Building connection: why characterful high streets matter

Over the weekend, The Sunday Times published a new ranking by retail property consultancy JDM Retail. It assessed high streets across Britain using criteria including the quality, diversity and longevity of their businesses. Edinburgh’s Grassmarket came first, followed by Shrewsbury High Street and York’s Shambles.

It is telling that so many of the places towards the top of the list are not only successful retail destinations, but distinctive and characterful high streets. They combine independent businesses, interesting buildings and a strong local identity. They feel different from everywhere else.

They are the antithesis of the “clone towns” described by JDM’s Jonathan De Mello, found across much of the country. JDM’s research suggests that clusters of independent businesses create distinctive destinations, while “character quarters” with historic buildings can strengthen local economies and reinforce local identity.

Good high streets can also help build human connection by giving us places we instinctively like and want to spend time in.

This matters because, as playwright James Graham has warned, the social bonds that traditionally connected us are “fraying and breaking”. He has linked growing loneliness and alienation to changes in our physical realm: the loss of high streets, town centres and other places where people can gather. Graham has helped champion the National Conversation, a UK-wide initiative exploring belonging, trust and community life. Its findings will inform recommendations from the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion later this year.

New research from the US makes the relationship between urban design and social connection even more apparent. A Yale study of more than 60,000 neighbourhoods found that areas with winding roads, cul-de-sacs and disconnected street networks were associated with greater social isolation and more time spent at home. It suggests that the way we design our streets can influence whether we leave home, where we walk and how often we cross paths with other people.

Today, we can work, shop and socialise without leaving home. If our high streets and neighbourhoods are to draw us out, they need to offer something the online world cannot: the joy of being in an interesting place, the possibility of discovering something unexpected that lifts our day and the chance of a pleasant encounter with a neighbour or passer-by.

The public understands that something is missing. The State of Us, a 2025 report by British Future and the Belong Network, asked what would help create closer communities. Improving shared spaces such as parks, high streets, libraries and leisure centres was the most popular answer. Nearly two-thirds placed it among their top three priorities, with 31% ranking it first.

As the UK sets out to renew its towns and cities, we need to think about shared space more broadly. It is not only the library, shop or community centre that brings people together. The streets, squares and buildings around them also shape how we behave in a city: whether people want to go out and spend time in a place.

City-makers must therefore prioritise not just the provision of public space, but its design. A high street can be walkable and still feel bleak, monotonous or unwelcoming. A development can include public space while surrounding are anonymous buildings that give people little reason to stop.

The high streets people value are rarely bland or generic. They offer colour, character, detail, variety and surprise. In places such as Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, the buildings reward our attention, encourage us to explore and give us reasons to return. They invite us to look up, slow down and linger. Character is not another word for historic. New buildings can be distinctive, joyful and rooted in place too. The challenge is to create the much-loved streets and heritage of the future, not town centres that could be anywhere.

No building can cure loneliness. But a more human-focused approach to design can help create the conditions in which connection becomes more likely. As we renew our towns and cities, we have an opportunity to create high streets that make people eager to close their laptops and step outside, finding human connection and perhaps a little unexpected joy on their doorstep.

The Humanise Mayors’ Guide shows how city leaders can create joyful, engaging streets and neighbourhoods that strengthen human connection and belonging.

Image: Edinburgh Grassmarket (Jennifer / Adobe)