1. Burgess Model of Urban Land Use: How does it fit Stoke-on-Trent?
Central Business District (CBD)
This is the centre of the city and in Stoke-on-Trent refers to Hanley. The typical
characteristics of a CBD include:
 a shopping centre – The Potteries Shopping Centre
 large shops e.g. department stores such as Debenhams and high street brands such as
Marks and Spencer, Boots, River Island, Top Shop etc
 large banks e.g. Barclays, Natwest, Lloyds TSB
 large office blocks
 a town hall
 entertainment – the Cultural Quarter with the theatres etc
All cBDs share these common factors:
 Built on the most expensive land – that’s where the customers are
 Contain the tallest buildings because the land is so expensive (the buildings maximise
their use of vertical space)
 Have the largest Sphere Of Influence (the area from where it attracts it’s
customers) – people come to shop and work in Hanley from all over Stoke-on-Trent as
well as from Leek, Stone, Market Drayton and Crewe.
 Contain no houses – the land is too expensive
 Often have an inner ring road around them.
Improvements to the CBD:
 Hanley City Centre was improved in the 1980s
 Potteries Shopping Centre was built on the old Port Vale FC site
 Many parts of the city centre were pedestrianised to make it safer for shoppers
 CCTV was installed to reduce crime particularly at night
 Cultural Quarter was redeveloped at the end of the 1990’s to improve the image of the
city centre
CB
D

2. Inner City
The inner city is the oldest part of the town and some areas may still be
awaiting redevelopment. This is the zone that surrounds the city centre and
would have been built up extensively in the 1800s as industries such as coal
mining, steel and brick works and pottery factories grew rapidly during the industrial revolution. An
example of this in Stoke-on-Trent is Etruria, Cobridge and the Festival Park area.
As cars had not been invented, the workers were housed close to the
factories in rapidly built, tightly packed together terraced houses.
Inner
There was little time for leisure and these houses were small, often
housing a family of on average 7 or 8 in one or two rooms per flood, and
had no gardens. There were no garages, so now there is only on-street
parking and car theft or damage is a problem. In the 1960s, high rise
City
flats were built in the inner city to house an increasing population.
Corner shops were set up on the corner of terraced houses to sell low
cost convenience goods such as bread, newspapers and milk. These have
since been closed down or turned into fish and chip shops etc as supermarkets were opened selling
goods more cheaply.
In the 1970s and 1980s many of the factories and coal mines started to close down as the products
that they sold could be obtained more cheaply from abroad. People also started to move away from the
small terraced houses as early as the 1950s as they started to earn more money and wanted a better
quality of life and bigger better houses. Therefore, many parts of Etruria and Cobridge started to
become run down and derelict.
Who lives here? Mainly people on low incomes, immigrants from other countries seeking to improve their
standard of living, students who rent property while at university, people on unemployment for long
periods of time, people with low skills and cannot get higher-paid jobs and afford housing in the
suburbs. Sometimes wealthier property developers buy the terraced houses cheaply and do them up to
sell them for a profit.
In the 1980’s Stoke-on-Trent City Council decided that in order to attract new
business and to improve the unemployment rate in the city, they needed to improve
the look of places such as Etruria. Therefore, National Garden Festival was opened
at Etruria for one year (1986) to attract tourists and businesses to the area. As a
result, the Festival Park redevelopment scheme was planned and now includes:
 Out-of-town shops e.g. Comet, B&Q, Next, Boots, ToysRus

3.  Morrisons Supermarket
 Cinema, Waterworld, Ski Slope, Gym and Hotel
 Range of eating places e.g. McDondalds, Pizza Hut, Frankie and Benny’s and China Garden
 Range of offices, small businesses (e.g. electronics firms and ParcelForce) and bigger warehouses
The houses have also been redeveloped. Many of the old terraced houses have been knocked down and
rebuilt. At Festival Heights, a range of affordable modern mews, apartments, semi-detached and
detached housing has been built.

4. Inner Suburbs
The inner suburbs are an area of mainly semi-detached housing. This zone
of the city has developed as the city has spread outwards and people
have wanted a better quality of life. As wages increased in the 1920’s to
the 1950s, people living in the inner city wanted better housing and to
get away from the pollution of the factories. Also many parts of the city
centre and inner city had been damaged by bombing in the First and
Second World Wars.
Therefore, housing estates were developed around the inner city. Council estates of semi-detached
houses were built to accommodate people displaced by the war.
The land becomes cheaper the further away from the CBD (Central Business District) so planning for
new houses was/is common. Estates of larger semi-detached houses were built as people on higher
wages wanted to move away from the inner city into larger houses away from the
city centre.
Characteristics of semi-detached houses:
• Two houses joined together
• Front and back gardens
• Garage
• Some quiet cul-de-sacs
Neighbourhood shopping centres were built to serve the areas of private and
council estates. The shops were clustered together and offered a range of
goods and services such as a post office, fish and chip shops, betting shop, hair
dressers, TV and video repairs. People could walk to these centres from the
housing estates but there is often parking for people who wanted to drive.
An example of the inner suburbs would be Kidsgrove and Butt Lane.
Inner
Inner
City
Suburbs

5. Outer Suburbs
The outer suburbs are an area of mainly detached housing. This zone of the city has developed as the
city has spread outwards and people have wanted a better quality of life. The housing in this area of
the city is large in size and have large gardens and garages. These areas are ideal areas for families
with young children due to the size of the housing and safe roads on small estates.
Characteristics of semi-detached houses:
• One house on it’s own
• Large front and back gardens
• Garage – often detached from the house and many houses with
double garages to accommodate more than one car
• Many quiet cul-de-sacs and smaller exclusive housing estates
The outer suburbs contain a mixture of land uses including
residential areas and recreational facilities such as golf courses.
Access to open spaces and parks is common. This part of the city is
closest to the countryside and a greenbelt often surrounds the city
here. This is an area of countryside that is protected from further
building to prevent the city from growing outwards and further
damaging the countryside.
As the land in the outer suburbs is so cheap, modern out-of-town shopping
centres have been built recently. These are large shopping centres selling
high-order goods, goods that are more expensive and are bought less
frequently such as clothes, jewellery, and electrical items. These shopping
centres have large, free car parks and good transport links. They are often
easily accessible from motorways or dual carriageways. An example would be Freeport in Talker or the
Trafford Centre.
Modern Factories and warehouses have also set up in the outer suburbs
where land and rent is cheaper and access by road is quick and easy. An
example of this is Trentham Lakes, which has been built on a brownfield
site. This is a derelict site, an old coal mine (colliery), in the city which has been redeveloped into
housing, recreation, including Stoke City Football ground, a gym, hotel and five-a-side football pitches,
car show rooms and warehouses.
An example of the outer suburbs would be Packmoor or Trentham.
Outer
Inner
City
Suburbs