The Night Time Economy

952 Words4 Pages

At the heart of every great town and city there is a night time economy, where diverse populations come together for excitement and spontaneity. The evening and the night time economy are particularly important to cities, having a variety of leisure and cultural offer can play an important factor for the reason why workers and students choose to move to cities (Manchester City Council, 2014). Tourism, leisure and business within our cities have grown between the hours of 5pm to 6am, with an array of entertainment and activities on offer including themed pubs, designer clubs, restaurants, theatres and music events (Cameron, 2015). It is estimated that the night time economy in the UK is worth £66 billion and provides 1.3 million jobs (Kolvin, …show more content…

The darkness has the ability to conceal our identity and promote violent behaviour (Zhong, 2010). The night time economy has had an impact on the increase in street lighting in the urban night. Street lights, bus shelter lighting etc. are a common solution in reducing fear and crime whilst improving people’s wellbeing during the night (Van Liempt et al., 2015). The role of lighting can promote safe and inclusive urban environments whilst enhancing how we use public spaces and the experience it can create during the night. The use artificial illuminations have given cities a nocturnal character and transformed cities into 24 hour cities, multi-coloured lit up signs and billboards encourage human interaction and social activity, whilst generating a vibrant environment (Gwiazdzinski, 2015). The urban environment is no longer being planned and built around the daytime, night time design is becoming more common as more social and economic activity is taking place during the dark. (Arup, …show more content…

With a large labour catchment, people travel across greater London to get to work; usually those who work during the night may work on a low- medium salary and cannot afford to live within central London. Getting a Taxi home at the end of a shift is not always an affordable option for these workers and buses are generally unreliable on being on time. By having the night tube available it is estimated to reduce the average commuting journey time by 20 minutes. It offers a better quality of life for these workers by allowing them to get home quicker and safely (Volterra,