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😂

I live near it and avoid like the plague tbh. Yes to druggies around the very sad looking Point. It's all beginning to look very shabby, half the V and H signage has worn off completely. No road markings and the traffic is dreadful at rush hour to the person who said traffic fine! I wouldn't live there if you paid me but the train links are good.

My parents lived in Milton Keynes for the last 27 years of their lives, so I've visited a lot.

I always found it very strange, but could never quite put my finger on why. I think it's partly the straight, flat roads, partly the way everything seemed to be less than 50 years old, the separation of pedestrians and traffic which seems weird when you drive around and don't see anyone walking (although I agree it makes it very safe).

But then I live in a small, historic town, with a Norman castle and medieval buildings, and where you can't walk more than a mile in any direction without going up a bloody great hill, unless you're walking along the river. Maybe it's just that it's very different from what I'm used to.

I really like MK. I live about 45 minutes away and have been many times. The Stables, The Snowdome and the shopping centre are great. I love the way all the shops are inside and are on a grid system, esp if it's a rainy day

I was led to believe that Mk was built after WWII when Londoners needed housing due to so many being destroyed?

I've always found it odd that you never see any houses. It's dual carriageway, roundabout, dual carriageway, roundabout forever which does get a bit annoying as it's so stop/start. Never heard any snobbery about the place though. I just like going to places that are different and quite new to me

I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to understand people have different priorities and like different things. I wouldn’t worry so much what other people think, their thoughts have absolutely no bearing on your life and where you choose to live. Milton Keynes is obviously not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and that’s fine.

I live in London and absolutely love it, but I understand a lot don’t - there is pretty much a weekly thread on how much people hate the place. I honestly couldn’t care!!

SaltLampFeelsDamp
Yes, you can get fruit and veg, meat etc outside of supermarkets. You might have to drive for it but MK is very much a driver's (or bus) place anyway.
Farmshops all round the edges of MK
Bletchley high street
Woburn Sands
Markets (not sure about MK central market but others)
Surrounding villages

I was led to believe that Mk was built after WWII when Londoners needed housing due to so many being destroyed?

No. The decision to build the city was made in 1967. The road infrastructure and building obviously took many years. It was 1979 before it had a shopping centre.

I really like MK. Grew up in a small village in Northants but same drive to Northampton or MK. If people ask where I'm from I normally say MK rather than Northampton.
Lived in MK for a few years when I moved out of family home. Loved living there. I lived walking distance from the main shopping centre but could sit in my garden and listen to the birds. My commute to work was a quick drive on the grid system and loads to do in the area.
I'd happily live MK again if I ever move back that way.

I can remember going to the shopping centre there when it first opened in 1979, C & A was I think where the Next is now and was my favourite shop. It was all very exciting then

I've never been anywhere near MK as far as I'm aware so I just had a little sneaky peeky on Rightmove with a max budget of £650k.

The main things that jump out at me are:

1. The houses are soulless and look like they're on an estate. Fine, but it's every house aside from a couple of very obviously old houses that popped up. In an average town you'd find a lot more diversity of housing stock.
2. Even the expensive houses look crap; all the things you hate about new builds, small garden, endless expanse of brick wall without a single window.
3. The modern houses are not very exciting. They really missed an opportunity to do some interesting stuff with architecture and make it of the moment instead of trying to echo period features with modern building regulations and thick uPVC windows.
4. The internal layouts can be a bit odd. I suppose they've tried to add character and avoid every room being a box, but what that's meant is you've got a sofa Infront of a "bay window" on the side of a house and a chunk of wasted space.
5. It generally doesn't feel very inspiring. There was not a single house I looked at and had my imagination run away with me. As a RM junky this is unusual!
6. The tiny gardens make it feel like you're overlooked from every bloody direction.
7. All this is said purely based on the houses I've looked at, I have no idea what the town centre or paths are like.

I like it!!! I don't live there but we go often for shopping music gigs, ikea and the theatre is fab. I've also used the sno dome.

It's certainly a place I'd consider if circumstances changed.

Very true about the Londoners who congratulate themselves on living in a diverse area. I grew up in Hackney and when my DC started school I met a lot of school mums who earnestly told me they moved there because they wanted to live in an ethnically diverse place. It was kind of laughable because they all lived in the most gentrified parts of the borough and only mixed with other white, middle class families who also lived in their enclaves. But it’s all good because there is so much diversity! Little Margot mixes with Italian and Spanish kids at her Ballet class and there is an amazing Swedish bakery at the end of their road.

its like every other new town in the U.K. I guess…..I wouldn’t live in a new town….I like local history….old architecture …..I live in a 160 year old semi….there’s lots where I am …..full of character…..nothing like that in these new towns…but lots don’t mind so that’s ok too…..I’m no snob, but the word ‘soulless’ came straight to my mind as well

I too, was an MK snob.

