Interview with Jim Barnes

Jim Barnes talks of Henry Cooper’s first major project for MKDC, the extensions to Wavendon Tower, under the management of Walter Ismay and Ernie Pye: ‘delightful people to work with’. There was little housing being built then; and Gerald West, seconded from Llewellyn Davies as Chief Architect for MKDC left fairly suddenly. Around this time, Fred Roche was brought in to MKDC as General Manager to accelerate the housing programme; Jim was very impressed with how Fred dealt with problems, in Wavendon Tower Phase 2. Jim recalls working with the engineering staff, particularly David Jamieson, who became a good friend, and Ernie Pye, and the decision to have a common trench for all utilities on new housing schemes. Cooper’s was tasked with going out to tender to contractors to build these trenches. In this connection he also met Frank Henshaw. Jim comments that Derek Walker, the new Chief Architect: ‘seemed to appoint talented architects’; also that the design of early estates was driven by the need to build quickly and to cope with shortages of bricks and labour. For later estates like Oldbrook and Conniburrow, brick was more available. Complying with Government Parker Morris standards, and the housing cost yardstick could be difficult in MK. Despite disagreements between Fred and Derek, in Jim’s opinion, the city lost something of Derek’s spirit of iconic design after he left: for example, he views the City Church as a lost opportunity to build something iconic.

In 1976 Henry Cooper’s agreed to open an office in Lloyds Court: ‘a great thing to do’, says Jim. The office in Stony was well-established and they needed more staff and space. Fennemore’s, Hobbs and Cooper’s were the first three offices in Lloyds Court. He recalls the excitement of the development of the shopping building, the Queen’s and Margaret Thatcher’s visits; and their first McDonald’s meal! After Jim’s proposal in 1988 to move Cooper’s Head Office from Reading to London was defeated, he left the firm and became Managing Director of Hobbs in MK from 1988-89 but the MK office had to close in the early 1990s, so he then commuted to their London office. Asked what he is most proud of during his time in MK, he says firstly, building up a very good office in MK; but secondly, the fact that he has made ‘an awful lot of friends …and I have lots of fantastic memories’. Milton Keynes’ legacy, in his opinion, is: ‘a wonderful city for families with so many great opportunities… and is now in the middle of the developing Oxford-Cambridge Arc’.