Spatial scaled ability, absorption as a measure of centrality

This article explores to what extent it is accurate to describe Greater London’s suburban town centres as multi-scaled environments, and what this means in terms of the kind of social entity a suburb is. The research addresses the understanding of the socio-spatial phenomenon of «scaled centralities» within larger entities of a city through the study of twenty suburban town centres in the city of London.

The relationship between suburban town centre spatial morphology and their socio-economic functioning is explored. On the one hand, town centres have grown and reduced in size over time, but they also have changed their activities and diversify. On the other hand, London has been described as a city of absorbed villages, and the study proposes that the degree of absorption has to do with these differences and hierarchies. A scaled notion of centrality is explored establishing linkages between morphological scaled patterns and socio-economic functioning. Is there any scale pattern, or absorption degree, in suburban town definition? This study answers some of these questions using various of the space syntax tools.