8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
1/28
Urban Studies, Vol. 37, No. 8, 14031429, 2000
City-centre Revitalisation: Problems of
Fragmentation and Fear in the Evening andNight-time City
Colin J. Thomas and Rosemary D. F. Bromley
[Paper rst received, June 1998; in nal form, May 1999]
Summary. Over the past 30 years the pre-eminent commercial status of the city centre in the
retail system of British cities has been challenged by the competitive impact of retail decentralis-
ation. A contemporaneous decentralisation of ofce and leisure activities has exacerbated th
situation. At the same time, early redevelopment strategies have created signicant degrees of
spatial fragmentation between functions and the loss of a substantial residential population. In
the contemporary social climate, these changes have resulted in negative implications for th
perception of safety and the generation of fear and anxiety amongst all users of the city centre
Consequently, safety issues have accentuated the emerging problems of the city centres, particu
larly for evening and night-time activities. City-centre revitalisation strategies have increasingly
aimed to extend vitality and viability beyond the temporal divide associated with the 5pm
ight. This has involved the incorporation of the 24-hour city concept. However, this strategy
has proved problematic due to the negative perceptions of safety, which are associated with th
emergence of an exclusionary youth culture in many major cities in recent years. This paper
seeks to examine the nature and scale of the obstacles to the revitalisation of the evening and
night-time economy and culture of Swansea and Cardiff in order the better to inform strategies
which aim to instigate the 24-hour city concept. The study reveals substantial obstacles to the
realisation of a vibrant 24-hour city, the scale of which suggests the need for considerable and
concerted planning and development efforts if they are to be overcome. Many opportunities exist
but the impediments suggest that progress in the direction of a liveable 24-hour city is likely
at best, to be slow and incremental in the British situation.
Introduction
As a result of the progressive decentralis-
ation of retail, ofce and leisure functions
over the past 30 years, the decline of the
economy of the city centre has been a wide-spread feature of British cities. Decline in
curtailment of most functions to the busi
ness day followed by the 5pm ight. A
the same time, the evening and night-tim
economies have been frequently restricted toa residual youth-dominated pub and club
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
2/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1404
community. However, for the whole of this
period, central and local government plan-
ners have been committed to retaining the
city centre as the commercial and social hub
of the city-region. Since the early 1980s, this
commitment has necessitated the develop-
ment of strong revitalisation strategies de-signed to maintain the primary commercial
status of the city centres (Thomas and Brom-
ley, 1996). In recent years, particular atten-
tion has been directed towards extending the
vitality and viability of the city centre
across a longer time-span (DoE, 1994) within
the context of the 24-hour city concept
(Heath and Stickland, 1997). This involves
extending the business day and integratingit with an expanded evening and night-time
economy. Such initiatives seek to offer a
broader range of leisure and cultural activi-
ties, capable of appealing to a wider social
spectrum. However, the fears of existing and
potential visitors to the city centre in the
early evening and at night are considered to
be signicant obstacles to the revitalisation
of the night-time economy (Oc and Tiesdell,1997a). Currently, little detailed evidence ex-
ists on the nature and scale of such barriers.
It is the contention of this paper that more
detailed evidence is needed of the current
patterns of usage of the evening and night-
time economies of British city centres and of
their association with safety considerations.
Such information is necessary the better to
inform policies designed to assist the 24-hour
city-centre initiatives. As an exploratory step
in this direction, evidence is presented from
surveys undertaken in Swansea and Cardiff
in south Wales. This forms the substantive
focus of this paper.
Decentralisation and City-centre Decline
The declining status of the city centre as a
focus for retail, business, entertainment andcultural activities for surrounding metropoli-
intense competition from new suburban retai
(the malling of the American landscape
and ofce concentrations associated with
steadily rising afuence, increased car own
ership and intraurban highway improvement
(Lord, 1988). At the same time, the subur
banisation of the middle classes from theinner suburbs to be replaced by lower-statu
concentrations of ethnic minorities, reduced
both the spending power of the immediate
market and the attractions of the central city
for afuent suburbanites. In fact, the per
ceived physical and social malaise of the
inner cities has been widely considered to be
a potent force contributing to the process o
decline (Jacobs, 1961). The fears of bothshoppers and those employed in the city
centres for their safety are considered to have
deterred visits from suburban residents and
reduced overall levels of pedestrian activity
Survey evidence from potential New York
shoppers, for example, indicated that 63 pe
cent of the sample rarely visited the city
centre due to fear, while fear also reduced
overall levels of pedestrian activity beyondinsulated self-contained retail and ofce
complexes, indoor walkways and parkade
(Citizens Crime Commission, 1985). Thus
most city planning authorities in the US have
been attempting in recent years to revitalise
central business districts. Amongst the wide
range of redevelopment strategies, those con
cerned with safety considerations have
loomed large (Robertson, 1995; Wagner e
al., 1995).
However, while city-centre commercia
decline has been a common feature of mos
other Western countries, its detailed charac
teristics have varied in relation to the
specics of particular countries and, some
times, to the circumstances of individual cit
ies. In Canada and Australia, for example
the fortunes of the city centres have been less
problematicdespite being subject to similacompetitive pressures for decentralisation
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
3/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1405
ation and less-marked inner-city racial prob-
lems largely explain the differences. In west-
ern Europe, the retention of higher
population densities in the inner city; the
effects of even more restrictive planning
regimes; and early attention to the mainte-
nance of an amenable shopping environmentmore easily accessible by public transport;
have retained the primary commercial status
of most city centres (House of Commons
Environment Committee, 1994; Davies,
1995).
Retail Decentralisation and the City Centre
in the UK
The experience of the UK reects an uneasy
compromise between the commitment of
successive governments to the city centre as
the economic, social and cultural hub of the
city-region, while at the same time attempt-
ing to accommodate commercial pressures
for the decentralisation of retail, ofce and
entertainment functions. The contemporane-
ous decline of industry, warehousing andwholesaling in the inner cities and the re-
development of the densely occupied inner
suburbs with lower-density housing, usually
occupied by relatively poor and ethnically
segregated communities, have reduced the
size of the nearby market of many city cen-
tres and the likelihood of the casual pres-
ence of a residential population outside
business hours.
Retail decentralisation, related to the na-
tionwide growth in car ownership and the
associated redistribution of the population to
suburban and rural locations, has also had a
negative competitive impact on the tra-
ditional city centres. Thus, despite an ofcial
commitment to the commercial primacy of
the city centre, gradual pressure for retail
decentralisation has been a potent force for
change since the mid 1960s (Bromley andThomas, 1993). This was initiated with the
of the 1980s, contingent upon a stronge
government commitment to a market philos
ophy. Thus, by the early 1990s, over 250
peripheral retail parks had been developed
along with 4 new regional shopping mall
(DoE, 1992; Guy, 1994a). Consequently, de
centralisation appears to have curtailed thegrowth of the central shopping areas of the
older industrial towns and cities in the per
ipheral regions of the country (Reynolds and
Schiller, 1992), and initiated a compaction
process at their margins. The decline of the
city centres of Shefeld and Dudley, fo
example, has been linked with the develop
ment of nearby regional shopping centre
(DoE, 1993; Rowley, 1993), and stagnationin Swansea with the vigorous growth of the
retail warehouse sector (Thomas and Brom
ley, 1993). Thus, many city centres in
Britain, particularly in the larger industria
towns, now display evidence of commercia
decline. This is characterised by long-term
vacancies, lower-status stores replacing mar
ket leaders, the emergence of charity shop
and the development of a general air odilapidation, all features which are most evi
dent in locations peripheral to the centres
This process reduces the overall attractive
ness of a centre and is analogous to the
process of decline seen extensively in the
US. In fact, widespread concern is now being
expressed for the future of the city centre
and the notional ideal of a complementarity
between the city centre and the new facilitie
is giving way to the recognition of the grow
ing competitive impact of decentralisation
seen in Britain over the past 30 years.
Nevertheless, constraint upon the force
promoting retail decentralisation has been the
underlying feature of successive governmen
policies since the mid 1960s, despite inter
mittent relaxation (Thomas and Bromley
1993). Thus, only 7 of the approximately 50
regional malls proposed in the late 1980have been completed. In particular, a com
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
4/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1406
ated in a range of related documents (DoE,
1992, 1994; House of Commons Environ-
ment Committee, 1994); while the change of
government in May 1996 has not modied
the situation substantially (DoE and Welsh
Ofce, 1996).
