Stoke-On-Trent follows the basic principles of the polycentric linear city model. The six historic civic centres form the nodes, each connected by various forms of hard infrastructure, as illustrated on the attached diagrammatic sketch. The standard polycentric linear city model comprises of key nodes and specifically allocated nodes for sector type, eg retail nodes, office / business nodes, residential nodes and industrial nodes. Although I have not been to Stoke, from my research I would expect to see this distribution and cluster of sectors, following the archetypal model.
My research into linear city models has lead me to American Economist, Harold Hotelling and 'Hotelling's Law', first published in 1929. Also referred to as the 'Linear City Model', Hotelling's Law is an observation in economics that states that many competitors differentiate their goods, products and services as little as possible in order to maximise demand from the public. The law indicates why retail establishments and businesses of the same type tend to cluster together within a town or city, following the linear city model.
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