Cultural quarters as mechanisms for urban regeneration. Part 2: a review of four cultural quarters in the UK, Ireland and Australia

This article is Part 2 of a longer work whose aim is to evaluate the concept of the cultural quarter as an approach to urban regeneration. Part 2 is largely a review of practice in the form of case-study evaluation of four cultural quarters. It follows on from Part 1 (Montgomery, 2003), which provided the conceptualisation and literature overview. The basic argument thus far is that successful cultural quarters will share the attributes of good urban places in general, offering beneficial and self-sustaining combinations of Activity, Form and Meaning. They will, moreover, be places of dynamism, new work and meaning, where culture is produced and/or consumed. Where they are successful, cultural quarters should stimulate new ideas, and become places where new products and new opportunities can be explored, discussed, tried and tested. Cities provide the flow of people and the markets necessary to support viable cultural activity locally, i.e. in cinemas, galleries, theatres and music clubs. This activity can help reinvigorate the city economy, and also provide opportunities for bright young people to set up in business. Crudely, culture can put you on the map, and make the place more interesting. This is more than a question of locating new cultural venues, important though this is—it is also an issue of place making and economic development. Successful cultural quarters or precincts come in many varieties, for distinctiveness is one of their most important characteristics. Nevertheless, some basic essential ingredients can be identified. First of all, cultural quarters will be places where artists and designers create new work, for it is only through the ongoing process of adding new work to old work that culture develops and economies grow. Second, cultural quarters will tend to offer a variety of opportunities for artistic work to be consumed—in galleries, theatres, music halls and other venues, including public spaces. The work available will tend to cover a range of art forms. The ‘products’ will be texts, performances, objects, images and