However, while constrained by govern-ment intervention, the challenge of retail de-
centralisation to the continued vitality and
viability of the British city centre remains,
and a fully comprehensive retail planning
strategy has yet to be formulated. In the latter
years of the Conservative government, for
example, a degree of ambivalence on the
question of new regional shopping centres
resulted in the opening of centres in Bristolin 1998 and Manchester and London in 1999.
Likewise, the development of a number of
sub-regional centres and the incremental ex-
pansion of many existing retail parks are
likely to continue to affect adversely the
future of the traditional city centres in their
vicinity (Herbert and Thomas, 1997). Simi-
larly, commercial innovations such as US-
style outlet malls continue to add vigour tothe decentralisation process (Fernie, 1995).
Thus, the continued commercial primacy
of the British city centre is under severe
threat. The post-war experiences of the
British city centre have resulted in an array
of problems that need to be ameliorated if the
city centre is to retain its pre-eminent pos-
ition in the system of service centres.
The Problem of Spatial Fragmentation
In addition to the competitive problems gen-
erated by decentralisation, early redevelop-
ment strategies have frequently exacerbated
the situation by introducing signicant de-
grees of spatial fragmentation between func-
tions. Large-scale retail developments were
initiated in many city centres in the 1950s,
particularly in those cities that had sufferedextensive wartime damage. The early
central business district; the principal shop
ping concentrations are often pedestrianised
while ofce districts, civic centres and enter
tainment areas have emerged as clearly dis
tinguishable zones within the city centre
(Davies, 1984).
This phase was followed by the construction of covered malls from the mid 1960s
Between 1965 and 1989, 8.9 million square
metres of retail oorspace was provided in
604 town-centre shopping schemes of 4650
square metres or larger (DoE, 1992). Th
closure of many of these shopping precincts
at the end of the trading day further frag
mented the structure of the city centre (Fran
cis, 1991). This tends to curtail informapedestrian browsing and window-shopping
as well as presenting barriers to pedestrians
Often this necessitates the use of circuitou
routes to bus stops and car parks, routes tha
may be less attractive or may be perceived as
less safe by shoppers.
Oc and Tiesdell (1997a) suggest that the
micro-spatial aspects of functional segre
gation in British city centres largely reecthe rigid functional zoning associated with
the aesthetics of urban space design popular
ised by modernist architects and planner
throughout much of the post-war period. The
physical separation of functional nodes in the
city centre requires walkways, bridges and
subways to integrate bus stops, bus station
and car parks with the shopping, ofce and
entertainment facilities. The inclusion of an
element of wide-open spaces to accommo
date the associated preference for a
signicant element of light and air has ac
centuated further the tendency toward
physical fragmentation. In effect, spatial seg
regation and functional fragmentation have
become characteristic features of British city
centres. These features have resulted in the
proliferation of lonely walkways and dead
spaces within the fabric of the city centre, aa time when the safety of shoppers and em
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
5/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1407
Safety Issues and City-centre Revitalisa-
tion
The competitive impact of retail decentralis-
ation has resulted frequently in either the loss
of existing retail, ofce and entertainment
facilities or the failure to attract new invest-ment. This has reduced the vitality of the city
centre and has generated concerns for the
safety of shoppers, employees and residents.
Frequently, this has been accompanied by the
emergence of adverse environmental features
(physical incivilities), vacant premises and
the proliferation of security shutters, particu-
larly around the peripheries of city centres
(Nelson, 1998a). Likewise, early redevelop-ment strategies have contributed to the gen-
eration of fear by introducing signicant
degrees of spatial fragmentation between
functions and the loss of a substantial resi-
dent population. Together, these changes
have negative implications for the perception
of safety of all users of the city centre in the
contemporary social climate. Thus, a
signicant minority of shoppers are alreadyfearful for their safety, characteristically less
than 10 per cent (Nottingham Safer Cities
Project, 1990; Thomas and Bromley, 1996).
However, far more substantial minorities ex-
press anxieties concerning fears of being
robbed (c. 20 per cent), by threats posed by
groups of youths and vagrants (c. 40 per
cent), and by fears for the safety of their cars
(c. 2050 per cent) (Thomas and Bromley,
1996).
There has for some time existed an ofcial
commitment to retaining the city centre as
the principal commercial, social and cultural
focus of urban life. However, the process of
revitalisation has been largely dependent
upon the attraction of commercial investment
for retail, ofce and entertainment facilities.
Clearly, such developments can positively
enhance the attraction of the area. However,only rarely has such investment been com-
segment of the market. Ease of access to the
city centre has rarely been improved fo
users of public transport, and has been re
duced for car-borne travellers; while safety
considerations have attracted only a nomina
interest (DoE, 1992, 1994; Guy, 1994b).
Nevertheless, there exists a wide range ofpolicies designed to revitalise the city centre
and these have been reviewed in a previous
paper (Thomas and Bromley, 1996). Cur
rently, the favoured mechanism for regener
ation is the creation of partnerships between
public-sector initiatives and private-secto
nance, with strategies designed to improve
the attractions, accessibility and amenity of
fered by the city centres (DoE, 1994). Withinthis context, the advantages of a compac
centreincluding additional attractions and
functional diversityare stressed, while the
need to integrate trip-destination points in the
city centre with the major functional node
are also of central signicance. The residen
tial repopulation of the city centre is seen as
offering the potential for enhancing both the
immediate market and the likelihood of moreinformal pedestrian activity across a wide
time-span than the business day. Equally
the need to improve the aesthetics and en
vironmental amenity of the city centre i
apparent in many cases, while the advantages
of rm management and positive promotion
are also seen as vital ingredients of the re
generation process. However, in all these
circumstances, there is increasing concern
that safety considerations should be ad
dressed more fully if the revitalisation pro
cess is to achieve maximum impact (DoE
and Welsh Ofce, 1994).
Temporal Fragmentation in the City
centre Economy
Temporal functional segregation has alway
been a signicant element of the life of citycentres in the UK. Activity during the day
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
6/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1408
restaurants, cinemas, theatres and concert
halls. It has been argued widely that city-
centre revitalisation would be assisted by
merging the working day into an expanded
evening and night-time economy along the
lines of the experience of many western Eu-
ropean cities (DoE, 1994; Bianchini, 1995).However, it has also been suggested that a
number of physical, social and cultural
changes over the past 20 years have trans-
lated temporal functional segregation in the
British city centre into an additional series of
safety issues which positively detract from
the revitalisation process.
The physical divisions between the func-
tional zones have been accentuated as a re-sult of the extension of modernist planning
ideals. At the same time, the loss of a
signicant resident population in most
British city centres has created a stronger
temporal dichotomy between day and night-
time activities. This has resulted in a contin-
gent loss of natural surveillance (Newman,
1972) and the casual enforcement of civilis-
ation associated with more eyes on thestreet (Jacobs, 1961). Furthermore, complex
social and cultural changes have altered fur-
ther the nature of the city centre after day-
time business hours. The decline of the older
entertainment facilities such as the smaller
cinemas and dance halls in favour of larger,
and usually peripheral, leisure complexes
combining multiscreen cinemas and bowling
alleys, has narrowed the range of both the
leisure opportunities available and the kinds
of people visiting the city centre. This has
been accentuated by the extension of home-
based entertainment for the younger family
groups. These changes have been associated
with a growth in the fear of crime in the city
centre at night amongst women, the elderly
and the suburban middle classes (Comedia,
1991), while fear of car crime and the decline
of public transport facilities have served toreduce accessibility.
ties but has substantial amounts of disposable
income available for leisure. The growth o
the youth culture and its tendency toward
male domination, along with its association
with heavy drinking, drugs and regularly re
ported late-night violent incidents, have al
served to reduce further the attractions of thenight-time city centre for a broader spectrum
of the population.
