Most people (from my class) started the land use survey at the bottom of Yorkshire Street although a few people (including me) started at Kwik Save at the top of Yorkshire Street. The only places that we weren’t allowed to go into were the Wheatsheaf Centre and The Exchange Shopping Centre. We spent about an hour down each side of the street and finished 5 minutes before we had to meet back at the newsagents for information on where we had to stand for the pedestrian count (10:40).
When doing the pedestrian Count we had to include all shoppers and high school kids, but any police or small children were not to be counted.
I was outside Martin Dawes (number 78 on the map) for the first pedestrian count at 11:00-11:15 and I recorded 295 people walking past by doing a tally count. After this we took our results back to Mr Wheatley at the Newsagents (Whilst we were doing our count the other class from school was doing the same thing along Drake Street). When we had given our results back we went to finish of whatever recording we had left to do. After this we met up again and had time to go and get our dinner (12:15-1:00) before we started up Drake Street this we did for the remainder of the afternoon apart from when we did the second pedestrian count at the same place from 1345-1400 then we were dismissed by Mr. Wheatley and were allowed to go home.
IV. Shop use on Yorkshire Street
A. Exchange Side
1.
IV. Shop use on Yorkshire Street
A. Exchange Side
1.
IV. Shop use on Yorkshire Street
A. Exchange Side
2.
IV. Shop use on Yorkshire Street
B. Wheatsheaf Side
1.
IV. Shop use on Yorkshire Street
B. Wheatsheaf Side
1.
Shop use on Yorkshire Street
B. Wheatsheaf Side
2.
IV. Shop use on Yorkshire Street
B. Wheatsheaf Side
2.
V. Shop use on Drake Street
A. Nile Side
1.
V. Shop use on Drake Street
A. Nile Side
1.
V. Shop use on Drake Street
A. Nile Side
2.
V. Shop use on Drake Street
B. Observer Side
1.
V. Shop use on Drake Street
B. Observer Side
1.
V. Shop use on Drake Street
B. Observer Side
2.
VI. Pedestrian Counts
A. Yorkshire Street
1.
2.
VI. Pedestrian Counts
B. Drake Street
1.
2.
IX. Bibliography
The information in this project was from:
The day that our class spent in Rochdale (Recording information in the blue book given to us)
Sheets which we were handed in class
Maps which I got of the internet
Information out of an ‘A to Z’
A piece of Autoroute
And finally from the Wheatsheaf library in Rochdale Town Centre
X. Conclusion
The hypothesis which is in at the beginning proved to be partly right but the busiest place in the Central Business District was next to McDonalds and even though this is a popular fast food restaurant anyway its land value price is increased because it is in a good position right next to the walkway which leads to Marks and Spencers, the Wheatsheaf and the bus station all of which expel hundreds of people an hour and half of them walk straight down there as I have done on many occasions, there are quite a few places in that area that attract people all day long (Woolworths, The Exchange and Marks and Spencers being just a few).
The shops are clustered equally on both streets and there aren’t many, which are closed down. The shops in the CBD seem to group together for example all the banks are together and so are all the clothes and insurance shops, this is so that people do not have to travel far to compare prices on certain things.
Yorkshire Street is definitely more popular than Drake Street and this is why the land value on Yorkshire Street is higher than that on Drake Street, I think this is because there are more shops on Yorkshire Street which are open during the day whilst Drake Street is more popular at night since you have all the nightclubs and bars which draw lots of youngsters and adults to them even though most of the other shops are closed.
IX. Interpretation of Rochdale CBD Land Use Map
On our Land use map there are four colours, two of which represent nearly ever shop:
Yellow, which is the most commonly appearing colour represents shops
Blue, which appears quite a few times along Yorkshire Street but not so much along Drake Street. Blue represents offices.
Orange, which represents Entertainment
And finally Red, which symbolises a form of Industry (There is only one example of this in Rochdale CBD and that is the Observer)
The distribution of each colour along the map is that on Yorkshire Street shops are the main business, with offices coming second this shows that there is a bigger demand for shops rather than things like pubs or estate agents, in fact along Yorkshire Street alone there are:
- 70 Shops-Yellow
- 20 Offices-Blue
- 3 Places of Entertainment-Orange
This proves that the distribution of land is overwhelmingly shop orientated-75% of the buildings are shops.
I believe this is because everybody who goes into Rochdale does not want to walk from one end of town to another just to look for pair of jeans, so the variety is in one place, this also keeps competition running and so customers and shop owners are happy. As well as this there is probably a lot of competition for shops which makes the land value go up since shop owners have to pay more money to try and keep in the same place. The shops are mainly distributed near the Exchange Shopping Centre and the reason for this is because if you come into town from the bus station or out of the Wheatsheaf then you are right in the centre of the shops and this is why the rateable value in this area is the highest-it is the most sought after are. If all shopping facilities are in the same place then space can be saved by building big car parks on top of the shopping centres like the Exchange, the only problem with this is if you are trying to get a space and the car parks are full up then you may have to walk a long way from your car to wherever you want to go.
As you move onto Drake Street the land use distribution is much more varied and there is no particular pattern as on Yorkshire Street but there is still a lot more shops than anything else, although in my opinion Drake Street is rather dilapidated and most of the money in the CBD is invested in Yorkshire Street as this is the most popular part. On Drake Street there are:
- 51 Shops
- 20 Offices
- 6 Places of Entertainment
- 1 Place of Industry-Red
This proves that the land use on Drake Street is a lot more varied and shops take up 10% less of the Street
In Conclusion Rochdale is a Shop orientated town with shops accounting for 70 % of all buildings