We decided to move out of London and it was one of the places we went to look at properties. I cried all the way home from those viewings and declared I could NEVER live there. (Very dramatic)

We ended up settling in Oxfordshire, which i love - but as MK is quite a short drive I'm regularly driving there for IKEA, had a great time at Gullivers....have tickets to the theatre planned next year, ninja warrier for the kids. I am also looking forward to visiting the shopping centre soon as well. So on reflection, I can see I probably would have been just fine buying there.

It's all a bit 'fear of the unknown' I think. Depends where they moved from as well, I know it took a long time for me to convince myself I would survive out of London, having been born there.

I live in MK and I love it!

Low unemployment, great shopping centre, tonnes of green spaces, gorgeous lakes, easy to drive around (no bloody one way systems to get lost in), great community feel.

Lots of large companies have their head offices in Milton Keynes (Argos, Shell, Mercedes to name a few) so it's got something going for it.

It's only 35 mins to London should you so desire. And of course, as with any large city there is crime, and with a main train station there is county lines issues, but nowhere near as bad as places like Birmingham have.

People who turn their noses up ar MK, haven't lived here. It's a beautiful city..

We left Milton Keynes recently because unless you live in a million pound catchment the state schools are shit. There is a reason why everyone tries to move to the Buckingham / St Albans grammar school catchment.

Another MK fan here! I live an hour away, near Cambridge, and love visiting. I’m always amazed at how much there is to do. You’ll find every kind of sports club/activity and not only is the shopping centre great it also doesn’t cost the earth to park there all day unlike Cambridge.

It was built very American in style but this makes it quick and easy to drive around. The green areas and spaces are so expansive, along with the off road cycle paths. It’s actually been built really practically compared to most places and property is good value for money.

Mine are older teens and settled now but, in hindsight, when they were tiny and we moved out of London we may have moved there instead. Great place for teens. Cambridge is beautiful but you get plenty county lines/drugs and homelessness there too.

Much like most places I imagine, Buckinghamshire holds pockets of poverty. Poverty in terms of money, access to education, families recieving benefits etc.
There was recent research comparing education deprivation for children in Aylesbury (30 mins away) and it falls well below the national average.
Yes- MK city centre is a bit soulless. Its modern. Yes there is "drug addicts" in/around the city centre- same as literally every single city centre I've been to in the last three years. You dont really see anyone walking around - I'd give that for small villages where everyone knows everyone!
MK has great facilities, green, accessible- it's a shame that people view it as "basically for people on housing benefit" (ludicrous!) 🙄

I've lived in Buckinghamshire all my life (in one of the villages where we have social housing, mansions owned by celebrities/rich people with well paid jobs- and lots of unemployment and families receiving benefits. I personally like MK and it's always a good day out.

County lines is also virtually a problem almost anywhere with a direct route to a major city 🤷‍♀️

I grew up in MK, left when I was 20 for uni and never moved back. It's one of my biggest regrets that I didn't go back home after uni or at least when the kids were little. My mum and sister still live there so we go back regularly and the kids have had the benefits of the parks and places like ninja warriors and the snow dome.

My kids are too old and settled here (50 miles north) so moving back is not really an option now, and also it is a lot more expensive!

I do agree there's a lot of snobbery about MK but at the same time I'm not fond of it. Planning and design wise, it takes a lot of the worst of postwar American suburban planning (and I live in an American suburb now!) with neighbourhoods cut off from each other by large roads. It's not very pedestrian or transit friendly. It was also first built during a low point for British residential architecture, which can't totally be helped, but is noticeable all the same.

having lived in areas with multiple street layouts, I don't think there's inherently a clear winner in terms of grids versus curves unless the topography clearly dictates you can't have a grid, but MK's design tends to feel as if it were designed in the abstract and not around the needs of the residents. I don't find it dystopian; given enough time, residents will adapt their lives to the setting and make it workable. But when I've been there I've always felt like the planners had their ideas of how people should live and work, and didn't actually talk to or observe them.

The amount of greenery and parks is probably the best aspect.

You don't exactly get to see the best of Milton Keynes by driving through it. 😂

That's a good point! You need to come off the main roads to find the good bits.

I feel like I need to pay a visit to mk now.

I wouldn’t want to live there. But I’d not say that in rl. I also think Stevenage and Luton are hell-holes. But I know friends and colleagues that live in all 3, so I keep my opinions on these places to myself.

It has a really good art gallery with some of the best exhibitions outside London.