To wonder why there is so much snobbery about Milton Keynes?

[Eastie77Returns]

Just back from visiting our former neighbours who have moved there from London. They have a lovely home, their DC attend a great local school and they are really happy with their choice. However they had to put up with sniggers and unpleasant comments from some of our mutual friends when they announced they were moving to MK. It seems like a completely inoffensive place to me. Yes, lots of new build estates, roundabouts and the wide boulevards are a bit odd but I’ve seen a lot worse!

One friend told me it was the most soulless place she’s ever visited, it felt like a dystopian sci-fi movie and her blood ran cold when drove around as there is something ‘chilling’ about the place. I don’t get why that vibe at all😂

Some bits of it are really cute and quite rural, there's a canal and a cute pub just round the corner from my mates house, but it feels like the countryside. But you need a car. Obviously if you like period architecture, Georgian, Victorian etc then you're not really going to get it.
But I'd say you'd get more space for your money and it is only 30 mins out of central London with very regular trains. If I had kids or maybe when I'm older I would definitely consider it.

I have a friend who lives in a flat in one of the high towers on the Barbican estate. It sounds idyllic on paper (if you’re into that kind of thing), she has views of St Paul’s, they have access to a private residents only play area for the kids, obviously amazing travel links etc. There is a concierge. The flat cost over a million when they bought a decade ago so goodness knows what it costs now.

I have to say the tower itself is one the darkest, most depressing buildings I have ever stepped foot in. It’s like a dull hotel. The flat is nice but I felt sick with nerves when I took DD there on a play dates as they were so high up and the balcony which they used as a play area for their DC felt like it was swaying when it was windy. They absolutely love their flat though and I know they would be horrified if they lived in my semi-detached which is in a relatively unfashionable part of London. Horses for courses!

It’s the butt of many jokes but when they do surveys on the shittest places to live, there’s always other towns that are mentioned higher.

The people who don’t live there don’t realise how much greenery there is in a town that’s considered a concrete jungle. I always assume that the people who diss it are those who prefer not to live in the suburbs and pay a premium to live rurally and drive to amenities like shopping centres when needed despite Mk being designed for drivers.

There are some very rough areas but there are some great areas too.

I have heard of a black family escaping London for MK in an attempt to keep their children safer than the streets of London.

Reading this thread makes me want to move to Milton Keynes!

I've lived in MK for 9 years now and love it. Prior to that, I've lived in: -

Oxford - beautiful, history, dreaming spires blahblah, but absolutely fucking awful traffic, and forget parking anywhere near the centre.

London (zone 2, SE) - nice enough, fun as a young adult with decent income, great access to all sorts of cultural things, but after we moved out, our landlord sold our 2 bed flat for 200K more than we paid for our 4 bed house in MK.

Small market town in Shropshire - lovely place to raise children, idyllic, safe, but almost everyone leaves for uni and never returns.

MK doesn't have the cultural or historical clout of Oxford or London, but it is far more affordable, accessible, and functional. Has pretty much all the shops and nearly all the activities most people could want. Schools are mostly decent, traffic and parking are good, and it's well connected.

As for "made for people on housing benefit" - there are some of the older estates that were primarily council housing, but the majority of the more recent ones are nicer and mainly build for private ownership. Crime is not a particularly big problem compared with other similar sized cities, I think? My kids are a bit young to worry about county lines etc, but I don't think it's a huge deal here.

People just like to be dicks about anything remotely different.

Also, a huge proportion of the population are "incomers" (as I am) so there is no local snobbery about being "not from round here" that one might see elsewhere.

Built for people on housing benefit? That's hilarious. It wasn't. Unemployment is really low in MK - basically, if you haven't got a job, it's because you either don't want one or you're unemployable. The flip side of that is that recruitment can be a bit of a nightmare, because the good people already have good jobs!

There are some really rough estates, just like most medium-sized cities, but there are also some really lovely areas and historic villages within the city itself. What weirds people out is that you don't see many pedestrians, because the city was built to keep pedestrians away from traffic. As Bill Bryson says, many people find this amusing. Finally, the ultimate point in MK's favour is that it has the delivery robots. Those alone make it all worthwhile!

I live 20 mins from MK, and have family who live there.

