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I knew this would be Milton Keynes before I even clicked the video

The problem with modernism is that its only "modern" for about 20 minutes before it looks like dated shit lol

A little story about MK: at its centre is Midsummer Blvd, planned so that the sun sets along it at the summer solstice - very nice. At the top of the boulevard was a great, mighty oak to be framed by said sunset - even nicer. Then in the early 2000s the shopping mall was extended, and the oak tree incorporated in an open-air rotunda. The tree promptly died, so the centre-piece of the town is now a circular arrangement of shopping units surrounding an empty space where life used to be. This, to me, is peak MK.

"Milton Keynes is a cross between a Centerpark and a category two prison".... That killed me! Very well done!

UK: "It's so awful and dystopian" US: "mall sweet mall"

As a British town planner, Milton Keynes is often used as a prime example of how not to plan a city

MK resident of 34 years here (lived here all my life). I get what you're saying, but this city is still only about 50 years old, so it's still essentially an baby city. It's got the economic backing now with the Sandander HQ being here for example, and the Dons being fairly successful in producing some world class ballers, so I think we're going to see expansion, but I have hope that the city centre will also change over time, for the better. I think you're sorta right, sorta wrong about wanting classical architecture over modernist. In MK, there's a bunch of misses with this style, that's for sure, the point being the most sore example, but I've always thought midsummer place, the theatre and the art gallery are quite innovative and flow in an interesting way (not very well maintained, but that's another story). I really believe that the style does not maketh the vibe, it's the implementation and the approach to that style that does. So, the vibes are *very much* a work in progress, but given that it's not ALL disgusting (it really isn't) I think we can consolidate the better looks, and it will become better over time. Also, the nasty Xcape building? Might be because I've lived here forever, but I've always thought it looked kinda interesting. And besides, it was actually a big injection of culture into the centre, as it hosted the first ever indoor snow slope in the UK at the time of opening, so snow sports have had a place in this city for a couple of decades now. We also have one of the most challenging karting tracks in the UK, favoured by F1 driver superstars in their budding years, including lewis hamilton, not to mention close proximity to silverstone (granted, which is in northamptonshire). My belief is that the pockets of culture that we have, mostly in the village towns like stony stratford and newport pagnell, will propogate to the other parts of the city. Actually, this has already been happening, as culture-starved millenials and zoomers have been flocking to these areas. Most independent shops are here, you can go to an open mic and be blown away by the novelty and talent, not to mention most of the biggest touring indie/metal/alt bands play in these areas when they visit MK, and there's just generally a more intimate sense of community in the residential areas. Also, did you hear about our redways? Not that they're particularly good or anything, but we do technically have a non-road-vehicle infrastructure for bikes, e-scooters and whathaveyou. It's not bad in certain places, especially around the lakes and parks, but again, unmaintained! The crux of life in MK, is that yeah, most of the focus has been on outward expansion, not inward cultural growth, and I think this will be the case up until MK stops expanding outwards. As I said, it's a very young city still, and it's kinda mental to think that I'm part of the first generation in this city. Also, we're very proud of bletchley park and our history of hacking and computer science here in MK! Anyway, I've lived in this city for more than half the time the city has existed, and the main things that I've noticed changing is the development of farm land, that is still ongoing, and the constantly changing and re-developing city centre. It's kinda exciting to live in such a new town, but yeah, some parts of it are weird, I'll grant that, but I really think there's so much potential in this city, and I think that's why big-city commuters take a punt on it too. To close out this bloody essay, next time, COME BACK IN SUMMER. Literally, the best part of MK is when it's in full bloom. There's no other city that can boast the natural beauty that milton keynes has when you walk, bike or drive around. Go to the Tree Cathedral, Go to Campbell Park, Go to the Peace Pagoda, Go to Bletchley Park, Go to any of the Nature Reserves. There's a lot to love about MK, as long as you don't just focus on the consumerist parts ;)

