ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the central business districts (CBDs) of cities in the UK, their traditional importance in local space economies, and the considerable changes that are now occurring. These changes within the central-city retailing and service sector appear set to increase dramatically with the growing development of out-of-centre shopping complexes. Many British city centres now appear to be at a crossroads. The growth of further out-of-centre retail-commercial complexes could jeopardize the very basis of CBD existence and portend the end of the central city in its traditional form. These changes, and indeed the fundamental recompositions and selectivities within retail-business organizations, seem to be gaining in momentum. The effects of the large out-of-centre shopping centres (more than 46,950 m2, 500,000 sq ft) on some CBDs are potentially calamitous, at least in the shorter and middle terms (Rowley 1989).
