Co-worker or two are likely to be sent to MK for work for about 6-8 months, any recommendations about where to rent / things to do? Neither are particularly into sport, a bit of running but that’s about it. And where’s the best place to look for rental property?

On the outskirts there are plenty of nice villages, also plenty of OK estates in MK itself.
Avoid, Fishermead and some of the older estates. The newer ones seem to be OK.
Tattenhoe is good or it was when I lived there and they’ve built a decent new pub since I moved away too!
Plenty of rentals about, all in all it’s a pretty good place to be.
Redways for cycling and running keep you away from the main roads.
Great woods to run and cycle in near Woburn Sands and Willen lake has plenty going on.
The local paper has a good property section always has a lot of rentals but I would imagine Rightmove will have them all in too

Mr P to the forum…

I don’t live in MK. I reside in Northampton and commute into the city of dreams.

Hmmm… “city of dreams” 😆

Cheers for the info sturdylad!

Depends where they will work.

Lots of nice places to live inside MK (I live here and wouldn’t live anywhere else). If they’re at, say, National Rail, then Loughton or Shenley Church End are both nice, leafy, affluent middle class areas. If they’re at, say Siemens, then Middleton (which has the town’s best pub) is similar.

Plenty of easy train commutable small places nearby too (Berkhamsted is particularly nice)

Come now as its Stony Live! Music in the streets, pubs and next door is doing their annual bash. Wonderful weekend even if it pisses down.
I’ve lived here since 1980 and have seen many changes. If you have to live in an urban area this is the place to be. Mrs W came here and wanted to buy the first house we looked at because it was near to the parks for running. Every house in MK is close to a park for running and they’re linked so you can cover real distance without going on a road at all. Access to countryside and trails is easy from everywhere.
In my opinion Stony Stratford, Great Linford and Willen are they places to live. Wolverton is an old railway town but has, surprise surprise a mainline station to London and all points north. It also has a good music scene.
The central estates are grim as Sturdylad has said.
Its big and you’ll need a car but you can get everywhere quickly as there are few holdups. 45 seconds delay at a roundabout during rush hour is just unacceptable.

Depends where they will work.

A big red Spanish bank – but I think it’s got a couple of buildings there, not sure exactly which one they’ll be in.

And thanks for the info. Even if I’m still not 100% sure about the “city of dreams” thing 🙂

Station side of the centre. Best bet Loughton or one of the nicer bits of the town centre above ‘the Hub’.

Certainly city of dreams for me, no irony.

Heres some MK trivia. One of the original architects had bad handwriting and someone else interpreted the ‘P’ on ‘Pedway’ as an ‘R’. That’s why we have Redways in MK. Nothing to do with the colour.

I live out in a village on the outskirts, and even here it’s so easy to get anywhere in MK.

Visit Metropolis.

I’ve lived here for over 15 yeasts and I still like it. It’s definitely not as clean as it was when I first moved here but it’s still a great place to live.

I live in Milton Keynes …. All my life for my sins.
Stony, Wolverton (my town) or Newport pagnel are my recommendations. They’re all old towns with character, shops, amenities and most of all pubs. The newer estates are generally a bit meh… One local shop and a pub if your lucky.

Things to do…..
Stony and Newport both have loads of pubs and restaurants.
Wolverton has the best of all though…. The craufurd arms. If you like dingy music venues that cater for mainly heavy metal, punk or alternative then your in luck. I love the place.

Other things:

Woburn for mtb
Anywhere you like for road.
Red ways (entire off road cycle network around the whole city) for just plain old riding.
Big rock climbing wall for some great bouldering and lead climbing. It’s a good crowd down there and easy to make friends really quickly.
Northampton and Bedford just up the road also have some good music venues… If that’s your bag! PIL are playing the roadmenders next month so I hear.

Then there’s all the usual commercial crap that most other places have… But probably more!

Loughton, Shenley, Furzton all reasonably nice and walkable to the Spanish bank. It can be quite bizarre going to the pub on a Friday lunch break and the place having more Spaniards in it than Brits!

