High Streets for All

With a reduction in commuting can stations have a different role? Can they offer new journeys of opportunity for social, community, creative & business enterprise ideas - platforms for new approaches to economic activity with each station having its own personality reflecting local needs and ambitions.

Covid, amongst many things, has inexorably altered our pattern of work & the daily commute is unlikely to be reinstated or desired for many. The majority of stations are designed primarily as places for departure & arrival so what happens when that is no longer the driver.

Can they offer real opportunities for the ‘post Covid-19’ recovery & the desire to ‘build back better’. The Community Brain CIC is promoting a future constructed upon four pillars of ‘more local, more mutual, more equitable and more sustainable’. Many stations could offer fabulous spaces for such growth.

Once you shift thinking away from purely ‘travel’ what else could stations & their environs offer. If our recovery will come from small business enterprise, start-ups & social and community activity can stations provide the spaces to facilitate this. They are ideally placed for access; they have a recognised place in the community & often are underused. They also tend to be places of neutrality & classlessness. Can the station not only offer physical journeys but also journeys for learning, sharing & opportunity? New hubs of community and business activity – the new ‘bump spaces’ for interaction.

There are 369 stations in London and although many will not be suited to this new role many will. The Community Brain has been developing ideas at Tolworth Station & these are now coming to some fruition (Baking Ideas, The Cutting, Crops Ups). We believe it could provide a pilot for London wide, indeed national, ambitions. Old Stations delivering new journeys for exploration & providing the new ‘bump spaces’ to bring people together to share ideas and ambitions.