Together, these changes have transformed
the British city centre by night into an area
dominated by young people, and perceived
as a threatening environment by the wide
community. Nevertheless, the night-tim
economy thrives in most major city centres
in Britain. Oc and Tiesdell (1997b), reportfor example, that the pubs and clubs of cen
tral Nottingham regularly attract 20 000
30 000 visitors on Friday and Saturday
nights, a situation replicated in most othe
regional and sub-regional city centres. How
ever, the market is often restricted socially to
the youthful group and, functionally, to the
pub and club scene. Thus, while the night
time functions are clearly a signicant element of the economy of British city centres
their contribution to its continued vitality
and viability is restricted due to their exclu
sionary or mono-cultural characteristic
(Oc and Tiesdell, 1997a). It is also likely tha
the unfavourable image of the night-tim
city-centre culture impacts adversely on the
day-time image. This expresses itself in a
distinct tendency for shoppers to leave the
city centre after 4pm due to fears for thei
safety associated with lower levels of activity
on the streets and in car parks as shop-clos
ing times approach (Thomas and Bromley
1996). In winter, this tendency is accentuated
by the early loss of daylight, particularly a
It is dark, lonely and unfamiliar place
which women associate with the possibility
of attack (Pain, 1997, p. 235). Thus, a
shops and ofces close at around 5pm thereis a virtual abandonment of the city centre
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
7/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1409
1990s that citycentre revitalisation in Britain
needs both to redress the curtailment of its
commercial life associated with the 5pm
ight and to ameliorate the negative image
resulting from the emergence of the exclu-
sionary night-time culture. The initial im-
petus stemmed from the calls of thewomens movement to reclaim the night
(Trench, 1991), but this has been expanded
to encompass the 24-hour city concept de-
rived from the experience of the European
city since the late 1970s (Heath and Stick-
land, 1997). The strategies associated with
the concept aim to extend the activity period
and social mix of users of the city centre by
offering a wider range of evening and night-time functions, and, in the process, to pro-
vide a safer city centre, with an image more
likely to attract future investment. Rarely,
however, is a truly 24-hour activity pattern
the goal. For most cities adopting the con-
cept, the intention is to extend the economic
and social life of the city centre from early
morning (c. 8am) to the early hours of the
next morning (c. 24am). Thus f ar,Manchester, Leeds and Cardiff are amongst
the few cities attempting to institute the lit-
eral interpretation of the concept.
Fundamental elements of such strategies
are the need to bridge a number of gaps in
the city-centre activity pattern, combined
with the need to offer a broader range of
activities designed to appeal to a wider social
mix. Thus, the hiatus of activity between
shop-closing times and the early-evening
users of restaurants, theatres, concerts and
the remaining cinemas (the evening econ-
omy) is envisaged as being redressed by
extending shop-opening hours and linking
this with an active cafe culture (Heath and
Stickland, 1997). Subsequently, the gap be-
tween the departure of the early-evening
users and the arrival of the habitues of the
night-time economy could be reduced by theencouragement of the early-evening visitors
from the provision of additional attraction
such as summer street entertainment and fes
tivals, or a more creative array of cultura
and civic events based in museums, gallerie
and leisure centres (Montgomery, 1995)
However, while such strategies might well be
able to contribute to reinvigorating and humanising the night-time economy, the cau
tionary note struck by Oc and Tiesdel
(1997a) is worthy of reiteration. Urban de
sign and activity provision can contribute to
the creation of a commercially and socially
stronger city centre by reclaiming the nigh
as part of the public realm. However, the
degree of success will also continue to be
dependent on the modication of the patternof adverse behaviour associated with the ex
clusionary and threatening elements of con
temporary youth culture.
Thus, a convincing body of opinion sug
gests that the introduction of strategies asso
ciated with the 24-hour city concept are
likely to be an essential ingredient of city
centre revitalisation in Britain. However
while there is considerable anecdotal agreement on the current obstacles to the develop
ment of a 24-hour city attractive to the
community at large, only limited hard evi
dence on the nature and scale of the safety
considerations exists. Atkins (1989) notes
for example, from a survey of Birmingham
residents in 1987, that 69 per cent of respon
dents were deterred from visiting the city
centre at night. For Nottingham, however, Oc
and Tiesdell (1997b) state that a lower bu
none-the-less substantial concern for safety
exists among women. They indicate from an
unpublished report of a survey undertaken by
Guessoum-Benderbouz in 1994 that only 14
per cent of female respondents to a posta
questionnaire considered themselves safe af
ter dark in the city centre, while 48 per cen
actually avoided such visits. Also for Not
tingham, the same authors report the ndingof a perception study undertaken in 1995 fo
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
8/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1410
Thus, this paper seeks to add to an under-
standing of the safety issues which act as
barriers to the revitalisation of the evening
and night-time economies in British city cen-
tres.
Dening Fears of Crime
The fear of crime in Britain appears to have
increased over the past 20 years. The British
Crime Survey indicated that between 1981
and 1995 the number of crimes reported to
the police increased by 91 per cent, and this
is thought to understate the actual levels of
crime by about one-half (Mirrlees-Black etal., 1996). The increased level of crime was
reected in the views of the random sample
of around 16 500 persons interviewed in the
survey on a wide range of crime-related is-
sues. For the purposes of the survey, fear of
crime was regarded as synonymous with
worry and anxiety, and characterised as a
generalised response to threats of victimis-
ation against the person. This was measuredcrudely in response to the question: How
safe do you feel walking alone in the street
after dark?. However, signicant levels of
fear were recorded. Approximately one-third
of the sample recorded a degree of fear in
this situation, but a substantial difference
occurred between women (47 per cent) and
men (15 per cent), while the level increased
steadily with age and was particularly high
for women of over 60 years (60 per cent). In
addition, nearly 25 per cent of respondents
indicated that they were cautious about
where they went and what they did; most of
this group routinely reduced risks by avoid-
ing particular types of people and places or
by not going out alone. Again, the levels of
caution and concern were higher amongst
women and the elderly, while as many as 33
per cent of all women were fearful of beingthe victims of rape. Evidently, at a general
in their day-to-day lives (Mirrlees-Black e
al., 1996).
However, there exists an extensive crimi
nological literature on the denition of the
fear of crime, its causes and its spatial ex
pression. The literature offers more detailed
analytical insights into the phenomenon as abackground to the current investigation. In an
early review of the denition of the fear o
crime, Ferraro and LaGrange (1987) discuss
the f ears, which reect a general cognitive
perception of safety in ones neighbourhood
This denition has been used subsequently
by Rountree and Land (1996) as cognitive
fear equated with risk perception. Alterna
tively, fear of crime was also characterisedby Ferraro and LaGrange (1987) as being an
affective personal emotional reaction to the
possibility of being the victim of a specic
type of crime. Clearly, the distinction is a
very ne line, and has not been drawn by al
authors. Lotz (1979) and Gates and Rohe
(1987), for example, focus on the affective
dimension where
Fear of crime is the affective experienceassociated with the perceived personal risk
of victimisation (Gates and Rohe, 1987
p. 427).
Such feelings have been almost universally
demonstrated to be highest amongst women
and the elderly, although this has not been
reected in commensurate levels of victimis
ation. Conversely, young males have ex
pressed low levels of fear despite being mos
at risk of personal victimisation. Most o
these early investigations have tended to re
gard this situation as paradoxical, which has
been seen as reecting primarily the per
ceived relative vulnerability of these groups
However, more recent realist evaluations of
the apparent disjunction between the level
of the fear of crime and the objective mea
sures of risk levels are less sure of the existence of the irrationalities expressed by
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
9/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1411
being somehow paradoxical. A similar view
was expressed earlier by Nasar and Fisher
(1993, p. 188):
By over-reacting to the potential threats in
the many situations where no real threat
exists, they may save themselves fromattack in the unlikely situation of real
danger.
Such tactics, in themselves, imply a
signicant restriction on potential normal
patterns of behaviour. Likewise, it is postu-
lated that intolerance to violence and
threatening situations is lowest amongst
women and the elderly, relative to the
machismo values expressed frequently bymany young men.
Fear of crime is, therefore, neither auton-
omous from, nor a simple reex of, risk of
crime (Young, 1997, p. 491).
In effect, it is currently unclear whether the
emotional perception of fear of crime
amongst different groups of the population is
ill-founded or not. This creates a fundamen-tal methodological problem for the measure-
ment of the fear of crime due to the difculty
of distinguishing between fear which reects
feelings of vulnerability and that which
relates to a calculated perception of risk
(Zedner, 1997).