It’s much maligned, and the butt of jokes, but actually as many PP have said, it’s got great shopping, a mainstream theatre, several cinemas, plenty of places to eat, there’s some lovely ‘proper pubs’ in some of the old villages that are within the city (e.g. Woolstone, Loughton, Great Linford), the grid system works, the redways (footpaths and cycle ways) mean you can get around sometimes without even needing to cross a road, there’s the Grand Union canal running right through the middle, and so on.

And if you commute, you can get a train to Euston in 32 mins, or can go north to Manchester and Glasgow (and many more places!).

It’s not for everyone, but it’s not all concrete cows and soulless estates.

MK is near us and I love it! Great cinemas, VR, brilliant shopping, snowdome, willen lake, theatre, bowling, crazy golf, great green spaces. It's a brilliant place for families.

I live about 25 miles away I like the roads and roundabouts and the H and V roads, I don't get lost so easily when driving there, used to go to the shops there a lot, only reason I don't go much now is because we have our own shops recently built. I still go to Ikea and it's my nearest John Lewis

I don’t think it’s snobbery. I just think a lot of Brits prefer older styles of buildings. That’s why builders build all those faux-Tudor or Palladian houses on housing estates.

What do you do if you live in Milton Keynes and you want really fresh fruit and vegetables (fresher than the supermarket), bakers, local butcher, and independent fishmonger?

Do these exist?

I know there’s a greengrocers in the outdoor market to one side of the shopping centre. I don’t know about any of the others though.

So I think it really doesn’t compare to inner London - or a decent market town for that matter - when it comes to food shopping?

Each to their own. We all like different things. Personally I find many parts of Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire weirdly depressing. I can’t put my finger on why though.

Unfortunately the independent bakers, butchers and fishmongers don't exist in a lot of places

I'm 30 mins from MK and love it. So many parks and accessible green spaces. It's great for taking the kids cycling or to the cinema, theatre, sledging etc. Plus quick links to London and cute delivery robots!

I regret not buying a house there to be honest.

Tbh when I lived in London the vast majority of my food shopping came from Tesco or Ocado, so not really different from now. Borough market for a special occasion.

There are greengrocers and markets in some of the older areas like Bletchley and Stony Stratford. We have some really good local butchers near my end of town. Couple of bakeries around, I think, though I mostly use my bread maker. I'm not aware of a fishmonger, but in towns that far from the coast I don't think that's very unusual these days.

What weirds people out is that you don't see many pedestrians, because the city was built to keep pedestrians away from traffic.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy going there.

It’s nice not to have to constantly be at the mercy of drivers who are looking more at cars than pedestrians.

Isn't it quite an expensive place to live? Idk much about it but being near London and all.
So how can it be snobby to dislike it? The architecture is apparently boring so that's probably why

🙂 I've lived very happily in both places. Loved the American-style grid system in MK, as it made it so easy to navigate by car and very rarely any traffic problems. Loads of things to do, lots of great shopping and good value housing. Bedford, similarly, was good value in terms of housing, and had some really beautiful green parks and spaces, but traffic could be dreadful and the city centre was a bit lack lustre. MK was my favourite out of the two, but I enjoyed aspects of both places.

Milton Keynes is nice!

Believe me there's MUCH (much!) worse places to live than MK!!

I think people judge it on the city centre, which frankly looks like a communist experiment or the set of a sci-fi movie. It’s an ugly place that I find very difficult to navigate because every single wide boulevard and concrete/glass/steel building looks identical. It’s also impossible to get away from the station without walking in the road. There’s no soul to the place because there’s no history.

Saying that, I’ve got family and friends who live slightly further out of the centre and it’s really lovely - lakes and green spaces that are beautiful for walks, and the houses are on nice new build estates. I could happily live there.

MK was designed to have loads of parks and green spaces. It encompasses some lovely villages, and the canal and the lakes are great features.

Before a brick of the new city was laid, trees were planted, so it's leafy and mature now.

Some of the earliest estates are a bit ugly, because it seemed that architects were obsessed with it being a new city, and designed ultra modern weirdness in order to be cutting edge. It didn't work. But as the place filled out, it became a lot more attractive.

It really doesn't deserve it's reputation these days.

I recently met a retired couple who moved there from Wembley. They really like it.

Apparently it’s the greenest city in the UK. To be fair, it is so easy to access parks, walks, canals in and around Milton Keynes, I’m not surprised. It was a key part of the planning process when it was conceived.