Milton Keynes

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Template:Infobox England place with map UA Template:Commons Milton KeynesTemplate:Fn is a purpose-built, high technology city in South East England. It is located about 45 miles (75 km) north west of London and approximately mid-way between Oxford and Cambridge. With other towns it forms the unitary authority of the Borough of Milton Keynes.

Contents 1 Origins 2 City status 3 Urban design: Layout and Urban Form of the New City 3.1 Linear parks 3.2 Further development plans 4 Culture 5 Education 6 Media 7 Sport 8 Other Amenities 9 Pre-history 9.1 Bancroft 9.2 Bletchley 9.3 Bradwell and New Bradwell 9.4 Broughton 9.5 Caldecotte 9.6 Central Milton Keynes 9.7 Fenny Stratford 9.8 Great Linford 9.9 Loughton 9.10 Milton Keynes Village 9.11 Shenley 9.12 Simpson 9.13 Stantonbury 9.14 Stony Stratford 9.15 Tattenhoe 9.16 Walton 9.17 Willen 9.18 Wolverton 9.19 The Woolstones 9.20 Woughton on the Green 10 Milton Keynes in popular culture 10.1 Miscellanea 10.2 Writers, artists and celebrities 11 Access 11.1 Rail 11.2 Road 11.3 Cycle 11.4 Air 11.5 Water 12 External links 13 Footnotes

Origins

The "New City" was designated by Parliament in 1967 and deliberately located roughly equidistant between London, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford and Cambridge with the intention that it would be self sustaining and eventually become a major regional centre in its own right. It contains within its boundaries the towns of Bletchley, Wolverton and Stony Stratford and many smaller villages. Milton Keynes is the largest of the so-called "new towns" built during the 1960s to allow for urban expansion in the southeast of England and is the only new town planned from the outset to be designated as a "New City". When Milton Keynes was designated, some 60,000 people lived in what is now the Borough. By the 2001 Census, the population had reached 177,500 (181,000 in the contiguous urban area) and is projected to exceed 300,000 by 2030, making the New Town area substantially larger than many official cities.

Design and planning was delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (Chair: Lord Campbell of Easkan; CEO Fred Lloyd Roche). Their strongly post-modernist designs featured regularly in the magazines Architectural Design and the Architects' Journal. However, the Government wound up MKDC in 1992, transferring control to the Commission for New Towns (CNT) and then finally to English Partnerships. Design guidance was weakened and subsequent built environment developments are considered barely distinguishable from the anonymous suburbs of other towns and cities around the UK. Conversely, the "river valleys, water courses and extensive landscape buffers within Milton Keynes provide a good example of how environmental assets can be integrated into new development." [1]. The environment is under control of the Parks Trust and continues to be one of the major attractions to living in the city.

The New City encompassed a landscape that has a rich historic legacy. The CLUTCH Club Milton Keynes site holds a collection of archival photos and recorded interviews compiled by residents of the older towns and villages incorporated within Milton Keynes. Larger MK-related historical collections have been created at The Living Archive, and a broader family of sites and links to archeological studies of Milton Keynes is maintained by the Milton Keynes Heritage Association, which "exists to encourage and develop co-operation and co-ordination between all members having an interest in heritage within the Milton Keynes district."

City status

Although legally still a town (since city status in the United Kingdom is only possible through grant of Letters Patent), Milton Keynes was designed to be, and behaves as, a small city. The term "city" is invariably used locally, since the term "town" generally refers one of the original settlements (see below).

Urban design: Layout and Urban Form of the New City

The concepts that heavily influenced the design of the city are described in detail in article Urban planning - see "cells" (= grid squares) under Planning and aesthetics; but see also article Single-use zoning.

