A trip to a large shopping centre is not necessarily my choice of how to spend a Saturday, but with a dying freezer (the bottom part of our fridge-freezer is no longer taking anything below -6c) we had to come to a decision promptly, and Milton Keynes has a very large store where we could actually compare, choose and order – all in one go.
Milton Keynes is a ‘new town’ conceived in the 1960s and built on a design principle of ‘grid squares’ meaning, for me, with my pretty useless sense of direction, that I simply get lost. I find it virtually impossible to navigate without aid as each road has such a similarity to another I can not tell them apart. Thank goodness for Sat Nav.
On Friday evening I was exhausted.
“What time do you want to leave in the morning?” I asked.
“I think,” said Cycloman,” that I’ll cycle there.” As this meant, on this occasion, a little more time in bed for me I was delighted to hear it. My car journey would take 45 minutes: cycling there would take significantly longer.
He left after bringing me a tray of tea, accompanied by the kitten in toe-pouncing mood. He also left a packed bag for me to bring, containing a change of clothes as Lycra and cycling shoes would not be ideal for traipsing around the shops.
Armed with my Sat Nav, and post-code address, in his car (bigger boot for the bike on the return journey) a book and my mobile phone I set off, aiming to get there around 12 md. I arrived at 5 past and texted him. A text came back by return.
“I’m a little lost.” (And this from a man with a sense of direction. I had 20 minutes reading time!)
Never a man to be pushed into a hasty decision, he had another store lined up for us to take a look at, plus we needed lunch and a few other items, which entailed a traipse around the large under-cover shopping centre.
And look what I found:
Milton Keynes’s full sized, in a field, Concrete Cows had a certain notoriety for some years: they could be seen from the train. There was something strangely appealing about them: they brought – and still bring, a little sunshine into people’s lives.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I don’t like Milton Keynes, either by car or on foot. And the cows have lost their charm too now. Hope you found a suitable freezer.
I do hope so. It will be delivered next week!
Re the dead fridge, I had one go on for years like this so I put it in one of the outbuildings and kept it as a wine and beer chiller. I think one of the tenants threw it out when it died years later or perhaps they didn’t drink so much!!!
Anyway, it had a good second life.
Re cows, real ones for me, and Milton Keynes should be nuked! I went there once, more than enough, full of zombies.
“The land of a million roundabouts”. Yuk! A terrible place with an appalling shopping centre and a charm quotient well in the negative.
But I shall be chastised, for Boadicea lived there for many years and the junior daughter still does. Boadicea thinks it’s a fabulous place – we all have our little foibles, innit? 🙄
Indeed, Bearsy!
Yes, Christina that seems a good idea…(the second life of the fridge, not the nuking MK)
To misquote John Betjeman, “Come friendly bombs and fall on Milton Keynes …” 😀
Slough 🙂
(always pronounced to rhyme with buff)
I moved to Milton Keynes from Brixton when the shopping centre was still a field. Many of the roundabouts were in place, and we dubbed the city ‘Magic Roundabout Land.’ My daughter still lives there.
It received a lot of criticism then, and the negativity has stuck. That’s a shame.
Milton Keynes was built to a plan, and I suppose that people who are used to growing up in cities that have grown up higgledy piggledy find it too organised. It’s actually very simple. I can’t say that I’ve looked recently, but long before the main grid roads were given names they were labelled H (for horizontal) and V (for vertical) and one could easily tell just how far one was from the road one was seeking – and whether one was going in the right direction.
When we moved there, it was part of the ‘plan’ to make it people-friendly. One could phone for a bus to pick one up at the front door. Every estate had its own little shopping centre so that people could walk to the shops to get basic items, and there was a great emphasis on encouraging people to participate.
Some of the houses were not well built – but the Development Corporation could not have been more helpful. I was on the Housing Committee of one such estate. Not only did they give me use of the Community Hall free of charge to stage a protest meeting, they also provided the PA so that my words (of wisdom!?) could be clearly heard. They turned out at midnight at weekends with the keys of alternative housing for people whose homes were being damaged in storms.
The concrete cows were part of a community effort to get people involved in their surroundings. Long before such things were thought of, a guy I knew was part of a movement to get youngsters to paint the underpasses rather than spray them with mindless graffiti. He also got a load of youngsters to build concrete dinosaurs (which ex no2 did much of the internal metal work for).
The centre was planned – and is now not only a shopping centre, but has a magnificent restaurant area with a theatre, dry ski slopes and just about everything else one could want.
For us moving from Brixton, where I was afraid to answer the door and my daughter had been beaten up by a gang of black youngsters – and it was just as unpolitically correct to call them that then as it is now – moving to MK was a delight. My daughters were able to live a ‘normal’ life without fear – as indeed were we.
I know that the world has changed since then – and I’m sure that MK is no longer as safe an environment as it was then. But, it still has much to offer those who live there in the way of amenities, transport and a pleasant environment.
Sorry, Boadicea, but when the Good Lord, in His infinite wisdom, decides to give the world an enema, the hose is going into Milton Keynes. I visited the place several times back in the 70s because a then uni girlfriend lived there. I should have realised on both counts. 😦
OZ
Milton Keynes has a most unfortunate reputation, which is not entirely undeserved.
I don’t know anyone who actually knows their way around the place. I quite like the cows though.
OZ and Araminta
Living in a place is very different from visiting – especially OZ 40 years ago!
🙂
40 years, Boadicea? Oh, thank you. Thank you so very much……
🙂
OZ
Oz – I hate to tell you but the 70s, when you visited Milton Keynes, were 40 years ago!!
Like Bletchley, MK’s forebear on the main line, the whole area is a slough of despond. 😦
Sob!
OZ
Boadiciea, I too feel MK has a worse reputation than it deserves. The amenities are good and in theory the planning should be simple to negotiate… and with a map, I’m fine. It’s just that I can’t seem to ‘learn’ the place, not like other places, so I’m always lost.
Boadicea.
What do you mean? I’m an expert on the subject. I’ve been to Milton Keynes twice! 😉
Pseu
I’m delighted that you agree with me!
Exactly!
I’ve been there hundreds of times – and it’s the pits!!
Listen not to the deceptive, seductive words of our leader, for she is an unreconstructed one-eyed Milton Keynsian – probably because they once shot a James Bond film in her street. Get thee behind me, Satana!! 👿
Well that proves that Bearsy does not know what he is talking about!
The film was the ‘Fourth Protocol’ with Michael Caine…
Whoops! Not a lot of people know that. 😦
Um, I’ve never had the pleasure of conversing with anyone who waxes lyrical about MK, Bearsy, but then I’ve never met anyone who actually lived there!
I thought James Bond would have looked a bit out of place there! 😉
Ah well Araminta – you have now!
Indeed, and I shall strive to look upon the place more kindly when I next visit, Boadicea. It’s just that I’m a bit like Nym, I cannot find my way around. I have the same problem with Basingstoke!
So do I with LA, but there are some nice parts! 🙂
I love MK – the street numbering system works perfectly and logically! And the space and greenery are a welcome relief from the usual clutter of cramped victorian eyesores!
The cows are still visible from the train too. Best shopping and entertainment centre around. And still quite safe. The football stadium is a great bit of modern design too with the best view from anywhere within and so much space.
Wouldn’t want to live there though……. too many commoners. 😀