The Sanctuary Milton Keynes

This summer marks 20 years since The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes closed its doors for good. The actual anniversary has now passed as it was in July, but I thought it would still be an idea to write about it.

The story of The Sanctuary begins in December 1991 when ESP needed a bigger venue than Milwaukee's to hold their raves as they were getting more popular. The Sanctuary had just been built for industrial purposes but fell victim to the recession. ESP owner Murray Beetson found a use for it by putting on raves there and Dreamscape was born.

In 1993 Helter Skelter started holding raves there too having also previously held raves at Milwaukee's. Several other promotors started using The Sanctuary too and it quickly became known as the raving capital of the UK. On New Years Eve 1994 Dreamscape 15 vs 16 was held and it was named like that because they also opened up the Rollers Warehouse next door to expand the rave even further. Helter Skelter followed suit in 1996.

As someone who wasn't quite old enough to go out to the raves at the time I started building up this idealistic view of the place. I'd get the flyers, listen to the tapes when I'd hear the whistles and horns and wished I was there. I also heard the MCs shout out to the Birkenhead crew many times, sounded like it was a great raving community.

When I was almost 18 I finally went to The Sanctuary. All I had to go off was a small snippet of a map on the flyer to find it. First thing I established is you don't got to Milton Keynes train station, you go to Bletchley. Once I got off the train I felt a lot more confident about finding it because pretty much everyone else who got off the train seemed to be going there.

One thing the flyers always said was "friendly security". Shortly after arriving in the queue I thought I dread to think what unfriendly security would be like. What stood out was a bouncer who looked like MC Magika barking orders at everyone.

Once inside I did find a few reasons why it lived up to its hype. Hearing the music out loud, having the DJs and MCs there in front of you, shaking hands with DJ Brisk once he'd finished his set (have since shook many DJs hands). Downstairs was big, upstairs was compact and each had their own charm.

One other thing that gave The Sanctuary it's character though was the fact it was a complete shit hole. At the end of the night I probably had just as much dirt on my trousers as I would have in a muddy field on a rainy night. There were also bits of ceiling that would fall down on you. 

When Helter Skelter held the Millennium Jam, all attendees got a free video about the history of Helter Skelter. On it, DJ Hype says how Milton Keynes is conveniently in the middle of the country which means its convenient for people from all over the country to get to, all the way from Manchester to London and that. Not so convenient when you move to Newcastle like I did.

It wasn't very convenient public transport wise when I lived much closer to Milton Keynes though. As I've mentioned, it was near Bletchley station. The trains from there go to London, but northbound they only go as far as Northampton. There was also quite a gap between the rave ending and the first train leaving in the morning. It was during one of these long waits that I once found myself in one of the waiting rooms with the Birkenhead crew. It wasn't a pleasant experience.

I did drive there once. The flyers did say secure parking available. Fortunately by this point there was plenty of information on the internet that taught me that cars got broke into pretty much every time there was a rave. It would also happen to cars in the B&Q car park across the road and to a lesser extent in the Tesco car park a bit further along. I therefore turned off one of the many roundabouts nearby and went into a residential area to park. On leaving the rave I saw some smashed car windows in the B&Q car park, but my car was fine so was the right decision.

By the time The Sanctuary closed in 2004 it had been some time since I'd last attended. A combination of not being into the newer music and moving to Newcastle being the main reason. I was still in my early 20s which felt too young to be strictly old skool. When I did go to The Sanctuary though, many of the other ravers there clearly weren't old enough to have gone when it first opened in 1991. 

Quite how many people there were who attended both the first and last event I'll probably never know. There were however 11 DJs and the first event and 6 of those played at the last one.