Some photos from a long weekend spent biking around Milton Keynes, England.
Milton Keynes was the last and largest of Britain’s post-1945 new towns. It was designated by the state in 1967, and developed by a public agency over the next twenty-five years. Today, nearly a quarter of a million people call Milton Keynes home.
Many of these images echo the preoccupations of my book, Thatcher’s Progress.
Youth Hostel, Bradwell Village. The only place I could find to stay on the (whoops) weekend of the Grand Prix.
My trusty bike for a weekend, with thanks to Seth S., Janet M., and Sam W.
Fred Roche Gardens, in memory of the general manager (1931-1992).
Porte-cochère leading to the shopping building, typical of the city's meticulously designed street furniture.
Shopping building, formally opened by the Prime Minister on 25 September 1979.
Italian marble inside the shopping center, Europe's largest covered shopping building when it opened.
Redways, a cycling network offering nearly complete coverage of the city, independent from roads and cars.
Fishermead, dense housing near the center, designed to offer a sense of urbanity.
A Fishermead courtyard.
Helmut Jacoby's rendering of a Fishermead courtyard.
Ralph Erskine's Eaglestone.
Griffin, by Lesley Bonner.
Netherfield I. In accord with the policy that no building in Milton Keynes rise higher than the tallest tree, Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones lay these "towers on their sides" to create the new town's most arresting housing design.
Netherfield II. To ensure a continuous roofline, the architects dug into the rolling landscape. The result achieved visual continuity across the site, while producing units in seventeen different floorplans.
Netherfield III. The density of the housing preserved ample green space across the site.
Tin Man, by Liz Leyh. Leyh's many community arts projects from the late 1970s, including the more famous concrete cows, involved the entire community in creating shared experiences and spaces.
Norman Foster's Beanhill, later the subject of contentious litigation when the roofs sprang leaks.
Norman Foster's Beanhill. A sleek, modern rendering of that universal form, the bungalow.
Wayland Tunley's Neath Hill, vernacular housing in traditional materials, built at about the same time as the modernist Netherfield and Beanhill.
Cricket near Bradwell Abbey.
Milton Keynes Village, enclosed within Milton Keynes new town. The socialist chairman of the development corporation joked that, if designated in the early 1980s, the new town would have been called Milton Friedman.
Advance Factory Unit, a public sector project facilitating private sector enterprise.
Galley Hill Workshop, one of four workshops for building, among other things, community.
Private housing at Calverton End, where flat roofs signify not failure but status.
The development corporation promised each of the three existing towns within the new city a signature development. Here, Cofferidge Close in Stony Stratford.
The Agora, a leisure center in and for Wolverton.
A Miesian black box for Bletchley.
MK Station.
If you've made it this far . . . click on the image for a link to the book's amazon.co.uk page.