AJ Buildings Library: Milton Keynes Shopping Centre (1979)

Milton Keynes Shopping Centre, designed by Derek Walker, Stuart Mosscrop and Chris Woodward, from the Milton Keynes Development Corporation was one of the first buildings to be constructed in the new town and was designed as a model for the modern town centre.

At the time of construction the glass-covered shopping centre was the largest building in the new town and the longest shopping centre in the world - 130 shops and six department stores were arranged down two parallel daylit arcades to allow all of the retail spaces to be accessed from ground level.

A service road ran above the centre to give delivery lorries access to shops at roof level, removing the service roads and loading bays from the ground floor.

Many of the early designs for buildings in the new town were strongly modernist and the design of the new shopping centre was seen as an opportunity to modernise, incorporating a High-Tech style into a minimalist ideal.

Earlier this year the first phase in Allies and Morrison’s long-term plans to expand and remodel the centre, the renovation of the centre’s open-air garden square, Queen’s Court, was completed. Heritage Minister John Penrose decided in July 2010 after the completion of Queen’s Court that the shopping centre merited a Grade II listing.