ABSTRACT
There was a time when every new housing estate came with a central parade of small single-storey shops and a stand-alone community hall. All subject to periodic bouts of vandalism, they were, in any case, a bad use of land. When the parade of shops was located under three or four storeys of flats there was some protection from vandals but, as their viability reduced, the obvious lack of commercial success blighted the whole neighbourhood.
