1.1 Design Guide Aims
This Newport and Ryde Commercial Frontages Design Guide is for shopkeepers, building owners, designers, planners, councillors, and anyone else involved in caring for shops in Ryde and Newport town centres. This user-friendly document is intended to promote positive change.
It is based on Ryde and Newport’s history but also looks to the future. Written to be accessible for everyone but also useful to specialists, it includes a building-led process to help non-specialists research their building and understand how to restore it . It also includes technical guidance for designers and craftspeople.
This document aims to protect the identity of our historic high streets. Please use this guide to celebrate our local heritage and encourage use of our town centres for many years to come.
Heritage Action Zones
In 2019 both Ryde and Newport were accepted into Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zones programme following applications from Newport and Carisbrooke Community Council and Ryde Town Council, both supported by Isle of Wight Council. A range of projects commenced in 2020 to help regenerate the two towns’ historic high streets.
Both towns had set out to create design guides and the two steering groups decided to collaborate, leading to the production of this guide that supports the regeneration of both town centres and other historic conservation areas across the Isle of Wight.