The causes of the fear of crime are an
equally complex issue, which continues to be
problematic in detail. Contemporaneous re-
views by Smith (1987), Gates and Rohe
(1987) and Box et al. (1988) highlight a
similar array of complex interactive
causative factors. An important dimension of
the generation of the fear of crime is ac-
cepted as being socially constructed since it
has been widely shown to vary in relation to
gender, age and ethnic identity in relation to
the perception of threat. High levels of fear
are displayed amongst all these groups,reecting their perceptions of vulnerability in
1987), while constraints on f emale behaviou
have been characterised as the spatial ex
pression of patriarchy (Valentine, 1989
p. 315; Valentine, 1992; Pain, 1991, 1997).
Environmental cues are also seen as fear
generators associated with a combination o
physical and social incivilities (Skogan1990; LaGrange et al., 1992). Signs of physi
cal decline, which can signify threat, include
evidence of vandalism and the presence o
litter, grafti and vacant premises. Together
these suggest a lack of neighbourhood co
hesion or social disorganisation (Herbert
1993). Similarly, threat can be signalled so
cially by the presence of undesirables such
as aggressive beggars, drunks, prostitutesdrug addicts and even noisy or loitering
youths (Nasar and Fisher, 1993). These idea
have been developed further in an even more
spatially explicit manner in the eld of en
vironmental criminology and environmenta
psychology. Brantingham and Brantingham
(1993), for example, indicate the manner in
which crimes cluster in relation to nodes
paths and edges in the urban environmenwith the result that certain locations can
emerge as fear-generators. At a more detailed
scale, the importance of micro-proximate
cues for the generation of hot spots of fea
on a University campus have been suggested
(Nasar and Fisher, 1993; Fisher and Nasar
1995). In this situation, areas of blocked
prospect generate fears of what may lie
around the next corner, while opportunitie
of concealment of potential assailants were
equally important. Bounded space, which
offers little opportunity for escape, was also
noted as a particularly important fear
generator. In effect, the micro-spatial charac
teristics of place and setting are seen a
going a long way towards an understanding
of the spatial and temporal distribution o
fear.
In addition, fear of crime may reect anorganisational dimension which is associated
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
10/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1412
experiences of individuals, and this has two
dimensions (Smith, 1987). Individuals who
have suffered direct victimisation are likely
to have a heightened awareness of threat and
fear, while the vicarious knowledge of the
victimisation experiences of f riends and rela-
tives is also likely to have a similar effect.However, the link between victimisation ex-
perience and fear of crime is complex and
tenuous rather than directly predictable as
implied in the earlier literature (Skogan,
1987; Newhart-Smith and Hill, 1991; Norris
and Kaniasty, 1994). The inuence of the
reporting of crime in the media can also
generate fear amongst individuals. This is
illustrated particularly by the manner inwhich the newspapers, television and radio
periodically mount campaigns against crime
and related social issues, which highlight
awareness. The creation of moral panics by
the media has the potential to heighten the
fear of specic crimes, whether or not they
are well-founded in risk assessment
(Williams and Dickinson, 1993; Levi, 1997).
Clearly, there has been considerable inves-tigation of the denition, causes and spatial-
ity of the fear of crime in a variety of
academic disciplines. However, the complex
interactions between many of the issues
raised here remain unresolved (Hough,
1995). The denition of the fear of crime and
its measurement remain problematic, as do
the apparent irrationalities between levels of
fear and levels of risk. Similarly, it is also
difcult to decipher the relative importance
of the causative factors. Likewise, despite the
emergence of a number of valuable insights
concerning environmental cues and the spa-
tiality of fear, none of the existing analyses
relates to the specics of the city-centre
shopping environment either by day or by
night.
However, while the resolution of these
issues are of continuing criminological im-portance, they are not of central concern for
have been used to provide valuable contex
tual insights into the dimension of fear per
taining to the current study, the paper doe
not seek specically to clarify the complex
interrelationships between the issues raised
Instead, the more pragmatic perspective o
Tuan (1979) is taken that, whatever theramications behind the denition and the
explanations for the fear of crime, it is now
recognised by the police as a signicant so
cial problem in itself, particularly in relation
to the manner in which it can place restric
tions on lawful patterns of social and econ
omic life for signicant sections of the
community in a variety of urban situations. A
similar view was expressed more recently byZedner (1997, p. 587) that
Fear of crime is a distinct social problem
extending well beyond those who have
actually been victimised to affect the lives
of those who perceive themselves to be a
risk.
Thus, consistent with the views of Smith
(1987) and Gates and Rohe (1987), the studyregards fear as the emotional response to
threat or possible victimisation in a variety o
circumstances relating to the use of, mode
of access to, and the spatial attributes of, the
city centre at night.
The Swansea and Cardiff Research
The two largest cities in south Wales
Swansea and Cardiff, were the focus of the
research. Both have traditional central busi
ness districts that serve as the principal com
parison and speciality shopping centres fo
the immediate urban and surrounding re
gional population. Swansea is the smalle
and serves the whole of the former county of
West Glamorgan (1991 population: 361 428
(OPCS, 1994) and the adjacent parts of Car
marthenshire, Powys and the south Walevalleys within a 15-mile radius (an additiona
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
11/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1413
gional status in 1995 (Hillier Parker Re-
search, 1996). Cardiff is larger with an im-
mediate urban population of 279 055 in
1991, while also serving as the regional
shopping centre for the BridgendVale of
Glamorgan area to the west, the coaleld
valleys to the north and the Newport areato the east (an additional population of
969 970). This is reected in the thriving
central area, graded 8th in Britain, with a
multiple branch score count of 115 (Hillier
Parker Research, 1996).
The city centre of Swansea is relatively
spatially diffuse. Extensive wartime bombing
destroyed the greater part of the old shopping
core, but the opportunity to create a compac
redeveloped town centre was missed. In
stead, the two dual-carriageway roads of the
Kingsway and Princess Way, which werecentral to the reconstruction strategy, presen
barriers to pedestrians and separate the new
retail core of Oxford Street and the redevel
oped market from the older High Street
Wind Street axis (Figure 1). Availability of
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
12/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1414
Figure 2. Cardiff city centre: areas considered particularly unsafe after dark.
land for additional retail development in the
1970s dictated that the Quadrant Centre
(27 840 square metres) was slightly offset
from the new core, while the smaller St
Davids Centre (12 990 square metres) was
not strongly integrated with the rest of the
city-centre facilities. More recently, there has
been a general improvement in the environ-
mental condition of the city centre. This has
been associated primarily with the develop-
ment of a pedestrian priority scheme, but the
ve principal multistorey car parks (c. 2700spaces) are somewhat displaced from the
ning policies, has a relatively compact shop
ping centre, closely integrated with car parks
and public transport (Figure 2). The early
northsouth retail axis of St Mary Street
High Street and its 20th century extension
eastwest along Queen Street, provided the
opportunity to ll the angle between the two
axes with modern retail development. Th
opening of the St Davids Centre in 1981
(42 000 square metres) was the rst majo
step in the creation of a compact core (Guy
and Lord, 1993). Complementary planningpolicy has accentuated the compact retai
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
13/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1415
1997). The Central railway and bus station is
also located near to the southern edge of the
retail core, while the suburban Queen Street
railway station is immediately adjacent to the
western edge of the retail core.
Over the past 25 years, both city centres
have felt the competitive impact of retaildecentralisation typical of all British cities.
This was given particular impetus in
Swansea in the 1980s with the development
of the Enterprise Zone retail park, now con-
taining in excess of 44 000 square metres
(gross oorspace) (West Glamorgan County
Council, 1993). Similar processes have, how-
ever, also been evident in Cardiff (Lord and
Guy, 1991), and the largest decentralisedconcentration of retailing at Culverhouse
Cross is rapidly approaching the scale of the
Swansea Enterprise Zone. At the same time,
both cities have experienced the same array
of economic, social and cultural changes dis-
cussed above. The respective planning au-
thorities of each city have been concerned to
retain the vitality and viability of the city
centres, and it was within these circum-stances that the current research was under-
taken.
The Surveys
This paper forms part of a research pro-
gramme extending over the period 199399,
focusing on issues of safety and revitalisation
in the city centres of Swansea and Cardiff.