Milton Keynes Development Corporation planned the city's layout on a grid pattern of approximately 1 km interval, rather than on the more conventional radial pattern seen elsewhere in older settlements. Major roads within the city are drawn between communities, rather than through them: the major roads are known locally as grid roads and the spaces between them are known as grid squares. Intervals of 1 km were chosen so that people would always be within walking distance of a bus stop (buses were originally intended to run only on the grid but this has not happened — buses take tortuous routes through the grid squares). Consequently each grid square is a semi-autonomous community, making a unique collective of 100 clearly identifiable neighbourhoods within the overall urban environment. The grid squares have a variety of development styles, ranging from conventional urban development and industrial parks, to original rural and modern urban and pseudo-rural developments. Roundabouts were chosen at junctions since the grid roads were intended to carry large volumes of traffic: this type of junction is efficient at dealing with these volumes. Along the edges of each grid road there are large grassed areas. This is deliberate and allowed for roads to be upgraded from single carriageway to become dual carriageways as traffic volumes dictate. The edges of each grid square are heavily landscaped and some are banked up and densely planted. The purpose of this was to reduce traffic noise for residents but traffic noise is still significant at some locations. Traffic movements are fast, with little congestion since there are many alternative routes to a particular destination. National speed limits apply on most of the grid roads but consequently the risk to unwary pedestrians and turning traffic is significant. High speed accidents have resulted in deaths and serious injuries that might otherwise have been avoided. Monitoring station data shows that pollution is lower than in similar size settlements elsewhere.

Linear parks

The flood plains of the Great Ouse and of its tributaries (the Ouzel and some brooks) have been protected as linear parks that run right through the city. The Grand Union Canal is another green route (and demonstrates the level topology of the city - there is just one minor lock in its entire 10 mile route through from Fenny Stratford to the "Iron Trunk" Aqueduct at Wolverton. The Milton Keynes redway system of cycleways and footpaths uses these and other routes.

Further development plans

In January 2004, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott announced his plan[2] to double the population of Milton Keynes in the subsequent 20 years. He appointed English Partnerships to do so, taking planning controls away from Milton Keynes Borough Council and making EP the statutory planning authority. English Partnership's proposal for the next phase of expansion moves away from grid squares to large scale, mixed use, higher density development. They hope that this will lead to a greener, more sustainable Milton Keynes, less dependent upon the private car. Their aim is to encourage a shift towards alternative transportation such as buses and cycling as well as providing a more pedestrian-friendly environment, particularly within Central Milton Keynes ("CMK").

There will be 3 main areas for expansion / urban intensification. The most significant of these are in CMK and at the northern and southern edges of Campbell Park. Within CMK, development will intensify the existing provision, the most significant being a mixed use office and retail development to be known as CBX III. Other proposals for CMK will see the removal and building upon the somewhat profligate surface car parks — particularly along Avebury Boulevard. These will be replaced by multi storey car parking, releasing the land for better use. One of their current criticisms of CMK is (with the notable exception of the Xscape dome) the lack of "landmark" buildings. Their CBX III development is intended to rectify this with buildings of between 8 and 10 storeys in height. These will stand out from existing development, which in general is around 4 storey. In Campbell Park, the intent is to create a vibrant 24 hour community to bring life into the centre. Development will consist, they say, of high quality apartments with live / work spaces. A series of 'green fingers' or 'wildlife corridors' will be created running out from the park in the centre to the neighbouring areas of Conniburrow to the north and Springfield to the south. These corridors are intended not only to allow wildlife movement throughout the park but to encourage people from other areas to come and use it. The other two areas for expansion are still undecided. English Partnerships is currently considering six growth options with varying levels and locations of expansion for the city.

In the shorter term, English Partnerships have created development briefs for the East and West flanks call for high density development well away from the centre, without any grid roads and with restricted — relying instead on public transport. At Oakgrove (near Middleton), they propose to divert and funnel one of the existing grid roads through the heart of the community and build over the space vacated, including the green routes on either side of it. The Parks Trust (who own the land) are deeply opposed to this proposal and declare that they will not release it without a compulsory purchase order.

As might be anticipated, these plans are controversial — especially since the local population has little democratic control over the plans and actions of this Government-appointed Quango.

Culture

Image:Milton Keynes Gallery.JPG Milton Keynes has a 1,400 seat theatre/concert hall[3] (Blonski-Heard, 1999), whose high booking rate allows it to lay claim to the title "Britain's most popular theatre". The theatre has a unusual feature: the ceiling can be lowered closing off the third tier (gallery) to create a more intimate space for smaller scale productions. There are further performance spaces in Bletchley, Leadenhall, Shenley, Stantonbury and Walton.

