Yellow, orange, brick, clementine, copper, brown… All the shades of autumn took over the English countryside in October 1993. In a gray Prince of Wales suit, the grizzled Prince of Wales crisscrossed the first streets of Poundbury. His city, the one he imagined with the greatest respect for nature and traditions. “The Prince of Potatoes”, as the press calls him, has been aiming for ten years to convert his land to organic and build a carbon-neutral city. Jokes, he doesn’t care… royally.
Goodbye GMOs and pesticides! Make way for solar panels, ecological drainage, agroforestry, organic amendment, sowing according to the cycles of the Moon… On his 364 cultivable hectares of Highgrove House, the eldest son of the queen has been developing organic farming since 1985, once morest the current of large farms. We laugh under wraps. Maybe Charles doesn’t have the shoulders to ascend the throne. At best an infatuation, at worst a whim.
If he does not hide his aversion for new agricultural methods, he does not like modern architecture either. In 1989, in a BBC documentary, then in his book « A vision of Britain », the prince knocks out the fashionable builders and their constructions which disfigure England. Charles then decides to create his city ex nihilo. He mobilizes funding, engages the town planner Léon Krier and participates in the development of the plan.
The first buildings were erected in 1993, in the continuity of the town of Dorchester. Not like a sleepy suburban suburb, but like another city center, intended to be dynamic and lively. The car will be absent, cycling and walking the rule. Perfect combination of the great principles defended by the prince, Poundbury displays brick and stone facades, high ceilings, ornate gables, turrets and neoclassical cupolas. So many styles straight out of the Victorian era, reign of her great-great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.
No floor markings to preserve aesthetics
This experimental city wants to be as ecological and inclusive as possible. The specifications are strict. Between the neat gardens embellished with the chirping of birds meander streets without markings on the ground, considered unsightly, for a smoother circulation. Behind the facades, where PVC is prohibited and wood is king, 35% of social housing offers the same advantages as other houses.
The mesh between housing, places of conviviality and the 207 small and medium-sized businesses is designed for maximum organization. The 4,000 inhabitants enjoy both the covered market, the butcher and the chocolate maker stamped with the ducal seal, as well as ultra-modern businesses. A biomethane plant, the first large-scale anaerobic digester in the country, rubs shoulders with an industrialist in automation technologies, a specialist in controlling the movements of cobots intended for the automotive, aeronautical and… renewable energies sectors.
Poundbury would be a paradise on earth, a total success for Charles III. Yet, this “old school Disneyland”, as its detractors call it, doesn’t tick all the boxes. The excessive mix of 19th century architecture and the sometimes random proportions irritate purists; cars free of any signage still circulate there to the great displeasure of pedestrians; the price of real estate is soaring and carbon neutrality has not been achieved. Completion scheduled for 2026. The new king has three years left to finalize his small kingdom.