This comprises a number of initial interview
surveys, which have been supplemented by
interviews with key informants. A detailed
household questionnaire was undertaken in
Swansea and a more extensive on-street sur-
vey in Cardiff. The Swansea questionnaire
was administered to the principal shopper in
433 households in late 1993 and early 1994.
These represent a 10 per cent sample drawn
randomly from 4 broadly representative butcontrasting types of urban residential area.
ucational characteristics of the households
Their interrelationships were analysed using
factor analytical techniques, and a cluste
analysis procedure was used to categorise the
social areas in the city. The 4 survey areas
included a low-status inner-city location, a
local authority housing estate, a high-statusuburb and a high-status ruralurban fringe
area. A wide range of questions was asked
relating to the characteristics of the respon
dents and their patterns of usage of the city
centre for shopping, leisure and entertain
ment activities. For the purposes of the cur
rent paper, the analysis focuses on a numbe
of interrelated issues. Variations in the socia
characteristics of the earlier-evening andlater-night-time users of the city centre are
examined to determine whether there are
signicant socio-temporal divisions which
actually or potentially act as exclusionary
barriers to the realisation of a comprehensive
evening and night-time economy. For simila
reasons, this is followed by an analysis of the
attitudes of respondents to the nature of, and
degree to which, safety considerations generate fears or anxieties relating to their use o
the city centre in the evening and at night
The emotional reactions of respondents are
elicited to a series of attitude statements re
lating to aspects of the city-centre environ
ment and associated travel arrangements. In
order to examine the spatiality of fear in the
city centre, respondents were also asked to
indicate the degree of anxiety or safety they
felt in 10 key locations after dark. This wa
supplemented by questions relating to the
locations of experiences of personal threa
experienced by the respondents or reported
by close friends. This array of information i
the primary focus of this paper. The Cardiff
survey comprised an on-street survey o
1564 shoppers approached throughout the
city centre on 5 days, Wednesday through
Saturday (2), in March and April 1994. Inthis case, however, only a limited number o
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
14/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1416
same South Wales research project, there are
methodological differences between the two
surveys. The degree of attention, for exam-
ple, given by respondents interviewed in
their home situation is likely to be greater
than in an on-street survey, while the on-
street survey has a greater potential to gener-ate a biased sample than a census-selected
household survey. Similarly, interviewer bias
in the case of the on-street survey is also
possible due to the need to staff multiple
sites simultaneously. Nevertheless, in both
cases the vast majority of respondents were
regular visitors to the respective shopping
centres and were, therefore, likely to be fam-
iliar with the city-centre environments. ForSwansea, 93 per cent visited the city centre at
least once a month, while the comparable
gure for Cardiff was 83 per cent. The social
characteristics of the two sets of respondents
were also broadly similar (Thomas and
Bromley, 1996). However, this paper does
not claim to offer a comparative analysis of
the two city centres. The analysis focuses
unequivocally on the Swansea data, with thelimited Cardiff information introduced inter-
mittently only for the broader perspective it
offers. Interpretation of both the Swansea
and Cardiff data was provided with addi-
tional insights from a series of interviews
with key personnel from the local authorities,
retail and car park managers, and the police.
Evening and Night-time Use of the CityCentre
The survey of Swansea residents indicated
that the majority (62 per cent) rarely visit the
city centre in the evening. However, a
signicant minority visited at weekly or
more frequent intervals (17 per cent), while a
further 21 per cent undertook fortnightly or
monthly visits. Also, consistent with the
ndings reported in previous studies, themore regular visitors were disproportionately
and social class of respondents rejected the
null hypothesis at p5 . 99.9 per cent. How
ever, for none of these characteristics was the
degree of imbalance consistent with a stereo
typical dominance suggested in the previou
literature. For example, while 33 per cent of
the respondents were aged 1629 years, 46per cent of the most frequent visitors to the
city centre were recorded in this age-group
This degree of imbalance was typical for al
the characteristics noted above.
An analysis of the reasons for the evening
visits to the city centre also proved instruc
tive. The most commonly cited reasons were
associated with visits to the earlier-evening
venues of theatres, restaurants, late shoppingcinemas and pubs, ranging from 22 per cen
to 31 per cent of respondents (Table 1). The
later-night activities associated with nigh
clubs were cited by signicantly fewer re
spondents (11 per cent), while only smal
minorities visited the city centre for bingo (4
per cent), social clubs (2 per cent) and cafe
(1 per cent). However, cross-tabulations o
the most commonly visited facilities in relation to the gender, age-structure, social class
characteristics and frequency of visit of the
respondents revealed interesting variation
(Table 1). Gender imbalances were largely
insignicant, with the minor exception o
those visiting pubs. In this case, there was a
slight tendency for more than expected num
bers of males to indicate this reason fo
visiting the city centre (p . 95 per cent)
Evidently, for the most part, the range o
leisure facilities currently available in the
city centre is equally attractive to both males
and females.
However, this pattern was not repeated fo
age variations. In this case, each of the mos
commonly used facilities has substantially
different appeal for the range of age-groups
and a complex pattern of variation is re
vealed (Table 1). The theatre, for example, ivisited most by the middle and older age
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
15/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1417
Table 1. Reasons cited for visits to the city centre of Swansea in the evening and at night: cross-tabulationwith social characteristics and frequency of visits
Variables cross-tabulated with reason for visits
Reasons Percentage of Gender Age Social class Frequency of visit(N5 433) respondents (df 5 1) (df 5 2) (df 53) (df 5 2)
Theatre 31.2 *** m, o *** I, II * f Restaurants 28.9 *** m *** I, II *** f Late shopping 24.9 *** y, m * f Cinema 22.4 *** y *** I, II *** f, wPubs 21.5 * male *** y *** IV, V, u *** wNight clubs 11.1 *** y *** *** w
***indicates signicant at the 99.9 per cent level; * indicates signicant at the 95 per cent level.Notes: Annotations indicate positive imbalances of the characteristic indicated:Age: y5 youthful (1629 years); m5middle-aged (3059 years); o5old (. 60 years).
Social class: I, II5 professional and semi-professional occupations; IV, V5 semi-skilled and unskilledu5 unemployed.Frequency of visit: f5 fortnightly and monthly; w5weekly or more.Source: Swansea household interview survey, 1993/94.
and night clubs draw their clientele largely
from the youthful group (1629 years). For
example, 30 per cent of the latter group visit
the night clubs compared with a gure of 11per cent for the whole sample.
Similarly, large variations are related to
differences in social class (Table 1). Late-
night shopping is the only activity that has
equal appeal to all the social class categories.
For the remaining activities, a distinct pattern
emerges. Visits to the theatre, to restaurants
and to the cinema have particular appeal for
those in professional and semi-professional
occupations (social classes I and II). By con-
trast, near double the average gures are
cited for visits to pubs and night clubs by
respondents from social classes IV and V,
and the unemployed.
The relationship between the frequency of
visits and the most common reasons for visit-
ing the city centre reveals an additional dif-
ference between the early-evening and
later-night-time activities (Table 1). Therewas a signicant tendency for the earlier-
compared with the average of 29 per cent)
By contrast, visitors to the pubs and nigh
clubs were disproportionately drawn from
those visiting at weekly or more frequenintervals (respectively, 47 per cent compared
with an average 22 per cent; and 28 per cen
compared with 11 per cent). Cinema visitor
tend to form a transition group, whereby the
moderately frequent visitors dominate (47
per cent compared with the average 22 pe
cent), but many of the most frequent visitor
to the city centre are also cinema-goers (35
per cent).
Evidently, only a minority of residents of
Swansea regularly visits the city centre fo
evening and night-time activities. Of these
there is a tendency for the facilities to be
frequented most by males, the younger age
groups and the lower-status and the unem
ployed, although the imbalances do no
achieve the stereotypical levels associated
with the perception of an exclusionary youth
culture. However, the evidence reveals theexistence of a socio-temporal division of ac
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
16/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1418
older and higher-status respondents. These
also tend to be the activities that are used
with only moderate frequency. On the other
hand, the later-evening and night-time activi-
ties associated with the pubs and night clubs
have greatest appeal for the youthful and
lower-status groups, and are visited by bothgroups with the greatest regularity.
