You've got a point there about those 1950's to 70's 'Shopping Centre' ideas Sparky.
In some respects if the traditional high streets were kept in those area's they'd be much nicer and in some area's much less prone to the surrounding environment becoming no-go wastelands than what did eventually happen when the faded glory of these precincts quickly happened in say the late '70's onwards.
Even when they've been tarted up and had their 90's/00's/10's makeovers they still lack lustre when then big name retail vanished years ago and except for food retail not much else is there to attract you to them.
Exactly.
Where I lived, then in Derby - the shopping Centre was constructed on land that once had a couple of factories, a mill, and various streets of housing - then regarded as "slums".
When it was all dug up, they uncovered the traces of what was a castle, medieval remains & weapons / pottery & streets/buildings.
So national heritage had a strong interest in any work carried out.
I worked at the Theatre that was attached to the Market end of the shopping centre - the market stalls were all set out in Hexagons and it was very hard to negotiate.
A small Tea Cabin Cafe went up in flames and the market took ages to evacuate as no one could find their way out - so Fire Officers closed it down.
It was re-built and laid out in a Grid Fashion in 1992. Sadly, these days Greed from the Council and Centre owners have priced many of the stallholders out.
The Shopping Centre end had been left untouched since 1975; apart from a "D notice" Court Injunction being slung on in 1978 to prevent any TV/Newspapers reporting certain things within certain shops.
The "D Notice" was extended and removed in 2001.
Further extension and building work was carried out by Westfield in 2005 - and made the place very cramped, closed in and much worse.
The Car parking side was never changed, it's all underground, very dark - but one of the better laid out and planned ones.
The snag here - to access the Shopping Centre it meant a couple of flights of stairs, or use of a very small access lift that stunk of wee.
So wasn't brilliant if you are disabled.
By the late 80s a lot of the big stores had gone as chains had reduced their floor space and to fill the empty units you ended up with random pop up shops that would come & go.
The Council added a further multi-story carpark sometime in the 90s, with a link bridge.
But to park in there for 1/2 hour, you'd end up having to sell your house to pay for it.
The Theatre (in my opinion) was built in the wrong place, as to access it, you need to walk through the centre or market.
And at night, certain sections are locked off.
While at the Theatre, we had a continuing spat over staff car parking spaces and use of (our) allocated loading space to the scenery dock.