For the locals. Anyone done the new XC loop around Woburn? Did it last week, I quite liked it. I don’t really know my way around there but went with friends a few times and the old stuff while it had good sections just felt a bit disjointed, this seems to make more sense.

did you know its built on ley lines (the archetects were far out man)

on the solstice the sunrise aligns along midsummers boulevard to light up the mirrored railway station

so much so that in the 80s a christian group investigated the satanic origins of the town !
https://5ocietyx.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/the-milton-keynes-midsummer-ley-line-2/

great read here

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/03/struggle-for-the-soul-of-milton-keynes

im thinking of cycling up to watch the solstice midsummer

have they finished the woburn xc loop?, it just kind of petered out when I did it last

yeah we live in great holm

its great for us, but certainly lacks a bit of soul compared to where we used to live in brentford, also has less drugs, guns and murders so swings n roundabouts

Good Chinese in great Holm

Ha!

Ive just finished my Friday night take away from Kam Tong Garden, the mongolian stir fry beef is the schnizzle

The loop weaves all over the place. To be honest I was just following others and didn’t really notice where it started and finished, but we seemed to be on it for a reasonably long time. At times it feels like it twists around the trees a bit too much and could flow a bit better, but overall impression was positive.

Kimbers – Just uploaded the track from my GPS and compared it to this map…

http://woburnbiketrails.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Longslade_Short.jpg

Looks like we missed out sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 and joined somewhere around Spuds. When we got to the bike park we messed around in there for a bit before carrying on. It seems that all of the trail is there. Might be worth giving it a try and see if it’s all connected up better than when you did it last.

My only bit of MK trivia… Superman IV was filmed there 😆

did you know its built on ley lines (the archetects were far out man)

Yup, (hence Midsummer Boulevard) and, the story goes, when they started building they soon realised they were out by a degree or two so they had to ‘shift’ the whole city.

My only bit of MK trivia… Superman IV was filmed there

And unfortunately this.

[video]https://youtu.be/sn9mLnKmPco[/video]

have they finished the woburn xc loop?, it just kind of petered out when I did it last

It is pretty much finished but there are still a few bits where the way markers aren’t clear and a little intuition and/or local knowledge helps. For example, Empires is now a down again (not all of it). So before you get to the drop at the end you turn back on yourself and ride up.

Overall it’s not bad. Good for fitness but not smiles per miles fun IMHO.

I’ve never really liked Woburn but MK is easy for Aston Hill and Chicksands.

Love the Woburn loop but you really have to work at it.

It’s my local ride which I use lots . It’s tame and I’ve come to appreciate that’s why my bikes stay in good condition and hardly ever go wrong. One week in cyb is equal to a year at Woburn of wear .

One week in cyb is equal to a year at Woburn of wear

Accept those two weeks in the autumn when the Woburn ‘grinding paste’ returns before the winter quagmire. 😆

Yea it does get everywhere.

Thanks for the extra info, I’ll pass it on to my friends.

The woburn red loop is a bit CrossCountryMonkey(TM) for my liking! You can make a much better route up from the off piste cheeky if you go freestyle imo 😆

(especially if like me you are heroically overbiked………..)

My favourite sections are around the golf course . I normally do the main woods first after the short but painful climb up through the cottages then left into the woods,around and about then back up past the golf course entrance and turn right into the best bits.

The Great Holm chinese is rubbish … unless it has got netter in the last few years
Newport and Stoney are good too live in, as in Olney, but the traffic into MK is horrible …
Plenty to do , good facilities, a bit sterile.

Eastern Paradise in Wolverton is good ….
And the roundabouts are stunning if you own a motorbike … I miss them

mrmoofo – Member
The Great Holm chinese is rubbish

Hersey ..!

It can’t be that crap as its busy every night especially at the weekend, the Sunday buffet is a bit meh, though quite a few Chinese families there for dim sum

The best Chinese in Milton Keynes is the Mii & U canteen at the central oriental chinese supermarket hidden away at the very end of Alston Drive.

Seriously, doesn’t look like much but it’s proper ace.

The best Chinese in Milton Keynes is the Mii & U canteen at the central oriental chinese supermarket hidden away at the very end of Alston Drive.

Seriously, doesn’t look like much but it’s proper ace.

+1tThis place is amazing. Yeah, it is an actual canteen but don’t let it fool you.

My only bit of MK trivia… Superman IV was filmed there

Filmed some at woughton campus when I was there. I was an extra in the film along with loads of other students but the scenes were cut…… Awfull film.
As said before some of withnail and I was filmed in stony Stratford (the crown and cox and robins).

And for record the eastern paradise is terrible.

Shhhhhhhsh. FFS don’t tell folk about Mii & U (or any of the proper top stuff here in MK) it’ll get mobbed and ruined.

Bradwell’s just round the corner from us… I’ll give that cafe a try. Cheers for the heads up…. Ssh.