Knowing how a king thinks is not an easy task, but in the case of Carlos III there is a shortcut to knowing how he imagines the society over which he reigns.
The path to this vision of the monarch begins at London’s Waterloo station, where a train from the South West of England arrives in Dorchester, Dorset, in 2 1/2 hours. 10 more minutes by bus and you arrive at your destination.
The place looks like a tribute to traditional English architecture. Victorian, Georgian and neoclassical buildings and houses welcome the traveler.
This is Poundbury, the experimental city that the king designed and where, according to experts, you can find clues to his main concerns.
Being a matter of the Crown, it is logical that Poundbury divides detractors and defenders.
“You love it or you hate it,” sums up Matthew Carmona, Professor of Urban Design at University College London.
Although its architecture is traditional, the oldest house here is from 1993.
That was the year it was born, inspired by the then prince’s ideas about how modern cities should be: traditional in style, sustainable, walkable and integrating businesses, private properties and social housing in the same space.
Thirty years later, days after his coronation, BBC Mundo visits Poundbury to see how its inhabitants live and find out what they think of the man who is about to be crowned.
“Love for Poundbury”
Françoise Ha came to Poundbury six years ago and is one of its more than 4,000 residents.
Another 2,000 people go to work in the city every day.
“They told me about this place, we came and we felt 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 3 children and we wanted a safe place. The king’s involvement made us think it would be successful,” he says.
His clinic is close to an iconic point, the Plaza de la Reina Madre, which honors Isabel Bowes-Lyon, Charles’s grandmother and mother of Elizabeth II.
Designed to be walked, in Poundbury there are cars everywhere and few pedestrians, at least on this Thursday that BBC Mundo attends.
“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 80s.
In this it was reflected how he imagined the modern cities of the United Kingdom.
“Communities instead of commuter towns,” explains Jason Bowerman, from the Poundbury management team, to BBC Mundo.
The type of schemes with which Carlos wanted to break were the British urban projects of the last decades of the last century.
“Residential places to sleep, with few services and leisure for residents around”, as described by Professor Carmona.
Faced with this, “Poundbury wants its inhabitants to depend less on vehicles. It also has integrated affordable social housing, indistinguishable from private ownership, and offers opportunities for work and areas for community living,” Bowerman explains.
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 Cornwall, a Crown territory inherited by the reigning eldest son.
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 the Duchy.
“You can’t change the color of the doors, you can’t put up satellite dishes and you can’t change the windows,” explains Ha, who had to sign a 17-page document agreeing to various rules when he moved.
There are no traffic signs here. The streets were 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, tells the BBC.
Success, failure or whim?
Disgruntled residents are hard to find in Poundbury. Most praise its beauty and peacefulness, beyond the common problems that every British city suffers from.
“Sometimes we have drugs and some anti-social behaviour, but the level of our social homes is very good,” says Leaper.
Ha admits that one of Poundbury’s challenges is to better include the diverse families that arrive and increase community spirit.
“Before, the elderly predominated, but families with children and adolescents are arriving. We need spaces for the young and those with fewer resources,” she says.
Poundbury has a single school for children between the ages of 5 and 9. The older ones, for now, study in Dorchester, 10 minutes away by bus.
Another challenge is the visibility of businesses, as they are coupled to homes and suffer restrictions to signal them.
“You have to know where the store you want to go to is because you walk by and don’t notice them,” says Ha.
More successful is the energy management of Poundbury, heated with 100% renewable gas generated by Rainbarrow Farm from sustainable crops, says the duchy.
The project is not free of criticism. In general, many architects abhor its anachronistic aesthetic.
There are also doubts about his potential to become the model that Carlos dreamed of.
“It requires long-term investment and most real estate developers want immediate profits,” says Carmona.
Laura Clancy, an expert sociologist in the study of “elites” and the monarchy at Lancaster University, thinks that Poundbury is a difficult “utopia” to achieve and that it shows “a certain disconnection of Carlos with reality given his privileged position”. .
“His rejection of modern architecture and large buildings, taking into account that at the time they were built to encourage access to housing during economic crises, is proof of this,” Clancy tells BBC Mundo.
In turn, he acknowledges that Poundbury contains a political message that denotes the monarch’s concerns about the environment, sustainability and personal well-being, although it also reveals that he conceives of a United Kingdom where “the monarchy continues to be the protagonist.”
“At least we know Carlos’ position on these issues. We cannot say the same about Elizabeth II, of whom no one ever knew how she thought, ”concludes the expert.
Keep reading:
* Carlos III: The meaning of the golden spoon and the “Scone” stone that will be used in his coronation
* How much will the coronation ceremony of Carlos III cost?
* Coronation of King Carlos III: How to see it live in the United States
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