Cool corners: where are the next Carnaby Streets?

Stephen Bayley reflects on what gives an area a special ‘vibe’, and we pick the next hotspots

Stephen Bayley

What precisely is a vibe and how do you get one? What drives culture? Where does business flourish? Why are some places interesting, others deadly dull? Why did Chelsea move to Hoxton? Why is Cleethorpes not a creative centre to rival Barcelona? Why are computers positively erotic in Palo Alto, but dreary in PC World?

If you could plan or predict excitement, or write a formula for urban pizzazz, you could make a fortune out of real estate and a bigger fortune out of art. But history shows that urban success is rarely planned. Its essence is mysterious.

There was that famous and pathetic graffito that read: “As soon as I find out where it’s at, they move it.” By the time the circus attracts an audience, it has left town. I am afraid to say that great cities happen by accident, not design but those accidents have certain common characteristics. First, there is often a new source of material wealth: wool made Florence c1450 a world centre of finance and art. Software did the same for Mountain View in California, 550 years later.

Second, there have to be opportunities in property or business. For instance, 1927 was an annus mirabilis for New York and Detroit: simultaneously, department stores and the auto industry discovered that design could increase sales.

London’s Soho became a furnace of stylish entrepreneurialism because of cheap rents. For the same reason, New York’s once-squalid and sinister Meatpacking District, attracted artists and designers and now makes midtown Manhattan look dull.

Sometimes major initiatives are a stimulus. The Paris Exposition of 1900 gave the world Art Nouveau. Twenty-five years later another Paris exhibition established Art Deco.

In the mid-Fifties, Milan was the most exciting city in Europe because the Government saw architects and designers as a national resource and used modern buildings and modern furniture to remake national identity. But the spirit moves. Two hundred years ago a gentleman’s education required the “grand tour” of Italy. Today it would more likely include Manchester’s Northern Quarter, Shinjuku, Tokyo and Brooklyn.

The ancients called this the genius loci, the spirit of the place: a confluence of people and bargains that make a place special. It’s an ambition of architects to capture this. They call it “place-making”, but it rarely works. Turn a bright beam on that genius and it becomes invisible.

Economists have also attempted to predict success. Nikolai Kondratieff was a commissar in the Soviet Union’s Institute for the Study of Business Activity. He had an idea that all economic and business activity was on a 50-year “supercycle”, driven by mysterious forces. He was sent to a labour camp in 1928 because his interestingly whimsical theory ran contrary to the unsmiling strictures of the Stalinist five-year plans.

But Kondratieff was right. In each of these supercycles there was a “turning point”, which the author Malcolm Gladwell recently reinvented as a “tipping point”. This is that strange moment when the dynamic of a system or a city changes. You can’t define it, but you can detect it.

Only two things are certain: the presence of genius and an appetite for change. That’s what we call a vibe.

So where’s next?

London: Redchurch Street, East London

If you want to find the spirit of Carnaby Street in contemporary London, you’ll find it in Redchurch Street. Aesthetically, it’s a jumble of renovated old warehouse buildings, lock-ups, a couple of new builds and residential places. It’s full of hipsters (mainly the overflow from Brick Lane) and it’s got a good mix of destination venues —Conran’s Boundary, as well as Shoreditch House around the corner.

Dan Jones, Shopping and style editor, Time Out London

Coastal: St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex

Close to Hastings, this is still a local’s delight. It’s full of artists and writers, who are attracted by the light and the magnificent views towards the sea from the town as it slopes down a hill — which means that it’s not that expensive, yet. Its main street, Norman Road is crammed full of vintage shops and art galleries, the Aardvark Tea Rooms on the seafront is a bit of a creative hub, showcasing work by local artists, and the town square, designed by Decimus Burton, the 19th-century architect, is being revived.

Clare Gogerty, editor of Coast

Urban: Glasgow

There’s a real buzz about Glasgow: several graduates from the School of Art have created a strong design community, there’s the milliner William Chambers and a fabulous workshop, Che Camille, run by Camille Lorigo. The city is investing in larger centres for design, such as the Lighthouse, which promotes architecture and design. Everywhere you look, old and new design combines, from the Charles Rennie Mackintosh shop signs to the 1970s Brutalist architecture of the BOAC building and the Homes for the Future flats.

Rachael Moloney, editor of Wallpaper* City Guides

Rural: Whitby, Yorkshire

As the world becomes more Disneyfied, Whitby is its antithesis. It’s one of the last real, untouched places, a proper working community. It is full of the simple pleasures: the painted fronts of village houses rising up steeply above the river, the maze of narrow cobbled streets and the walk up the 199 steps to the old church of St Mary. It is the place where Bram Stoker set Dracula and driving through the North York Moors you see the ruins of the abbey under a vast expanse of sky. The doors to the churches are framed with whalebones (it’s an old whaling settlement) and you can get the finest fish and chips.

Mark Hedges, editor of Country Life

Abroad: Beirut

Beirut is anything but the war-torn travel spot that people expect. It’s cosmopolitan, the climate and the Lebanese food is good, and there’s a huge sense of fun. The Corniche —the old waterfront — is the equivalent of La Croisette in Cannes: every family goes there to see the local men fish on the rocks and the women walk up and down in their finery. Le Gray hotel is modern and luxurious, with a fantastic café and rooftop pool.

Bill Prince, deputy editor of GQ