Event 2: Lichfield Christmas Fayre

• Three members of Create Streets held a pop-up stall for 3 hours at Lichfield Christmas Fayre on 22 November 2022.

• Stall visitors were shown a series of visual preference surveys on building and house types, as well as holding discussions and posting comments on the Birmingham Road site.

Key Themes

• Buildings should be in keep with Lichfield’s character. Lichfield residents overwhelmingly prefer the traditional vernacular of Lichfield which is predominantly Georgian. In visual preference surveys, 74 per cent preferred traditionally facaded buildings: ‘Whatever goes in, if it’s super-modern people will be unhappy.’

• New buildings do not need to be identical to what is present but their materials, coherence, symmetry and level of texture needs to have comparable qualities. Some stall visitors were also open to modern styles of architecture, but only if it was done well and still in keeping with the wider historic Lichfield vernacular. Recent examples of new development, such as the Premier Inn site, were widely viewed negatively: ‘There is room for something a little modern but a lot of new development looks terrible.’

• There is a strong desire to see some open public space ‘to watch life go by.’ Stall visitors said the city lacked public spaces where people can gather and engage in communal public life. An open space that could be used for performances and other public events was desired, while also being an attractive public square for retail and food, where one can ‘watch life go by’. ‘Greenery, trees and terraces: not just somewhere to walk through, but to spend time.’