Poundbury, Dorchester
Poundbury, Prince Charles’ most famous attempt at town planning sits quietly at one end of Dorchester. So quietly in fact, that we arrived there completely by accident. It isn’t signposted and doesn’t appear on any of the maps we were carrying, in an "if you have to ask you can’t afford it" kind of way.
It’s a "pioneering example of urban development" built on the pillars of ‘A Vision of Britain’, the Prince of Wales' infamous intervention into architecture. Designed by the European architect Leon Krier, planning started in the 1980s, building in 1993. Phases one and two have been completed and work will continue until 2025 when Poundbury will have space for 5,000 people.
What sets Poundbury apart is that it’s a new town built in an old way. The architecture is designed in a traditional Dorset style and built with local materials. In the centre, Pummery Square is dominated by the traditionally-styled Brownsword Hall (above). Across the street is Poundbury Village Stores, or Budgens to you and I but they’re not allowed to say that on the sign in case it ruins the effect. All aspects of town planning are tightly controlled, with any alterations needing approval from the Duchy of Cornwall. This extends right down to signage which has good intentions, but the lack of visual clutter is really weird. It's all a bit too tidy.
In a strange way, these attempts to ensure that the "character" of Poundbury remains intact ensure that it has none whatsoever. It's astonishingly bland, spectacularly banal. There's an amazing lack of patina - the sort of scuffing or wear and tear that makes a place look lived in. In fact, that’s probably against the rules. You get the feeling if anything did become worn a little man would scurry out to touch it up again. As a result it doesn’t seem real, more like a model village than an actual one.
Instead, the “character” is planned in, and sticks out like a sore thumb. Period elements like bricked up windows (a feature of old English houses during the era of the Window Tax) look really hokey. In Dinham Walk there’s a decorative fountain that wouldn’t look out of place in Portmeirion. Prince Charles was greatly inspired by Clough Williams-Ellis’ fantastic Welsh village and it really shows. The difference is that Portmeirion pulls it off. It has tremendous warmth and a gorgeous higgledy-piddledyness but here it’s po-faced and embarrassing. It’s difficult to work out why one works and the other doesn’t - maybe because Portmeirion doesn’t discriminate where it borrows from and was allowed to grow over time. Here it’s all a bit too exclusive and forced. Trying to keep the modern world at bay isn’t sustainable. An architectural flourish on a double garage just doesn’t seem right.
Despite having one foot in the past, a central tenet of Poundbury is sustainable development. The streets are designed to be “deliberately inconvenient” for cars to encourage alternative forms of transport. The main streets are narrow and congested so that’s that box ticked, but there’s no obvious convenience for the non-driver. Public transport is notable by its absence (and presumably runs on the inconvenient roads anyway, unless there are jetpacks) and there are so few amenities that a Poundbury citizen would almost certainly have to go elsewhere to work and shop. The gold-coloured gravel that covers the pavements looks pretty, and is very noisy to walk on (crime reduction, who knows?) but is a real pain for buggies, bikes and any other non-road user.
It’s so easy to knock it (and so much fun!) but there are some good points too. While the buildings hail from the same overall architectural style, there is a lot of variety in each street. There are terraces, semi-detacheds, town houses and flats all interspersed just like a real town. This is easier on the eye than the usual McMansion development so common nowadays. The problem seems to be at the centre where the public areas are totally devoid of life. It feels like somewhere waiting to grow into itself.
So, in short, wild horses couldn’t make me live in Poundbury but it’s a fascinating place to visit. It’s not the most exciting place to hang out but the important thing is whether or not it’s a good place to live. Only time will tell on that one.
How to get there
Poundbury is at the west end of Dorchester. It didn't appear to be signposted but is virtually impossible to miss. There's a great view heading east on the A35.
Comments
Totally agree,poundbury is a ghost town. I call it Trumpton. The saddest thing is that people are crying out for houses and at affordable prices and all that land is taken up with properties most local people can't afford. We live in an area where wages are low and cost of living is high and Prince Charles had an opportunity to redress that. Still I suppose that was too much to ask as he thinks it is affordable. There are so many rules to living there and everyone that I know who has lived there hated it and moved. The rise in population there has put a real strain on local amenities like the schools and hospitals and the local in Dorchester are not happy with the new Trumptons
Posted by: Cherry Archer | February 14, 2009 12:10 AM
Not only is the place souless but on a windy and wet November day it is incredibly bleak too. It seems to be on a hill where the wind blows which ever way you face
Love the site discovered it by accident this morning at work and have wasted quite some time exploring
Posted by: Peewit | February 17, 2009 07:56 PM
I drove through Poundbury at lunchtime today and didn't see a living soul while a few hundreds yards back in the town of Dorchester it was bustling with people. The new build looks all very nice, a bit like a "model village" but to live or work there is not for me.
Posted by: Colin Evans | February 20, 2009 12:04 AM
"In Dinham Walk there’s a decorative fountain that wouldn’t look out of place in Portmeirion. Prince Charles was greatly inspired by Clough Williams-Ellis’ fantastic Welsh village and it really shows."
Erm - no he wasn't, in fact he didn't visit Portmeirion until about two or three years ago, well after Poundbury was started.
I agree though, Portmeirion works, Poundbury is very odd. But the spec-builders' alternative is a thousand times worse, and is being chucked up all over the place (now available with ill-digested Poundburyesque motifs)
Posted by: ghughesarch | March 19, 2009 01:03 AM
We have 'found' Poundbury three times since its inception and it does not get better. It is a souless place and I would not live there even if we could afford it. Not a bus in sight - not 'green' here. I wonder if HRH knows how ghastly this place is.
Posted by: Diana MacKenzie | March 24, 2009 01:30 PM
Arthur Miller described mankind's greatest pleasure as the RUSH TO JUDGEMENT - This has much in common with our 'Modern' life and mores - more ways to communicate than you can shake a stick at but bugger all content.
Poundbury is as much about the spaces between the buildings as the facades and styles of the buildings themselves - a point that the above article singularly fails to comprehend.
Oh and Cars!! How better to drive down a street that from its very design [ie thought!!!] causes you to drive slowly without need for speed bumps traffic islands and other bric a brac indicative of an 'johnny come lately' afterthought.
The article has fallen for the surface of things - superficial group think repackaged as insight.
Posted by: Chris Donovan | September 22, 2009 03:00 PM
That's a bit harsh. I certainly didn't rush to judge it. I thought about it a lot, and found it a very interesting place. Ultimately it didn't feel real though, which is what I was trying to get across here.
I was only there for an afternoon, so could only judge the surface. I think the article is more favourable than most of the comments here - I did try to find the good in it.
Posted by: Anne | September 22, 2009 11:21 PM