Most people in Britain have heard of Milton Keynes. Established in 1967, it is England's largest new city and one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the UK. It is a also suburban city, genuinely liked and appreciated by most of its citizens. For many reasons, however, Milton Keynes is misunderstood, and its valuable recent lessons are mostly ignored in debates about national urban policy. This book therefore discusses the popular and intellectual prejudices that have distorted understandings of the new city. It focuses upon the original thinking that went into the planning of Milton Keynes, highlights the most notable features of its design and construction, and assesses the impact of new development upon the countryside and agriculture. A city is nothing without its people, of course, so Mark Clapson looks at who has moved to Milton Keynes, and discusses their experiences of settling in. He also confronts the common myth of the new city's soullessness with an account of community and association that emphasises the strength of social interaction there.
This work provides an informed account of the first decades of Milton Keynes, and emphasizes its relevance to social and urban change in England in the 1960s. The book should be of interest to urban and social historians of contemporary Britain, to planning historians, urban geographers, town planners, sociologists, and also the people of Milton Keynes.