Building the City

IntroductionThis exhibition continues thetheme of the first Building theCity exhibition with more homesand other buildings from the1970s and early ‘80s.

Aerial shots like the ones belowshowing newly built Galley Hilland Fullers Slade remind us ofthe thousands of saplings, nowmature trees, planted totransform the landscape.

Most Milton KeynesDevelopment Corporationhousing was built for rent. Then,in May 1979, Margaret Thatcherwas elected on a manifesto thatincluded the Right to Buy. Whenshe opened the shoppingcentre later in 1979 she alsovisited this family on Galley Hillwho were buying their home topublicise the scheme.

Milton Keynes continues todevelop: the infrastructure andfirst new housing in the westernexpansion area are beginningto take shape and the easternexpansion area already welldeveloped.

Please get in touch if you haveany photos of both old or newdevelopments or would like helpto start a heritage group for yourarea.

www.mkheritage.co.uk

Thank you to Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre forthe provision of some of the photographs used in thisexhibition, which are © Homes & Communities Agency.All other images courtesy Living Archive Milton Keynes.

BradvilleThere was already a housingestate known as Bradville whenthe Development Corporationstarted to develop the gridsquare in the early 1970s, with amix of rental and for-salehousing and a light industrialarea.

Whilst many of the newdwellings were of conventionalbrick design, the timber-framedStanton High was laid out interraces and featured lots ofopen space for play, and carports for the increasing numberof vehicles appearing in ‘thecity of the car’. The layout wasdesigned to give good viewsnorthwards over the opencountryside.

The Corporation providedschools and a sports and socialclub for Bradville. There wasalready a local pub called TheBradville, which was renamedHalley's Comet.

The Bradville grid square is alsohome to one of MK’s olderbuildings – the 19th centuryBradwell Windmill.

Building the City

The layout wasdesigned to givegood views

northwards over theopen countryside.

Building the City

BradwellCommonBy the late 1970s theDevelopment Corporation wasattracting private developers aswell as still building homes forrent. Bradwell Common, one ofthe ‘doughnut’ of estatesaround the city centre, containsa mixture of housing types.

Whereas the first wave of newresidents had been families, bynow young single people werealso being attracted by the newemployment opportunities.Attractive blocks of flats andmaisonettes such as these onBradwell Common (pictured)were built to accommodatethem.

The style of DevelopmentCorporation housing waschanging, but each estatecontinued to feature play areasand Community Houses.

May 1981 saw the opening ofthe first of three major housingexhibitions, Homeworld ’81,where developers were able toshow off their best designs,including some futuristic onessuch as The Pyramid and WorldHouse.

Photo: S. Baines

Photo: S. Baines

Homeworld, May 1981

Homeworld ’81 ‘World House’

Homeworld ’81 ‘Pyramid House’View of the houses in WimbledonPlace, Bradwell Common

Bradwell Common Flats

Fullers SladeThis area was given the name ofthe 18th century field on whichit was built. Despite thehistorical name, the design wasa contemporary, wood clad takeon traditional terraced housingwith small private gardens andlarge areas of landscapedcommunity open space.

Work started in late 1971 andthe construction used simplemodular techniques andavailable materials, as much asanything to get round theshortage of bricks andbricklayers. The stepped designfollowed the contours of the siteand enabled dwellings ofdifferent sizes to be providedwith good natural lighting andliving accommodation at groundlevel.

At the same time a privatedeveloper built the small Hill Topestate – conventional brickhouses, mostly semi detached –for sale in one corner of FullersSlade.

Fullers Slade originally had itsown pub, The Slade, and asmall retail area.

Building the City

© John Donat

Building the City

Galley HillGalley Hill, started in 1971, wasthe first large housing schemebuilt by the DevelopmentCorporation. Concrete shellswere delivered to site and cladwith brick. The mono-pitchedroof design was reflected inlater developments elsewhere inMilton Keynes.

The new residents came fromall over the country. They werethe people who were buildingMilton Keynes, and an eclecticmix of accents was heard in theschool playground and localshops.

Housing was organised, incourts of semi-detachedhouses and a few flats, eachwith play areas for children.Some of the courts were builtfor sale, but the majority werefor rent. There were schools anda local centre with workshops.One house was used as a GP’ssurgery before the HealthCentre at Wolverton was built.

Great LinfordAs the development of MiltonKeynes continued, the smallvillage of Great Linford with itsthatched cottages, 14th centurychurch and listed manor house,was integrated into its own gridsquare.

