MK dreaming of LA · 2010-05-23 10:53
On the sunniest day of the year, Milton Keynes thinks it’s LA. (see also)
Very different to what I expected – I’ve seen new towns before, but this is a midland market town being imagined as California, with wide straight boulevards, shopping malls drifting between enclosure and outdoor, indoor palm trees, pastel colours and architectural swooshes. It felt like it was only just being completed, with the Theatre Quarter and mysterious squares of hotels and chain restaurants, unconnected by people, buildings or signs; newbuild happening metres from the supposed centre.
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Gosh. I grew up near MK and spent most weekends there, one way or another. The Point was a Tripod-like local landmark, clearly visible at night from the A roads between Bedford and London, and the palms in the shopping centre (Silbury Boulevard?) seemed impossibly exotic to a seven-year-old, more Lost World than LA. I haven’t been there for years: what’s strange is seeing new places I don’t recognise (the Sainsburys, the Slug and Lettuce, the gallery) next to places that are a central part of my personal history. It always seemed unfinished, but now at least the trees seem as tall as the ones on the architects’ plans.
Thanks for the photos!