[Link]: B.G.C.S.E.

GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

ANALYSIS

Around the Queen’s College community, along Village Road from East Bay Street

(Eastern Road) to the intersection of Bernard Road, Soldier Road and Wulf Road, there were a

total of over 114 services recorded from our fieldwork exercise held on Wednesday, January

13th, 2021. The fieldwork exercise supported our unit on settlement and tested the hypothesis,

that “If the function of a settlement depends on the social and economic development of the area,

then in the community around Queen's College, along Village Road there are more high order

services than low order services because the area is presently zoned for commercial land use.” In

the hypothesis the terms high order and low order services are used to show how often people

use the service. A low order service is defined as “small market areas that provide goods and

services that are purchased more frequently than higher-order services” (Britannica, 2021, para.

1). High order services, on the other hand are “widely distributed and fewer in number than

lower-order services.” (Britannica, 2021, para. 1). People don't often use high order services on a

day-to-day basis when compared to low order services. This may be using the food stores on a

day-to-day basis when compared to eating at restaurants daily. 

As previously mentioned in the hypothesis, we wanted to find out whether there were

more high order services than low order services in the community around Queen's College.

Queen’s College is a co-educational institution, operating under the auspices of the Bahamas

Conference of the Methodist Church. The school’s property is over 25 acres of land with a total

population of 1592 students in the Early Learning Center, High and Primary school. The reason

as to why the old campus moved down to Village Road was to accommodate more students as it

outgrew its space because the former campus was too small. The school provides numerous

services to students, administrators, and their faculty. This includes a nurse’s office to provide
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

for the injured or sick, a cafeteria that caters food, sporting facilities such as a gym, a pool, a

basketball court and fields for track or soccer, which promote physical activity and participation

in leisure sports activities. The school also provides services to other enterprises such as The

Global Village Methodist church who hold their services in the school’s Geoffrey Brown

auditorium and provides a field for the Bears Football Club to play on. These enterprises both

have to pay rent to school in order to use their facilities. 

A settlement is “a place where people live. They can be as small as a single house in a

remote area or as large as a mega city” (BBC bitesize, 2021, para. 2). The function of a

settlement, however, refers to “its main activity or purpose of a place” (Waugh, 2009, p. 341).

Nassau’s premier functions include an entrepot, which means it is for a trading post for import

and export. Nassau imports goods from countries such as the United States of America and

exports the goods to the surrounding Bahamian Family Islands. The city is an administrative

center, as it has government houses like Parliament and Senate and houses of the Cabinet of

Ministers and the Governor General. Nassau also serves as a commercial/service center with

banking as one of its main industries. The offshore banking and finance centre contribute to the

economic development of the city and ensure a stable and sound financial system. Ultimately,

Nassau is a tourist resort, having an abundance of major hotels and resorts to attract and

accommodate tourists when they vacation in our country. Conclusively, Village Road is one of a

nucleated settlement pattern where services are clustered on the sides of the roads. It is situated

in the eastern part of the island, south of Montagu Beach and has a length of 1.61 kilometres.

The distance of Queen’s College, from the centre of downtown is 4.1 kilometres. Its function is

to contribute to economic development and growth, providing access to employment, social,

health and education services to many residents. It also allows for many locals to reside on the

sides of the road. 

High order services are mostly found in the Central Business District (CBD) with high

land values. The bid rent theory curve refers to how the price for the land value decreases as the

distance from the CBD increases. According to Waugh (2009), a central business district can be

defined as “the commercial and business centre of a town or city where land value is the highest''

(p. 338). The bid rent theory states “the closer land is to the CBD, the more competition there

will be for the land, since businesses wish to maximize profit” (Tosa, 2016, para. 3). Other

factors that contribute to the value of land are the site and situation in terms of accessibility to

consumers and availability of markets. Situation refers to “the location of a settlement in relation

to places surrounding it” (Waugh, 2009, p. 341) and site “is the actual place where a settlement is

located” (Waugh, 2009, p. 341). Queen’s College is situated between Montagu Avenue and

Brooklyn Road where it is accessible to many residential communities around the area. This

makes land values high because homes located near good schools are often coveted by home

buyers, one of the many characteristics of the CBD. Being near a good school can increase the

value of homes which is important for anyone looking to sell in the near future. The most

popular are Montagu Villas and Blairwood Estates. Queen's College is the most accessible part

of Village Road. because most of the main transport routes lead here. Due to high land values,

buildings tend to be tall especially in the high school area and population density is high due to

many students occupying the school.

