognised as a catalyst for regeneration. This is evidenced in Evans and Shaw’s 2004 UK report to the Department for Culture Media and Sport [7].
In reviewing development paradigms they point out that where cultural activity has been excluded in master planning it often occurs organically, concluding ‘cultural interventions can make an impact on the regeneration process, enhancing the facilities and services that were initially planned [7]. This is what ACE is hoping for. These grants are intended to be used in the current recession but with longer term goals for inclusion of arts into the locality. ACE guidelines state [6]:
'We encourage the temporary use of vacant spaces for the arts where it leads to a longer-term solution for integrating artists into a development, a regeneration scheme or a town centre, and where the presence of artists underpins and contributes to local strategies and arts development.'
Towards this aim, the Arts Council, in supporting temporary artistic activity in vacant premises, also expects artists/applicants to work in partnerships with town centre managers, landlords, property agents, and local authority arts and culture or economic development teams to focus on animating high streets. ACE guidelines again state [6]:
'The most sustainable projects and those with the highest impact are the ones where local partnerships like these are in place and are strong.'
In forming partnerships and utilising the strengths that they can potentially bear (for example, a larger skill base, increased resources, working with a combined vision), integrating cultural and art events into town centre strategies could lead to longer-term rewards with positive regeneration and a tourism spin-off, even if it is not the primary focus. Although the main agenda of publicly funded pop-ups isn’t a tourism function, art and cultural events are a well-documented form of destination attraction. As a form of micro event, the potential of pop-up cultural interventions goes beyond improving the general attractiveness and activity of a town – by replacing boarded up shop fronts with open premises, for example. They can also be capable of generating visitor interest and increased footfall. With good marketing to ensure an audience is reached, a photographic, painting or sculptural exhibition, a play, a musical performance, an installation, a mini local film festival, for instance, could all provide immediate micro tourism opportunities.
There is also potential for growth. Taking Notting Hill carnival or the Edinburgh festival for example, many of today’s biggest ‘draw card’ cultural events have started from small local beginnings.
When locating artistic or any different activity in vacant premises, town planning issues are thrown up. What if the current premises are designated for different use classes to those of the proposed pop-up?
Under town planning regulations each premise is assigned a use class through the local authority’s Local Development Plan. This restricts use to certain types of activity. One of the difficulties with the temporary use of empty shops occurs when the new activity doesn’t match that of its permitted use. So, rather than being able to move in immediately, the temporary tenant may require planning permission, up to an eight-week process, to change this.
To respond with more immediacy to changing circumstances, the Government is encouraging greater fluidity and adaptability within the planning system with the implementation of Local Development Orders (LDOs). These ‘allow for changes of use [for premises] that would otherwise require planning permission… [such as] changes from shops to banks, building societies, clinics, day centres, art galleries or museums.’ [5] In June 2009, the requirement that LDOs be linked with policies in local development plans was removed to encourage LDO set-up with greater speed and flexibility. Just how useful this tool will be is not yet known, as councils have been reluctant to put LDOs in place. To date five pilot schemes are underway, each with the aid of central Government grants for the application process.
One grant recipient, Wycombe District Council, is nearing the end stages of the application process. They are aiming to use the LDO in High Wycombe where there is a large proportion of empty shops. WDC’s planning policy officer, David Dewer explains that to obtain a LDO the whole process takes six to nine months to implement, with six weeks of formal consultations, cabinet submissions and Secretary of State approvals. If approved and implemented, Dewer says it ‘then speeds up the planning process,’ as there will already be ‘a range of uses allocated to the block of empty shops.’
It would appear that LDOs are not so much of use for a pop-up or temporary tenant wanting to move in quickly, but as a forward-thinking and potentially useful longer term strategic tool in responding to change – as Bauman puts it, our times of ‘Liquid Modernity’. In a shift from static town planning, once in place, the LDO offers potential with flexibility in regeneration strategies by helping attract a range of new businesses or activities into areas.
‘By opening pop up shops we are making our high streets more appealing to shoppers and visitors and drawing people to our local businesses’. Cllr Keith Moffit, leader of Camden Council [8] Background The collapse of Woolworths in late 2008 was a catalyst in Camden Council's decision to set up a £6 million recession recovery fund in February 2009. This forms part of a ‘recession response … focussed [sic] on access to jobs and skills, advice for residents and businesses, maintaining vibrant local centres and new opportunities to grow the visitor economy and creative industries’ [9]. Within this fund, up to £300,000 is allocated to a series of pop-ups to fill empty spaces over two years.
