A new Aylesbury is born

In history, things change. Things wax and wane, in trends, they flip, they synthesise, they revolt and they delight. Aylesburys do the same. Occasionally new ones are born and once born they are constructed. A physical manifestation of a marketable commodity to please an average, unoriginal lazy bloated middle, of middle class, middle England, middle managers mediocrity.

One of these Aylesburys is just north of Nottingham and I visited it when quite new, newly constucted houses, newly constructed sewers newly constructed electrical cables, a newly constructed sales narrative served by yet to be constructed roads,. Is this progress? I doubt it. Yes, the houses built now will use less energy to run than if they were developed 10 years ago. This is driven by the government, rather than forward looking developers.

The unremarkable nature of the development can only be summed up in the sales sign at the entrance describing the development as “exciting”. Even there the sales person could not bring itself to use original, energy efficient, far seeing, high quality, cozy, solid, safe, or anything else normal people would look for in a house. Excitement is such a euphemistic word, a rock concert is exciting, sky diving is exciting, neither are things that you would want to go home to after a hard days work every evening. 

Their looks? Well they have no attachment to the traditional houses around the development. Their meadering drive way with few parking spaces on road parking, showing a pitiful amount of land used. Each shoe box house has its own postage stamp of a garden.

Why Aylesbury in this part of the world. No idea, although the duck link remain with other water fowl roads to follow. Also by poor planning or deliberate association, The Grange, is a comprehensive school in Aylesbury, and also is the name of the new development.

So overall, unremarkable architecture in an unremarkable part of town. Neither will last that long. Only the name of Aylesbury will endure from this place.