The Almshouses and stables ofthe Manor House became anArts Centre and the brick kilnswere restored. The old lane toWillen, past the village pond,and the lane to Linford Wood,became redways and newroads were given namesassociated with the history ofthe village.

A variety of different housing,mostly low density, wassensitively arranged to keep theoriginal village area intact andretain the village green andother green space.

The housing construction in thephotos, at Gibbwin, is similar inshape to Fullers Slade but cladin very different materials.

In recent years the buildings atthe old wharf area by the canalhave been developed forresidential use.

Building the City

Great Linford, 1978

Great Linford, Off-LicencePost Office and Stores

Solar Court, Great Linford

The post-war period saw a rapidexpansion of Bletchley withsome national chains takingshops along Bletchley Road,renamed Queensway in honourof the Queen’s visit in 1966.When Milton Keynes began tobe built Queensway was themajor shopping destination –there was even a Fine Faresupermarket – and remainedso until the City Centreshopping was opened in late1978.

There had been a weeklygeneral market in Bletchley formany years, but it had nopermanent location and so itwas decided to build a coveredmarket in Queensway. A sectionof road was pedestrianised andmushroom-like structures builtto provide shelter for the marketstalls and create a public openspace.

It wasn’t a success, not leastbecause the new developmentat the far end of Queenswayattracted shoppers away fromthe area. After a fire the marketwas demolished. There is still asmall street market held alongQueensway.

Building the City

Bletchley’s Covered Market

Building the City

WolvertonThe Development Corporationgave Wolverton ‘The Pineapple’,a futuristic, bright yellow, sportspavilion which was at the SportsClub’s ground. The design wasconsidered unsatisfactoryalthough young peopleappreciated the discos thatwere held there – to theannoyance of the neighbours!

After a short time theCorporation agreed to replace itwith a more conventional brickstructure and a farmer inSomerset bought the building.

In the late 1970s RadcliffeStreet was cut in two whenhouses and businessesbetween Church andBuckingham Streets weredemolished to make way for abrick shopping centre calledThe Agora.

For a time its large internal areahosted the weekly market and‘the agro’, as it was known bylocal young people, was a majordraw for roller skating.

The unloved building stilldominates the area, but in 2015,there are plans to knock itdown, replace it with housingand reinstate Radcliffe Street.

Roller skating in the Agora at Wolverton

The 'Pineapple'sports pavilionin Wolverton

Simpson

Building the City

The small village of Simpson,called Siwinstone in the 11thcentury, is recorded in theDomesday Book. Its locationbetween the canal and a riverprone to flooding restricted theavailable land for newdevelopment. The building ofthe H9 Groveway grid road cut itoff from its traditional neighbourWoughton.

The existing school, which wasshared by the two villages, wason the Woughton Park side andSimpson got a new school, nowknown as the Charles WarrenAcademy. Mr Warren, the ownerof Simpson House and asubstantial landowner, is alsocommemorated in the namingof one of the Corporation’searliest developments, WarrenBank, located on the gardens ofSimpson House.

The early ’70s housing atHanmer Road was anotherexample of mono-pitch roofdesign and was considered anattractive purchase by thoseemployed at the nearby OpenUniversity and Hoechst (nowIntervet).

Before the H9 was built, the busfrom Newport Pagnell toBletchley had to negotiate thesharp corner by the thatchedcottage shown in the photo.

Linear Park, Simpson

Hanmer Road, Simpson

Hairpin bend on Hanmer Road Bowlers Bridge, Simpson

StantonburyStanton High, Stanton Low andStantonbury were local nameslong before Milton KeynesDevelopment Corporation camealong and called one of thenorthern grid squaresStantonbury.

The Barre family ruled themanor of Stanton which, by the13th century was known asStanton Barreor. The nameevolved to Stanton Barry andeventually Stantonbury.

Some of the land was used tobuild schools and a LeisureCentre, including a swimmingpool and theatre, to serve thegrowing population in the northof the area. StantonburyCampus, which opened in1974, was the first newsecondary school in MiltonKeynes.

Housing developed to include amix of for-sale and Corporationowned properties in a variety ofstyles. Blocks of conventionaldouble-pitched roofs over whitewalls can be found in one areawhile the mono-pitch for-salehousing in Ashfield reflects theearlier mono-pitched roofs atGalley Hill.

Building the City

StantonburyCampus, whichopened in 1974, was the first new

secondary school inMilton Keynes.

Stantonbury Campus, opened 1974

Stantonbury Campus

Ashfield, Stantonbury