Land use is defined as the “function of land – what it is used for, varying from area to

area” (Higher-order central place, 2019, para. 1). Numerous services were recorded on different

types of land use. The term service is an “amenity available to be used in a city, such as banks,
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

restaurants and restrooms” (Waugh, 2009, p. 38). Open space/recreation land use is any open

piece of land that is undeveloped and may not have had buildings or other built structures and is

accessible to the public. These may include benches or national parks. Commercial land use is

defined as land designated for businesses and shops related to commerce such as restaurants.

Institutional land use is generally defined as land which serves a community's social,

educational, health, cultural and recreational needs. They may include government owned and

operated facilities or be privately owned and operated such private schools, such as Queen’s

College. Residential land use means any real estate property or portion, which is used for

housing human beings. For example, single-family dwellings or houses. Transport land is used

for roads, railways, subways, or airports; anything that transports people or goods. Vacant land is

any land that does not currently have any structure in place, these lands may have also been built

on in the past, only to have seen the structure torn down. An example of a vacant land includes

vacant lots. 

 A total of eight services were recorded in the open space/recreation land. At the start of

the fieldwork exercise from East Bay Street (Eastern Road) a green space area was recorded.

This green space area allows for locals to park their cars during festive times such as Regattas.

This low order service is also used daily for those who exercise there. This promotes outdoor

activities and active lifestyle. It also improves environmental conditions by giving the area a

more natural look and allows biodiversity to grow on them such as the bougainvillea. A national

park was situated in the open space land use. “From 1925 until 1978, the entire 11-acre property

was the private estate of Arthur Charles Langlois, a colonial civil servant, and his wife, Margaret

Anne Langlois. Following Authur’s death in 1977, Margaret Langlois proposed that the Bahamas

National Trust take over the property as a perpetual palm garden and bird sanctuary. With funds
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

provided by Mr. Jack Hayward of Freeport, the Bahamas National Trust completed the purchase

in 1978.” This information is taken from the Bahamas National Trust, paragraph 3. The Retreat

gardens became a national park in 1985 that allows for many ecotourism opportunities as it has

different species of plants and animals and for private functions such as weddings today. The

Retreat serves as an educational space where students and visitors can examine the palms, the

coppice forest, birds, reptiles, insects, geology and learn the history of the Langlois. The Retreat

is also a popular space for public events which permits for huge festivities such as Jollification in

which their values are high. This is due to its situation opposite to Queen’s College. Cars

generally entering the retreat can park in the Queen’s College parking lot as it is a short walking

distance between the two areas. Also, during times of festivity such as Jollification, the parking

lots are filled with cars. This area is not heavily altered by humans and is protected by our

government. Alongside the park were five benches that were easily accessible in providing

seating areas for locals who waited for the bus either to go to school or back home after attending

such festivities. The five benches, three of which had advertisements on the side of the booths

were to promote other services, either to locals or visitors, such as the Sands beer. These low

order services are also used daily allowing for passengers to get on and off the bus. Also situated

in the open space land use category was a sports club, a high order service that worked in

cohesion with a restaurant and a bar, so that when locals were done taking part in leisure

activities, they could either take away their food or sit in the restaurant and eat. Figure 3 shows

the number of services recorded in the open space and recreation land use category along Village

Road.

Figure 3: Services of open space and recreation land use along Village Road from East Bay

Street (Eastern Road) to the intersection of Bernard Road, Soldier Road and Wulf Road. 
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

This graph shows the number of services recorded in the open space and recreation land use
along Village Road. Majority of the services being used are the five benches.

