19- Poundbury Trip

Poundbury is a new build town in Dorset, famously funded by Charles III. 

I have mostly negative thoughts and feelings about Poundbury.

Royal-centric feeling pushed onto the users, the Queen Mother Square is the centre and underwhelming centre of town with roads named after royalty spanning out from that such as Crown Square, Kingsthorn Road, Crown Street, Crowngate Square, and Dukes Parade. It's a personal project, I understand that, but it's being shoved down people's throats. 

Poundbury feels like a movie set, it doesn't have a sense of place- this old-style architecture plonked on a hill attempts to pay homage to surrounding heritage but does it poorly. The architecture is mismatched with too many styles squeezed into this town. There's one building with columns painted on 3 sides but with real ones on one side, the walls look like they're made from cardboard and will fall with the wind. It lacks the heritage it's claiming, being built in the last 30 years it feels misplaced. The occasional person popped their head out of the door, but it felt more like crisis actors than residents.

The lack of facilities in this town is contradicting the things this place seeks to achieve which is "live, work, shop, relax. You'll have to leave the town to do anything, no cinema, no leisure centre, no gym, this place lacks entertainment for residents and tourists. The only food shop is Waitrose- not the most affordable shop for everyone. The best thing about Poundbury is that it's right next to Dorchester where there are actual facilities.

The sustainability of the site is reflected in its proud use of the most hidden natural gas power plant. It boasts the use of natural materials of wooden windows and a choice of no plastic. However, importing granite and quartz slabs and bricks for buildings is not the most sustainable option from the mining of it to the importation. There is planting but it's sparse and if you plant something there's a chance the town will ask you to remove it if they don't like it. 

The overview, Poundbury is a rich person project with too much time and money on their hands. It was said to be breaking boundaries but its outcome is a nice powerplant and a middle-upper suburbia ghost land. The cultish nature of the town's control over what residents can plant and the lack of community feeling makes the area feel soulless. I appreciate it was trying to break-. I like the idea of creating a walkable town, but the other aspects of the town are just enough for me to decide that I don't like it.

Cat in question

Good things- it's grand, it looks expensive, it's quiet, it's powered by a sustainable local powerplant, it has a nice garden centre with a cat and it's next to Dorchester.