Apart from the building itself (exterior surface by Michael Craig-Martin), the Milton Keynes [art] Gallery[4] (next to the main theatre) does not have a permanent collection. This allows it to host edgy shows to critical acclaim.

In Wavendon, on the south-east edge of the city, The Stables provides a venue for jazz, blues, folk, rock, classical, pop and world music. It is closely associated with jazz artists Cleo Laine and John Dankworth. The venue also hosts an annual summer camp for young musicians.

Near Loughton and Furzton, the open air National Bowl is a 65,000 "seat" venue for large scale rock (and classical) concerts. The main article lists many of the famous bands to have played there, and lists DVD recordings of their performances.

Another music venue, very popular with teenagers, is The Pitz in the Woughton Centre, Leadenhall. It usually features a mixture of punk, alternative rock, and heavy metal.

There are two museums, the Bletchley Park museum of wartime cryptography, and the Milton Keynes Museum, which includes the Stacey Hill Collection of rural life that existed before the foundation of the new city.

Education

The city is home to the Open University, though the only students resident on campus are approximately 200 postgraduates. The majority of Open University students are distance learners. It is the largest academic institution in the UK with 180,000 students.

Cranfield University, another postgraduate school, is located just outside the city, in Cranfield.

Milton Keynes College provides Further Education to Foundation Degree level.

Primary, middle, secondary and special schools in Milton Keynes are connected to the internet through a mixed wired and wireless broadband network, known as MKSchools.net that serves over 25,000 pupils in 90 schools (listed on the MKSchools.net site and also in an older listing with links to many schools on the UK SchoolsWebDirectory.

Media

• Radio: Milton Keynes is served by three local radio stations.
  • BBC Three Counties Radio - Covers Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, including Milton Keynes and Luton. The station has offices in Milton Keynes at Willen.
  • FM 103 Horizon (103.3 FM) - Based at Crownhill this is a local commercial radio station playing mainly chart music and reporting on local news and sport.
  • Milton Keynes Hospital Radio Service - Laying claim to being Milton Keynes' first local radio station, MKHRS have been broadcasting via hard-wired connections to patients in Milton Keynes General Hospital since December 1984.
• Print: Milton Keynes has several local newspapers and local lifestyle magazines.
  • Milton Keynes Citizen - The main newspaper of Milton Keynes, with offices in Central Milton Keynes. The paper has local news, sport and an extensive property section
  • MK News - Smaller newspaper mainly focused on local news.
  • Style MK - Lifestyle magazine covering the cultural life of the city. Frequently has articles about Milton Keynes Gallery and Theatre. The magazine is a glossy publication largely aimed at afluent young professionals.

Sport

Template:Main Milton Keynes has professional teams in football (Milton Keynes Dons F.C.), ice hockey (Milton Keynes Lightning) and in basketball (Milton Keynes Lions). It is represented at amateur level in many sports, some at national level. For details see Sport in Milton Keynes.

Other Amenities

• Milton Keynes has a 200km network of cycleways/footpaths for pedestrians and cyclists called the Redway system, generally surfaced with red tarmac, which criss-cross most of city. The national SUSTRANS cycle network runs to and through the city. The Swans Way long distance path does the same.

• Central Milton Keynes has an important regional retail centre. It includes Middleton Hall that plays host to exhibitions, fairs and displays throughout the year.

• Milton Keynes is home to the National Badminton Centre and the National Hockey Stadium, (which is also the temporary home ground to Milton Keynes Dons F.C., pending completion of a permanent 30,000 seater stadium near Bletchley).

• The city is an important venue for street skateboarding. There is now a dedicated skate park[5] next to the bus station, but the wide spaces, slopes and edges of the main railway station plaza remain very popular.

• The BMX track is at Pineham (Template:Gbmappingsmall).

• There is a high security Prison, HMP Woodhill, on the western boundary of the city.

• There is an YHA youth hostel in Bradwell village at Template:Oscoor on the Sustrans long distance trail.

• The Theatre District includes many bars, pubs, restaurants and clubs.

• Nearby, the Xscape Dome includes Britain's first indoor snow slope, a multiplex cinema, sky-diving simulator and sports-related retail outlets.

