What's on your High Street?

Photo Broadway West 71a.JPG Caption: 'From Leigh Broadway, courtesy Jennifer Simpson - what's on your High Street?

The High Street Project is a national learning project, in which u3a members across the movement, surveyed their high streets to make a comparison before and after Covid.

Surveyors who took part in the High Street survey in September 2020 are now learning how to update their entries in the project database, working directly with their own survey areas.

It will take a little time to get all 20,000 premises which members surveyed onto the website but the number of locations you can search or scroll through will grow each week.  You can search for your High Street on our database. 

Members will now be able to add information which is not directly related to their survey so if they’ve taken part in an SLP, they can add details of that. They may have created Walking trails which can also be uploaded.

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What's it all for?

The overall aim of the u3a High Street project is to record changes on the local high streets where u3a members live. In September 2021 there’ll be a chance to do a quick follow-up survey to include any information about premises which have opened or closed since September 2020.

If you’re a High Street surveyor, please sign up to carry out the follow up survey: we only want to know which premises have closed and which new ones have opened so it will be quite a quick survey for you, or your Group of surveyors, to do.

10 years of change, 10 years of u3a social history

The full u3a High Street website will be hosted in a secure environment for 10 years so members from across the UK can record and update their projects. The database will be launched formally at the 2022 AGM.

Your local u3a projects

You can also showcase any of your additional High Street projects: architectural and historical details, guided walking trails and 'a street through time' have all been suggested as local topics by members. The website has a 10 year-licence so there's still time for you to take part and create an environment which reflects the interests of your members. We think members will be interested in areas where other members live, especially if you’re both taking part in an SLP – new digital skills acquired during the pandemic mean that SLPs can now take place in different locations, rather than just in your geographical area. A coastal location on the west coast can compare lifestyles with those on the east coast.

Fill out this form to find out more about the High Street Project and to be kept in the loop about any updates.