The arc joining Midsummer Place to the Centre:MK |
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| Location | Milton Keynes, United Kingdom |
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| Opening date | September 25, 1979 |
| Developer | MKDC |
| Owner | Prudential, Hermes, and Legal & General |
| No. of stores and services | over 260 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 |
| Total retail floor area | 1,790,000 ft² (166,000 m²) [1] |
| Parking | over 17,000 spaces nearby |
| No. of floors | 1 |
| Website | thecentre:mk Midsummer Place |
Central Milton Keynes Shopping Centre is a regional shopping centre located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England which is about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of London. It is managed in two separate parts, thecentre:mk and Midsummer Place. Thecentre:mk is a grade II listed building.
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The Milton Keynes Development Corporation began work on the Shopping Building in 1973. It was to be the largest building of Central Milton Keynes and built at the highest point in the new city. The architects were Derek Walker, Stuart Mosscrop, and Christopher Woodward, who had all been significant architects at the MK Development Corporation; and the engineers were Felix Samuely and Partners. The shopping area was opened on 25 September 1979 by Margaret Thatcher.The building's sleek envelope accommodated 130 shops and six department stores, arranged along two parallel daylit arcades, planted with sub-tropical and temperate trees.
The cool, elegant, steel framed design was influenced by the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and envisaged glazed shopping streets or arcades on the grand scale of the Galleria in Milan. Derek Walker also likened it to the Crystal Palace.[2] It was described in 1993 as "still the best-looking if no longer the biggest shopping centre in the British Isles".[3] It is unusual for second generation shopping centres in Europe for the amount of daylight allowed into the public areas, for the rigorous control of retail facias along the arcades themselves, for its public art, the unusually high level of accessibility for visitors with limited mobility (and other users laden with children and shopping), the lavish extent of the public spaces and their interior planting (reduced since the buildings was completed) and for the cool mirrored exterior.
The building, designed by Derek Walker Associates for Milton Keynes Development Corporation, is a good example of Miesian modernist minimalism in glass and steel.[4]
Milton Keynes Shopping Building was designed with the public access to all the shops is flush and at ground level. Some of the shops then have two or three floors inside. A service road for deliveries runs above the shops, so that large lorries may service the shops at roof level, removing the peripheral service roads and loading bays at ground level that mar so many large shopping centres. This means all deliveries take place out of view of the shoppers, though lorries can sometimes be seen from the arcades as they pass at high level.
The internal landscaping, designed by Roger Griffiths and Tony Couthard, was very lavish with 47 plant beds with large plants and trees; temperate in the northerly arcade and semi-tropical in the southerly one. The planters were finished in the same travertine as the floor, but approximately one third of these have been removed since the building was opened, with consequent loss of both planting and seating for shoppers, in order to accommodate market barrows and stalls.
There were two large public areas, intended as civic open spaces, one indoors and one open air. The open-air garden square (Queen's Court) which is currently closed for redevelopment as a restaurant quarter and its reflecting pool and sculptures have been removed;[5] The indoor space is 1,800-square-metre (Middleton Hall).[6] During 2010, Middleton Hall was used as a temporary home venue for the Milton Keynes Lions basketball team, housing a 1,200-seat arena. Midsummer Place was a later phase, built around an existing oak tree in an open area (Oak Court) that survived until it succumbed to acute oak decline from about 2008.
Outside the centre is an open-air market.
In 1993, the building was extended at the western end, over much of what had been City Square to the even greater length of 720 metres. In architectural style this extension is similar to the original, though the join can be detected internally by the low ceilings and dark corrdors in the extension, quite unlike the handsome arcades of the original phase. Following extension this was documented in the 1997 Guinness Book of Records to contain the longest shopping mall in the world.[7]
Midsummer Place is effectively a southwards extension of the centre, but it was a planning requirement that it did not physically attach to the original building. Midsummer Place was designed by GMW Architects of London and opened in 2000. Part of Midsummer Boulevard had to be closed to traffic allow this to be built.
A kinetic sculpture (Circle of Light, 1980) by Liliane Lijn hangs from the ceiling of Midsummer Arcade. The mechanism has not operated for many years. It was originally floodlit at night and is on the axis of the midsummer sun on which Midsummer Boulevard is accurately orientated.[8][9][10]
Silbury Arcade contains three bronze figures (Dream Flight, Flying Carpet and High Flyer, 1989) by Philomena Davidson Davis, former president of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.[8] Nearby, in Deer Walk, a mosaic pavement (circa AD 320) from the Roman villa at Bancroft is on display.[11] These works were previously sited in Queen's Court.[12]
Before being redeveloped, Queen's Court also contained:
Oak Court contains:
The Midsummer Place building contains:
In 1981, the building and its surrounding vicinity were used for the filming of the music video Wired for Sound by Cliff Richard. Filming took place at the eastern end of Midsummer Arcade (the distinctive tiling outside the John Lewis department being clearly visible), outside Norfolk House and in nearby underpasses. The building was also used as a location for still photography on the first self-titled album by Duran Duran.
In November 2008, English Heritage (the Government's advisor on historic buildings) recommended to the Culture Minister that the original building be designated a "II*" listed building which, the owners say, would curtail severely their ability to alter it if awarded.[16] The Twentieth Century Society responded that this belief is unfounded.[17]
It won a number of prizes when constructed and remains a valued element of Milton Keynes.
In July 2010, the Heritage Minister, John Penrose, advised the owners that he had decided that the building merited a Grade II listing, to applause from the 20th Century Society and other conservationists.[18]
The Milton Keynes Partnership and the centre owners aim to expand thecentre:mk. In the original plan (suspended since mid 2007), Phase 1 of the redevelopment programme would include a new department store on the south side (for which the outdoor market would be moved southwards and Secklow Gate flyover would be closed), the colonnade on the west of Middleton Hall would be removed by expanding the shops into it, Crown Walk would be opened to allow pedestrian access through the centre after the shops close (shortening evening journeys on foot considerably), a restaurant quarter would open in a re-landscaped Queens Court, and an "enhanced" entrance would be created on the north side.[19] Phase 2 may include expansion at the eastern end. However, these plans were put on hold by the centre owners and only the work in Queens Court went ahead.[5][20][21]
The plans are controversial because they would mean the loss of the minimalist appearance of the building, the clarity of the layout and public spaces in the building. The closure of Secklow Gate was even proposed, remioving the rooftop loading facility that is such an important feature of the building. Additionally, objectors say that the plans to erect dwellings in the central area run the risk of hampering movement around and in and out of the centre as well as spoiling views of the shopping building.[22]
Independently of the Centre management plans, Milton Keynes Council transport strategy calls for Midsummer Boulevard to be re-opened through the Midsummer Place to thecentre:mk to facilitate a "public transport spine" bus route along the Boulevard, from the station to Campbell Park.[23]
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