• Near the station, the "Planet Ice" ice rink is used for professional and amateur ice hockey plus leisure skating. See Sport in Milton Keynes#Ice hockey for details.

• More than one million visitors come to Willen Lakeside Park each year to play, picnic, take part in watersports, jog, attend events or simply relax and watch the world go by. It is a walk of approximately 1.75 miles around the South Lake.

Pre-history

The historical settlements have been focal points for the modern development of the new city. Every grid square has historical antecedents, if only in the field names. The more obvious ones are listed below and most have more detailed articles. (See footnote Template:Fn for pronunciations of names.)

Template:Main articles

Bancroft

The foundations of a Romano-British farm are to be seen in what is now the North Loughton Park, overlooking the Shenley Brook. The brook valley here is part of the flood control system and there is a permanent wetland with associated plants and wild-life. The famous Concrete Cows are at the southern end of the park.

Bletchley

Image:Bletchley Park.jpg Bletchley was first recorded in the 12th century as Blechelai. Its station was a major Victorian junction (the London and North Western Railway with the Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Line), leading to the substantial urban growth in the town in that period. It expanded to absorb the villages of Water Eaton and Fenny Stratford.

Bletchley Park was home to the Government Code and Cypher School during the Second World War. The famous Enigma code was cracked here, and the building housed what was arguably the world's first programmable computer, Colossus. The house is now a museum of war memorabilia, cryptography and computing.

Bradwell and New Bradwell

The Benedictine Priory at Bradwell was of major economic importance in this area of North Buckinghamshire before the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The routes of the medieval trackways converge on the site from some distance (many of which are now Redways or bridleways). Nowadays, there is only a small medieval chapel and a manor house occupying the site.

New Bradwell, to the north of the medieval Bradwell (Abbey) and just across the canal and the railway to the east of Wolverton, was built specifically for railway workers. It has a working windmill. The level bed of the old tramway from Newport Pagnell to Wolverton ends here and has been converted to a redway, making it a favourite route for cycling.

Broughton

BroughtonTemplate:Fn was a tiny hamlet on the old Northampton to London turnpike, joining Watling Street at Fenny Stratford.

Caldecotte

Caldecotte is small hamlet, originally of 8 houses, in the south east of Milton Keynes near Bow Brickhill, now largely surrounded by a balancing lake.

Central Milton Keynes

Central Milton Keynes is built on the highest land. The original moot mound of the Secklow Hundred remains extant behind the central Library.

Fenny Stratford

The name Fenny Stratford is an Anglo Saxon expression meaning "marshy ford on a Roman road". The Roman road in this case is the Watling Street. There are traces of the Roman settlement Magiovinium on the edge of the present day occupation.

The town grew in the canal era, when the Grand Union Canal came through. With the coming of the railway, Fenny declined and was swept up by its neighbour, Bletchley that was growing to be an important railway town. There is still a small railway station here.

Great Linford

Written as Great Linford to distinguish it from the even tinier Little Linford across the River Ouse, the village is another on the Grand Union Canal. It appears in the Domesday Book as Linforde, and features a church to Saint Andrew dating from 1215. Today, the outer buildings of the seventeenth-century manor house form an Arts Centre, and the house itself is a prestigious recording studio.

Loughton

The present day name of LoughtonTemplate:Fn is Anglo Saxon, meaning 'Luhha's estate'. In the Domesday Book of 1086 the village was recorded as Lochintone. The village is in the linear park and hosts the National Badminton training centre and a major equestrian facility.

Milton Keynes Village

This is the original village to which the New City owes its name. The original village is still evident, with a pleasant thatched pub, village hall, church and traditional housing. The area around the village has reverted to its original name of Middleton, as shown on old maps of the 1700s. The oldest [6] surving domestic building in the area, a fourteenth century manor house, is here.

Shenley

This group of villages are on the west side of Watling Street opposite Loughton and were originally part of the larger settlement recorded in the Domesday Book as Senelai.

In Shenley Church End, there are the earthworks of a motte and bailey castle ("Shenley Toot") and its surrounding village.

Simpson

Simpson is a small hamlet on the old Northampton to London turnpike and on the Grand Union Canal. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Siwinestone.

