King Carlos III: what is Poundbury, the experimental and “utopian” city that the monarch in England came up with (and what does it say about his personality)

Knowing how a king thinks is no easy task, but in the case of Carlos III, there is a shortcut to knowing how he imagines the society over which he rules.

The road to this vision of the frost begins at Waterloo Station in London, where a train from the South West of England arrives in Dorchester, in Dorset County, in two and a half hours. Another ten minutes by bus and you are at your destination.

The place looks like a tribute to traditional English architecture. Victorian, Georgian and Neoclassical buildings and homes welcome the traveller.

This is Poundbury, the experimental city the king designed and where experts say clues to his main concerns can be found.

In the case of a question of the Crown, it makes sense for Poundbury to divide opponents and defenders.

“You either love it or you hate it,” sums up Matthew Carmona, Professor of Urban Design at University College London.

Although the architecture is traditional, the oldest house here dates back to 1993.

That was the year it was born, inspired by the then prince’s ideas of how modern cities should be: traditional in style, sustainable, walkable and integrating businesses, private property and social housing in the same space.

Thirty years later, days after his coronation, BBC Mundo visits Poundbury to see how the inhabitants live and to find out what they think of the man about to be crowned.

“Love for Poundbury”

Françoise Ha came to Poundbury six years ago and is one of more than 4,000 residents.

Every day another 2,000 people go to work in the city.

“They told me about this place, we came and we felt a very good energy. Walking was pleasant and beautiful,” he tells BBC Mundo.

Ha works at a wellness clinic and is a neighborhood representative. “Mistress” Poundbury.

“We have three kids and we wanted a safe place. The king’s involvement made us think it would work“, bill.

His clinic is close to an iconic landmark, the Plaza de la Reina Madre, in honor of Isabel Bowes-Lyon, Charles’ grandmother and mother of Elizabeth II.

Designed for walking in Poundbury there are cars everywhere and few pedestrians, at least on this Thursday that BBC Mundo is present.

“It is curious that there are so many cars. It must be because of the people who come to work because there is a lot of traffic in the morning. Maybe it’s something to review in the future,” says Ha.

The urban principles of the king

Poundbury is the materialization of the book “A Vision of Britain” (A vision for Great Britain), which Carlos wrote in the 1980s.

This reflected how he envisioned the modern cities of the United Kingdom.

“Communities rather than commuter towns,” explains Jason Bowerman, from Poundbury’s management team, to BBC Mundo.

The kind of schemes Carlos wanted to break with were the British urban projects of the last decades of the last century.

“Residences for sleeping, with few services and leisure for nearby residents”, as described by Professor Carmona.

Faced with this, “Poundbury wants its residents to become less dependent on vehicles. It also has integrated affordable social housing, indistinguishable from private ownership, and offers opportunities for work and areas for community living,” explains Bowerman.

Of course, this comes with a price. Compared to other projects at the time and in the area, “living in Poundbury is significantly more expensive,” says Carmona.

strict conditions

Poundbury belongs to the Duchy of Cornwalla territory of the Crown which the eldest son of the reigning inherits.

Until September 2022, when Queen Elizabeth II died, it belonged to Carlos. Now that he’s king, Prince William is in charge.

The rules can be strict and many procedures require the approval of the council and dukedom.

“You can’t change the color of the doors, you can’t put satellite dishes in and you can’t change the windows,” explains Ha, who had to sign a 17-page document agreeing to several rules when he moved.

There are no road signs here. The streets are designed with few straight lines and many obstacles, so that it is the driver who controls his habits and protects the pedestrian.

This has been problematic.

“The Duchy has received complaints about crossing Queen Mother Square at night. It’s the scariest thing for pedestrians,” Fran Leaper, editor of Poundbury magazine and a resident for 18 years, told the BBC.

Success, failure or whim?

Disgruntled residents are hard to find in Poundbury. Most praise its beauty and tranquility apart from the common problems every British city suffers from.

“Sometimes we have drugs and some antisocial behavior, but the level of our social houses is very good,” says Leaper.

admitted that one of the challenges for Poundbury is to better engage the diverse families who arrive and enhance community spirit.

“In the past, the elderly dominated, but families with children and young people are on the rise. We need space for young people and people with fewer resources,” he says.

Poundbury has only one school For children from five to nine years old. The elderly are studying in Dorchester for the time being, ten minutes away by bus.

Another challenge is the company’s visibility, because they are attached to houses and subject to restrictions to signal them.

“You need to know where the store you want to go to is because you walk past it and don’t notice it,” says Ha.

More successful is Poundbury’s energy management, heated with 100% renewable gas generated by Rainbarrow Farm from sustainable crops, the Duchy says.

The project is not without criticism. In general, many architects they abhor its anachronistic aesthetic.

There are also doubts about his potential to become the model Carlos dreamed of.

“It requires long-term investment, and most real estate developers want immediate returns,” says Carmona.

Laura Clancy, an expert sociologist in the study of “elites” and the monarchy at Lancaster University, thinks Poundbury is a difficult “utopia” to achieve and that it demonstrates “a certain decoupling of Carlos from reality given its privileged position”.

“His rejection of modern architecture and large buildings, bearing in mind that they were built at the time to encourage access to housing during economic crises, is proof of this,” Clancy tells BBC Mundo.

At the same time, he acknowledges that Poundbury contains a political message indicating the monarch’s concern for the environment, sustainability and personal well-beingalthough it also reveals that he envisions a United Kingdom where “the monarchy continues to play the leading role”.

“At least we know Carlos’s position on these issues. We cannot say the same about Elizabeth II, who no one ever knew how she thought,” concludes the expert.