Large Central Business Districts and their Sphere of influence

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Large Central Business Districts and their Sphere of influence

Introduction

Why has this topic been chosen?

The subject of my coursework is linked to the settlement topic which is what we do in Geography GCSE.

The coursework is based on Newcastle’s Central Business District (CBD). Newcastle is a vibrant friendly city with a heritage spanning the past 2,000 years. Situated in the North-East of England on the banks of the river Tyne and surrounded by the scenic beauty of Northumbria.

Newcastle was a centre for commercial enterprise and inventiveness, many trades and industries brought prosperity to the town including locomotive building and mining.

Metro Center

The Metro Centre was built in October of 1995. Located in Gateshead, the massive shopping mall has the widest variety of shops you can find in the whole of the UK. The metro centre has 330 shops such as Debenhams and Marks and Spencer. There is also the “New Metro Centre”, Europe’s biggest indoor theme park, shopping is a major part of city’s being built. I believe the shopping centre attracts a lot of tourists that go to Newcastle because of the huge range of things to do for everyone.

Sphere of influence

The sphere of influence is the area served by a settlement. Sometimes called its catchments area or hinterland. There is a minimum amount of people needed to support a service e.g. a shop, so that it remains profitable. An example, it’s on average 100 000 people required for a large sized shop, and 50 000 for a medium sized one. That is why big companies place their shops that sell high order goods in the city center, because the shop sells high order goods such as TVs and furniture, people travel greater distances to shop there. This gives the city a large sphere of influence.

Investigation

My investigation is to find why Newcastle has such a large sphere of influence. I believe it is because there is a high number of a shop and offices in the CBD so therefore people travel further to go there. However, I believe that the sphere of influence is not only for shopping and work, people from all over the world travel to Newcastle for its vibrant nightlife and fantastic football team. There is almost certainly something for everyone in Newcastle; therefore it also makes a great tourist attraction.  My data that I will use to find if it is truly a large sphere of influence will be completely random, this avoids all chances of bias and increases the accuracy of a fair investigation. I will be splitting up the CBD into three transects, these three transects are main streets.

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Data collection method

Data analysis

Table interpretations on the map of Newcastle Gateshead.

Table 1

Table 1 had the highest total pedestrian count (367 in total), the second count was higher (by 7) than the first count. This shows that Transect 1, Northumberland Street, was the busiest street in that day. I believe this is because of all the shops ...

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