Is it possible to buy the Milton Keynes bench?
Posted by frugalacademic@reddit | miltonkeynes | View on Reddit | 6 comments
Having left MK for a while now, I still think it's an amazing place. I cam e accross the Milton Keynes bench at Manchester airport and in a small town in Belgium. I was wondering if there is a way to buy it. It would be fun to have it in my garden so I have a souvenir of MK.
dickripple@reddit
Love this post - if I ever own a home with a garden, definitely going to plonk one of these in there 😁
Mootpointillism@reddit
Macemaine Amstad 011
Link
bennymk@reddit
£700+ 😳
Halfcelestialelf@reddit
Probably worth it though, they do last well. The one in my parents garden has been there for 30 odd years with no maintenance or protection from the elements and is still in reasonable nick.
Halfcelestialelf@reddit
I assume that you are talking about the Brian Milne Bench https://www.ribapix.com/bench-designed-for-milton-keynes-buckinghamshire_riba43429 (note that there are two types, the version 1 had small round holes, these were swapped with elongated holes in order stop small children getting fingers stuck in the second version.)
You may have luck looking for them, as railway benches. I assume that they can be bought somewhere as my family had one in our back garden when I was growing up, that being said, it's also possible that my dad aquired it through people he knew at work, as opposed to being a general public purchase. (he was a civil engineer and moved to the area to help build/develop MK. )
EUskeptik@reddit
I always referred to the design as the “Network SouthEast bench” because of its widespread adoption in railway station refurbishments of the 1980s across London and South East England.
Network SouthEast (NSE) was a division of British Rail established in 1984 to bring together all the main line commuter railway routes into London under one umbrella organisation with a common livery and design ethos. It was an attempt t reverse decades of declining passenger numbers, worn out trains and run down stations.
Led by the energetic Chris Green, NSE imposed a fresh corporate image and featured new and refurbished trains, stations and infrastructure. The livery was unashamedly patriotic featuring red, white, blue and grey. The stations were equipped with many of the metal seats being discussed here, almost all being finished in a bright red colour.
Many of these seats still exist 40 years later but some have succumbed to corrosion.
Until today, I never knew they were designed for Milton Keynes, a city I know well.