Stantonbury

Little if anything remains of the original village that was Stantonbury. Today it is better known for its large secondary school, Stantonbury Campus.

Stony Stratford

Image:StonyStratford HighStreet01.jpg There has been a market in Stony Stratford since 1194 (by charter of King Richard I).

Two hotels in the centre of town, The Cock and The Bull were originally coaching inns on the main London to Chester and North Wales turnpike (Watling Street). Travellers gossip and rumour was exchanged at the two and was renowned for being far-fetched and fanciful. This is believed to be the origin of the Cock and Bull Story.

Tattenhoe

Just a few farm houses, a moat and a church[7] (1540) remain of historical Tattenhoe village and Manor — it was largely deserted in the 16th century. Nearby and just outside the city boundary, the foundations of the Benedictine Priory at Snelshall can still be seen.

Walton

Walton is listed in the Domesday Book as Waletone. Today, the manor house, Walton Hall, is the headquarters of the Open University and the tiny parish church (deconsecrated) is in its grounds. It is on the banks of the river Ouzel, a tributary of the Great Ouse, where there a disused balancing lake has been naturalised and is home to reeds, bulrushes, reed warbler, reed bunting, water rail, sparrowhawk, kestrel, green woodpecker, grass snake and many varieties of odonata. Surrounding the reedbed are ponds and open water, ancient hedgerows and hay meadow.

Willen

Image:MiltonKeynesPeacePagoda01.JPG The name Willen is probably from Anglo-saxon or old English meaning (at the) 'willows': the River Ouzel meanders through land ideal for willows. Today, there is a large balancing lake to capure flash floods before they cause problems down stream on the River Great Ouse. The north basin is a wild-life sanctuary and a favourite of migrating acquatic birds. The south basin is for leisure use, favoured by wind surfers and dinghy sailors. The circuit of the lakes is a favoured "fun run".

The tiny Parish Church (1680) at Willen contains the only unaltered building by the architect and physicist Robert Hooke still in existence and is a classic of the early English Baroque period.

Nearby, there is a Buddhist Temple and a large stupa (known locally as the Peace Pagoda), built in 1980 by the Monks and Nuns of the Nipponzan Myohoji and was the first to be built in the western hemisphere.

Finally, overlooking the lake, Willen Hospice provides specialist care for people whose illness no longer responds to curative treatment (also known as specialist palliative care).

Wolverton

Wolverton was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wluerintone. The original Wolverton was a medieval settlement just north and west of today's town. This site is now known as Old Wolverton, although the medieval village no longer remains. The Ridge and Furrow pattern of agriculture can still be seen in the nearby fields and the Saxon (rebuilt in 1819) Church of the Holy Trinity still sits next to the Norman Motte and Bailey site.

The newer area built for the railways in the 19th century assumed the Wolverton name when, in the 19th century became a town of some importance for the national rail network as carriages and engines for trains were constructed here. See also Wolverton railway station and Wolverton railway works.

Wolverton is separated from New Bradwell by the Grand Union Canal and the West Coast (railway) Line. Just north of Wolverton, the "Iron Trunk" Aqueduct carries the Grand Union Canal over the Great Ouse: this was considered a substantial engineering feat for the day and indeed the first attempt collapsed into the river.

The Woolstones

The twin villages of Great Woolstone and Little Woolstone are centrally located in the new city, yet retain much of their rural charm. They are listed in the Domesday Book as Wlsiestone, an Anglo-saxon word meaning "Wulfsige's farm". The Grand Union Canal runs alongside: the village pub was built to relieve the navvies of their wages and retains many original features.

Woughton on the Green

In the Domesday Book, Woughton on the Green was recorded as Ulchetone, an Anglo Saxon name meaning Eoca's Farm. The village had gained its more modern name by the mid 12th century when the manor was recorded as belonging to the Verley family. Over the years, the pronunciationTemplate:Fn altered to "Wufton". The village was originally just called "Woughton": the suffix was added in the Victorian era to distinguish the village from other nearby places with the same name. On the Green refers to the large grassy area that lies in the centre of the village: the traditional village green. The Grand Union Canal runs alongside.

