Unit 6 topic 2 (urban trends + issues of urbanisation)

• Beardwood


  A suburban estate in North-West Blackburn
• Beardwood


  • Houses are much more modern, with gardens and drives compared to the terraced houses in areas like Lower Audley
  • People have escaped the higher crime rates and social problems associated with inner city areas like this
  • Schools in the area have better results than those in central Blackburn
  • Close to the open countryside of the Ribble Valley and Blackburn Golf Club
• Beardwood estates


  • Lack facilities like shops and pubs
• People commute to work in the industrial estates in southern Blackburn

  Made possible by the building of the M65 motorway and high levels of car ownership
• Many factories in Blackburn have moved to the Southern edge of town

  To use the motorway link
• Levels of congestion on Blackburn's ring road and motorway are increasing


  Blackburn is in danger of growing over the countryside of the Ribble Valley, and cars are polluting the air more and more
• Attitudes towards Suburbanisation


  • People living in small, old houses in areas like Mill Hill may favour it as they may hope to move into newer, more modern homes close to the countryside, where crime is lower and there are better schools
  • The City Council may be in favour as people moving into modern suburban homes are likely to be quite well off and therefore pay higher council tax rates, meaning the council have more money to spend on improving local services
  • People already living in suburban estates like Lammack may not like further suburbanisation as they may fear that the roads will get busier into Blackburn, the countryside may be lost as it gets built over, and there will be a lot of noise during the construction, and they may worry that local schools will be oversubscribed, and it will be more difficult to send their children to the school of their choice
• Whalley


  • Attractive village in the Ribble Valley near Blackburn
  • Many people moved from Blackburn to Whalley because they disliked living in Blackburn
• Suburbs


  Lack shops and amenities like pubs, so people prefer to move to villages like Whalley
• Why Whalley is attractive

  • The A666 provides a fast route into work in Blackburn
  • The Ribble Valley is an area of very attractive countryside
  • The village has some lovely features such as an abbey, old residential property, small shops and pubs
  • Essential services like a doctor, shops and schools can be found there
  • The local schools have a very high standard, e.g. Clitheroe Royal Grammar School
  • The railway station can take you to Manchester in just 45 minutes
  • The M66 provides a road link for commuters to Manchester
• Attitudes towards counter-urbanisation


  • Owners of local services like the pub landlord will be happy to see people move into the area as most people moving into the village will be well off and have plenty of money to spend in their business
  • A farmer may not like the fact that people are moving into the village. He doesn't like the increase in the number of people using footpaths across his fields and gets annoyed that people see the countryside as a playground when he is busy trying to make a living from it
  • Young local people will be annoyed at the rising house prices. They have lived in places like Whalley all their lives and then find they cannot afford a home there
• Notting Hill


  Affluent and fashionable area in West London, with many old Victorian townhouses and modern shopping centres and restaurants
• Notting Hill also has areas of social deprivation, such as the Ladbroke Grove area
• Notting Hill in the mid-eighteenth Century


  Country hamlet with inns and gravel pits which attracted highwaymen
• Notting Hill in the 19th Century

  • Main landowner was the Ladbroke family, many streets named after them
  • Industrial revolution brought in workers from the countryside who lived in tiny terraced houses
• Notting Hill was badly bombed by the Luftwaffe during World War II, with many buildings damaged or destroyed
• Notting Hill after the war

  Became known for its cheap lodgings but poor living conditions, like slums
• The Notting Hill riots in 1958 and 1976 were racially motivated
• Gentrification in Notting Hill

  1. Rehabilitation or renewal of a deteriorated neighbourhood by new residents who are wealthier than the locals

  2. House prices increase, making living there expensive
• The film Notting Hill helped to popularise the area when it was released
• Many celebrities and fashion designers reside in the Notting Hill area, which puts house prices up and makes it harder for locals to afford
• Places to visit in Notting Hill

  • Veronica's (reviving a 2000-year-old menu)
  • Trellick Tower (Britain's largest apartment block in 1973, now grade 2 listed)
  • Portobello Road market
  • Notting Hill Carnival (largest carnival outside of Rio de Janeiro)
• The Notting Hill Carnival has a large population of Afro-Caribbeans and takes place on the last bank holiday weekend in August
• Urban renewal


  The redevelopment of areas within a large city
• London Docklands


  • Huge area stretching 8 miles from London Bridge to Beckton
  • Over 2000 hectares (8 square miles), equal to Westminster and the city combined
• During the Blitz, the London Docklands were heavily bombed, and the Germans tried to cripple any trade or naval transport passing through them
• Immediately after the war, they rebuilt the docks as they were seen as one of London's greatest assets which they could not do without
• The birth of container transportation (containerisation) meant that London Docklands could not compete with other dockland areas
• Dock workers insisted on outmoded pay and condition structures which saw them doing less work for more money than other nations, leaving dockland companies unable to compete in the market
• The docklands were completely empty by 1980
• Docks and surrounding communities

  • Isolated from London's transport network
  • Physically close to the centre of London, but the winding of the Thames with the resulting peninsulas, and the lack of any good road or rail connections, reinforced the perception of the area as being far removed from the heart of the capital
  • Inaccessibility reinforced the deprivation and poverty in the area because of the lack of access to alternative jobs elsewhere in the capital