ABSTRACT

The Academy of Urbanism was founded in 2006 with a mission to recognise, encourage and celebrate great places across the UK, Europe and beyond, and the people and organisations that create and sustain them.  This book is a compendium of seventy five places that have been shortlisted as part of the Academy's annual awards scheme which covers great Places, Streets, Neighbourhoods, Towns and Cities.

Included are 75 places shortlisted between 2009 and 2013.  Each has been visited by a team of Academicians who have spent time in the place, talked to officials and local people and sought to understand what it is that makes them special and how they have achieved what they have achieved.  The Academy also commissions a poem, a drawing and a figure ground plan to understand and interpret the place.  David Rudlin, Rob Thompson and Sarah Jarvis have drawn on this treasure trove of material to tell the story of these 75 places.  In doing so they have created the most comprehensive compendium of great urban places to have been published for many years.

1. Cities

Antwerp

Bordeaux

Bristol

Budapest

Freiburg

Glasgow

Gothenburg

Hamburg

Helsinki

Lisbon

Lyon

Manchester

NewcastleGateshead

Oslo

Valencia

2. Towns

Bury St. Edmunds

Cambridge

Chester

Chichester

Derry~Londonderry

Falmouth

Galway

Hebden Bridge

Richmond

Scarborough

Shewsbury

Stirling

Stroud

Totnes

Westport

3. Neighbourhoods

Accordia, Cambridge

Borough/Bankside, London

Bournville, Birmingham

Brixton, London

Cathedral Quarter, Belfast

Coin Street, London

Creative Quarter, Folkestone

Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham

Lace Market, Nottingham

Northern Quarter, Manchester

Old Town/Harbour Arm, Margate

Pollokshields, Glasgow

Ropewalks, Liverpool

St. Pauls/Montpellier, Bristol

Stockbridge, Edinburgh

4. Streets

Arcades Cardiff

Byres Road, Glasgow

Chapel Street, Penzance

Cockburn Street, Edinburgh

Exhibition Road London

Exmouth Market, London

Grey Street, Newcastle

Hope Street, Liverpool

Kensington High Street, London

New Road, Brighton

Portobello Road, London

Skipton High Street

St. Patrick’s Street, Cork

Steep Hill, Lincoln

Union Street, Aberdeen

5. Places

City Park, Bradford

Crosby Beach, Sefton

Gillett Square, Hackney

Grassmarket, Edinburgh

Kings Place, London

Meeting House Square, Dublin

North Laine, Brighton

Oxford Castle, Oxford

Princesshay, Exeter

Queen Square, Bristol

Sheaf Square, Sheffield

St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh

The Wharf, Sowerby Bridge

Tobermory Harbour, Isle of Mull

Victoria Quarter, Leeds