An Investigation Into Kingston Area Shopping Centres and Their Patterns of Use

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Simran S Kooner 11HA

Geography Coursework- Mr Horwood                                                                  

An Investigation Into Kingston Area Shopping Centres and                       Their Patterns of Use

Name: Simran Singh Kooner

Examination Candidate Number: 3572

School’s Name: Tiffin School

Centre Number: 14429

Contents Page

INTRODUCTION AND AIM- SECTION 1……………………………………………………………3-11

DATA COLLECTION AND RECORDING- SECTION 2……………………………………..…..12-16

DATA PRESENATION- SECTION 3………………………………………………………………17-38

ANALYSIS - SECTION 4……………………………………………………………………..……..39-55

CONCLUSION - SECTION 5………………………………………………………………...……..55-58

Introduction and Aim- section 1

Background Knowledge on Kingston upon Thames

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is a suburban town, situated within Greater London to the southwest of the capital. Kingston is located in the southwest of London, in the county of Surrey. Located on the bank of the River Thames providing bridging and nodal points, the town extends some way along the side of the river, although it does not extend over to the area on the other side of it. Some of the surrounding boroughs include: Richmond upon Thames, Sutton, Esher and Croydon. Kingston is superb example of a town with strong historical links blending successfully with a thriving, long term market town renowned for its excellence as the biggest shopping centre, Bentalls, in South West London. Kingston is also home to the Guildhall for Kingston and the County hall for Surrey.

Aim: The reasons for carrying out this investigation are to examine shopping patterns, both of people and infrastructure, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and also to create a hierarchical shopping system, an important geographical principle in settlement, of areas in Kingston upon Thames.

I will be using selected different shopping centres, such as a large shopping centre like Bentalls to very small convenience stores, to compare these patterns.  

For this investigation, I will also be using concepts based upon the establishment of Christallers Central Place theory and its three main principles: range of goods or service, threshold population and the sphere of influence.

Hypotheses: 1A shopping centre which contains the greatest number of shops will have a large sphere of influence

This is for the reason that larger shopping centres usually tend to provide a variety of goods or services for customers. Therefore the larger the variety, the more the high quality goods there are available which people will travel further for. To test this hypothesis, I will find the size of shopping centre by finding the number of shops in the different centres and I will also need to find out where people came from which will allow me to construct a desire line map, which I can then use to find the spheres of influences for the shopping centres. Once I have worked out the size of the spheres of influences, I can use a Spearman Rank graph with the first variable being number of shops and the second variable being size of sphere of influence in order to statistically try and prove this hypothesis.  If the sphere of influence in Kingston shows to be greater than in the other areas, then this hypothesis will be proven correct.

2The amount of time it takes to travel to a shopping centre with many shops will be greater than travelling to one with not so many shops.

This hypothesis is closely related to convenience. Low order goods, such as milk and bread, tend to be sold in smaller shopping centres (corner shops) nearer to residential areas simply so that people will not need to travel a great distance from them. Whereas high order goods, such as designer clothes, furniture and luxury cars, may not be able to be found locally and so there is a need to travel further to larger shopping centres. I can test this hypothesis by looking at the average amount of time it takes shoppers to reach smaller and larger shopping centres. If it takes shoppers a greater amount of time to reach a larger shopping centre, then my hypothesis proves to be correct. Then to prove this further, I will create a Spearman Rank graph with the first variable being number of shops and the second variable being amount of time in seconds.

3More shoppers will use public transport methods if travelling to a shopping centre with many shops.  

For this hypothesis, I shall use ideas based upon the ‘Rank Size Rule’ and then relate them to the shopping centres. The rule itself says that the largest most dominant city in a region is the ‘primate city’. This suggests that a greater means of public transport is needed to travel there rather than to the smaller and less important shopping centres. This hypothesis can be tested by the use of secondary data to find out the number of bus routes to the shopping centre. Another method could be the use of questionnaires to find out how many shoppers used rail or buses to reach the shopping area. Once I have found out the number of bus routes in all the areas, I can use a Spearman rank graph with the first variable being number of shops and the second variable being the number of bus routes in order to statistically try and prove this hypothesis.

Location and Maps:

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames lies in South East England.

                                                                                                                                                                             

The investigation was carried out in various different shopping sites in the borough of Kingston ranging from large shopping centres, such as Bentalls Centre in Kingston, to small shop parades like those in Alexandra Drive.

The names of the 9 different shopping centres are:

Kingston town centre

Surbiton

Surbiton Park Parade

Alexandra Drive

New Malden

The Triangle

Kingston Road 1

Kingston Road 2

Burlington Road

A map showing where these centres are can be seen on the following page.

Note that the points on the map are colour-coordinated.

The map below shows the area within Surbiton, where me and my partner went to collect data relevant for our coursework.

Christaller’s Central Place Theory: Christaller’s Central Place Theory was established by Walter Christaller who lived in Germany in 1933. A Central Place                                         is a settlement, which provides various goods and services for the population living around it. The order of a Central Place is defined by its function, such as the number, price, and variation of goods and services. Therefore a Central place may be a small village up to a conurbation. The area around a settlement which is served by a particular service is called the sphere of influence. A central place that has a smaller market area counts as a subdivision of another central place that serves a larger market area. There are three main concepts on which the theory is based upon: range goods/service, threshold population and the sphere of influence. The range of goods or service is the minimum distance people will travel to purchase goods or services offered by a Central Place, and the threshold population is the minimum population size required to profitably maintain a service.

Hierarchies:

Hierarchies:

questionnaire from alexandra drive here

classification of shops and services on alexandra drive here

Data collection and Recording- section 2

To test and examine the hypotheses which are being studied, it is necessary to select, collect and organise relevant information and data (evidence). There are two possible sources of information which are available. Firstly, there is primary data, which is information or source material that I can obtain firsthand by carrying out research in the area I am studying. This can be done by using questionnaires, which can prove or disprove my hypotheses after being processed.

Lastly, there is secondary data, which is information or source material that is obtained from other secondary sources, such as the internet, maps and books.

My Chosen Hypotheses: When outlining my hypotheses, I had to take into consideration the factors that may contribute to finding a hierarchy for the different shopping centres within the Kingston area. Ideas based upon Christaller’s Theory also helped me to arrive at my three hypotheses.

Data that was needed: To ensure that the hypotheses could be accurately tested, we needed to obtain sufficient data. This data was provided to us by asking a range of questions using questionnaires (primary data) as to whether shoppers were purchasing high or low order goods, how long it took them to get there, where they came from and by what means of transport, and lastly how often they came. We also used a source of secondary data- bus maps. These were acquired from the Transport For London website and helped me to get a brief understanding of where shoppers on Alexandra Drive might have come from.

Data Collected to Test Hypothesis 1: The data was collected using a questionnaire, which had the following question necessary to test this hypothesis:

‘Where have you come from?’ This will let me construct a desire line map and then will be made into a sphere of influence which I will use to prove or disprove my hypothesis. I will also need to refer to the shopping survey, which will give me the number of shops in each shopping centre.

Data Collected to Test Hypothesis 2: The data was collected again using a questionnaire, which had the following question necessary to test this hypothesis:

Join now!

‘How long did it take to get here?’

Data Collected to Test Hypothesis 3: For this hypothesis, I collected two pieces of data. Firstly, I obtained three bus maps for Kingstown, Surbiton and New Malden. By using these maps (secondary data) I counted the number of bus routes which passed through all the areas. Secondly I used a questionnaire, which had the following question also necessary to test this hypothesis:

‘How did you get here?’ This will let me get a brief understanding of how many shoppers used the bus or rail services to get to the shopping ...

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