The commercial land use consisted of 55 services that were recorded. When starting the

fieldwork exercise, an interior design was recorded. Land values here are high as it is grouped

with a construction and engineering firm as well. These premium properties all share a building

that offsets cost of rent. Although they are still very high, they are more affordable when

compared to the CBD district where the rent for each property would be higher when sharing a

building due economic values of land. The center's accessibility and extreme competition is due

to many tourists buying goods. Since the interior design, construction and engineering were

situated further from this district, the structures would be cost-effective. These functions of these

services allow contractors and interior decorators to work closely with other businesses to help

other services around the area either to develop floor plans, electrical, and plumbing plans such

as Queens College or even residential homes. Its situation to other services also increases the

land value because vendors can conveniently access these services as they are in one building.

Two insurance companies were situated in the commercial land use category. These are services
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

often found in a CBD and can issue policies from several companies. These companies use

insurance agents to improve and personalize their services and market their products, for

example the doctors’ offices. Insurance companies also hire medical doctors who have practiced

for a few years either in a hospital or in private practice. These doctors provide claims reviews or

function as medical directors for the company. Right beside the insurance offices was a high

order service, a chiropractor. that was a professional service providing care for residents with

health problems of the skeletal system. These professional services along with other professional

services do not want to spend a lot on rental property as they don't earn much compared to those

in the CBD. They want to find a space where land values are not as expensive as in the CBD but

still earn a decent consumer price, so many of the services use residential housing as an option to

operate businesses because of the option of not wanting to spend so much on rent or locate on

roads with too many services. Opposite these services was a multistory building, Halsbury

Chambers, a that is a multidisciplinary and a commercial law practice which situates a corporate

office, two charter tours companies, two law offices and a consultancy firm that all work in

cohesion with each other. This building is owned and the cost offsets from the businesses sharing

the same building. The land value is then low when compared to having these professional

services in the outskirts of the road that pay the full rent. The corporate services provide legal

and compliance training as well as management consultancy. Corporate buildings, the main

office also called the headquarters, deals with important tasks such as corporate communications,

taxes, marketing, finance and human resource. Law offices, on the other hand, advise clients or

corporations about their legal rights and responsibilities. These high order services are all

buildings of the CBD that ensure a company's transactions comply with corporate laws and

regulations. This is the job of corporate lawyers. This complex also contains two charter and tour
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

businesses outside the CBD; these may be the administrative offices or storage offices or for

these companies’ vehicles. They may need extra space which they may not find in the CBD.

Doongalik is an art studio, which is home to a large exhibition gallery. The building contains

many high order services such as an occasional farmers’ market, a crafts and souvenirs cottage,

an art framing business, and an art gallery. Collectively, these high order services work in

cohesion, allowing for the buying and selling of goods for consumers interested in art or locals

taking home Bahamian pieces as keepsakes. Next to Doongalik was a hotel for local residents or

even family islanders to holiday in instead of preferring to pay for high costs hotels in Paradise

Islands such as the Royal Towers. A restaurant called ‘Ty’s place’ further down, near Queen’s

College and Blairwood Academy enable visitors to eat at a nearby diner without having to travel

far from the hotel's range. In case dwellers bring pets and need a place to leave them in for easier

transits, a pet grooming and kennel are situated in close range with the hotel where attendants

provide daily care for boarded dogs and assist with kennel maintenance such as cleaning cages

and runs, bathing, grooming, exercising, and feeding. 