I live here, in Milton Keynes. I don't own a car and I buzz around everywhere on my bicycle and I have to say it has the best bicycle infrastructure anywhere in the country with its separated 'Redways'. I can get from any part of the city to any other part of the city without really sharing any space with a car at all. And guess what... the Redways are very busy with people walking and riding their bikes/scooters. You don't see anyone when you are driving around, that is true. But get out of your car and ride around a bit and you see a lot of people. Yes, the new buildings were built in a modernist style and some of them were made cheaply and have not lasted, but that's not the whole story. The Open University is a lovely campus with some interesting buildings as one example. If you want to see older buildings they are everywhere since the original villages that were built around are still there. Woughton, for example, is as lovely as anything in the Cotswolds. What you did not talk about is that MK is a very green city. All those shots of desolate building sites in the 1970s do not look like that now because all the thousands of trees that were planted have now matured. There is a green stripe up the middle of the city which is the river flood plain and there are lakes at either end which are very beautiful. I think the car has been a poison to this country and its true that MK tried to accommodate the car in the North American way, but look at other towns around the country. Small pavements in the town centre and cars jamming the town centre and absolutely everywhere out in the streets of terraced houses near the town centre. A lot of your points are good, but you should come back and ride around on a bike and make a different video about how you can easily live here without a car.

As someone who grew up in Milton Keynes (moved there from Luton in 2000 as a 6 year old) and you’re spot on about most of the points here. HOWEVER I would say there are a couple more positive things from a local that I should mention: - Yes while the city centre lacks community, each neighbourhood (known locally here as “estates”) are like mini villages where everyone knows each other and it has a major community feel - because there’s so many parks and green spaces (and with cars being out of the way on main roads), it made playing out in the park super safe for kids which I enjoyed doing a lot when I was younger - Most people I went to school with were just like me, moved from London (or other nearby areas) for better housing and a higher quality of life and they broadly achieved that - The quality of houses in MK is pretty good and back in the early 2000s you could get a pretty spacious house for a reasonable price - while cars are required, the underpasses are connected to a cycling route (known as redways) and so the entire city is very bike-friendly (most people here have gotten around on bikes way before it was an eco-warrior trend) - The shopping centre is terrible but back in the early 2000s it was arguably one of the biggest attractions of the city and people from other cities would drive here for shopping (which seems bonkers now) - its location makes it so handy to travel to most places in the country (it’s 30 mins by train to central London, 20 mins to Luton airport and is a 1 - 1.5 hour drive to Birmingham, Leicester and Oxford) Overall, I would agree that it’s fairly soulless, but equally, it’s not so run-down that it feels dangerous or dodgy (unlikely nearby Luton, Bedford and Aylesbury) and I’m happy to have grown up there. Great video though mate, will be checking out a lot more of your content

I live right in the middle of Bedford , Luton and Milton Keynes. I’ll pick MK every time.

Love all the "Everyone British knew this would be Milton Keynes" - and yes, of course you do: It was the last time Britain tried building ANYTHING!

I'm both homesick and offended.

If people don't like Milton Keynes, don't come to America. The majority of cities have long ago removed walking streets and such for cars, and there are even many newer cities that have no downtown. There are some where one can't find the city hall or even the government buildings. Just roads and chain businesses. Luckily, my hometown and one other nearby have attempted to create a walkable, private business area, but then charge astronomical parking fees.

I love the fact that Britain made an American suburb and realized what Americans haven’t. It’s dystopian!

Walking through Milton Keynes "tent city" seeing dozens of tents in underpasses with homeless people heating canned beans with lighters, while wheeled robots roll on past them making deliveries to corporate offices, is probably the most dystopian thing I've seen. That city is so weird.

Anyone who lives in Milton Keynes had zero expectation this would be Mk from the title. It’s an awesome place to live you can get anywhere on a bike without crossing a major road. If there’s a hint of a traffic jam you just take a left and a right. There’s loads of stuff to do and everyone is reasonably friendly. With the exception of a few more worn out areas it’s a lovely modern place to be. Don’t be swayed too much by all this 1980’s archive footage. Check out the wharf / warbler, the la tour, willen benugo, xscape, snow dome, skydiving, ice skating, the mk bowl, football stadium etc all within a few mins drive. It’s an easy dig at MK because people think they know what it is, but I don’t think there’s a better place to live for normal people.

"it's a sunny day" - it's a cloudy day anywhere but England

Imagine trying to create utopia and ending up building a soviet's architectural wet dream

Well done 👍extremely interesting.,thank you for this.

Great presentation!! Very informative and entertaining! Thank you.

