Interview with Frank Henshaw
From his arrival in MK in 1971 Frank was closely involved with early decisions on the overall plan for CMK, considering the most financially viable amount of land to be used, and how to service a 1 million square foot shopping building. This was ‘the peak of the experience to be gained in Milton Keynes on a large, one-off project’. He recalls his excitement when he first saw the shopping centre design: he was ‘very struck by the classical proportions’, and by the amount of natural light. He notes that MKDC, with Department of the Environment (DoE) funds, funded the infrastructure and Post Office Pension Fund (PosTel) paid for the building. ‘But all the risk… was funded by the Corporation’.
He recalls the first day of building, liaising with Laings and many MKDC staff to manage the project, and many decisions discussed and resolved in the process. Close to the opening of the centre, he and Fred Roche had to issue urgent instructions to dual H6 Childs Way, to ensure good access from the M1. He remembers the opening by Mrs Thatcher in September 1979; the visit by the Queen ‘was a marvellous moment … the time above all when Milton Keynes started to gel.’ On that day, there were parties of school children, the monks from Willen Hospice chanting on Silbury Boulevard, and a reception at the Borough Council. Frank became Deputy Chairman of the management company which would run the Shopping Centre. He relayed to PosTel the philosophy MKDC had followed in managing the Shopping Centre and hoped ‘that our successors would take some heed of it.’
Frank discusses the role MKDC had in obtaining funding for the building of the Church of Christ the Cornerstone and the surrounding office buildings, and the need to persuade the Department of Environment that a central railway station was essential: ‘a massively important factor in the development of our major new business sector’. Finally he comments on later arrivals in MK – The Snowdome, Theatre and Stadium – all a part of the original concept. ‘It’s big enough… Central Milton Keynes… And its infrastructure is strong enough to contain variety… Masterplan variety, opportunity and choice’.
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