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Fire damaged former 3M Building

Marketplace alley

Office building at sunset

Broadway

Bracknell was designated a new town in 1949,^[2] in the aftermath of the Second World War. The site was originally a village-come-small-town in the civil parish of Warfield in the Easthampstead Rural District. Very little of the original Bracknell is left. The location was chosen over White Waltham, an alternative possibility, because the Bracknell site avoided encroaching on good quality agricultural land. It had the additional advantage of being on a railway line.

The new town was planned for 25,000 people; it was intended to occupy over 1,000 hectares of land on and around 'Old Bracknell' in the area now covered by Priestwood, Easthampstead, Bullbrook and Harman's Water. The existing town centre and industrial areas were to be retained with new industry brought in to provide jobs.^[3] However, the town has since expanded far beyond its intended size into farmland to the south, and major expansion is now, as of 2008, under way to the west of the town at Peacock Farm, and on the site of the former RAF Staff College.^[4]

The town centre is a 1960s design, and considered by many to be in need of a major refurbishment. The Borough Council is therefore working in partnership with the Bracknell Regeneration Partnership (Legal & General and Schroders) to regenerate the town centre with new shops and facilities to be built.

At the heart of most Bracknell neighbourhoods is a church, a small parade of shops, a primary school, a community centre and a pub, there is a church in Crown Wood School (part of Easthampstead Baptist Church www.ebc-bracknell.org). The neighbourhoods varied in size from 3000 to 9000. Pedestrianisation was a key idea, as was the construction of a ring road, and segregation of industrial areas from residential areas.^[5][6]

A feature of a number of the estates that causes great confusion for outsiders and newcomers alike is the fact that streets only have names, not titles - in Birch Hill, Crown Wood, Great Hollands and others there is no 'Road', 'Avenue', 'Street', just 'Frobisher', 'Jameston', 'Juniper', 'Jevington'. The residential streets are, however, named in alphabetical order starting in Great Hollands, with As, through Ds, such as Donnybrook, in Hanworth, Js, such as 'Jameston' and 'Jevington' in Birch Hill, and beyond. The exceptions are streets in the Wimpey Homes area of the town, where street names such as Hornby Avenue and Pakenham Road can be found.

Because of Bracknell's age, it was decided that it should undergo renovation. Designs and plans were submitted and rejected first time round. The council went for a second attempt and were accepted, work was due to commence early in 2008 but due to the global credit crises it appears that plans have been postponed until a more suitable time, although in January 2009 it was still publicly stated as being planned. The cost is estimated at around £750 million. It is hoped that the regeneration will provide brand new services, a completely redeveloped town centre, 1,000 new homes and new police and bus stations.^[7][8]

The town was successful in attracting high-tech industries, and has become home to companies such as Panasonic, Fujitsu (formerly ICL) and Fujitsu-Siemens Computers, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens (originally Nixdorf), Honeywell, Cable and Wireless, Avnet Technology Solutions and Novell. Its success subsequently spread into the surrounding Thames Valley or M4 corridor, attracting IT firms such as Cable and Wireless, DEC (subsequently Hewlett-Packard), Microsoft, Sharp Telecommunications, Oracle Corporation, Sun Microsystems and Cognos.

Bracknell is also home to the central Waitrose distribution centre and head office which is on a 70-acre (280,000 m²) site on the Southern Industrial Estate. Waitrose has operated from the town since the 1970s. The town is also home to the UK headquarters of BMW Group.

Manufacturing industry has largely disappeared since the 1980s. Former significant sites included Clifford's Dairy in Downshire Way and British Aerospace (originally Sperry Gyroscope) now occupied by Arlington Square. The Thomas Lawrence brickworks on the north side of the town was famous for 'red rubber' bricks to be found in the Royal Albert Hall and Westminster Cathedral, and in restoration work at 10 Downing Street and Hampton Court Palace.

The most visible landmark in the town centre is Winchester House, formerly owned by 3M and informally known as the "3M Building", as it had the 3M logo in large illuminated red letters in a prominent place at the top of the building. It is a twelve-storey structure and it can be seen from miles around. Today it stands as a decaying monument and a bad example of brutalist architecture. It used to house the company's UK headquarters before being abandoned in favour of new premises in Farley Wood on the town's northern edge in 2004 – since then, the building has had the 3M logo removed and has been heavily vandalised inside. It is also due for demolition. The town was also the home of Racal and Ferranti Computer Systems Ltd. The Met Office maintained a large presence in the town until 2003, when it relocated to Exeter in Devon.

