Covering 342 hectares (roughly 850 acres) across some of the highest ground in Milton Keynes, Central Milton Keynes is the city’s commercial and civic core. It lies between Portway (H5, A509) to the north, the West Coast Main Line and A5 to the west, Childs Way (H6) to the south and the Grand Union Canal to the east. The district is approximately 3.5 kilometres long by one kilometre wide, and its highest ridge reaches just over 110 metres above sea level, dropping to around 75 metres near the canal and 85 metres near Milton Keynes Central railway station.
Layout and Street Grid
The road grid runs in two directions. North to south, the main routes are Grafton Gate (V6), Witan Gate, Saxon Gate (V7), Secklow Gate and Marlborough Street. East to west, the primary routes are Silbury Boulevard, Midsummer Boulevard and Avebury Boulevard, with Midsummer Boulevard forming the main spine. During the original planning process, designers noticed that the proposed central streets would come close to framing the rising sun on Midsummer’s Day. According to subsequent accounts, Greenwich Observatory was consulted to calculate the precise alignment for this latitude, and the road grid was shifted by a few degrees as a result. In practice, though, the sunrise does not align exactly with the boulevard at first light – the sun is already somewhat elevated before alignment occurs, roughly 40 minutes after it first appears on the horizon.
History, Heritage and Campbell Park
Behind the Central Library lies Secklow Mound, a scheduled ancient monument that once served as the meeting place – or moot hill – for the Secklow Hundred, also recorded as Sigelai Hundred. It is one of the few physical reminders of the area’s pre-new-town history. East of Marlborough Street, Campbell Park occupies the larger portion of the district, stretching from the shops and theatre down to the Grand Union Canal. It was named after Lord Campbell of Eskan, the first chairman of Milton Keynes Development Corporation. The park has a belvedere with wide views east over Bedfordshire, a Light Pyramid beacon and a cricket ground with pavilion. The Milton Keynes Parks Trust manages the park and grazes sheep there to keep the vegetation in check. Central Milton Keynes also functions as a civil parish in its own right, with its own town council, placing it among the constituent towns of the city. Alongside offices, courts, the central railway station and government buildings, around 2,000 residential dwellings are spread across the district.