An entertainment district is a type of arts district with a high concentration of

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

s or other entertainment venues. Such areas may be officially designated by local governments with

functional zoning Functional zoning or functional city zoning is a method used for dividing land use by its function. Typically, land use is divided in two ways, by its function and by its physical characteristics. An example of functional zoning would be an area t ...

regulations, as well as public and private investment in distinctive

urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, cities, and regional spaces, urban d ...

Partial list of entertainment districts

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of the Las Vegas cit ...

, Las Vegas, Nevada *

Broadway (Nashville, Tennessee) Broadway is a major thoroughfare in the downtown area in Nashville, Tennessee. It includes Lower Broadway, an entertainment district renowned for honky tonks and live country music. The street is also home to retail shops, restaurants, desser ...

, Nashville, Tennessee * San Antonio River Walk, San Antonio, Texas * 17 Avenue SW, Calgary, Canada * Quartier des Spectacles, Montreal, Canada * Calgary Entertainment District, Canada * South Edmonton Common, Canada * Ice District, Edmonton, Alberta * Old Strathcona, Edmonton, Alberta * Granville Entertainment District, Vancouver * Hohenzollernring, Cologne * St. Pauli with

Reeperbahn The Reeperbahn () is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife (the other being Sternschanze) and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nick ...

, Hamburg, Germany * Bermudadreieck, Bochum, Germany *

Toronto Entertainment District The Toronto Entertainment District is an area in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is concentrated around King Street West between University Avenue and Spadina Avenue. It is home to theatres and performing arts centres, the Toronto Blue Jays ...

, Canada * Te Aro Entertainment District, Wellington, New Zealand *

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was deve ...

, London, England *

The O2 The O2 is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars, and restaurants. It was built largely withi ...

, London, England *

Bukit Bintang Bukit Bintang (; stylised as Bintang Walk or Starhill, the latter being a translation of the Malay name) is the shopping and entertainment district of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It encompasses Jalan Bukit Bintang (''Bukit Bintang Road'' in Engli ...

, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia *

Blok M Blok M is a business and shopping quarter located in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, Indonesia. It runs east from Iskandarsyah street to Bulungan street in the west. North from Falatehan street to Melawai street in the south. The development is si ...

, Jakarta, Indonesia * Kings Cross, Sydney, Australia *

Kabukichō Kabukichō ( ja, 歌舞伎町, , ) is an entertainment district in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Kabuki-chō is the location of many host and hostess clubs, love hotels, shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, and is often called the "Sleepless Town" (, , ...

, Tokyo, Japan *

Shibuya Shibuya (渋谷区 ''Shibuya-ku'') is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. As a major commercial and finance center, it houses two of the busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station (southern half) and Shibuya Station. As of April 1 ...

, Tokyo, Japan *

Ikebukuro is a commercial and entertainment district in Toshima, Tokyo, Japan. Toshima ward offices, Ikebukuro station, and several shops, restaurants, and enormous department stores are located within city limits. It is considered the second larges ...

, Tokyo, Japan *

Shinjuku Ni-chōme Shinjuku Ni-chōme (新宿二丁目), referred to colloquially as Ni-chōme or simply Nichō, is Area 2 in the Shinjuku District of the Shinjuku Special Ward of Tokyo, Japan. With Tokyo home to 13 million people, and Shinjuku known as the nois ...

, Tokyo, Japan *

Shinsaibashi is a district in the Chūō-ku ward of Osaka, Japan and the city's main shopping area. At its center is , a covered shopping street, that is north of Dōtonbori and Sōemonchō, and parallel and east of Mido-suji street. Associated with Shin ...

, Osaka, Japan *

Sōemonchō is an entertainment district in Chūō-ku, one of the wards of Osaka, Japan. The district borders on two other entertainment districts, Shinsaibashi to the north and Dōtonbori to the south. Sōemonchō has a high concentration of bars, resta ...

, Osaka, Japan * Amerikamura, Osaka, Japan *

Umeda is a major commercial, business, shopping and entertainment district in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, and the city's main northern railway terminus (Ōsaka Station, Umeda Station). The district's name means "plum field". History Umeda was historical ...

, Osaka, Japan * Dōyama-chō, Osaka, Japan * Susukino, Sapporo, Japan *

Lan Kwai Fong Lan Kwai Fong (often abbreviated as LKF) is a small square of streets in Central, Hong Kong. The area was dedicated to hawkers before the Second World War, but underwent a renaissance in the mid-1980s. It is now a popular expatriate haunt ...

, Hong Kong

Cause and effects of entertainment districts

Entertainment districts have economically helped downtowns and cities thrive through development of various businesses that attract tourism and commerce. As entertainment districts tend to create crowds, facilitation and management by police is required to promote safety and regulation. The main source that requires police interaction in the entertainment districts are the nightclubs and bars that may promote intoxication and lead to miscreant behavior. Police and security deal with behavior consisting of bar fights, overcrowding, and public urination. The requirement of regulation and maintenance of these areas are important for the safety of the individuals utilizing and benefiting from the entertainment districts.

References

Neighbourhoods by type {{Planning-stub

Partial list of entertainment districts

Cause and effects of entertainment districts

See also

References