"Arlington Square", a 22 acre (8ha) business park (first stage completed in 1995), is home to several of the town's businesses. Others are on the Western and Southern industrial areas.

Bracknell was made a civil parish in its own right in 1955. It has a town council. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the entire Easthampstead Rural District became the Bracknell District on 1 April 1974. It was granted Borough status, when it changed its name to Bracknell Forest in 1988. When Berkshire County Council was abolished on 1 April 1998 (and the non-metropolitan county was reclassified as a ceremonial county), Bracknell Forest became one of the unitary authorities which together make up Berkshire.

The town covers areas previously in the parishes of Easthampstead, Warfield, Binfield and Winkfield. The town's centre lies just north of the Railway Station with completely pedestrianized and much undercover shopping around Princess Square, Charles Square and the Broadway. There are 'out-of-town' shops, a multiscreen cinema and ten pin bowling complex at the Peel Centre. Just to the west are the Western and Southern Industrial Estates, either side of the railway line. There are many residential suburbs (see settlement table below) of varying dates, the oldest being Priestwood and, of course, Easthampstead Village.

The former RAF Staff College buildings in Harmanswater, now closed, was part of the Joint Services Command and Staff College. This site is now, as of 2008, being redeveloped for housing by Wimpey, with an estimated 730 houses on the college's former site. The south-western corner of the town remains rural around Easthampstead Park and the wooded Yew Tree Corner. Another new housing development called Jennett's Park is however being built nearby at Peacock Farm. There are large ponds at Farley Wood and the Easthampstead Mill Pond between Great Hollands and Wildridings, and two lakes at South Hill Park. The Bull Brook emerges above ground just within the bounds of the suburb of Bullbrook.

1975 - 1990s Bracknell Jazz Festival

1970s - 1980s Bracknell Folk Festival ("The Handsome Mouldiwarp Festival")

1988 - Womad Festival

1980s - 1990s - Bracknell Music Festival / South Hill Park Festival

2000s - present - Big Day Out festival, a free, annual World Music and acoustic/folk festival

Bracknell has two railway stations, Bracknell and Martins Heron, both of which are on the Waterloo to Reading Line, originally built by the London and South Western Railway and now operated by South West Trains. As a consequence of the frequent service on this line, Bracknell is now a major commuter centre with its residents travelling in both directions (westwards to Reading and eastwards to London (Waterloo)).

The town has good road links and is situated at the end of the A329(M), mid-way between Junction 3 of the M3 and Junction 10 of the M4 motorways. A proposed motorway link between the M3 and the M4 – to be called the M31 – would have passed to the west of the town centre, but only the section that is now the A329(M) and the A3290 was built.^[11]

Local bus services are provided by First Group and Courtney Coaches.

Bracknell Town Football Club are members of the Southern Football League Division One South & West, and play their home matches at Larges Lane. The Bracknell Bees Ice Hockey Club are former national champions, who currently play in the English Premier League. The Bracknell Blazers are the 2009 BBF National League champions. The town is also represented by teams playing rugby,^[12] hockey^[13] and cricket.^[14]

The town has a large leisure centre, which includes swimming and athletics facilities, whilst there is also the Coral Reef Water Park, the Downshire Golf Complex and Esporta, the Royal County of Berkshire Club. The John Nike Leisuresport Complex houses a dry ski slope and an ice rink, and there are 2,600 acres (11 km²) of Crown Estate woodland at the Look Out Discovery Centre.^[15] A number of organisations are active in the area, including several troops of Scouts, and the Bracknell Forest Lions Club, which was formed in 1968 to help those in need.^[16]

The area has various schools including Brakenhale School, Easthampstead Park School, Garth Hill College, Ranelagh Church of England School, St Margaret Clitherow Primary School and St Joesphs Roman Catholic School. Bracknell and Wokingham College of further education is also based in the area.

The University of Reading is only 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) to the northwest.