Shaw and Crompton's built environment is similar to the urban structure of most towns in England, consisting of residential dwellings centred on a High Street in the town centre, which is the local centre of commerce. There is a mixture of low-density urban areas, suburbs, semi-rural and rural locations in Shaw and Crompton, but overwhelmingly the land use in the town is residential; industrial areas and terraced houses give way to suburbs and rural greenery as the land rises out of the town. Generally, property in the centre, west, and south of the town is older and smaller in comparison to that found in the east and north.