Sunday, March 3, 2024

Milton Keynes


Yesterday I took a day trip north of London to Milton Keynes, a surprisingly large, blandly modern "new city" that arose within my lifetime as a solution to housing shortages in greater London. Britain built several of these "new cities" in the middle of the last century. In this case, Milton Keynes swallowed up several smaller villages, including one that was its namesake, originally known as Middleton. It gained the Keynes when the de Cahaignes family controlled the manor in the Middle Ages; the Norman name later became Anglicized. One of the best-known Keynes descendants is economist John Maynard.

Anyway, I didn't pick Milton Keynes entirely randomly. There's an exhibit there at the moment of the photography of Saul Leiter, a mid-century New York photographer and painter whose work I admire. I thought I'd catch the show as well as take some pictures of my own.

I rode the train up from London (fun fact: there's a town on the way called Leighton Buzzard) and disembarked in late morning. The plaza in front of the train station is a candyland of pastels. I walked the wide, optimistically named Midsummer Boulevard into town, and at first I wasn't all that impressed. Milton Keynes is too new to be cool; it doesn't have the retro pizzaz of '50s architecture. It looks like a branch bank built in about 1984, with all the charm of a plastic bouquet.


But there is a lot of greenery and spaciousness, and by the time I got out to the Light Pyramid, a sculpture by Liliane Lijn standing on a bluff in a large park overlooking the valley, Milton Keynes was growing on me. (The Light Pyramid lights up for special events, but obviously I didn't see that.)

The middle of town is a gigantic shopping center. I browsed the mall for a while, although it was heaving with people. I had lunch and then went to the Leiter exhibit.

Leiter's photographs tend to be dreamy, mostly urban images with lots of layers -- he loved shooting through railings and past curtains and walls and cars, often grabbing just a fragment of a human figure beyond. He liked rain and snow, umbrellas and hats. His paintings, which are also part of the exhibit, are colorful abstractions, some of which he apparently used as bookmarks.


When I emerged from the gallery, the sun was out, which transformed the cityscape and gave me some more photo opportunities. Maybe not Saul Leiter quality, but not too terrible.




I slowly made my way back to the train and got home in mid-afternoon.

Last night we watched "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie," with Maggie Smith, on a DVD that I rescued from a library purge years ago. I've seen it before but for some reason I didn't remember it accurately. I thought it was the student played by Pamela Franklin who dies in the Spanish Civil War, but it's not -- it's a different girl entirely. I have the weird feeling I've realized this on past viewings, too, but it seems that erroneous memory is embedded in my brain for good.

22 comments:

  1. I need to watch The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie again. I saw it with my high school girlfriend when it came out- My introduction to Maggie Smith. Your photos are wonderful. I love the view line for the pyramid. I thought it was a boulevard that continued into the air. Milton Keynes doesn’t inspired me, however. Your description is perfect.

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  2. Did you spot the famous concrete cows?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_Cows

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  3. Steve's Big Day Out!
    I've heard of Milton Keynes many times but I didn't know what kind of place it was. I do now, and it is perhaps not on tourist maps. The mall does sound good though, with lots of people.
    Jean Brodie. Yes, I am sure I've seen that.

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  4. I remember The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It was the first time I'd seen Maggie Smith and have loved her ever since.

    I'm going to look for photos of the pyramid all aglow!

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  5. How is it that I've never seen that movie?
    Well, at least Great Britain tries to do something about creating housing. "New cities." Such an interesting concept to just BAM! create something so purposefully that generally arises organically over time.

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  6. he definitely had an interesting style with the camera. and what is that wall? screen? with all the rectangles?

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  7. Interesting, I didn't know John Maynard Keynes was related to the name of Milton Keynes. How do locals pronounce Keynes?

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  8. I looked up the city and then did a google view of, lots of green spaces which I love, and low buildings.

    Have you written about Leiter before? I recognized the photos when I clicked on your link.

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  9. I didn't know about any of these topics today and found it very interesting, Steve. I enjoyed Leiter's photos very much (and yours too!) Thanks for the tour!

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  10. Do people who live in the new cities live and work there? Do they have to commute into London? More housing is always good, it's just not always where people want to live. I do applaud the powers that be for making an effort.

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  11. I've wanted to do to Milton Keynes for a long time and have just never made it. I would love to visit Bletchley Park. The movie "Imitation Game" is what got me interested in the place.
    The town does look like something out of the 1980's. That building with the lattice-like structure in front is very interesting.
    I looked at the links you provided. Leiter's photos are fascinating. He has a style that I don't think would be easy to match with as much success. And, his paintings are beautiful. I love the colors in them. What a great day trip!

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  12. I have The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (the novel) on my TBR, perhaps for my next Classics Club list.

    I'm really drawn to that first photo. I see it as a two-lane highway leading up into the clouds! In fact, I can't UNsee that! Keeping in line with that theme, the big circle is like a portal into the clouds. I guess I watched too much Stargate back in the day.

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  13. The British have remade and modernized there country.

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  14. I much prefer older buildings although the comfort and maintenance of them can be problematic. I tend to romanticize those historic landmarks. It's strange how we remember the false over the true sometimes.

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  15. Wow - a lot of his photography looks like paintings. Maybe because they're from so long ago? Or maybe it's the composition of them. Very cool!

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  16. Was watching Slow Horses today, set in London, and one of the spies likes in a concrete behemoth of an apartment block with miles of stairs, a maze of breezeway balconies, and I thought how depressed I might be living there, also a shut in, as I could definitely not manage the stairs. London has such a wide range of architecture. You certainly found some charm in Milton Keynes, inspired light, you have the eye. Perhaps the gallery showing inspired you.

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  17. Wonderful photos! Building a city to accommodate the need for housing is brilliant. Hopefully it is a good success story and more will follow. The need for housing outstrips the availability.

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  18. I also have never seen "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie"! I tried to stream it today, but couldn't find it.

    I stayed in Milton Keynes on our way to London.

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  19. I just read about something in Milton Keynes recently -- maybe in the Londonist? Maybe this -- it was the name that stuck out at me. Not fond of the modern architecture but it sounds as though they do have much to offer. Now I'm off to check out Saul Leiter!

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  20. I took a philosophy class in college as an elective and our first class assignment was to read "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and write a paper on it. I turned in my paper and then the class discussion began. I realized immediately that I wasn't cut out to be a philosopher, at least not in the way my professor wanted me to be. So the next day I dropped the class and took a psychology elective. Much much better. But I still remember that book after all those years.

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  21. PS: We had to replace a part on Tim's tractor lately, and were surprised to see that the part was an old one, made in Milton Keynes! It's lasted 50 years!

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