Milton Keynes Area Info

the heart of the new city The new city centre has provided an opportunity to incorporate the best qualitites of established city centres with all the modern requirements for accessibility. Central Milton Keynes is without doubt the main hub of the city with business, commercial, leisure and food halls surrounding the shopping centre. The business sector extends from Marks & Spencers end of the shopping centre to the railway station. In this area there is also the leisure plaza, Argos Superstore, Homebase, etc. Access to the city centre is easy by just following the sign posts from the M1 motorway at junction 13 or 14 or the A5. Milton Keynes road system itself is split into horizontal and vertical roads based on an American road system and ensures easy access and movement around the city. Traditional towns and cities struggle with traffic congestion but because Milton Keynes has been planned with the car user in mind it does not suffer from the same problems and the so called rush hour hardly exists.

shopping The CMK shopping centre opened in 1979 and is home to more than 140 shops, stores and kiosks. The food centre with its supermarkets, freezer centre and specialist stores opened in 1988. Additional local and specialist shopping is spaced throughout Milton Keynes being in either each grid square or there are two regional shopping centres at Westcroft and Kingston. The city centre market is a big magnet to shoppers in the area. It is on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Marks & Spencers have just opened a new superstore and further extensions for the shopping facilities are planned. At the John Lewis end of Central Milton Keynes there are plans for a new Theatre at a cost of over £20,000,000 and also behind the food halls there are plans for the largest and most advanced snow dome in the UK at a cost of £23,000,000. Milton Keynes is growing at an significant rate.

leisure and recreation In Central Milton Keynes can be found the UK's first 10 screen cinema, since then the Winter Gardens has opened providing bars, night clubs, restaurants and the Living Well Health Club. There are five night clubs in Milton Keynes along with the Leisure Plaza for Quasar, Tenpin Bowling and a roller skating ring south of the city centre towards Bletchley. There are quite a few regional sporting centres through Milton Keynes and we believe it is almost possible to play any sport in the city apart from rock climbing! If you wish to play American Football we have a team and if you wish to play American Baseball there is also a team. Two sailing clubs are based at Willen Lake and Caldecote, just completed is the National Hockey Stadium close to Central Milton Keynes railway station.

housing Milton Keynes has a variety of properties in the area, mostly new build. There are old existing parts of the city which will offer older housing in small pockets and with the area of Milton Keynes you have Bletchley, Stony Stratford, Wolverton and New Bradwell which were existing towns. As of January 1997 Milton Keynes is 30 years old. Housing comprises from one bedroom studio flats through to executive housing along with the executive penthouses/apartments.

location Milton Keynes success has been largely down to its location within the UK being on the A5, M1 and the main Euston to Birmingham railway line and has attracted major industry into the area with many large organisations such as the Abbey National making their headquarters here. Milton Keynes has also attracted a lot of foreign companies from all over the world and the new industrial park in Kingston is proof of that.

redways As Milton Keynes was planned one of its main benefits is the walks, pathways and redways throughout Milton Keynes. Extending for over 250km the redways will take you into most parts of Milton Keynes to observe and explore the various stages of the cities growth. Although Milton Keynes is new it does have historical monuments and you can even pass by the concrete cows which have become an unmistakable trade mark of the new city throughout the world. The redways wind their way through scenic routes next to lakes, rivers, woodland and the grand union canal and go under or over all of the H or V grid roads so you can effectively walk or ride a bike from one side of the city to the other without really crossing a major road.

The facilities in Milton Keynes are truly excellent and people travel from miles around to come here for shopping, leisure, etc. Much more could be said but the best idea is to come and see it for yourself.