Milton Keynes in popular culture

Miscellanea

• The city's road system, with its abundance of roundabouts and scarcity of traffic lights, is famously difficult to navigate for those unfamiliar with the city, while self-evident to locals. The resultant frustration for visiting motorists is almost certainly the origin of Milton Keynes' often surprisingly bitter reputation with out-of-towners. The city is notable for its number of roundabouts. Their number is far higher than is typical in British towns: for example, within the city limits, the A421 route passes through 13 roundabouts in a 10.7 km stretch, and the A509 route passes through 12 roundabouts in a 6.4 km stretch. A book called Milton Keynes Roundabouts led to further editions for other towns.
• Although the grid roads have conventional names such as Portway and Saxon Street, their original planning designations have stuck and locals are more comfortable with the shorthand "H5" and "V7" (where V is vertical or north/south and H is horizontal or east/west). The Vs are Streets and the Hs are Ways.
• The road that goes through the city centre, Midsummer Boulevard, is named because it is aligned so that the sun shines directly along it on midsummer each year.
• The courtyard area of the city train station which displays a Steam Engine (a replica London and North Western Railways' "Bloomer") is widely regarded as one of the best places to skateboard in Europe. Due to the arrangement of the pavements, skateboards can move freely and it has plenty of places to attempt "Grinds" and other skateboarding tricks. However in recent years, the Council has disliked the skateboarders' use of this area and has since built a skate park called Station Square across the street under the Bus station. (See Amenities above).
• Marshall Amplifiers and speakers, much loved by rock and heavy metal bands, is based in Bletchley. It produced the amplifier with a volume dial that went up to 11, for the spoof 'rockumentary' This is Spinal Tap.
• In the film Love Actually one of the background people learning to speak English says the line "Milton Keynes has many roundabouts".
• Milton Keynes provided locations for the films "Withnail and I", "The Fourth Protocol" and "Superman IV".
• Denbigh North Leisure (just north of Bletchley) was home to the Sanctuary Music Arena, a music venue that was pivitol in the development of the UK's dance music scene. It was demolished in 2004 to make way for the Milton Keynes football stadium and retail development.

Writers, artists and celebrities

• Many artists have played at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes and some have released DVD or audio recordings. See that article for detailed list.
• Milton Keynes also appears in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's book Good Omens, as an example of a town neither heaven nor hell take credit for, but both regard as a success: "it was built to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live. Many Britons find this amusing." The town is also parodied in the Robert Rankin book Web Site Story.
• The British Comedian Bill Bailey makes reference to Milton Keynes in his stand up show Part Troll, calling the city Satan's lay-by.
• The humourist Miles Kington once had a book cover cartoon with the caption "Miles Kington? I thought that was one of these dreadful new towns" — not simply an observation that his name resembles a place name, but almost certainly also a reference to Milton Keynes.
• The UK TV and radio personality Noel Edmonds is credited with tainting the image of Milton Keynes in the 1970s by repeatedly deriding it as a concrete jungle and the natural home of the famous Concrete Cows. The Development Corporation was quick to point out that Milton Keynes has over 20 million trees. The Concrete Cows are among the earliest examples of conceptual art.
• Milton Keynes is parodied as Milton Springsteen: It's Quite Nice, Really! in Alexei Sayle's book Train To Hell. Rather than concrete cows, Milton Springsteen features "android yokels."
• The Travel Writer Bill Bryson also features Milton Keynes in his book Notes From A Small Island, in which he gets lost in the pedestrian subway system, the redways, having decided not to ask for directions.
• Milton Keynes is the birthplace of Errol Barnett who is an anchor and reporter for Channel One News in the United States. He lived in Crownhill and attended Holmwood First School and Two Mile Ash Middle School before moving to the U.S..
• Contrary to (allegedly) popular misconception, Milton Keynes was not named after the poet John Milton nor the economists Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes (indeed "Keynes" in the latter is pronouncedTemplate:Fn "kay", not "key"), but after a village of the same name that already existed on the site of the proposed New City. The suffix 'village' was added creating the name Milton Keynes Village in 1991, to distinguish it from the larger city. The name Milton Keynes and its similarity to the names of the famous economists Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes has often led to various silly jokes. Once on the television show Yes, Prime Minister, when the PM Jim Hacker mentioned Milton Keynes, the person to whom he was speaking mentioned how Milton Keynes was an economist and the intellectual leader of the Freedmen.
• Recently the city itself became the subject for a series of works by locally born artist Mike Pinches. Pinches captures unusual, contradictory and bizzare images from the urban landscape of Milton Keynes. View his work here [8]
• Milton Keynes is home to the Ska-Punk group Capdown who are set to tour with Hundred Reasons and Fallout Boy in 2006. See a bio on Capdown here. [9]

