Milton Keynes was built in the late 1960s. Planning control was taken from elected local authorities and delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation to create a new town in the Southeast of England to relieve the housing congestion in London.

Its defining urban structure is the grid plan organised around a shopping centre which was conceived as having the dual function of a city centre and high street. The original shopping building, a modernist cube with large panels of glass and sleek features completed in 1979, had no doors and promoted pedestrian access at all times. The current redesign of the shopping centre started in 1999 when the Central Milton Keynes Review took place.

In 2000 the shopping centre was extended and Midsummer Place opened. While Milton Keynes has currently a population of just over 200,000 it has been identified by the government as one of four major Growth Areas in the South East of England with a projected population increase of approx 110,000 by 2031.

 

Major regeneration schemes are underway in its city centre including a £20 million redevelopment of the shopping centre starting with the redesign of Queens Court.

 

MK shopping centre MK shopping centre Milton Keynes shopping centre