It’s a baking hot April afternoon and the curbing, un-road marked, higgledy-piggledy streets of Poundbury are deserted.
At every turn, attention is captured by the sight of boarded-up businesses, grand Georgian style mansions, and impeccably kept gravel swept lawns. This is the tranquil and serene setting that a price tag of over £400,000 can secure in Dorset’s prestigious ‘royal’ estate.
Located on Duchy of Cornwall land near Dorchester, Poundbury was envisioned by King Charles as a utopian paradise where a blend of private and affordable housing coexists harmoniously with upscale shops, workplaces, and essential amenities such as schools and medical facilities – all within a walking distance.
The royal highness commenced the project in the late 1980s, and since its inception, Poundbury has flourished to encompass approximately 2,320 residences, a population of 4,600 residents, and 240 enterprises providing employment opportunities for 2,400 individuals.
It was even named one of the best places to live in Britain by The Sunday Times last year however of late its reputation has become somewhat mixed.
It has been described as a ‘ghost town’ due to the lack of foot traffic through many of the residential lanes and a ‘feudal Disneyland’ by detractors who have taken umbrage with the town’s faux-Georgian period aesthetic.
Residents have began to grumble of traffic problems in the area with one of the major roads to Dorchester cutting through the town from the A35.
There are also issues with gravel in the area, due to ‘Charley boy’s’ (as the locals call him preference for just a single layer of tarmac on all Poundbury pavements supplemented with gravel, ostensibly so they more resemble the streets of Kensington and Chelsea.
Last year, the same residents also kicked up a stink over unemptied bins, rats and even compared it to a ‘third world country’.
Despite the issues though, Poundbury remains one of the most sought after locations in the UK with the average price of of the identikit newbuild homes sitting at around £400,000.
And it’s still growing.
The final areas to develop cover the northern and western perimeters, with 350 homes in the Northern Quadrant due to be completed in 2026.
Meanwhile, the final section, which is the North West Quadrant, was granted planning consent in 2021. Building started in 2022, with the area due to be completed in 2028.
According to the website: ‘Poundbury will have then increased the population of Dorchester by about a quarter, with an eventual community of approximately 5,800 people.’
With numbers like that Poundbury can claim to be a proper British town but 30 years after its inception – does it feel like one?
Poundbury is instantly visible as you make the approach from Dorchester perched high on a hill and looming over the Dorset countryside.
When creating the town, the then 45-year-old Prince of Wales hated much of Britain’s modern architecture (an ‘unmitigated disaster’; a ‘monstrous carbuncle’, to use some of his phrases).
So he commissioned Luxembourg architect Léon Krier to build a town of his own, using 400 acres of land and money from his charity the Duchy of Cornwall.
Everything in Poundbury had to be walkable, look classical and be to Charles’s taste.
As a result, the conclave looks markedly different from any other town in Britain, leading some detractors to label it an almost pastiche town from a time that never existed.
Everywhere you look in the town, buildings seem to insist on themselves.
Although nearly identical along the lanes, each has their own unique characteristic, whether it be a secret loft extension or bright red door.
When MailOnline visits, much of the residential suburbs are what is known colloquially as ‘dead’- with nay a soul in sight.
There is some activity in the town’s Queen Mother Square where one of the only watering holes lurks, aptly (and rather tiringly) named The Duchess of Cornwall.
Eyre Maunsell has lived in the new town for 3 years and is almost boastful in his adoration for the place.
‘It’s great, and they’re still building it, he says.
‘The traffic can be a nightmare but broadly it’s fine. Of course there’s no ball games, they sprinkle gravel on the tarmac, and of course there are no road signs as Charley boy hates them.
‘But it’s wonderful.’
Poundbury was designed to be a ‘walkable community’, which is welcoming to pedestrians as well as drivers and other road users.
It was also built to offer a mix of uses, ‘integrating homes with retail and other employment uses and public areas’.
However, the majority of the population of the town are retirees.
Two young faces who spoke to MailOnline confirmed that although it was pretty it is still relatively a reserve for the old.
Ella Lakins, 21, explained: I work here and live in Dorchester. I wouldn’t come here for a night out. There’s a few pubs but its not a young place.
‘It is well known and respected, its more where people come and retire.
Lola Wilkins, 18, added: ‘I quite like the aesthetic. It’s pretty, I’d live here.’
Poundbury takes its pristine image very seriously and there are strict rules for locals who want to decorate their homes.
Those who want to paint their house or door must only use colours from Duchy of Cornwall’s ‘approved colour’ list.
If they want to grow a garden hedge it has to be an ‘appropriate indigenous species’ and must be ‘trimmed regularly’.
Any house signs must be printed in one of the six permitted fonts with the letters no more than 4cm high.
And residents are banned from using their properties as air bnbs.
However, residents insist it’s not all bad.
John & Susie Pearson have lived in the town for five years and claim that a lot of the negatives of the estate are overblown.
Susie said: Don’t look at anything written before! We can have washing lines! It’s wonderful living here, it’s like an expat community. Everyone wants to be friendly. You can walk everywhere.
John added: Ýes, 35-per-cent of the houses here are social housing, but you’d never know. It’s all perfectly mixed together.’
‘The gravel is a real problem though, Susie admitted, ‘The people who come to put it on load it up with far too much and it goes everywhere.
‘We have a pride in where we live though. That’s why we litter pick.’
Despite the protestations of the Pearson’s, Poundbury still divides the architectural class.
Even the people who bought houses there still had to follow the Duchy’s strict rules for decoration – as Poundbury will always, and must always, look a certain way.
The reaction was uniformly negative. The Guardian declared Poundbury ‘fake, heartless, authoritarian and grimly cute’.
Other descriptions criticised the area for being a ‘feudal Disneyland’ and a ‘toy town’.
And that wasn’t the only criticism.
Architectural writer Jonathan Meades was even more scathing: Poundbury was a ‘cottagey slum’, he said, a ‘Thomas Hardy theme park for slow learners’.
The town features a mix of architectural styles, including Georgian; Victorian; Arts and Crafts; colonial; Dutch and Venetian.
Among the housing types are coach houses; terraces; industrial warehouses; mews houses; townhouses; villas, mansions; mansion blocks and faux converted barns.
However, despite its aesthetic being mocked by some, among the praise for Poundbury, is its integration of social housing (‘there are no “poor doors”.’).
In addition, everything residents need is within a 10-minute walk.
Alongside homes, the town boasts infrastructure including a GP, dentist, school, and Post Office.
Local businesses include a garden centre, multiple coffee shops, a florist, butcher, and two pubs.
Poundbury boasts some large green spaces, including the 30-acre Great Field, which has been planted with 400 trees and 26,000 shrubs.
So plenty of green spaces for kids to play in – but where are they?
During our visit, MailOnline spoke to one young man who had been brought up in the town.
Dan Bishop lived with his family in the town before they moved away, but he still misses it.
He said: ‘I grew up here. It was very quite and peaceful but its not suited for young people. I thought it was busy at the weekends but it isn’t really.
‘The house prices are very high, there aren’t many first time buyers. The architecture is different.’
