John Montgomery
APA
Montgomery, J. (1). Café culture and the city: The role of pavement cafés in urban public social life. Journal of Urban Design, 2(1), 83–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13574809708724397
Abstract
This article explores the relationship between pavement cafés, street life and urban public social life. It argues that the licensing of public entertainment and the enforcement of liquor licences and rigid opening times have helped to undermine public social life in English cities. Attitudes which first gained ascendancy in the 1890s have remained dominant and, broadly speaking, unchanged. Nevertheless, there has been a recent and fairly rapid growth in wine bars, cafés and bistros in London and some other English cities. The paper explores whether these help to stimulate public social life. Reference is made to research in Holland and Denmark, and also recent experience in London and Manchester. The paper concludes that city policy makers should, in the short term at least, act to stimulate café culture. Some anti-social and behavioural problems might well require an element of control, and not all urban areas are suited to café culture. Yet in a technological age, café culture represents one of the few remaining opportunities for public sociability. Where it creates a nuisance, it could and should be controlled but this is not the same thing as exercising an all-persuasive moral control which has its roots in Victorian England.
Main finding
The article contends that cafe culture is one of the few antidotes to the fully privatized public realm, sealed-off communities and fortress mentality. This study finds that pavement cafes are places to meet people and their presence helps to overcome the dominance of English pub culture and encourages a greater mix of people of much more varied age-groups. The study also finds that pavement cafes help to increase the natural surveillance of streets because of greater interaction with the street and improved visibility. Additionally, cafes, restaurants and bars are places where a great deal of business is transacted for certain economic sectors such as media, advertising, fashion, the performing arts.
Description of method used in the article
Reference is made to research in Holland and Denmark, and also recent experience in London and Manchester.
Verdict
Policy implications