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John Montgomery (2003) Cultural Quarters as Mechanisms for Urban Regeneration. Part 1: Conceptualising Cultural Quarters, Planning Practice & Research, 18:4, 293-306, DOI: 10.1080/1561426042000215614 John Montgomery (2004) Cultural Quarters as Mechanisms for Frban Regeneration. Part 2: A Review of Four Cultural Quarters in the UK, Ireland and Australia, Planning Practice & Research, 19:1, 3-31, DOI: 10.1080/0269745042000246559

This paper reviews the concept of the cultural quarter as an approach to urban regeneration. It considers the policy objectives of making such designations, the approach to ‘making’ places which are deemed to be more rather than less artistic and cultural in the broader senses of the word, and the methods and mechanisms for implementation and ongoing management. The paper draws heavily on case studies in describing events as they occurred, and in making comparisons between cultural quarters.

The work is published in two parts. Part 1 is a conceptualisation of the term cultural quarter, discussing in broad terms what is meant by this now almost-orthodox terminology. This Part draws heavily on the urban literature, especially on theories of city growth, economic development and urban design. It concludes with an idealised typology of what makes for a ‘good’ cultural quarter, presented as a series of necessary conditions and success factors. This is applied and evaluated in more detail in Part 2, which considers four case-study examples drawn from the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland and Australia.