I don't know if Jimmy has been to the US but this is the majority of suburbia in all of North America.

As a graphic design student, I didn't expect all the references to architecture history but they're greatly appreciated lmo

Just discovered your channel and love the videos Jimmy! Great info, incredible style. Totally unique.

I’m from Milton Keynes and I really like it 🤣 it’s not soulless, it’s actually pretty busy most days, there’s a lot to do and I think it does have a community feel. Grew up skateboarding in the city and our community all knew each other, plus there’s great parks in the city.

I live in MK and would use the colour green to describe it overall, not grey. It's best experienced on foot or bike, not car. The clever road system prevents pedestrians and vechiles meeting. This video focuses on the shopping centre, which I agree is ugly, but is only a small area of the city. It's all retailers in this section, not houses, and the communities of people can be found in the streets surround it. Most UK town/city centres feel like this now people shop online and work from home more, so these spaces need to be reinvented. It's a city, so cant be compared to small villages or market towns with a handful of independent shops. Although we have lots of these too. What most other city's don't have though is the amount of parks, trees, lakes, and rivers that MK has. For me you get the best of both worlds in MK between nature and modern conveniences. But appreciate it's not for everyone, so not trying defending it, just offering an alternative perspective for those who have never visited.

As a foreigner, I've always thought there are 2 countries in England, London and not-London 😮

Even their football club is Americanised since it's a franchise itself 😭

I lived in Milton Keynes. You can't survive there without a car. It's literally an American style town in England.

I wish we'd go back to the old Gothic or Renaissance architecture and community focused spaces and just make it have the modern conveniences.

Another thing people dont mention about modernism is that's its cheaper to build. You don't need ornamentations and skilled craftsman, you can use cheaper materials that you can easily mass produced. Which is why a lot of old modern buildings seems to be falling apart due to them being built cheapily. Also another funny thing you don't need to have a building to be heavily ornamented to be beautiful, hell a lot of traditional building like old homes are pretty simple but feel much nicer and cozy. Its just that with modern buildings there more concerned on finishing it instead of putting the effort to make it look nice.

Awesome video. I've been to bakewell and buxton before many times so was awesome to see these lol

I love MK. Yes the centre like every city centre, has seen better days. But for me the design is superb. The best thing about MK is the parks trust and redways circling the whole city. I don't live there, but I still venture over that way just to have a day out walking around and enjoying all the beautiful green space, parks and lakes. Which co. exist perfectly with housing, industrial and retail. Yes parts are very american influenced but its design and accessibility is superb. Anyone that just goes to the centre and nothing else is missing out.

Funny enough Milton Keynes would probably be considered a pretty normal, if not well-designed city in North America

I live in one of these ‘new towns’ called Redditch and man this vid really pointed out some similarities. The fact that its heart is LITERALLY a dismal shopping centre with 99% of the shops being part of a cooperate chain really does make you feel shit. Yes it’s convenient and provides jobs etc, but after you walk round it for 10 mins you get the feeling its been copied and pasted from somewhere else - there’s no excitement. When the most exciting thing in your town is a big tesco you really start to question why did we become like this? Profit over novelty.

Just discovered your channel mate... it's really good, well done!

Milton Keynes always ranks near the top of ‘best places to live’ so they must be doing something right!

"Milton Keynes" sounds like the name of the man who calls you to tell you that your insurance claim has been denied, and in fact due to an accounting error your policy is several thousand in arrears.

Honestly, as someone who grew up in Milton Keynes in the 90's, the center was much better kept. It was an utter monument to consumerism, but when the corporation still owned it, they kept their consumerist cathedral sparkly clean and even did try to introduce some smaller shops and businesses that weren't huge chains. The city as a whole (But especially the centre) just has the air of a place that was grown on steroids as an overflow to London. No time to let culture develop naturally, we need a place for Amazon to store stuff. Give it a hundred years for some of the estates to collapse and re-develop, and I think we'll start to see some English townlyness start to grow.

Very entertaining content and i love your explanation about architectural culture, thanks dude!!

Great video!

