It was built as a happy, healthy alternative to urban squalor but its ideals are being buried as the need for housing stock grows
From the station in Welwyn they walked along a farm track to Sherrardspark Wood, minding their step on the grassy floor, and made their way down to a naturally forming hollow, where they paid two shillings and sixpence to see a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Surrounded by larch trees, 130 players took to the stage of the Dell theatre. They travelled on Saturday 6 June 1925 not only to see Shakespeare performed in this oddly magical, bucolic setting, but also to visit one of the new, radical communities being built in England that people from all over the world were talking about – the garden city.
This year marks the centenary of Welwyn Garden City, one of England’s two official garden cities, a concept pioneered by Ebenezer Howard in his visionary book, To-Morrow – A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, published in 1898. Disheartened by the squalor and overcrowding in England’s Victorian cities, Howard boldly promised “a new hope, a new life, a new civilisation”, and, thankfully, attached the plans to create it. His vision of a garden city married the best aspects of town and country to create a new, healthier, happier way for people to exist. And while garden cities today are usually noted for their peaceful, tree-lined suburban streets and carefully maintained Arts and Crafts cottages, there was much more to Howard’s plan than design.
Continue reading…It was built as a happy, healthy alternative to urban squalor but its ideals are being buried as the need for housing stock growsFrom the station in Welwyn they walked along a farm track to Sherrardspark Wood, minding their step on the grassy floor, and made their way down to a naturally forming hollow, where they paid two shillings and sixpence to see a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Surrounded by larch trees, 130 players took to the stage of the Dell theatre. They travelled on Saturday 6 June 1925 not only to see Shakespeare performed in this oddly magical, bucolic setting, but also to visit one of the new, radical communities being built in England that people from all over the world were talking about – the garden city. This year marks the centenary of Welwyn Garden City, one of England’s two official garden cities, a concept pioneered by Ebenezer Howard in his visionary book, To-Morrow – A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, published in 1898. Disheartened by the squalor and overcrowding in England’s Victorian cities, Howard boldly promised “a new hope, a new life, a new civilisation”, and, thankfully, attached the plans to create it. His vision of a garden city married the best aspects of town and country to create a new, healthier, happier way for people to exist. And while garden cities today are usually noted for their peaceful, tree-lined suburban streets and carefully maintained Arts and Crafts cottages, there was much more to Howard’s plan than design. Continue reading…