Frame of my Mind

I travelled to Milton Keynes on Wednesday evening – Justin went into hospital for an operation and I was the ‘responsible adult’ to escort him home, but have been playing nurse since. Milton Keynes is one of the country’s ‘New Towns’ built in the late 1960s to 70s along with the likes of Telford and an expanded Northampton. The New Towns Act 1946 (later 1964) was an act which proposed the construction of meticulously planned complete towns to help with housing shortages in and around London after World War II. Since then, ‘New Towns’ have popped up all around the UK.

I do find it somewhat interesting that you can plan an entire (often very large) town including shopping centres, public facilities and housing from the outset. Milton Keynes was built using a grid pattern at 1km intervals (which you can see from Google Maps) – each grid square contains its own little community. In the centre of Milton Keynes there is a huge, glass enclosed shopping centre which my friend calls the ‘Temple of Capitalism’. Officially, thecentre:mk. Essentially it’s a cross between high street shopping and a mall. You don’t get wet on rainy days, but access to shops is only on one floor. This concept is appealing to me; I wish all British high streets were shielded from our crap and unpredictable weather!

The style of the entire town is modern – I haven’t seen any ‘traditional’ architecture (yet) and the developers were obviously big fans of glass enclosures and tropical plants. The similarity between the different estates is almost eerie. I don’t think you’d know what part of Milton Keynes you were in if someone put you somewhere at random.

Milton Keynes has a more important connection to my life than simply being home to Justin. Bletchley Park (now a part of Milton Keynes) was the place where, during World War II, the Enigma code was broken by numerous cryptanalysts including my idol Alan Turing – often referred to as the father of modern computing. He did a lot of work during his life on cryptography and artificial intelligence – subjects that I am studying at university. Not only was he a huge influence on computer science but he was also gay during a time when homosexuality was illegal in the UK. He was made to undergo hormone treatment to reduce libido in order to avoid imprisonment. Sadly, he took his own life by biting into a cyanide laced apple reminiscent of the fairytale Snow White – apparently his favourite. There is a statue in memory of him in Bletchley Park now and I hope to see him someday.