How Britain Made a Dystopian City

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I knew this would be Milton Keynes before I even clicked the video

The problem with modernism is that its only "modern" for about 20 minutes before it looks like dated shit lol

I live right in the middle of Bedford , Luton and Milton Keynes. I’ll pick MK every time.

Love all the "Everyone British knew this would be Milton Keynes" - and yes, of course you do: It was the last time Britain tried building ANYTHING!

UK: "It's so awful and dystopian" US: "mall sweet mall"

As a British town planner, Milton Keynes is often used as a prime example of how not to plan a city

"Milton Keynes is a cross between a Centerpark and a category two prison".... That killed me! Very well done!

"it's ugly, it's ugly as f**k!" Love the blunt honesty 😂

If people don't like Milton Keynes, don't come to America. The majority of cities have long ago removed walking streets and such for cars, and there are even many newer cities that have no downtown. There are some where one can't find the city hall or even the government buildings. Just roads and chain businesses. Luckily, my hometown and one other nearby have attempted to create a walkable, private business area, but then charge astronomical parking fees.

As someone who grew up in Milton Keynes (moved there from Luton in 2000 as a 6 year old) and you’re spot on about most of the points here. HOWEVER I would say there are a couple more positive things from a local that I should mention: - Yes while the city centre lacks community, each neighbourhood (known locally here as “estates”) are like mini villages where everyone knows each other and it has a major community feel - because there’s so many parks and green spaces (and with cars being out of the way on main roads), it made playing out in the park super safe for kids which I enjoyed doing a lot when I was younger - Most people I went to school with were just like me, moved from London (or other nearby areas) for better housing and a higher quality of life and they broadly achieved that - The quality of houses in MK is pretty good and back in the early 2000s you could get a pretty spacious house for a reasonable price - while cars are required, the underpasses are connected to a cycling route (known as redways) and so the entire city is very bike-friendly (most people here have gotten around on bikes way before it was an eco-warrior trend) - The shopping centre is terrible but back in the early 2000s it was arguably one of the biggest attractions of the city and people from other cities would drive here for shopping (which seems bonkers now) - its location makes it so handy to travel to most places in the country (it’s 30 mins by train to central London, 20 mins to Luton airport and is a 1 - 1.5 hour drive to Birmingham, Leicester and Oxford) Overall, I would agree that it’s fairly soulless, but equally, it’s not so run-down that it feels dangerous or dodgy (unlikely nearby Luton, Bedford and Aylesbury) and I’m happy to have grown up there. Great video though mate, will be checking out a lot more of your content

It looks like a ghost town, but people still live there. That is the most creepy liminal space I have seen

The scary thing is all UK cities are slowly being turned into this. For a country that has so much history and beauty it's being destroyed regularly by soulless buildings and for profit. It's a shame we don't protect more of our history and buildings like other countries do

As a graphic design student, I didn't expect all the references to architecture history but they're greatly appreciated lmo

"it's a sunny day" - it's a cloudy day anywhere but England

I live here, in Milton Keynes. I don't own a car and I buzz around everywhere on my bicycle and I have to say it has the best bicycle infrastructure anywhere in the country with its separated 'Redways'. I can get from any part of the city to any other part of the city without really sharing any space with a car at all. And guess what... the Redways are very busy with people walking and riding their bikes/scooters. You don't see anyone when you are driving around, that is true. But get out of your car and ride around a bit and you see a lot of people. Yes, the new buildings were built in a modernist style and some of them were made cheaply and have not lasted, but that's not the whole story. The Open University is a lovely campus with some interesting buildings as one example. If you want to see older buildings they are everywhere since the original villages that were built around are still there. Woughton, for example, is as lovely as anything in the Cotswolds. What you did not talk about is that MK is a very green city. All those shots of desolate building sites in the 1970s do not look like that now because all the thousands of trees that were planted have now matured. There is a green stripe up the middle of the city which is the river flood plain and there are lakes at either end which are very beautiful. I think the car has been a poison to this country and its true that MK tried to accommodate the car in the North American way, but look at other towns around the country. Small pavements in the town centre and cars jamming the town centre and absolutely everywhere out in the streets of terraced houses near the town centre. A lot of your points are good, but you should come back and ride around on a bike and make a different video about how you can easily live here without a car.

The delivery of this video is just phenomenal, bravo bravo 👏👏👏👏

I don't know if Jimmy has been to the US but this is the majority of suburbia in all of North America.

I love the fact that Britain made an American suburb and realized what Americans haven’t. It’s dystopian!

I find it all the more fitting after watching this that Milton Keynes stole one of London's most beloved football teams and moved them 40 miles away. Corporatism without heart absolutely sums it up.