What is an Urban Village?

“Urban Village. Hmmmm..What a great idea. It’s brilliant. We like it. We’re all in favour. What is it? "

Taken from City Comforts by David Sucher (www.citycomforts.com)

The recent history of “urban villages” in the UK really began in 1992 with the publication by the Urban Villages Forum under the patronage of the Prince of Wales of a book called “Urban Villages – A concept for creating mixed-use urban developments on a sustainable scale”. The first chapter of the book discusses what it is that characterises these developments and what ideal qualities we should be looking for.

Neighbourliness (but not too much of it); some trees and greenery; a harmonious but diverse architecture, with occasional buildings that stimulate as well as delight; a clear, legible layout relating to topography – disciplined, but not too much so.

These are not places engineered for a single use, age or social group. They give a cross-section of people – families and single people of different ages – the chance to live there if they choose to. The very variety of residential, commercial and community uses and activity taking place round the clock gives them vitality; it also brings a sense of security and conviviality.

They also have the quality of sustainability. The people there have a commitment to caring for their community; neighbourliness leads to a degree of self-policing; the usefulness and value of buildings survives changes of function and fashion; they are flexible enough to adapt to new uses rather than stand empty and blight their surroundings.

(Taken from Urban Villages, published by the Urban Villages Forum 1992 revised 1997)

In simple terms this means that an urban village will be characterised by the following:

             Variety                        High quality                  People friendly

Mixed use                        Activity                         Flexibility

n one sense it is sometimes easier to imagine what the alternatives to an urban village style development might be. We are all familiar with the large housing estates that continue to be built up and down the country. There are a number of reasons why we don’t think this is an appropriate model for Bilston:

• It does not use land very efficiently
• It would tend to contribute little to the wider regeneration of Bilston and would act as a barrier to movement between Bilston Centre and the south.
• It would become a “monoculture” , that is it would all look and feel the same. This wouldn’t be Bilston, it could be anywhere.

There is no one model for producing a successful urban village since they all depend on local circumstances. Many urban villages are based on areas where substantial numbers of buildings and roads already exist – St John’s Urban Village (www.stjohnsuv.org.uk) in Wolverhampton and The Jewellery Quarter (www.princes-foundation.org) in Birmingham are good local examples.