I’ve lived in Milton Keynes for about 17 years now (moved at the age of 4, spent 4 years at uni) and honestly I love it. It’s not for everyone but growing up as a teenager without a lot of over sight it’s great. There’s lots of stuff to do as well as plenty of space to mess around with friends

I used to work for one of the Chief designers of Redditch (and others) - she told me that the original plans were no where near as modernist - the design team (not the architects) were struck and overruled again and again by the over zealous Modernist Architects ideas of streamlining, simplicity of construction, and efficiency . The original design (For Redditch, at least) was no where near as centralized - large green areas, parks, allotments, and a whole raft of 'local' shops, that were all veto'ed by the Architects, the reason they gave was cost/profit (Read: corruption, and mind-blowing overpricing from the contractors (Closely related to and in some cases even owned by many of the head architects.)). They just lumped the houses into ever smaller plots, and centralized the shops. These ideas were populated throughout many other town over the next few decades, and what we have now (in most large towns and our cities) is still without significant ability to actually maintain a community (I'm not talking physical infrastructure) that the original team of designers dreamed up. Shame, as it could have been so much better, human nature I suppose!!

England didn't get a McDs drive thru until 1986, not the 70s

As an introvert Milton Keynes sounds like paradise

Here in Essex, there is a dismal post-WW2 town called Harold Hill. Honestly, driving through it makes me feel like I am in some parallel Doctor Who universe in which Hitler won the war. The new town hall looks like a spaceship drawing by a toddler.

Lived there for 8 years as a kid. What people always said is that it's a horrible place to visit, but a lovely place to live, especially for families. I have to say looking back, I loved living there. All the parks and redways made meeting up with friends so easily, and being able to travel to school free of roads was great. It's honestly great for kids. Big up MK

Brilliant video man. Paris looks so nice.

This guys channel is AWESOME!

The scary thing is all UK cities are slowly being turned into this. For a country that has so much history and beauty it's being destroyed regularly by soulless buildings and for profit. It's a shame we don't protect more of our history and buildings like other countries do

The thing with the "form follows function" argument is that, really, it should describe how you described what a real culture or soul of a town has - the fudge shop, the marketplace, the positioning of churches, the spreading density of housing, the pedestrian Vs car layout etc all follow a naturally evolving function of what that town either needs, or what has happened and worked. So because it evolved naturally, the town has a beautiful form because it is based around the function of that town. The modernist "all in one" cities - equally too American suburbs or soviet new industry cities - fail to have this form from function because ultimately it comes down to what one single lead architect or planning council deems the needs and wants and lifestyles of hundreds of thousands of people. And because this sort of architectural / town planning dictatorship fundamentally does not have a democratic structure to its design, it will ultimately fail to bring about a city with a soul in at least some extent. Great video, and a nice plod through the relevant social history of the project.

Great video

This video was bloody brilliant!

2 uploads in 2 days??? You are really spoiling us this week. Happy Easter, and Thanks ☺, always a pleasure to watch.

Loved this, literally have a module at uni called ‘Making of the modern city’ which covers all of the things you mentioned in this video and more. Your video sums it up nicely, keep it up bro

We have a lot to learn from European cities. I've just been to Las Palmas and they have city blocks 8, 10 storeys high, densely populated supporting a thriving economy of shops and bars throughout. Our town planning is generally appalling

i haven’t been there for years but genuinely has been in my dreams and nightmares ever since there is no way to get the look of that place out of your head

I was surprised to see MK is the dystopian city, but I get why. I lived and worked in MK for nearly 7 years coming from a countryside town. I loved it. Everything was there, ski slope, rock climbing, national bowl, loads of 24 hour gyms that aren't rammed during busy hours, night life, green space was easy to reach and many of the estates had nice walks close by, the grand union canal was alright to walk by, easy access to London, Luton airport, the nearby small towns and there's variety in the restaurants. The grid system meant you can get from one end to the other in about 15 minutes, road works had little impact on the traffic and all in all the roads were pretty well looked after, the redways are handy for cyclists or people on electric scooters and I can't say I ever felt unsafe in the public spaces. But like you said, it has no soul and there's not a lot going for it beyond the big businesses being all there is to offer, you won't know what most buildings are unless you know what you're looking for, county lines gangs are rife given it's a short train ride from London and some rough estates means if you're aged 16 - 24 you're pretty fucked and there's a lot of issues within various areas with post code gangs being common on the less well off estates. The cost of getting on the property ladder is insane with a few years ago a 1 bed end of terrace house on an estate where there were murders costing £200k+ leasehold and some apartments having absolutely mental rent before the mortgage when you can get a 3 bed new build for less elsewhere today. It's great (coming from somewhere that's full of charity shops and bookies), Londoners couldn't believe how much green space there was and how cheap it was by comparison. If you're on good money you can enjoy what it has to offer, but MK has priced out most of the people that are born and raised there.

