The majority of counter-terror focus in the built environment is on crowded places. The Home Office defines a crowded place as ‘a location or environment to which members of the public have access that may be considered potentially liable to a terrorist attack by virtue of its crowd density.'
Crowded places include music venues, transport hubs, sports stadia, pubs/club bars, shopping centres, high streets, visitor attractions, cinemas and theatres. Crowded places can also include the public realm such as parks and squares.
Security threats will depend on how often the area being considered has a high population of visitors. If the visitor number is only high at certain points in the year to coincide with a planned event such as a festival or Christmas market then temporary measures may be all that is required.
If a venue or area is consistently seeing high foot flow traffic, then more permanent and comprehensive measures may need to be considered to protect the site in the long term.