Milton Keynes is a city near Buckinghamshire, best known for its concrete cows and for having the largest indoor ski slope in Britain. Here are 10 things I bet you never knew about Milton Keynes.
It’s not actually a city
Although designated as a city back in 1967, it has never actually been successful in its bid for city status. Despite this, locals still refer to it as a city and there are buses and signs around town helping you to get to the “City Centre”.
The famous local football team is only nine-years-old
Some people have pants older than the local football team. Despite this, MK Dons play in one of the top tiers of English football and are quite a well known club. This is due to the controversial circumstances in which they were founded; after years of protests, debt ridden Wimbledon FC moved to Milton Keynes, changing their name to MK Dons. This angered many fans of the former FA Cup champions, who refused to follow them the 56 miles from their former home, forming a breakaway club instead.
Superman IV was filmed here
Well, at least some scenes were. Superman gave quite a rousing speech to the United Nations at the Milton Keynes railway Station.
It was designed by a world famous architect
Award winning architect, Sir Norman Foster, best known for his work on landmark structures, such a Wembley Stadium and St Mary Axe, played his part in the design of Milton Keynes with Beanhill Housing. It wasn’t his best piece of work unfortunately, as locals complained about leaky roofs and they were soon replaced.
Milton Keynes gets over 100,000 foreign visitors a year
Despite often being the Butt of many a Joke, Milton Keynes still manages to draw in the tourists, thanks to the Bletchy Park Museum, were code breakers once played a big part in the defeat of the Nazis during World War Two.
It’s designed on a grid structure
This is not a typical design for a large English town. Similar to Manhattan, horizontal roads are called ‘way’, while vertical ones are called ‘street’. This makes finding your way around easy.
Milton Keynes has a number of famous residents
Famous residents include – Kevin Whatley , Cleo Laine and Sir John Dankworth.
Milton Keynes has over 22 million trees
Although more famous for its oversized roundabouts, Milton Keynes regularly features in Britain in Bloom town competitions and often feels more like the countryside in some places, thanks to the variety of greenery lining the streets.
The World Cup was once planned to be hosted in Milton Keynes
On the 2nd of December 2010, all the locals, retailers, electricians, carpenters and builders Milton Keynes possessed braced themselves for the announcement of who would host the 2018 World Cup. Milton Keynes had made the short list of the 11 host cities for England’s bid. The bid was unsuccessful, as it was awarded to Russia instead.