On the modernism style architecture, I think the reality of why we went down this route is because we developed ways to build and manufacture things en mass, and therefore things needed to be as simple as possible to be able to build efficiently at scale, and of course this inevitably sacrifices the nuances that make things beautiful. If you think prior to the Industrial Revolution, things were built the old school manual way, and so each building was bespoke to the architect who would dedicate their hearts and souls into one building.

This was a time and place when architects were caught in a bubble sniffing each other's exhaust and loving it.

Superb video. Superb.

great vid bro keep em coming

As someone studying Landscape Architecture and Urban Design to try and negate this decline in our cities and towns, i love this video! We need to shine way more light onto the dire situation, depressing inhuman spaces result in depressed and inhumane outcomes

I lived in one of the surrounding areas, and sadly i have very happy memories of the place, i genuinely love it.

As someone who has worked in MK for about 20 years, I think you're being a bit unfair to the place. I acknowledge that it doesn't have nice classical architecture but that kind of building hasn't been constructed for about a century, anywhere, so it's pretty unlikely that it would be used in a new town. Essentially, when I look at MK, I see a city built in a forest, or a forest built around a city. The city centre certainly is a massive commercial Lego construction but if you want little, independent, shops and cafes you just get in a car, go on a bus, ride a bike, or walk to the high streets of Stony Stratford (pretty) or Wolverton (pretty damned ugly despite being about a hundred years old) or Bletchley (also incredibly ugly but still has little independent shops in the Agora Centre), or you could go further afield to Olney, the Brickhills, or any of the other little towns dotted around the perimeter. I'm also not sure when you filmed the "there's no people here" bit because, other than in lock-down, the place is usually humming. The Centre:MK is usually rammed and there are generally people wandering around in any direction you care to look. The homeless issue, I would suggest, is a direct result of MK's success and prosperity. Most of the homeless in MK are not originally from MK, they came to MK because they perceive that being homeless in MK is better than being homeless in other places and there are better opportunities to get off the streets. To be fair, there are some bits of MK that are incredibly ugly but they are working on knocking a lot of those down (Serpentine Court, I'm looking at you). The monstrosities that were The Gables and Mellish Court are on the way out and whatever is built in their place will probably be better. It won't be neo-classical architecture but, unless someone finds a budget from somewhere, that style is gone forever.

The problem with Architects (I am a retired Architect) is that we work in a fashion industry. The history of architecture is one style after another, classical, gothic, renaissance classical, baroque, gothik, Victorian gothic, civic classical, modernism, post modern, deconstruction; it’s an endless cycle of what’s new today. It should be noted that everyone of these periods have thrown up shite buildings but as time goes by the worse are pulled down, that’s going to happen with MK. A big flaw with Modernism is that it could be dumb down and done of the cheap, with just a veneer of an idea. If you look at university buildings, the Barbican and the National Theatre, these tend to be the, much derided brutalist style but they tend to look ok and even liked because more thought was paid to them and the complimentary landscaping was not scrapped to save money. Finally the big issue is the scale of development, most of the urban realm you showed, that worked, grew organically and evolved as small plots were developed and redeveloped. I grew up in Dagenham on the, at the time, world’s largest housing estate. The houses and streets were laid out on what the LCC called the ‘Georgian cottage’ plan. That said, the critics highlighted a blandness in the look of the houses, a lack of pubs and shops, compared to the East End where the majority of residence came from. I think the underlying issue, is that we like the shiny and new but are not willing to pay for quality. Ornamentation is not a crime if it has meaning and purpose but it does tend to cost more.