 Six doctors’ offices and four dentists were adjacent to an appraisal firm within the same

complex that work in cohesion together to identify medical problems faced by patients and use

their skills to prevent or cure it. Accommodations in range with these high order services make

up its threshold population to for these services to operate. These are located on Village Road to

be excluded from the CBD because of its high cost of space due to competition for land. An

appraisal firm is a high order service that develops an opinion of value for property valuation

along Village Road such as Wilshire Bethell. Parallel to this complex, is a medical airlift which

is a high order service, used in case of emergencies to protect members from catastrophic

financial loss when medical emergencies require air and/or ground ambulances. A financial
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

service is situated next to the medical airlift that facilitates transactions when paying a visit to the

doctors’ offices or dentists. There was also a snack shop, a liquor store, both of which are low

order services used daily by locals and a restaurant in the same vicinity, allowing customers to

facilitate easy purchase of their lunch, a quick drink, or other daytime snacks. This is because by

opening close to one another, they can hope to take customers from their competition. This can

result in better prices for the customer (as shops are forced to lower their prices to compete. A

gambling institution was also situated in the commercial land use allowing customers to risk

their money or belongings, for the purpose to win some. Ultimately, the concentration of

entertainment creates a definable sense of place that can act as an enormous draw for locals

living around the area which encourage multiple consumption of entertainment themed

businesses. Before Brooklyn Road was a convenience store, a low order service, enabling locals

to purchase everyday items such as coffee, groceries, toiletries, soft drinks, and over-the-counter

drugs. After passing Brooklyn Road, we noticed a situation of cohesion. There were multiple

high order services of similar purposes situated close to each other that benefited off each other.

These included an auto sales business, an appliance and houseware store, a barber/hairdresser, a

clothing store, a bar and a shipping company. For example, consumers wanting to purchase

products can just walk from one store to the next rather than having to go somewhere else, which

would be less convenient. A security and alarm office were also situated in this type of land use

that protects residential areas and institutions from theft. This is seen by the sure alarm system

signs placed in front of housing such as Montagu Villas and the Halsbury Chambers building

along. Tropical Nursery Home, a gardening center is a low order family-owned enterprise that

provides plants, animals, garden and pet supplies. Because this service is in close range with the

Retreat Gardens, buying bird food for the park’s high bird activity is very accessible. An
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

architectural firm and car dealership, both high order services were also situated close together

that work in cohesion. An architectural firm enlists mechanical engineers and automotive

designers or stylists to design and build automobiles so that the car dealership business can sell

new or used cars at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker. The

architectural firm's primary focus is towards real-property, commercial and institutional projects,

many of which are found along Village Road and in neighborhoods around them. Consultants or

advisors seek business investments when new commercial services are built such as the new

restaurant, ‘Four Walls Squash & Social Club.’ Is built along Village Road or development

opportunities for many residential homes in the case of flooding or leakage problems. High order

services such as two spas, tattoo parlor and two computer and supplies stores were also recorded

to provide consumers with amenities which ultimately pays for their rent on the high values of

land. Figure 4 and 5 show the number of services recorded in the commercial land use along

Village Road.

Figure 4: Services in the commercial land category from appraisals to crafts and souvenirs along

Village Road from East Bay Street (Eastern Road) to the intersection of Bernard Road, Soldier

Road and Wulff Road.

The services only have one representation of the commercial land category, the majority of
which are being used by locals range from the two bars, charters/tours and computers and
supplies in this half of the commercial category. 

Figure 5: Services in the commercial land category from dentists to tattoo parlor along Village

Road from East Bay Street (Eastern Road) to the intersection of Bernard Road, Soldier Road and

Wulf Road.
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

The services only have one representation of the commercial land category, the majority of
which are being used by locals are the six doctors’ offices in this half of the commercial
category. 

A sum of 14 services were recorded in the institutional land use category. The first

institutional services that were recorded were government offices. In total there were five

government offices some of which consisted of Mr. D'Aguilar constituency office, Drug Council,

Bahamas Read and Organization of American States (OAS). These high order services

collectively work together to set local development priorities around Village Road such as

allocating public funds to affordable housing or institutions such as Queen’s College and provide

information, advocacy to other agencies, to build new services on lands that are vacant. This can

be seen by the real estate signs that are put up in front of the vacant lots. The drug council on the

other hand, implements and evaluates programs and projects on drug abuse prevention in the

province. Three schools were recorded, the most populated being Queen’s College. These low

order services are in neighborhood centers close to where people live so it is easily accessible.

