As the much-loved British “Swinging ’60s” romp HERE WE GO ROUND THE MULBERRY BUSH prepares for its first ever non-theatrical release, ANDY MORTEN hops aboard the last green Routemaster bound for the London satellite town of Stevenage in search of grotty girls, church raves and bed-ins.


W


hile London in the late ’60s like a pendulum swung, provincial Britain begrudgingly dragged itself out of post-war austerity and attempted to embrace the huge cultural changes that


swept through the country’s big cities, threatening to topple everything its parents and grandparents stood for. OK, that may be simplifying things a tad too much (although I still maintain there’s a book or three to be written puncturing the whole myth of “The Swinging ’60s”) but, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the small Hertfordshire enclave of Stevenage New Town – along with 90% of the rest of the UK – wasn’t up to its neck in hip night spots, fancy boutiques and opium dens in 1967.


Stevenage is undeniably the star of Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush. The town’s barely completed housing estates, pedestrianised shopping centre and municipal landmarks steal almost every scene they inhabit and a sense of “newness” permeates everything from the advertising hoardings to the overcrowded pre-fabs. A new town for a new age.


Stevenage’s origins can be traced back to the


11th century (it appears as Stigenace in the Domesday Book in 1086) but its post-war development and designation as Britain’s first New Town in 1946 sealed its fate as a solution to London’s housing problems and a beacon of starter home cosiness. The traffic- free Queensway shopping area – again, the first in the country – was opened by the Queen in ’59. Next to the ornamental pool and stark, modern clock tower you’ll find Joyride – the bronze mother and child statue constantly being kiss-slapped by Jamie and his cronies in the film.


Skip forward to ’65 and 29-year-old Hunter Davies – a post-grad journalist, yet to be immortalised forever as the writer of the sole authorised Beatles biography – sees his first novel, Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, published to positive reviews (“Refreshingly innocent of any moral, other than that sex is not so easy for today’s teenagers as everyone thinks”, enthused The Oxford Times). The novel plots the trials and tribulations of 17- year-old Jamie McGregor as he seeks to lose his cherry amidst the uncertainty and expectation of his sexual awakening in, you guessed it, Stevenage.


By opting for a setting outside London,


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