Shopping Building

This shopping centre stands at the heart of Milton Keynes and was designed as a covered 'high street' for this car-centred new city. Built in a Mies van der Rohe-inspired modernist idiom, the building is characterised by its extensive use of steel, glass, and travertine marble.

Form and Structure

The centre consists of a single exceptionally long block, 650 metres in length, organised around two parallel glass and steel arcades that form its twin spines. These arcades — Midsummer and Silbury Arcades — run the full length of the building and are each 12 metres wide and 14 metres high, naturally lit and weather-protected. The building is constructed on a rigid steel frame that establishes a 6-metre and 12-metre grid throughout. Great care was taken with the steelwork, produced by Boulton and Paul using a process called 'upward teeming' which gave a smooth surface finish, and very fine tolerances were set for alignment during erection.

The building provides shopping on a single storey, with stores and service areas for the shops above, and rooftop servicing and delivery facilities accessed by a raised road called Secklow Gate that runs over the development. The centre is hemmed in by arterial and access roads and stands beside a car park and service road set slightly below the surrounding boulevards (Silbury Boulevard and Midsummer Boulevard to north and south).

Exterior

The perimeter walls and the pair of parallel ranges at upper level are expressed as a glazed curtain wall system, with an external steel frame filled with mirrored or clear glass set in neoprene gaskets. There are 18 entrances from the long car park and service road, providing parallel access to the two arcades. Significantly, there are no steps anywhere within the building, enabling level access throughout.

The shops are arranged in three bands. The middle band contains the department stores and two public squares: Queen's Court to the west (originally an open square, converted to a food court and reopened as such in July 2010) and Middleton Hall to the east (an internal market place used for fairs and exhibitions). The two main anchor stores occupy the east and west ends. John Lewis projects proud to the east; the original western end, Dickens and Jones (now House of Fraser), was reconstructed wholesale after an arson attack. The bands to north and south house smaller shops with frontages both to the internal arcades and to the building's perimeter. Secondary pedestrian walks, considerably lower and 12 metres wide, run at 90-metre centres connecting the two main arcades and giving access to exits (the doors here are later additions).

A western extension housing Marks and Spencer was added in 1993–94 by PDD Architects. Originally envisaged in the initial concept, this extension encroached on the City Square (originally conceived as a large public square featuring pavilions, flagpoles and public amenities). It was designed in the same materials as the original building, although the full-height glass shopfront is of a predominantly vertical design, as opposed to the linear arrangement of the original building. This late 20th-century addition is of lesser architectural interest but demonstrates the ability of the original concept to accommodate change and enlargement.

A large extension called Midsummer Place lies to the south of Marks and Spencer and cuts across Midsummer Boulevard, but this is separated from the older building by a gap and is not included in the listing.

Interior

The numerous entrances lead into two long and airy arcades, whose tall glazed upper sections allow dramatic views of the sky. The volume and airiness of the large Middleton Hall contribute significantly to the spatial interest of the interior and provide an interesting multi-functional space.

Throughout the building, pale brown travertine marble is used for floors (filled) and wall veneer (unfilled); in some areas this has been renewed with another kind of similarly coloured limestone. Running down both arcades are 47 narrow rectangular travertine planters containing exotic planting including palm trees. Along the edge of the planters are long travertine bench seats. Some stainless steel seats and railings have subsequently been set into these; this metalwork is not of special interest.

The internal small shopfronts are mostly later replacements and not of special interest. However, where original finishes survive — such as travertine stall-risers and fragmentary survival of stainless steel surrounds — these are of special interest. An audit completed in 2011 showed that about seven shops retained their stainless steel or chrome surrounds and about five retained travertine upstands or other travertine entrance detail. Exposed stanchions with sloped feet (added in the 1990s to help repel rubbish and dust) contribute to the aesthetic as well as forming the structure.

The outside (but internal) wall of John Lewis is faced up to about 4 metres high with various shades of brown tiles that pick out 'John Lewis' in large blocky lettering by Robin and Lucienne Day. John Lewis also retains original stainless steel surrounds and travertine upstands to its interior shopfront. The interiors of the shops, being subject to change, are not regarded as of special interest, including windows and doors which have in many instances been replaced.

Design Character

The public squares and the arcades are the most important elements in design terms, having a clear and precise Miesian form which is unique for a shopping building. In addition to the clean lines created by the planting and seating, the shopfronts are set back behind the line of the building grid and projecting signs are not permitted. The individual fit-outs to the shops are not generally of special interest, but they were originally conceived to a design guide which respects the dominance of the original frame, and some retain stainless steel surrounds.

Originally the building had no doors and was intended to be a focus of Milton Keynes life outside shopping hours as well as during the day, but the building has been closed at night for some years. Deliveries are made in daylight from the roof via Secklow Gate. While the overall planning of the complex was successfully managed, the service facilities — such as heating and air-conditioning apparatus — are understandably much modified and are not of special interest.

Overall, the Shopping Building survives largely as originally built. The special interest is confined to the public aspects of the envelope of the shopping centre.

Artworks

The Shopping Building contains a number of artworks. Of particular interest for its design and position is Liliane Lijn's Circle of Light, designed in 1977 and commissioned by Milton Keynes Development Corporation in 1978 as part of its ambitious and successful public art programme. Suspended above Midsummer Arcade, this takes the form of 23 armatures wound with copper wire — a reference to electric motors — hung to form a large copper disc 6 metres in diameter. Electric motors slowly rotate the individual rod-like armatures, and hanging like a great rising or setting sun, it picks up on the arcade's alignment with the rising sun on Midsummer's Day.

Other artworks of special interest include: the market clock in Midsummer Arcade; Dream Flight, Flying Carpet and High Flyer (bronze figures) by Philomena Davis (1989), now located in Silbury Arcade; Vox Pop (a group of cartoon-like bronze people which includes one of the earliest known sculptural representations of a Black British person in England in a public art context) by John Clinch (1979) in Queen's Court (although not in its original location within it); at the time of listing, Bollards and Sundial (an outsize sundial with the solstice points marked) by Tim Minett (1979) was in storage awaiting reinstatement in the building; and a section of a 4th-century mosaic pavement from the nearby Romano-British Bancroft Villa, mounted on an internal wall.