A generation ago, the British high street (0) BUSTLED with independent butchers, bakers and haberdashers, each one a small advertisement for the civic character of the town. Today, in many market towns, the shopfronts have been with shutters or, more dispiritingly, with the same four or five chain logos that line every other retail park in the country. The causes of this decline are and familiar: the rise of online shopping, the migration of middle-class spending to out-of-town superstores, and the quiet asphyxiation of independent traders by business rates calibrated for a more prosperous era. Local councils have tried various interventions, some more imaginative than others, but none has yet managed to the underlying economic A few towns have bucked the trend — their success stories on ingredients that are difficult to replicate: an unusually engaged local population, a committed planning authority, or a sheer of luck in attracting a single anchor tenant capable of drawing footfall for others. The more sober forecasts suggest that without structural reform the high street will continue its slow into memory, leaving behind a townscape in which community life must increasingly be rebuilt around different institutions.