OECD Culture and Local Development.pdf - PACA

4. THE CULTURAL FABRIC OF CITIES
exposing themselves further to foreign competition. In 1998 more than a quarter of
the district’s industrial establishments were vacant, and only 3 percent of the area
was occupied by families. Commercial life and stores virtually disappeared, and few
people ventured into the area. Its future was often debated, but proposals always
stumbled over the volume of financing that would be required to convert the area
into a home for new activities, assuming that the days of the jewellery industry were
over. The district did however benefit from certain provisions, such as its “conservation
area” status, that had allowed some retailers to return.
The most important initiative was the “urban village” project, summarised in a
study known as the Jewellery Quarter Urban Village Prospectus. That study was the
result of cooperation between the municipality of Birmingham, the English Heritage
organisation, and the Urban Villages Group (Aldous, 1992). The objective, simply
stated, was to turn this quarter into an urban village associating traditional and new
activities, production, and entertainment, and in the process to make it one of the
most attractive places in the United Kingdom.
The ingredients of the new programme were fairly conventional: reviving the
local jewellery industry, improving local public services, promoting the creative and
tourism potentials of the renovated quarter, and providing investment security for
households and businesses moving into the area.
But the backdrop to the programme remained the jewellery industry, and the
image of this traditional luxury-goods craft made the quarter, as English Heritage
describes it, “a national treasure ... a place of unique character ... a particular
combination of structures associated with jewellery and metalworking which does
not seem to exist anywhere else in the world” 107 . Increasing the number of permanent
residents was considered essential for reviving the quarter, making public services
possible, and creating a setting that tourists would want to visit. New art galleries
and exhibition halls were opened, pedestrian routes were laid out, urban fixtures
in keeping with the jewellery tradition were installed, and a design centre was
established.
The programme was not universally welcomed.
- Many jewellers felt they were being “used” for an urban planning experiment
that would do nothing for them, at least in the short run (Smith, 1997).
- They also feared that the influx of other activities would lead to land speculation
and raise the cost of local services.
- The jewellery business needed room for the three operations involved in the
process: cutting the stones, preparing the settings, and overlay or finishing.
130 CULTURE AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT - ISBN 92-64-00990-6 - © OECD 2005