| Contents > Perceptions of Shopping Centre Development in Sydney: a celebratory or more complex history?by Bailey Matthew |
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The Benefits Shopping Centres Brought to Communities
The growth of retail in the suburbs brought modern consumer goods within easy reach, but it also created new problems. The difficulty of providing safe and readily available parking followed retailing to the suburbs as they became more developed and attracted their own traffic congestion (Spearritt, 1995, p. 96). Local Government Authorities were sluggish in providing off-street parking and where department stores did offer parking stations, these were still relatively small (Beed, 1964, pp. 95-8).
Large pre-planned shopping centres offered a ready solution to this infrastructural problem. Generous car parking facilities were integral to their design. They were built for a car driving population and were laid out to separate pedestrian and car traffic. This made them safer, more comfortable and convenient shopping environments (Spearritt, 1994, 139). By catering to car drivers, centre developers also benefited, drawing more people who could carry away greater quantities of goods than those who walked or took public transport.
As well as bringing retail services and parking to the suburbs, shopping centres also claimed to offer much needed social space and community facilities (Gruen & Smith, 1960, pp. 17-9). The busy highways and main roads along which retail strips had developed were not the most congenial of places to spend leisurely time (Farrell, 2003, p. 6); and despite a history of criticism significant centralised social space had yet to be developed in the suburbs. The Cumberland Plan had blamed the problem in 1948 on the incompatibility of a decentralised population inhabiting a centralised urban framework, and had called for a shift towards a cluster plan of district centres around which local economic, cultural and social life might form (‘The planning scheme for the County of Cumberland’, 1948, pp. 27-34). Political, logistic and financial concerns had impeded progress towards this goal however (Allport, 1980, p. 66), and in the 1960s it was still possible for shopping centre developers to herald their provision of suburban community space.
Marketing frequently equated the modernist structures with medieval market squares: an imagined historical site that had, it was said, represented the ‘gayest time in trading’ where ‘a friendly meeting place’ had provided ‘a happy family atmosphere’ (Gruen & Smith, 1960, pp. 17-9; Westfield, 2000, p. 34; Westfield info-advertisement, 1968). To emphasise their community credentials, Sydney shopping centres throughout their history have sponsored local events, schools and institutions; ran columns and regular supplements in local newspapers; and constantly promoted themselves as members of the surrounding community.
And these claims are not without substance. Although it was an overtly commercial environment, the early shopping centres provided a number of community and social facilities that brought something new to suburbia and made them attractive to patrons. Air conditioning, modernist décor, fountains, landscaping and espresso bars provided a congenial and modern environment for aspirational suburbanites to meet, shop and relax (Judd, 1965, p. 52; Barrett, 1998, pp. 127-8). Facilities at different centres included medical and dental services, children’s playgrounds, child-minding facilities, an auditorium at Roselands, and a branch library at Miranda. Childcare in particular was gratefully and enthusiastically embraced by suburban women in an environment where child minding was still looked down upon as a dangerous intrusion into the natural role of mothering (Brennan, 1998, pp. 52-9).
Teenagers also welcomed shopping centres as a social space to congregate and mix (K. Doyle, personal communication, December 4, 2006). For some, it could become the ‘focus’ of their life. For girls, hanging out at the centre would not give them a bad name the way that spending time at the local milk bar would (L. Doyle, personal communication, October 3, 2006). One teenager living close to Roselands recalls spending every afternoon after school as well as weekends there, hanging out with kids from neighbouring schools, checking up on the latest fashions that were unavailable elsewhere, and hanging with his gang ‘the Hairies’ as they faced off against the ‘Sharps’ from Bankstown Square (R. Kirby, personal communication, January 16, 2007).
One of the most significant contributions shopping centres brought to their surrounding areas was employment. Peter Spearritt has argued that ‘the location of people’s workplaces is one of the most important parts of the urban experience’ and that it was only with the suburbanisation of work that the suburbs became truly viable (Spearritt, 2000, p. 111). Shopping centers not only offered direct employment, they were big investments by private enterprise, and once built would encourage domestic consumer spending - both of which would contribute to increased economic activity, growth and jobs. For women, especially in the early days of centre development, retail jobs were close to home, could be done while the kids were in school, and did not hinder the male breadwinner in his pursuit of career and income. For many young people, too, their first job was in a shopping centre – it was convenient, relatively safe, and often enjoyable (L. Doyle, personal communication, October 3, 2006).
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| Contents > Perceptions of Shopping Centre Development in Sydney: a celebratory or more complex history?by Bailey Matthew |