Merton's comic persona can be pretty devastating towards others' stupidity, which is terrifically funny to watch, but presumably not quite as fun to find oneself on the receiving end of.
"It was built in Victorian times and needed a thorough overhaul anyway," says Wood, "so we decided to make aesthetic improvements at the same time, to try to draw people back to it."
The elderly gravitate there, shuffling in cheerful pairs along Marine Parade or jogging in slow motion past the Sea Gull Café, intent on some distant goal.
Although I won't be the first to admit those things are aesthetically appealing, visually pleasing sights are not a part of the pedestrian mall design that matter than most.
The evidence suggests that warblers use their extremely elaborate songs primarily to attract females, clearly confirming the effect of intersexual selection on the evolution of birdsong.