Attitudes to Evening Visits to the City
Centre
To supplement the information derived from
the analysis of the use of the city centre in
the evening and night, the Swansea residents
were asked to respond to a number of state-ments in relation to a ve-point scale, indi-
cating their attitudes to aspects of evening
visits. These focused primarily on fears con-
cerning their personal safety, but the related
issues of bus travel and car parking were also
included (Table 2).
A substantial proportion of respondents
tended to avoid shopping after 4pm (52 per
cent). This is the time when shops becomeless busy and there are fewer people on the
streets as those with child and other family
commitments begin to return home for the
evening. Evidently, the reduction in natural
surveillance tends to generate a degree of
avoidance behaviour by shoppers, which
reects a fear for their personal safety
(Thomas and Bromley, 1996). This obvi-
ously curtails the shopping day and begins to
create an activity hiatus between the day-
time and early-evening economy. However,
this tendency is least marked amongst the
moderate and most frequent evening visitors
(25 per cent and 35 per cent respectively).
This implies that a considerable effort will
need to be expended to ameliorate this prob-
lem since those who visit the city centre in
the evening least frequently are those most
likely to leave early (64 per cent).The problem in Cardiff is not as marked.
life to the centre. Cardiff has obvious ad
vantages over Swansea in this respect
Cardiffs f unction as a capital city has at
tracted a substantial commercial ofce func
tion to the margins of the city centre
(532 509 square metres) (Cardiff City Coun
cil, 1997). In addition, the University buildings and Civic Centre in the area
immediately to the north add signicantly to
this total (223 336 square metres and 76 730
square metres respectively). This contrast
with the much smaller commercial ofce
function in the city centre of Swansea (c
181 000 square metres) (City of Swansea
1988). At the same time, the Guildhall and
the former West Glamorgan County Counciofces are at a greater distance from the
centre of Swansea, while the University cam
pus is 1.5 miles away. The extension of the
vitality of central Cardiff after 4pm by
these advantageous circumstances is proba
bly accentuated by the higher overall percep
tion of safety associated with the compac
city centre (Thomas and Bromley, 1996).
Concern for personal safety for eveningvisits to Swansea is even greater. A substan
tial 59 per cent of respondents claim tha
they would never visit alone in the evening
with this attitude again most marked amongs
the least frequent visitors (70 per cent
(Table 2). A similarly high proportion (58
per cent) consider the city centre to be par
ticularly dangerous in the evening, although
in this instance there is not a signican
variation in relation to frequency of visit
(Table 2). Nevertheless, this compares very
unfavourably with the 7 per cent of shopper
who consider the city centre dangerous dur
ing the day. In addition, there is near
universal agreement that a more obviou
police presence at night would decrease
anxiety (88 per cent). Clearly, the darker and
lonelier circumstances of the city by nigh
(Pain, 1997; Oc and Tiesdell, 1997b), combined with low levels of custodianship (Box
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
17/28
1419CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION
Tab
le2.
Attitudestosafetydurin
gvisitstoSwanseaintheev
ening
Chi-squared
value
Percentage
Percentag
e
(2degreesoffreedom)a
uestionnairestatement(N5
433)
whoagree
whodisagree
againstfrequencyofvisit
tendto
avoidshoppingafter4p.m.
51.5
(29.
2)
46.2
(59.6)
44.6
***
(Card
iffresponsesN5
1557)
would
nevervisitthecitycentre
58.9
38.3
41.7
***
alone
intheevening
dontthinkthecitycentreisparticularly
28.4
58.1
6.5
dange
rousintheevening
more
obviouspolicepresenceonthestreets
87.7
8.7
0.4
would
increasemyfeelingsofsafety
feelsa
feinthecitycentreintheev
eningin
83.9
11.0
14.9
***
theco
mpanyofothers
am
deterredfrom
usingbusestovisitthecity
41.6
52.6
11.4
**
centre
intheeveningsbyfearsfor
mysafety
am
uneasyaboutthesafetyofmycar
89.2
7.7
2.2
when
leftinthecitycentreonaneveningvisitb
hereis
noneedforcarparkstobe
3.4
93.0
1.2
mannedintheevenings
Chi-squ
aredvaluecalculatedomittin
gnostrongviewresponses.
Remainingfourattitudecate
goriesreducedtotwoforthe
purposesof
estatisticalanalysis.
N5
297asthisstatementwasnotrelevanttotheremainingrespondents.
**indicatessignicantatthe99.9p
ercentlevel;**indicatessignicantatthe99percentlev
el.
ource:
Swanseahouseholdinterview
survey,
1993/94.
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
18/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1420
Table 3. Modes of travel to Swansea by day and night (percentages)
Mode Car Bus Taxi Walk Lift N
Day 60.5 25.5 0.7 10.2 2.5 433Night 61.3 12.1 10.2 9.0 2.5 323a
a
Excludes respondents who never visit the city centre at night.Source: Swansea household interview survey, 1993/94.
their safety is not at issue, an attitude that is
most strongly expressed by the frequent visi-
tors. In general, however, fear for personal
safety appears to present a powerful barrier
to visits to the city centre at night, a barrier
which is perceived most strongly by thoseinfrequent visitors whom ameliorative poli-
cies would seek to attract.
Evening and Night-time Travel to the City
Centre
Ease of safe access to the city centre is
recognised as necessary for the promotion of
a thriving night-time economy. The usualmodes of transport used by evening and
night-time visitors to Swansea differ
signicantly from those used by the day-time
visitors (Table 3). Overall, the car is still
predominant (61 per cent), but fewer travel
by bus (12 per cent) and more use taxis and
lifts (13 per cent). At rst sight, therefore,
travel by bus appears to offer little attraction
for the night-time visitor. However, it is no-
table that the pattern for the most frequent
night-time visitors is signicantly different
from the night-time norm (v25 25.0 with 8
df, p.99 per cent). For the frequent visitor
the bus reasserts its importance (23.6 pe
cent), while car-borne journeys decline to 43
per cent.
However, it is likely that this modal shif
is a reection of the lower levels of caownership typical of the younger and lower
status groups rather than reecting strong
preferences for the use of buses. In fact
substantial proportions of those regularly us
ing buses to travel to the city centre at nigh
expressed feelings of anxiety with aspects of
their journeys, particularly in relation to loca
tions within the city centre (Table 4). These
feelings were even more marked amongst theless frequent evening visitors, and in both
cases were far in excess of the levels o
anxiety expressed by day-time visitors. Evi
dently, certain aspects of a bus journey into
the city centre at night appear to be a
signicant obstacle to the generation o
higher levels of activity, particularly amongs
those who are currently infrequent visitors
These ndings were conrmed by responses
of all respondents to the broader attitude
statement relating to the possible use of bu
transport for evening visits to the city centre
Table 4. Attitudes to safety with bus travel (percentage expressing anxiety)
NightDay
All respondents Weekly or more Less frequent
Situation (N5 433) (N5 27) (N5 102)
W iti t h t 4 6 29 6 40 2
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
19/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1421
(Table 2). Nearly 42 per cent were deterred
from using buses to visit the city centre due
to fears for their safety, and this was again
signicantly more marked for the least fre-
quent visitors (49 per cent) (Table 2).
For evening and night-time visitors who
arrive by car, aspects of car parking in thecity centre of Swansea at night are even less
inviting. Parking in a multistorey car park
engendered feelings of anxiety amongst a
substantial 77 per cent of respondents, irre-
spective of their frequency of visit (v25 9.2
with 4 df, p, 95 per cent). For open-air car
parks the situation was not perceived as quite
so dire, although 60 per cent also expressed
anxiety, a level which was again largely in-variant with respect to frequency of visit
(v258.1 with 4 df, p, 95 per cent). The
situation in Cardiff was slightly less prob-
lematic. Nevertheless, 61 per cent of respon-
dents expressed anxiety at using the
multistorey car parks at night, while 54 per
cent of those using open-air car parks ex-
pressed a similar view. The Cardiff ndings
are particularly instructive since the safetyaspects of multistorey car parking in Cardiff
are considered to be amongst the best in
Britain (Bromley and Thomas, 1997). By
contrast, day-time parking by shoppers in
Swansea and Cardiff generated far lower lev-
els of anxiety (Thomas and Bromley, 1996).