Omg ! Just chilling eating my lunch watching this and my home town bakewell just pops up in the middle ! 🥰

I went out with friends in Milton Keynes, all I remember is walking through a parking lot for 45 minutes, to get to a different pub and the little grocery delivery robots on the streets. Felt strangely dreamlike

i've been binge watching your videos for the past few days since finding your channel. love every second of them

In 2007 I was an Art Deco fan and I championed Modernism. In 2024 I value Art Nouveau and ornamentation over bland block. How Art Nouveau architecture only really works on an individual bases this is how Modernist architecture is best constructed. Most celebrated Modernist buildings are isolated buildings, town and city wide modernisim is to austere. There's nothing to engage the human to its environment. Humans are not designed to be efficient, we're lazy, interactive, illogical dreamers that need stimulus. Modernism provides none of that.

I've been to that shopping centre. It was so bad that I nearly had a panic attack.

"it's ugly, it's ugly as f**k!" Love the blunt honesty 😂

Not an entirely fair assessment of Milton Keynes. I moved there in 1978 and left in 2010. The initial idea was that there would be no building taller than the highest tree and there would be lots of parkland separating housing estates. Yes, there were boxy buildings, but the shopping centre was beautiful to look at when first built. Not all modernism is ugly. Unfortunately, the clean lines and mirror glass exterior have been compromised by later additions that are ugly. Originally, the interior was light-filled, with lots of good public art. The flooring and benches were pale marble and there was attractive planting and a garden court with fountain. I agree that the early housing estates were experimental and often ugly. However, it actually seemed like a good place to live back then, with a decent quality of life. One of the things I remember was the cleanliness of everything. Since the Development Corporation closed and the council and private corporations took over, there was a noticeable decline in the maintenance of everything and it started looking shabby. Milton Keynes isn’t just the centre. There are well-established old towns like Stony Stratford, Newport Pagnell and Bletchley within it. If you want a 16thC pub, you’ll find several. If you want to walk in parkland, or by a lake, you can do that. There are ancient churches and pretty villages. It’s not as nice as it used to be, but from my own (anecdotal) point of view, a lot of the decline and ugliness now is down to a changing demographic that doesn’t make for a cohesive community and has brought in a lot of crime. One estate is run by Somali drug lords.

There is a special place in hell for Le Corbusier. It's a featureless concrete box with a narrow slot just above head height.

Dude, I’m an architect and i loved your whole bit about modernism :))) agree with it too to a degree..

Llewelyn-Davies wanted buildings that "reflected the needs of those who used it, no more, no less." What he didn't seem to understand was that "needs" can encompass not just practical needs, but also aesthetic ones. Beauty serves a real purpose, but because that purpose is intellectual, cultural, and psychological--something those doctrinaire architects didn't understand--woefully inadequate environments were created that weren't fit for human habitation.

As a proud Hemel boy . Thank you for letting the world know about our shithole and the suffering we endure /

I've lived in Milton Keynes my whole life, this was such a great watch! I walk a lot around the city centre and it never really dawned on me just how lonely it is, what you said has really resonated with me and will be something I think about next time I'm at the city (thankfully I moved to Stony Stratford this year, which I hope you got to see!) Thank you for spotlighting The Point, it's the only piece of iconic architecture left and because Milton Keynes Council are beyond corrupt, it would be around much longer despite it's legendary status as the UKs first multiplex cinema, as well as a great venue that wouldn't have looked out of place in your rave video. Believe it or not the city centre building received listed status, yet The Point was denied it on two attempts despite input from the BFI. I'd love to know the sources of the old footage you used too, great stuff!

Love your channel dude really good work. It’s important this subject. So, so important to how we feel collectively day to day and everyone takes the historical beauty of many of our towns and cities totally for granted. Modernism is so perplexing!

I knew this would be Milton Keynes, recognised the song instantly. I'm very happy to say that I haven't seen anywhere else like it!

Years ago, I took one of my secondary school classes on a study visit to Milton Keynes. They were to compare the town with our own more traditional town for their coursework. At the end of the day, we went back to the railway station. I became aware that the whole group was standing staring at something. As I came up to them, I asked what they were looking at, and several pointed at a window. I must have looked confused because they said, "Can't you see? It's round! We've not seen anything that's not square in the rest of the town!" I asked them if they liked Milton Keynes. The words that they used were "prison", "slum", "fake", "boring", and "creepy". Not one liked the place. Not one wanted to live there.