At the end of 2009 eight pop-up shops had been run borough-wide with four still remaining in operation. (The others have closed due to the premises being leased to long-term tenants.) The shops are all branded in the same way (see Marketing the concept below). Each 'shop' doesn't just have one tenant or one use, it provides a multi-function space for short-term roll-over tenants who stay from just one week to several weeks. These have included fashion designers, various art exhibitions, and marketing and interior design companies giving out free advice to local businesses. Specifically in the Camden Town high street area, its Business Improvement District, Camden Town Unlimited (CTU) is working in partnership with the council on pop-ups, and CTU has put aside £35,000 of private sector money as a financial contribution towards these projects. Simon Pitkeathley, CTU’s chief executive, says the partnership works well as they both have the same objectives, are independent but work together with a combined strength. ‘We want to change the way people perceive the area and are doing something exciting with it.’ Towards the same vision CTU / Camden partnership’s pop-up shops are working to encapsulate goals of reinvigorating the high street to increase footfall and spend, while helping Camden reinvent itself as a creative centre. Camden’s campaign ‘Love your local High Street’ is part of their ‘Love Camden’ [10] initiative. This includes distributing local information via the Internet and around venues including cafés, bars, hotels, train stations and tourist information centres. It is about encouraging people to visit and spend locally and supports Camden’s vision to make it the centre for creative industries. The pop-ups are to temporarily house and help bring creative companies into Camden explains Philip Colligan, Assistant Director Regeneration and Partnerships at Camden Council. ‘We’ve had fashion designers, artists, painters, graphic designers and Just Jack magazine’, and the response has been ‘overwhelmingly positive.’ In terms of visitor numbers around these pop-ups, Colligan says, ‘although we do not have exact numbers, information suggests that footfall has increased with adjacent shop owners reporting that it’s busier than normal.’ Marketing the concept The CTU/ Camden Council collaboration, employs a marketing campaign based around the use of a strong, consistent visual identity and social media. Conran Design Group was engaged by CTU to design a logo, a large ‘C’.  CTU believe this high-end branding has contributed to their success. Describing them on their website [11]: ‘C. is the new creative space in Camden, the scheme is designed to turn disused shops into creative spaces during the recession and to promote Camden as the new creative district of London.’ It is splashed across shop windows improving street frontages and, at the same time, creating high visibility. Employing a viral strategy, social media has been used to get the message out there, often combined with events such as drinks receptions announced on the CTU Twitter feed. [12] Landlords, estate agents and planning Throughout the borough, ownership of empty properties for pop-ups is a mixture of private landlords and council owned. In Camden town, CTU takes the role of approaching landlords or their agents to find suitable premises. Often, the more difficult part is convincing them that a short-term tenancy for a pop-up is worthwhile. Ironically, as Colligan points out, as soon as the ‘C’ logo goes up there is increased interest from estate agents who find that the premises are then much easier to rent out to longer-term tenants. In terms of funding, the council either pays a reduced rent or, in the case of private landlords, the business rates together with decorating costs to make the premises good and safe. With town planning issues, Camden Council have not used LDOs. They find it quicker to go through planning applications for change of use and, in the spirit of good working partnerships, Colligan reports Camden’s Planning Team have been very supportive. Part One of this article summarised that pop-ups contribute to the visitor economy as micro events; temporary destinations with the attraction of a heightened sense of urgency to get there now before the experience disappears. Social media, with its ability to disseminate information quickly and even instantaneously through mobile technology, has a large part to play. From either the guerrilla or mainstream end of the pop-up spectrum, it is a vehicle to move people out of virtual worlds and connect them to a fleeting experience or a destination.
The nature of trends moves them from the avant-garde and into the mainstream where time makes them susceptible to falling out of favour or fashion. As a trend, the pop-up has moved into the mainstream. Here the recession has been a contributing factor in maintaining their popularity. With less money around, part of their appeal lies in the fact that they can be set up and marketed with minimal capital outlay or infrastructure requirement, and they do not require long or expensive tie-in leases.
The impact the recession has had on many towns’ physical and business environments has allowed pop-ups to offer a temporary solution in keeping up appearances and to help ensure that the visitor experience is not diminished. Empty spaces are filled with activity, removing unsightly signs of recession such as empty shop frontages and boarded up windows. Beyond aesthetics, the pop-up activities can contribute to the visitor economy with, as for example, a cultural intervention or a unique retail experience to entice visitor spend.
In responding to times of quick change, getting pop-ups to work often requires an open mind and the removal of impediments, such as town planning regulations, rent or rates relief and renovation costs. Collaboration or partnerships – whether building up relationships through dialogue, extending or complimenting skill sets, or creating greater physical resources – can help remove them more effectively.
In the longer-term, pop-ups can also play a role in revitalising or regenerating neighbourhoods by providing a stepping-stone to create more attractive or interesting environments. In regeneration terms, growth may be organic starting from a cultural or other intervention, or steered by policy, with a potential result for an improved visitor economy as either a by-product or the focus of a regeneration scheme.
Whether the experience is a one-off event or the starting point for regeneration, pop-ups are an interesting, if fleeting, form of micro tourism.
Sue Cambie is a director at SCD Design Ltd, a UK based Architecture, Interiors and Project Management Practice with associate offices in New Zealand, Thailand and the Caribbean. The practice has been involved in providing concepts, design and procurement for Pop Ups in the UK.
Contact suecambie@scd-design.com.
|
|