The school is used daily by students who participate in the academic and related social aspects of
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

an educational program, ultimately bringing in enough money to further expand their area as

well. Queen’s College also contains the Centre for Further Learning Education and Barry

University. These schools work together in allowing for students to decide their post-secondary

schooling after graduation. Another institution called Blairwood Academy is a low order service

that provides an education for students with special needs. A public health medical is a

community-oriented health care center funded by the government offices, whose primary role is

health promotion for residents along the Village Road area. This high order service works along

with Queen’s College as they provide certain medicines to the institution and in return the public

medical clinic is benefited with a source of income. The Global Village Methodist Church was

also located on the institutional land use that holds its services every other Sunday in Queen’s

Colleges’ Geoffrey Brown Auditorium. This service was not recorded in the fieldwork notebook.

Two fire hydrants were recorded. These high order services are situated in front of Tuck-Away

Road that can be used by residents to tap into a water supply in case of emergencies such as

house fires. The other fire hydrant is placed in front of Doongalik, in case of fires from kilns to

easily put out fires from destroying valuable resources inside the building.  Figure 6 shows the

number of services recorded in the institutional land use along Village Road. 

Figure 6: Services in the institutional land use category along Village Road. 
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

This graph, Figure 6, shows the number of services in the institutional land use category
recorded along Village Road. Majority of the services being used are the five schools and five
government offices. 

Twenty services made up the residential land. Figure 6 shows the number of services

recorded in the residential land use category along Village Road. There were more than five

apartments and more than one condominium recorded, all located in Montagu Villas. These

housings all share the same electricity, water supply and other utilities together as they are

owned by the same landlord. When compared to single-family dwellings, they make use of their

own amenities as they are not connected to each other. Two duplexes were also found along the

Village Road area. Ultimately, these structures make up a threshold population that is needed to

ensure that the demand is great enough for the high and low order services around the vicinity.

They house people who make use of these special services on a daily basis, without locals

residing in the vicinity, there is no support for the businesses as they dont have consumers

buying their products. As a result, people are necessary before a service can be provided in an

area. Land values here are high when compared to areas like downtown. This is because many
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

low order services such as the schools or bus stops can be found near houses which therefore

increases the pricing on houses due to the easy access to services used daily. 

Figure 7: Services in the residential land use category along Village Road.

This graph, Figure 7, shows the number of services recorded in the residential land use category
along Village Road. Majority of the services being used are the twelve single family dwellings.

The only type of service recorded in the transport land use category were the four bus

stops. The bus stops in The Bahamas are built and maintained by the Ministry of Works and

Utilities. These low order services are easily accessible for transporting commuters via bus and

provide adequate shelter and space for them as well. These bus stops can contribute to the

narrow road’s traffic, due to the people constantly stopping and approaching buses which can be

during any hours of the day, specifically, during ‘rush hours’ between from early in the morning

around 6:30 a.m. until around 7 p.m. when many people leave their jobs to return home. Bus

stops are easily accessible to the Queen’ College due to the large population of students using the

transit system to go elsewhere. The subdivision Blair also has a bus stop opposite from it due to
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

its dense population threshold. Another bus stop is situated in front of Montagu Villas, a gated

community that also has a high residential population which may depend on public transport.

The last bus stop is placed opposite to a government building that caters for government officers

or other members of the service to use the public transport system. 