Jimmy - How Britain Made a Dystopian City Me - London...?

i was in milton keynes (more towards bletchley) yesterday, crazy how 90% of it is just a human storage unit filled with new builds to house a growing population

16:01 Bakewell local here ❤ common mistake: the town is not home to the Bakewell Tart. The Bakewell Tart is an American treat that has no origins in the town of Bakewell; what the town IS known for is Bakewell Pudding. Sounds similar but it’s very different: it more closely resembles a fruit tart with a jammy, gooey centre and pastry on the outside. Also my dad is from Buxton and sheeeesh that place is rough 🤣😅

I work in Milton Keynes. I used to work in the point even. The problem is the area is just run down like most of England. All the money has gone. I wonder where? It's a real head scratcher to where all the public purse has gone.

I always found it a jarring experience. Coming from a small town up north and visiting London to see family, coming here for training for my job it felt like a dystopian version of Pixar’s cars. It always made me feel uneasy and like I was being watched or something.

I find it all the more fitting after watching this that Milton Keynes stole one of London's most beloved football teams and moved them 40 miles away. Corporatism without heart absolutely sums it up.

Bro, I found your videos with the British guy trope and I have to say, great content! Is crazy the consistency and quality of your videos tbh.

2 brilliant videos in 2 days about 2 totally different topics. Happy days.

I grew up in 'livingston' new town in Scotland, a very fascinating video. 🤔 Thank you.

Yeah. I remember when I had the clean restaurant ductwork there on Midsummer Boulevard. Upon arrival, my honest reaction was: "This place is eerie as fuck, let's get the job done and get the fuck out of here"

Beauty is aspirational; when we see something beautiful (art, architecture, mountains, wild rivers, etc.) we seek to be better in all we do, we seek to match that beauty in our works. The Postmodern brutalists hate humanity, and they seeked to make the beautiful ugly and said that is what we needed. And we see their influence today, and how it's probably gotten worse.

Confession time: you know, I always believed the name Milton Keyenes to have had been chosen in some sort of bizarre post-war homage to economists Milton Friedman and John Maynard Keynes (despite their diverging theories), completely ignorant of the name deriving from the ancient village Middleton Keynes.

It looks like a ghost town, but people still live there. That is the most creepy liminal space I have seen

As someone who lived in Milton Keynes through the 90s as a kid and also '03 to '05 as a teenager/young adult, I have seen a lot of changes, especially now any time I visit. I still know a lot of wonderful people there, and there is a scene there, although rather small. It is where the bands King Prawn, Capdown and Project Noise are from. The center sucks arse, but there are quite a lot of cool places, such as the old roman villa ruins in Bancroft, there is the site of an old medieval settlement in Woughton on the Green, which also has a pub from the 1700's that the legendary highwayman Dick Turpin apparently used to stop off at when he was on his rounds. There is a lot of lovely green space, which is rather lovely for bimbling around in amusingly altered colourful states. But yes, I agree, weird, dystopian, and deffo why I moved from the place many years ago, but however I still visit occasionally to see some marvelous people I know there. Anyway, I digress here is a little tune about MK that goes to the tune of "I love rock and roll": 🎵Milton Keynes is weird, concrete cows and roundabouts yeah Milton Keynes is weird, there is only one hill and that is man made.... 🎵

*shows a wide shot of a street in front of a bureau building in the middle of the day with a person walking in the background* "There are literally no people here!"

I live in Bedford. The best thing I can say is that cycling infrastructure- the Redway system- is excellent. However no one really lives in MK. They all live in these artificially cultivated “ villages “ that surround the city centre. It’s sterile and cold. Shopping is decent I guess. And there’s an Ikea…

The guys from Clutch have a side project (Bakerton Group) and one of their songs is called 'All's well in Milton Keynes". Good tune

Reminds me of Coventry and another place I visited that was so new that it had nothing to look at.

I live in MK. Moved from London... I'm a major introvert but I am still SO BORED here. There aren't many "third spaces" for people to just hang out and enjoy the vibes, so it's near impossible to meet new people. Like you mentioned, living here improves slightly in the summer when you can spend time outside in the many parks, and it is a good place for families I guess, but MK has absolutely nothing going for it if you're a young single adult... I hope to not be here too long.