Back to the Future in Milton Keynes
If your background is anything like mine, you expect most cities, towns, villages and hamlets to have been born out of some long past affiliation with a local feature, a stream, a holy sight, a source of income of agricultural or industrial importance.
Random streets and inexplicable cul-de-sacs, railway crossings and bridges, winding roads and obscure back alleys leave you wandering the streets, baffled, map in hand, clinging to all public signs showing your whereabouts and asking the locals how it all came about.
If that's what you expect you'll be in for a big surprise when you go back to the future in Milton Keynes.
There are public signs aplenty but very little need to be given direction.
Your whereabouts is predefined as the city is aligned to the vertical and horizontals to match north-south, east-west orientation.
The verticals are 'streets' and horizontals are 'ways' reminiscent to the grid plan of Manhattan, New York.
Here we have the British experiment in town planning.
The idea of a city, equidistant between London and the Midlands, was formulated in the 60s and took the next 20 years to unfold into a uniquely sleek, modernist and minimalist architectural creation, deliberately planted in position to service the overflow of London's bulging population.
From the very outset, planners and architects projected accommodating a population of a quarter of a million.
The results are one of Britain's proudest 20th century creations with wide boulevards, shopping centres and central station in elegant and spacious surrounds that shows us the best of modern planning and architectural forethought against a rich backdrop of historic interest.
To get a feel for the city and surrounds, visit The Milton Keynes Museum, the Peace Pagoda, the famous and much loved artwork, the Concrete Cows, or the ethereal dome of Xscape leisure centre and take on a winter sport.
You have lovely parks and pretty walks as well as links to the historic home of one of the world's earliest computer, the Enigma and the fascinating story of Bletchley Park.
Random streets and inexplicable cul-de-sacs, railway crossings and bridges, winding roads and obscure back alleys leave you wandering the streets, baffled, map in hand, clinging to all public signs showing your whereabouts and asking the locals how it all came about.
If that's what you expect you'll be in for a big surprise when you go back to the future in Milton Keynes.
There are public signs aplenty but very little need to be given direction.
Your whereabouts is predefined as the city is aligned to the vertical and horizontals to match north-south, east-west orientation.
The verticals are 'streets' and horizontals are 'ways' reminiscent to the grid plan of Manhattan, New York.
Here we have the British experiment in town planning.
The idea of a city, equidistant between London and the Midlands, was formulated in the 60s and took the next 20 years to unfold into a uniquely sleek, modernist and minimalist architectural creation, deliberately planted in position to service the overflow of London's bulging population.
From the very outset, planners and architects projected accommodating a population of a quarter of a million.
The results are one of Britain's proudest 20th century creations with wide boulevards, shopping centres and central station in elegant and spacious surrounds that shows us the best of modern planning and architectural forethought against a rich backdrop of historic interest.
To get a feel for the city and surrounds, visit The Milton Keynes Museum, the Peace Pagoda, the famous and much loved artwork, the Concrete Cows, or the ethereal dome of Xscape leisure centre and take on a winter sport.
You have lovely parks and pretty walks as well as links to the historic home of one of the world's earliest computer, the Enigma and the fascinating story of Bletchley Park.
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