CiTY CENTRE SURViVAL

Visiting our city or town centres today, the closed shops and derelict buildings are all too evident.

Some of our big cities are prospering, attracting inward investment and enticing people to live and work there. Others are successfully re-inventing themselves as tourist destinations. But many towns, once glorious edifices of industrial England, are now struggling to find a new identity and adapt to the 21C.

First visiting her home town of Southampton, and then expanding the work to include other similar sized sized towns and cities, photographer Janey Devine documented both the places and the people who live, work and visit them.

The work is now brought together as a book, and the inclusion of essays by academics and people working in this field, bring an added insight into the complex and interrelated issues.

Urgent attention is required if we are to bring life back into our once illustrious town and city centres, and avoid them becoming the ghost towns of the future.