Whether you shopped, worked or enjoyed your leisure time there, The Food Centre was a part of life for thousands of MK residents until its loss earlier this year.
The imposing building has been razed to make way for the E3 West development, which will deliver 100s of mid-market homes, from one bed studios through to three bed apartments.
Where once Sainsbury’s and Waitrose headed up a retailer list also including a coffee shop, off licence, hairdressers, pet food store, bank and many others, now a pile of rubble is all that remains as the work continues.
But the legacy of the building - which also used to provide entertainment through Bar Central - has been preserved; parts of the The Food Hall are now at Milton Keynes Museum, and an acclaimed artist has delivered two striking paintings of the iconic 1980s build.
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Kate Jackson, former lead singer with indie quintet The Long Blondes, was commissioned to make the stunning art in 2020 and she spent the weekend at the centre:mk talking to shoppers about her creations.
"The paintings commemorate and celebrate The Food Centre; its grand scale, its role in building a community, its innovation and its importance in reflecting a moment in time in Milton Keynes Development," Kate said.
"My work is about the transience of architecture and the evolving urban landscape, traces of the recent past and memory of place. The Food Centre will live long in the collective memory of the people of Milton Keynes and hopefully these two paintings will be seen as a celebration of these memories as the site begins to moves into a new phase of its development.”
