Bracknell Forest: New Town Tech Hub in the Berkshire Pines
Bracknell was designated a New Town in 1949, built to rehouse London overspill populations in the post-war expansion. The original town centre — a pedestrianised precinct of 1960s concrete — was demolished in the 2010s and replaced by The Lexicon, an open-air shopping centre that has been a genuine commercial success. The transformation changed Bracknell from a town people drove past on the M4 to one with a functioning centre.
The borough's economic identity is technology. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Honeywell, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and numerous other tech firms have UK headquarters or major offices in the business parks around Bracknell. This gives the area an affluence and an international character not typical of new towns — the schools have pupils speaking dozens of languages, and the restaurants reflect a workforce drawn from across the world.
Swinley Forest, managed by the Crown Estate, covers a significant portion of the borough and provides mountain biking trails, walking paths, and the slightly surreal experience of pine forest ten minutes from an office park. The Look Out Discovery Centre, a science museum for children set in the forest, is a popular family destination. Crowthorne, Sandhurst (home of the Royal Military Academy), and the villages along the A30 towards Camberley give the borough a varied geography that extends well beyond the new town itself. The population is around 125,000.
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Bracknell was designated a New Town in 1949, built to rehouse London overspill populations in the post-war expansion. The original town centre — a pedestrianised precinct of 1960s concrete — was demolished in the 2010s and replaced by The Lexicon, an open-air shopping centre that has been a genuine commercial success. The transformation changed Bracknell from a town people drove past on the M4 to one with a functioning centre.
The borough's economic identity is technology. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Honeywell, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and numerous other tech firms have UK headquarters or major offices in the business parks around Bracknell. This gives the area an affluence and an international character not typical of new towns — the schools have pupils speaking dozens of languages, and the restaurants reflect a workforce drawn from across the world.
Swinley Forest, managed by the Crown Estate, covers a significant portion of the borough and provides mountain biking trails, walking paths, and the slightly surreal experience of pine forest ten minutes from an office park. The Look Out Discovery Centre, a science museum for children set in the forest, is a popular family destination. Crowthorne, Sandhurst (home of the Royal Military Academy), and the villages along the A30 towards Camberley give the borough a varied geography that extends well beyond the new town itself. The population is around 125,000.
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