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Letchworth Garden City - The First Garden City Developed in 1903 by

Letchworth Garden City was the first garden city developed in 1903 in Hertfordshire, England. It had an area of 5,000 acres, with 3,000 acres designated as greenbelt to separate it from urban areas. Its plan was based on a population of 30,000 people living in 1,250 acres, surrounded by 2,500 acres of rural greenbelt. Welwyn Garden City was the second garden city founded in 1920, located 20 miles from London with a planned population of 4,000 people in 2,400 acres. The garden city concept emphasized communal land ownership, permanent greenbelts, ample open spaces, and limited communities of 12,000-18,000 people that could be served without cars

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189 views2 pages

Letchworth Garden City - The First Garden City Developed in 1903 by

Letchworth Garden City was the first garden city developed in 1903 in Hertfordshire, England. It had an area of 5,000 acres, with 3,000 acres designated as greenbelt to separate it from urban areas. Its plan was based on a population of 30,000 people living in 1,250 acres, surrounded by 2,500 acres of rural greenbelt. Welwyn Garden City was the second garden city founded in 1920, located 20 miles from London with a planned population of 4,000 people in 2,400 acres. The garden city concept emphasized communal land ownership, permanent greenbelts, ample open spaces, and limited communities of 12,000-18,000 people that could be served without cars

Uploaded by

Jaymin Jinger
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Letchworth Garden City – The first garden city developed in 1903 by

Barry Parker & Raymond Unwin  after having won the competition to build
the first garden city. It is 34 miles away from London. It has an area of
5000 acres with 3000 acres of green belt. It had an agricultural strip at its
periphery to check the invasion of urban areas i.e. the sprawling. It
showed Howard’s general principles, including the communal ownership
of the land and the permanent green belt has been carried through. It was
a town of homes and gardens with ample open spaces and a spirited
community life. A great attention was paid to landscaping and planting.
 Its plan was based on a population of 30000 with a living area
of 1250 acres and 2500 acres of rural green belt.
 Communities ranged from 12000 – 18000 people, small
enough which required no vehicular transportation.
 Industries were connected to the central city by rapid
transportation.
Related:  Primate City & Primacy | Relationship between city sizes
Welwyn – It was the second Garden City founded by Sir Ebenzer Howard
and designed by Louis De Soissions in 1920 and was located 20 miles from
Kings Cross. It was designed for a 4000 population in 2400 acres. It was a
town visually pleasing and was efficient technically and was human in
scale.
 It started with area of 2400 acres and 4000 population
 Had a parkway, almost a mile long central mall
 Town laid out along tree-lined boulevards with Neo Georgian
town center
 Every road had a wide grass verge
Garden city concept spread to various  parts of the world and influenced
all English, American, Canadian & Australian planning but housing was
most influenced. Other examples include Glenrother, Bedford Park, Milton
Keynes in the United Kingdom, Village Homes, Reston in  the United
States, Helleran in Germany, Tapiola in Finland.

Read more about: Welwyn Garden City by Ebenezer Howard | History,


Concept & Population
Failure of Garden cities:
Letchworth slowly attracted more residents because it was able to attract
manufacturers through low taxes, low rents and more space. Despite
Howard’s best efforts, the home prices in this garden city could not
remain affordable for workers to live in. Although many viewed
Letchworth as a success, it did not immediately inspire government
investment into the next line of garden cities. In frustration, Howard
bought land at Welwyn to house the second garden city in 1919. The
Welwyn Garden City Corporation was formed to oversee the construction.
But Welwyn did not become self-sustaining because it was only 20 miles
from London. Even until the end of the 1930s, Letchworth and Welwyn
remained as the only existing garden cities.

Conclusion on garden city movement


The idea of garden city, which has economic and social advantages that
urban aggregation had destroyed, was seen in the first two garden cities
only. It was seen as the “marriage of town and country, in an increasingly
coherent urban and regional pattern”. These new town towns offer a
more pleasing environment than crowded and squalid quarters in old
cities. The movement succeeded in emphasizing the need for urban
planning policies that eventually led to the New Town movement.

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