Access

Rail

Milton Keynes has five stations —

• three on the north/south West Coast Main Line : Bletchley (MK south), Milton Keynes Central, and Wolverton (MK north)
• three on the east/west Marston Vale Line (the remnant of the Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Line) : Bletchley (again), Fenny Stratford, and Bow Brickhill (MK south-east).

Inter-city rail services run to Milton Keynes Central only.

Road

North/South

• M1 Northbound: J14 for central and northern areas, J13 for southern areas (Open University and Bletchley).
• M1 Southbound: J15A (via A45 then A5) for north side (Stony Stratford and Wolverton); J14 for Central Milton Keynes and south side.
• Also A5 (Watling Street) and A509.

East/West

• A421 (centre and south), A421 (north).

Many long-distance coaches (including National Express services from London Victoria Coach Station and Golders Green Bus Station) stop at the rather desolate Milton Keynes Coachway beside M1 Junction 14, near a park and ride car park, about three miles (5 km) from the centre (3.5 miles from MK Central station). Stagecoach operates a coach service (X5) running west to east (Oxford, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Cambridge). This service calls at MK Central railway station, Central MK and the Coachway. For connecting bus services, see MKWEB.

Cycle

Milton Keynes is served by routes 6 and 51 on the National Cycle Network. Cycle storage can be found along route 51 at Milton Keynes Central railway station (covered cycle racks) and at the junction of Midsummer Boulevard and Witan Gate, where there are storage and changing facilities available.

Air

The nearest international airport (50 km) is Luton, but there is only an hourly coach service from 06:00 to 21:00 from there to the centre and to MK Central station. This airport is mainly used by low cost airlines, notably Easyjet and Ryanair. Birmingham International Airport (100 km) is more mainstream, with frequent rail connections from Birmingham International railway station to MK Central.

The other London airports Heathrow, Gatwick and (especially) Stansted can be rather painful to reach by public transport if you are unfamiliar with local British transport idiosyncracies. The public transport route from these stations would have to involve a coach or train to central London, then a train (from Euston) or take a coach to Milton Keynes (from Victoria Coach Station).

There is an aerodrome at Cranfield (10 km from CMK).

Water

The Grand Union Canal (London/Birmingham) provides a major city axis.

External links

• The Official Milton Keynes website
• Unofficial site run by Milton Keynes' local newspaper the Citizen. Covers local news and sport
• City Discovery Centre
• General facts and figures about Milton Keynes from official council site.
• "What's on" and current affairs from council portal site.
• The Open Guide to Milton Keynes - an online community guide that anyone can contribute to
• Milton Keynes Heritage Association - including archeological links
• Milton Keynes Council
• Template:Dmoz
• General facts and figures about Milton Keynes
• Pictures of Milton Keynes
• This is Milton Keynes
• Milton Keynes Peace Pagoda, Temple, Medicine Wheel, and Maze
• Radio Free MK website - broadcast from within MK, a useful independent source for entertainment
• Milton Keynes Freecycle™ Group - Don't bin it - Freecycle™ it!
• Milton Keynes Inter Varsity Club, Social Club for people with a mainly university or professional background

Footnotes

Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Template:Fnb Pronunciation varies according to the speaker. The Received Pronunciation of Milton Keynes is Template:IPA, of Shenley is Template:IPA, of Loughton is Template:IPA, of Woughton is Template:IPA, and of Broughton is Template:IPA. Note how there is an example of each of the three phones in English for "ough".de:Milton Keynes eo:Milton Keynes nl:Milton Keynes no:Milton Keynes ru:Милтон-Кинс simple:Milton Keynes sv:Milton Keynes