A total of nine services were recorded on the vacant land use. Derelict buildings are

structures that are abandoned or forsaken by the owner when compared to vacant buildings that

are not occupied or left empty. Derelict buildings can be explained by the high land values of the

CBD. Many cannot afford the high rate of land, and so they get foreclosed, or must stop their

businesses. For example, the derelict building next to a law office may have run out of business

due to Covid-19 as a lack of customers being able to support its business. The Law office once

used to be a pre-school called “The Glenwood Learning Centre” which was then relocated to

London Terrace, Shirley Street and transformed to a law office. The derelict building once was a

snack shop which allowed parents to buy snacks or sandwiches for kids lunches’ whilst going to

Queen’s College. However, since schools closed due to the pandemic, the business faced severe

financial crunch and was left behind. This was brought to our attention as one of our classmate’s

explained how her father lost his job due to the business going into liquidation. Vacant buildings

and derelict properties were also linked to increased rates of crime. This is due to the high cost of

land as these properties were once valuable, having utilities as a means of generating electricity

and running a business. As a result, properties become foreclosed, they can sit vacant and

abandoned without new ownership. Vacant buildings are also left unoccupied due to accidents

such as flooding or fires in the houses that are too costly to repair. There are also numerous

vacant lots that are used for parking cars near services. People use the surroundings of vacant

lots to sell their food items such as guineps, coconut water and peanuts on their side shops.
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

Others even hold on to the land as it is a great investment. Investors can take advantage of low

property prices and purchase land that will be worth much more (having a higher land value) to

sell it in the future. Figure 8 shows the number of services recorded in the vacant land use

category along Village Road. 

Figure 8: Services of the vacant land use category along Village Road. 

This graph, Figure 8, shows the number of services recorded in the vacant land use category
along Village Road. Majority of the services being used are the six vacant lots.

Throughout the analysis, six land use categories were identified, this included

commercial, institutional, open space and recreational, vacant, transportation, and residential.

Figure 9 shows the percentage of services in each land use category. 

Figure 9: Percentage of services in each land use category along Village Road.
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

he pie graph, Figure 9, shows the percentages of various services found in the commercial, open

space and recreational, transportation, vacant, residential, and institutional land use categories.

Forty-nine percent of services found in the commercial land use category included spas or

hairdressers, with the highest number of services recorded as the six doctors’ offices. This

percentage overtook every other service in each land use category found along Village Road.

The second most dominant land use category included services found in the residential land use

category with 18 percent of services. This included twelve single family dwellings, five

apartments, two duplexes and condominiums. The open space and recreational land use category

had nine percent of services, which included five benches, a national parkland and a sports club.

Ten percent of services found in the institutional land use category included two fire hydrants,

five government offices, three schools, a church and a public medical clinic. The vacant land use

category also had the same percentage of services found along Village Road with ten percent

consisting of six vacant lots, four vacant buildings and two derelict buildings. The last land use
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

category with the least number of services recorded, with four percent, was the transportation

land use category with four bus stops.

As mentioned before, low order services are “small market areas that provide goods and

services that are purchased more frequently than higher-order services” (Britannica, 2021,

para.1), whereas high order services are “widely distributed and fewer in number than lower-

order services.” (Britannica, 2021, para. 1). High order services are not used on a day-to-day

basis when compared to low order services. Figure 10 shows the comparison of the number of

high order and low order services. 

Figure 10: Comparison of the number of high order and low order services found along Village

Road. 

The pie graph, Figure 10, shows the difference in percentage of low order services from high

order services found throughout the various land use categories along Village Road. There was a

difference in 52 percent in both service categories, with 76 percent of high order services found

along Village Road and 24 percent of low order services found along Village Road. Out of 114
[Link]: B.G.C.S.E. GEOGRAPHY COURSEWORK

services found in the study there were a total of 19 low order services compared to the 59 high

order services recorded. High order services are dominant in the commercial and institutional

land use category, whereas low order services are leading in the open space and recreational and

transportation land use category. The open space and recreational land use category overall led

with six low order services containing five benches and a green space area whereas the

commercial land use category led with 59 high order services some of which were six doctors’

offices, four law offices and a car dealership. The hypothesis “If the function of a settlement

depends on the social and economic development of the area, then in the community around

Queen's College, along Village Road there are more high order services than low order services

because the area is presently zoned for commercial land use” was then proven to be true as there

were 59 more high order services than the 19 low order services.