The prospect of being alone in a multistorey
car park, for example, generated anxiety
amongst only 22 per cent of the Cardiff
respondents, although this rose to 40 per cent
for the particularly problematic multistorey
car parks in Swansea.
The responses to the attitude statements by
both existing and potential evening visitors
to Swansea city centre revealed even less
promising prospects (Table 2). The vast ma-
jority (89 per cent) expressed unease about
the safety of their car, irrespective of the
frequency of their visits. A similar sentimentwas evident from the equally high and invari-
night-time economy, and are a direc
reection of their pragmatic modernist de
sign characteristics dating from a time when
safety considerations were of less concern. In
the current social milieu, low levels of light
ing, lonely stairwells, separation of the ca
parks from trip-destination points via lonelywalkways, and low levels or absence of se
curity staff are clear perceptual barriers to
prospective users by day or by night. Cer
tainly, design sensitivity to fear-generation
appears to have a long way to go in Swansea
and Cardiff if car parking provision is to
assist the revitalisation of a night-time econ
omy.
The Spatiality of Anxiety and Threat in
the City Centre after Dark
The spatiality of anxiety and threat in the city
centre of Swansea at night was also explored
to develop additional insight into the oppor
tunities and obstacles to the development of
the night-time economy. The centre was div
ided into 10 identiable sub-areas, and respondents were invited to indicate the
degree, across a 5-point scale, to which they
felt anxious for their personal safety in these
areas after dark.
Levels of anxiety in the core shopping
areas of the city centre during the day were
generally low (27 per cent), and, apart from
a problematic subway (40 per cent), rose to
only 16 per cent for a small number o
peripheral locations. A similar situation ha
also been noted previously for Cardif
(Thomas and Bromley, 1996). After dark
however, the situation was fundamentally
different and consistent with the substantially
higher levels of perceived danger indicated
in the previous sections, and with the obser
vations of Pain (1997) with respect to women
and to Oc and Tiesdells (1997b) nding
from Nottingham. All 10 areas generatedsubstantial levels of anxiety, ranging from 37
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
20/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1422
more central parts of the shopping area fo-
cusing on Oxford Street and Princess Way
generate the lowest levels of anxiety ranging
from 37 per cent to 45 per cent, while the
adjacent parts of High Street south and
Kingsway east display only a slightly higher
level of 57 per cent. By contrast, the prob-lematic peripheral areas noted for the day-
time situation, also record signicantly
higher gures at night (6679 per cent)
(Figure 1). With the exception of the St
Davids Centre, the higher levels of anxiety
after dark are associated with the areas con-
taining the highest concentrations of night-
time activities. Kingsway west contains the
largest concentration of public houses andlate-night clubs, while Wind Street and High
Street north are also the foci of secondary
concentrations of pubs, clubs and restaurants.
The high levels of anxiety are consistent with
the fears associated with similar exclusion-
ary monocultural concentrations noted in
most other major British cities (Oc and Ties-
dell, 1997a). In the case of Swansea at least,
these areas also coincide with the greatestconcentrations of violent incidents reported
to the police, and which are regularly re-
ported as such in the local press (Millie,
1997). Thus, the spatiality of fear is consist-
ent with the distribution of hot spots of
violent crime (Brantingham and Branting
ham, 1993). In addition, the bus station
which is the likely principal trip-termination
point for 24 per cent of the most frequen
visitors to the city centre after dark, i
viewed in a particularly unfavourable ligh
(74 per cent). This area was also noted as aproblem area during the day (Thomas and
Bromley, 1996). This reects a general lack
of custodianship since it is not regularly
manned by either the security staff or the
police; a situation which is exacerbated a
night by the lower levels of activity and
associated lack of natural surveillance (New
man, 1972).
It is also notable that the areas most likelyto be visited tend to be those exhibiting the
greatest variation in the anxiety levels rela
tive to the frequency of visits (Table 5). On
the positive side, the most frequent visitor
consistently record the lowest levels of dis
quiet, possibly reecting the machismo atti
tudes of the frequent night-time visitor
although the relatively favourable experi
ences of this group cannot be discountedfrom the data available. For Wind St, fo
example, only 55 per cent of the most fre
quent visitors express anxiety, while thi
rises progressively to 81 per cent for the leas
frequent visitors. Evidently, lower levels o
Table 5. Anxiety levels generated in the city centre of Swansea after dark
Chi-squared valueSub-area Percentage Percentage ( 2 degrees of f reedom)a
(N5 433) anxious safe against frequency of visit
St Davids Centre 79.2 17.9 11.0**Wind Street 74.2 24.0 18.5***Bus station 73.8 24.2 13.7***High St North 72.8 24.7 17.6***Kingsway West 65.5 29.9 12.3**High St South 56.8 38.0 11.1**Kingsway East 56.8 37.6 6.9*Princess Way 44.5 49.0 2.5
Oxford St West 43.9 50.1 7.3*Oxford St East 37.0 55.8 9.6**
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
21/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1423
visiting are associated with higher percep-
tions of disquiet. It is not possible to deter-
mine whether the higher levels of anxiety
reect false perceptions due to infrequent
visits or bad experiences in the past. Either
way, however, for practical planning pur-
poses the high levels of perceived anxietydisplayed by the least frequent visitors rep-
resent a formidable obstacle for the expan-
sion of night-time activities.
Respondents were also asked to indicate
whether they had been involved in situations
in the evening and night-time in which they
considered that their personal safety had
been at risk. In fact, only 13 per cent of
respondents recorded 54 such threats, mostof which occurred before midnight (39).
These were spread over 20 locations, all but
2 of which involved 3 or less incidents.
However, the remaining 2 locations indicate
concentrations consistent with the broader
patterns of anxiety already noted. The con-
centration of pubs and late-night clubs on the
western margin of the Kingsway was the
scene of 37 per cent of these incidents, whilethe bus station accounted for a further 17 per
cent. A similar situation was suggested by
incidents reported by the friends of 9 per cent
of the respondents. Of the 38 incidents of
threat, 34 per cent occurred in the Kingsway
and a further 10 per cent in the bus station,
while the peripheral St Davids Centre was
added to the list (10 per cent). Evidently,
experiences of threat by those visiting the
city centre after dark are at a relatively low
level, and are far more spatially concentrated
than the perception of anxiety, although it is
notable that these locations are the principal
hot spots of violent crime in the city centre
(Millie, 1997). This is consistent with the
ndings reported in the criminological litera-
ture which suggest that levels of anxiety and
fear far exceed the actual risk of harm,
whether this is rational or not (Young,1997; Zedner, 1997). This implies that policy
Similar, but not precisely equivalent, in
formation relating to the perception of threa
in the city centre after dark was also obtained
from the Cardiff shopper survey. In this case
respondents were presented with an open
ended opportunity to indicate one or more
locations which they considered to be veryunsafe at night, rather than being asked to
indicate potential degrees of anxiety with a
xed number of areas. This approach proved
highly instructive, and 35 per cent of respon
dents recorded 552 responses relating to 33
specic locations. Twenty-seven were men
tioned by fewer than 10 respondents, and no
rm conclusions could be drawn from these
The remaining 5 locations, however, reveaclose parallels with the Swansea situation
The Caroline StreetMill Lane area ( 46 pe
cent) and the adjacent part of St Mary Stree
(24 per cent) accounted for the greatest con
centration of citations (Figure 2). This area
located on the south-west periphery of the
city centre, accommodates the largest con
centration of late-night clubs and pubs and
has, until recent improvements associatedwith the 24-hour city strategy, been a notori
ous and frequently reported hot spot fo
late-night violence (Nelson, 1998b). These
were followed closely by the Central Station
and bus station area (28 per cent), also in a
southern peripheral location. This is the leas
attractive periphery of the city centre and
evidently generates a degree of menace fo
a signicant minority of respondents. Th
generally run-down character of this area
along with the tendency for vagrants to con
gregate here, probably explains this situation
This is consistent with the negative effects o
adverse environmental cues widely noted in
the criminological literature in the context o
the incivilities hypothesis for the generation
of fear (Skogan, 1990). The only other areas
considered unsafe by a signicant number o
respondents were The Hayes (7 per cent) andQueen Street (5 per cent). The former is an
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
22/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1424
estingly, the perception of fear in the latter
cases are similar to the moderate levels of
anxiety generated in the secondary entertain-
ment areas of High Street and Wind Street in
Swansea.
