I've been wishing to visit this urban extension of Dorchester for some time now and did so last week, mid-week, mid-day. My initial reaction was one which used to be common to people who encountered Milton Keynes, who having driven right through the new city, found it eerily devoid of people. In the case of Milton Keynes, their experience was to be expected due to the explicit separation of people and traffic by the design. In the case of Poundbury however, I was on foot and hoping to discover the hub of the place; where people would meet; the heart of the development. I didn't.
We walked from one end to the other, from one side to the other and passed at the most six other people. My husband remarked that he felt rather as if we were on a film set; that the place wasn't quite real.
I have a keen interest in what makes retail spaces work and their interaction with the public realm. Well, Poundbury isn't short of public realm. The wide roads, the interesting spaces and juxtaposition of the buildings all contrive to give lots of opportunity for humans to interact. But where are the humans? Presumably those who live in Poundbury mainly work elsewhere. Those who work in the sprinkling of retail and commercial units designed around the public squares were obviously hard at it behind the large windows of their large units. Solicitors, care organisations, bridal shops, kitchen companies - I'm sure there are other categories, but this was my impression of unit occupants. I longed to turn a corner and find a little greengrocer in a tiny shop, with vegetables piled up outside (it was a sunny day) or that I might stumble over some cafe culture or even a pub, where real people were spilling out into the sunshine.
I was told later on, when discussing the lack of people in Poundbury with someone who knows the place, that the social life there is excellent and that it's a Marmite town; people either love it or they don't. I guess that's one other thing that it has in common with Milton Keynes.
When Her Majesty visits next week she will be unveiling a statue in Queen Mother Square and I'm sure she'll be impressed with the truly majestic buildings close by and with her son's rather splendid achievement. What I'm also sure of is that Poundbury will on that day be full of bustling humanity and hundreds of people, so let's hope some of that street-level vitality lasts after she's left the square.
