Essential Hotels > England > Buckinghamshire > Milton Keynes

Milton Keynes is perhaps the most famous of England’s New Towns, constructed relatively recently in the 1960s, and is found in the county of Buckinghamshire. Named after the nearby village of Milton Keynes that had existed many years prior to the introduction of the new town, Milton Keynes or MK as it is often called is well known for its many roundabouts, its grid-like road structure and its abundance of concrete.

Buckinghamshire’s largest town, Milton Keynes encompasses the suburbs of Bletchley, Wolverton and Stony Stratford. It was designed so that it would be approximately equidistant from London, Leicester, Cambridge, Oxford and Birmingham, and it was hoped that it would one day accommodate 250,000 residents and become a city. Indeed, between the years 2000 and 2002 the town applied for official city status, however the bid was rejected on each occasion. Despite this, residents still refer to Milton Keynes as a city.

Before this part of the country was earmarked for the development of a New Town it was made up largely of small villages and farmland. In the 1950s overspill housing was built in Bletchley to help ease pressure on London, while the 1960s brought further plans for expansion to the Milton Keynes site. The town was unveiled in 1967 and it was hoped the settlement would be, one day, big enough to become a city. It has modernist designs, such as a grid system of roads and plenty of parkland and lakes. Milton Keynes is the largest and is almost the last of the New Towns to be built after the Second World War. Interestingly, it was initially planned not to have any building above the height of the tallest tree although this was later scrapped to pave the way for more character in the town.

In an effort to create something of a culture Milton Keynes has a number of features of interest dotted around its various streets. The Milton Keynes Theatre can hold up to 1,400 people while there is also the Milton Keynes Gallery, the Milton Keynes City Orchestra, the Milton Keynes Museum and the open-air National Bowl which has 65,000 seats for events. Other places to visit include Bletchley Park and the Xscape snow sports centre. The National Hockey Stadium is found in the town and is where Milton Keynes Dons, formerly Wimbledon Football Club, play their home fixtures.