Town Centre Strategy

The whole town regeneration at Whitehill & Bordon brings with it the unique opportunity for a complete restructuring of the Town Centre. Its location in the heart of the town and in the area that was for decades invisible ‘behind the fence’ of the former garrison marks a pivotal point where old and new town merge.

The vision for the town centre is ambitious seeing the creation of eagerly awaited new facilities for shopping, leisure, health and wellbeing.

However, in the current retail climate, a strategy to develop 27 shops, with a new foodstore, 6-screen cinema and a carefully curated ‘Makers Market’ seems like a tall order, but our joint venture clients have devised a plan that focuses on experience and public sector investment first, with the retail element coming once we’ve begun to create a ‘place with belief’.

This strategy is all about establishing ambition within a robust framework. We are proposing

• a new high-street as a continuum of the existing street pattern,
• a network and hierarchy of hard and soft open spaces including a new town park and town square, and
• a number of civic buildings all delivered ahead of the primary retail components.

This aligns to the concept of ‘civitas’ or designing the civic elements of a place first, to read as civic buildings with civic functions, and to allow for an organic ‘filling-in’ of the more conventional townscape in due course. Setting the tone and the standard will, we anticipate, encourage others to follow and create a vibrant and well-planned place – a true ‘heart’ to the town.