Place nicknamed after Satan is UK's 'most calming' place to live

Milton Keynes, once dubbed 'Satan's layby' that's also been described as 'soulless' and 'grey' has fought off the country's most renowned scenic spots to claim the crown of the calmest place to live in the UK, but people seemingly from the area disagree, saying it is too noisy.

The city, that's just 57-years-old, has come in for its fair share of criticism over the years, with comedian Bill Bailey once calling it 'Satan's layby' and critics slamming it for the sheer number of roundabouts and concrete buildings.

But more recently, booking site Independent Cottages rated it as the most underrated city in the UK, and now it can add the accolade of the calmest place to live from Compare the Market.

The price comparison site looked at factors such as air levels, noise quality and how happy residents living there are.

It also analysed the population per square kilometre, the quality of green spaces, amount of walking trails and even the number of spas.

Milton Keynes was formed in 1967 Chris Read Aerial Photography

But when looking at how noisy it is, Milton Keynes is actually rated quite poorly, and Reddit users who appear to be from the area say it is a big issue and the city is not calming because of this.

One said: "You can hear the car noise over long distances in most residential areas precisely because the roads are dual carriageways, so the cars drive fast, and because there are no barriers to sound (plus often roads are slightly elevated relative to residential areas, which also helps the sound travel far)."

Another commented: "It’s just a constant drone wherever you are, even in the country parks you can just hear ‘schheeeeeww’ in the distance."

And another posted: "I don’t finding it calming when I am enjoying all the public green space and walking trails when I can hear the lowlife racing up and down the grid roads."

Milton Keynes was mapped out in a grid system, similar to New York City, in the hope it would encourage driving and help industrial estates to drive business.

And while there is a massive shopping centre and accompanying car park, there are more than 22 million trees and shrubs in public open spaces and around a quarter of the urban space is parkland or woodland.

According to Rightmove, the average price of a house there is just under £350,000, less than half of the £775,000+ figure in London.

The other top five named place to live, according to Compare the Market, Preston, Oxford, Sheffield and Wigan in that order.

How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel

Sign up to our free indy100 weekly newsletter

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.