Rupert Madden
Geography Fieldtrip to Chichester
Introduction
We are going to Chichester to investigate the layout, structure and land use of Chichester.
Chichester is on the south coast, in the county of West Sussex. It is roughly 45 miles from Winchester. Chichester is a largely rural area with a population of over 24,000. The of , connecting Fishbourne Palace with , passes through the city centre. The city streets have a cross-shaped layout, inherited from the Romans: radiating outwards from the medieval lead the North, South, East and West shopping streets. Quite a lot of the are in place, and may be walked along for some of their length.
In Chichester there is a high bid rent in the centre of the town. This is because land gets more expensive when you get nearer the centre of town. It follows Burgess’s theory of the city, which goes: CRD, Inner city, Outer city, Suburbs. As you go further away from the CRD then the prices get cheaper because land becomes less valuable. However this is not true for the suburbs. This is because it’s where the families live and the adults can afford to commute to work from a further distance.
The nearest major city to Chichester is Portsmouth. Roads that connect it are the A27 and the A259.
Aims
- The environmental quality will get better as you go nearer the CRD. – The shops nearer the centre pay higher bid rent. Therefore there is more money in the price, so more can be spent on the Environment. Also the people who live locally will have to pay for this in their taxes.
- The pedestrian count gets higher as you get closer to the CRD. – The more desirable shops are in the centre meaning more people will be nearer the centre. There are more restaurants there attracting more customers. There are street entertainers which may interest people and attract them to this site. The cathedral is one of the central points of Chichester and people might go there either to pray or look around.
- Chain stores are more centrally located. – Chain stores have to be rich enough to have shops in many locations meaning that they want to have their shop where more pedestrians are, not minding the bid rent.
- Buildings are taller the nearer you go to the CRD. – Buildings are taller nearer the centre because land costs more because of the bid rent, there for if you build up you can save money.
- The average age of visitors is not 20-65. –This is because the people who are 20-65 are at work.
- There are very few youths. –This is because they were at school.
- Most people were in Chichester to shop. –This is because Chichester has many shops. It is not a working town because there are very few if any big office blocks in the CRD.
- Chichester has many high order goods. – A place with high order goods is somewhere where you would come to spend over 200 pounds. People have travelled in their cars to get there in order to shop, meaning that they have chosen especially to come to Chichester to get one particular thing.
- People have come from long distances to shop. – Many people will have come from local areas but I think that most of the people have come from a long distance away to come and shop in Chichester. I will find this data using my questionnaire.
