Shops and services Affecting House Prices

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GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK YEAR 11

Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………….......Page 3

Hypothesis………………………………………………………….Page 5

Methods………………………………….…………………………Page 6

Data Collection and Analysis………………………………………Page 8

Results……………………………………….……………………Page 10

Conclusion and Evaluation………………………………………..Page 18

Bibliography………………………………………………………Page 19

Introduction

In this paper I will be investigating how house prices vary in a particular town. I have chosen to investigate Northwood. Northwood is a town situated in the London Borough of Hillingdon, northwest of central London. Below is a map of the area showing the exact site of Northwood and its situation in relation to other settlements.

Source: Multimap.co.uk

The Black outline on the map is the area covered by Northwood.

Central Business District: The functional centre around which the rest of a city is comparison shopping, office accommodation, leisure facilities, buildings for recreational use, public museums, art galleries and governmental functions. Generally this is the area of highest land values within a city.

Definition Source:

Below is a map of Northwood with the CBD clearly presented on it.

All settlements inside the black circle on the map are in the Central Business District of Northwood.

Below is a map of Green Lane close-up and its neighbouring roads, the commercial centre of Northwood. This is the area where I will carry out my investigation.

My investigation will try to determine how well Northwood is a commercial centre (Green Lane) and satisfies the needs of the local community by comparing two factors; what shops and services exist, and what the local people feel is needed in the way of shops and services.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis for this investigation is: ‘the shops and services of Northwood do not fully satisfy the needs of the local community’.

Northwood is a marketable centre and has relatively good travel links. It has bus and coach services to some surrounding areas; it also has a Metropolitan (Underground) Line station, and has a main road running through it (B469). This means that the commercial centre of Northwood is quite accessible. Many people using the commercial centre do not necessarily live locally in Northwood, raising Threshold Populations* to the requirements of middle order** shops/services.

*Threshold Population is the minimum number of population required in an area for a shop/service to be viable for that area.

** Order-shops can be positioned into a hierarchy based upon the services they offer. At the foundation of the hierarchy are small shops selling convenience goods that are needed daily, such as a newspaper from a newsagent. At the top of the hierarchy are larger shops selling specialist comparison goods that are bought less frequently, such as furniture or a TV. Shops/services at the top of hierarchy are known as High Order and shops/services at the bottom of hierarchy are known as Low Order.

However, larger towns nearby, in particular Harrow or Watford are far more accessible. They also have their own Metropolitan Line stations; Watford has Watford Metropolitan station and also has Watford Junction Station. Harrow has North Harrow station, South Harrow station, Harrow on the Hill station. But in addition they have (Watford in particular) National Rail links, dozens of bus/coach services to other parts of South East England as well as local areas. It also has proximity to the M25 and other major A-roads. This means that accessibility to its CBD (Central Business District) is much better than that of Northwood. Watford also has a shopping centre called The Harlequin, as Harrow has St.Georges and St.Anns Hence the population in the area is much higher. This means high order shops/services requiring large threshold populations (comparison, nationwide stores) can acquire good business in the area. This means that customers may choose to go there instead of Northwood as it has a larger range of shops and services available to the local community. This lack of high order shops/services in Northwood means the local community will need to go elsewhere for their needs. I.e. when needing to purchase expensive items such as a TV or HiFi. This represents that the shops and services of Northwood do not entirely satisfy the needs of the local community.

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Methods

My investigation will try to determine an understanding of how well Northwood is a commercial centre and satisfies the needs of the local community. I have chosen to do this because I feel it is a relevant question that I can relate to my knowledge of settlements, which I have learned in school recently.

There are two sets of data I need to collect in order to determine an answer to the question; one is to discover what shops/services are in existence in Green Lane, the second is what the local public feel is needed in ...

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