The issue of safety in the centre of Cardiff
was developed further in an additional sec-tion of the questionnaire. This focused on the
respondents experiences of personal threat.
The main thrust of the on-street Cardiff sur-
vey was concerned with the shopping situ-
ation. Consequently, few respondents (2.5
per cent) recounted night-time experiences of
personal threat. However, those that did gen-
erally conrm the ndings of the previous
section. Forty-ve threatening incidents weredivided between 12 locations, but most fo-
cused on just 3 areas (Figure 2). The central
railbus station area tops the list (27 per
cent), and is closely followed by Queen
Street (24 per cent) and St Mary Street (20
per cent). A similar pattern emerges from the
70 incidents recorded by the friends of the
respondents. Again, many are spread across
17 locations, but concentrations occur in only4 areas. Queen Street (19 per cent), the rail-
way and bus stations (17 per cent) and St
Mary Street (17 per cent) almost equally
head the list, but Caroline Street (10 per cent)
is a notable addition. Evidently, like
Swansea, those areas most frequented at
night in Cardiff generated most fear. It is also
interesting to note that the perception of ar-
eas of personal threat are closely congruent
with the areas experiencing the highest con-
centrations of violent crime in the city cen-
tres at night (Brantingham and Brantingham,
1993; Millie, 1997; Nelson, 1998b).
Conclusions
The commercial signicance of the city cen-
tre has declined in most advanced Westerncountries over the past 30 years. In part, this
of the immediate population precipitated by
the suburbanisation of the higher-status mar
ket and its replacement by a lower-statu
population. The process has frequently been
accompanied by deterioration of the environ
mental attractions of the city centre. The
proliferation of a wide range of physical andsocial incivilities such as vacant premises
litter, grafti, vagrants and groups of youth
has become commonplace, particularly in the
peripheral areas. Fragmentation of city
centre functions and the creation of isolated
areas between the nodes of activity have
been marked features of the process. Shop
and entertainment facilities have often been
separated from car parks and bus stops, whilebarriers such as open spaces, subways and
wide roads associated with much post-wa
planning have exacerbated the situation. The
contemporaneous growth of fears for per
sonal safety, particularly amongst women
the elderly, and the better-off suburbanites
has generated anxiety and deterred these
groups from visiting the city centres, and
from using public transport and car parksThus, safety considerations have accentuated
the emerging problems of the city centre
when compared with the more easily access
ible and safer private realm offered in the
new decentralised retail, ofce and entertain
ment complexes.
These considerations are especially appo
site to many British cities at the present time
and special attention has been directed to
maintain and revitalise the centre as the com
mercial focus of urban life. An importan
element of such strategies has aimed to ex
tend the commercial day by reducing the
temporal divide associated with the 5pm
ight and by initiating strategies associated
with the 24-hour city concept. Ideally, cit
ies should aim to extend the activity period
into the evening and night by offering a
wider range of facilities likely to appeal to aswide a social spectrum as possible. However
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
23/28
CITY-CENTRE REVITALISATION 1425
viewed as monocultural and exclusionary,
primarily catering for a youth market, and
frequently characterised by a culture of male
domination, heavy drinking, drugs and viol-
ence. In effect, the safety considerations
which already have negative consequences
for the day-time vitality of city centres(Thomas and Bromley, 1996) are thought to
be an even greater impediment for the future
development of the night-time economy.
However, while there is little doubt that such
perceptions of the British city centre at night
are widespread, there is very little evidence
of the scale and nature of the problem. Such
information is essential to inform policy ini-
tiatives. This paper has sought to examinethese issues with reference to the middle-
ranking centre of Swansea and, to a lesser
extent, with reference to the major regional
centre of Cardiff.
In general, the problems associated with
the expansion of the night-time economy in
the two cities appear formidable. For
Swansea, only a minority of residents regu-
larly visited the city centre in the eveningand at night. Those who did, were dispropor-
tionately males from the younger age-groups
and lower social classes, although the degree
of imbalance was not as marked as the popu-
lar stereotypical image suggests. Neverthe-
less, the great majority of residents (62 per
cent) rarely participated in the night-time
activities. Also, the temporal gaps between
the various functions were considerable. The
tendency for shoppers to leave Swansea after
4pm was substantial, and signicant even for
the larger centre of Cardiff. Furthermore, a
distinct socio-temporal divide was apparent
between the early-evening visitors, who were
primarily drawn from the older and higher-
status groups; and the later-night arrivals,
who were more youthful and of lower status.
The temporal division was accentuated by
the fact that the early-evening visitors weresignicantly less frequent visitors than those
expressed by the Swansea respondents on a
variety of issues revealed deep disquiet by a
signicant majority. This was particularly
apparent for the relatively infrequent visitors
In effect, concerns for personal safety proved
to constitute a powerful barrier for the expan
sion of the night-time economy. These werefar in excess of anxieties generated during
the day. Similar obstacles were also revealed
for most aspects of travel to the city centres
Concern was signicant amongst bus passen
gers, but was even greater for users of both
multistorey and open-air car parks.
The spatial expression of anxiety was also
considerable for all areas of Swansea, and
was far in excess of the day-time levels. Thecity centre at night is widely perceived as a
threatening environment. This presents a for
midable barrier to further development, par
ticularly since the highest levels of anxiety
are expressed for those areas most visited a
night. The concentrations of public house
and late-night clubs, and the principal trans
port termini were perceived to be especially
problematic in both cities. Again, the facthat the least frequent visitors displayed the
highest levels of anxiety is an obstacle fo
the expansion of the market to include a
wider social spectrum. However, the experi
ence of threatening situations was at a fa
lower level than the perception of persona
threat. This implies that future developmen
tal policy needs to address mechanisms to
reduce the perception of threat, at least a
much as it does to control threatening situa
tions.
It is axiomatic in the literature relating to
the revitalisation of the British city centre
that a vital and viable city centre needs to be
perceived as safe at any hour of the day o
night, in all areas, and by all potential visi
tors. The evidence f rom Swansea and Cardif
broadly conrms the ndings of the previou
exploratory studies, and reveals a litany oproblems and obstacles to the realisation of a
8/8/2019 City - Centre ion Fear in the Evening
24/28
COLIN J. THOMAS AND ROSEMARY D. F. BROMLEY1426
implications emerge from the Swansea and
Cardiff examples. It is evident that an en-
hanced evening and night-time economy will
require a combination of: a wider range of
activities; a stronger residential function; im-
provements to accessibility; and a rmer
management of risk-perception and the asso-ciated re-imaging of the city centres. Each of
these strategies has important safety and se-
curity considerations.
Wider Range of Activities
The need for a wider range of early-evening
and late-night activities to reduce the existing
temporal activity gaps and to extend the ap-peal of the city centre across a wider social
spectrum, appears particularly apposite for
Swansea. The potential for a wider range of
late-night shopping presents an obvious op-
portunity. It is also notable that both
Swansea and Cardiff have already initiated
the development of cafe quarters in the
Wind Street and Mill Lane areas respect-
ively. However, this is not a particularly easypolicy to implement successfully. In
Swansea, for example, as in many other
British cities, the market for public houses
and clubs is currently the most buoyant sec-
tor for development. Consequently, initia-
tives designed to develop a wider range of
activities run the risk of merely accentuating
the existing monocultural dimension of the
night-time economy. This misgiving is a cen-
tral feature of the present debate on the revi-
talisation of central Swansea.
Residential Function
The repopulation of the city centre would
also add to levels of pedestrian activity
across a longer time-span. This is likely to
reduce anxiety by increasing informal natu-
ral surveillance. However, this has not yetbeen widely applied in Swansea, Cardiff or
and transport uses (Thomas and Bromley
1996). Equally, it is not clear from existing
schemes whether residential uses are entirely
compatible with the other functions of the
city centre. Early morning deliveries to shops
and street-cleaning activities are likely to be
a nuisance to residential areas, while thefall-out of many late-night activities is even
more potentially problematic.
Access Improvements
The need to undertake measures to alleviate
the anxieties of public transport passengers
also appears to require increased manning o
surveillance, both on the vehicles and