West of Hertford and east of nearby St Albans, sits the town of Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. One of the most famous towns built in the 20th century - the legacy of Welwyn Garden City’s design philosophy still lives and breathes in the air of the town today. Known for its ingenius and anthropocentric-focused design philosophies featuring swathes of greenland and intuitive design patterns, Welwyn Garden City is one of the most influential commuter towns in the the whole of London’s commuter belt. This egalitarian design philosophy still rings true in the housing fabric of the town, with house prices averaging at just over £400,000 - significantly less than nearby St Albans.

The history of Welwyn Garden City is the history of Sir Ebenezer Howard. Howard, a master urban planner born in 1850, was one of the most influential urban planners in the whole of British design history. After brushings with the famous poets of the U.S, like Walt Whitman, Howard began to theorise about how life could be improved physically, through the built environment. There he devised the idea of the garden city, a ‘slumless’ and ‘smokeless’ city concept that focused mainly on quality of life for its residents above all else. The first garden city to be established began in 1903 with Letchworth Garden City. After the success at Letchworth, Howard acquired land and funding to found Welwyn Garden City in 1920. Designed with a neo-Georgian tree-lined boulevard as the town’s core, the town’s roads loop around concentrically, split into four main sections of North, East, South, West. Even today, the central facets of Howard’s 1920 masterplan of Welwyn Garden City are upheld, and it is a huge part of the town’s identity.

Howard’s garden city concept sent shockwaves throughout England and massively influenced future design planning. In fact, the garden city was a foundational inspiration to the design and implementation of new towns (following the New Towns Act of 1946, which aimed to provide new towns and housing following the devastation of WWII). These new towns inspired by Howard include Harlow Town and Milton Keynes!

The southern portion of Welwyn Garden City is characterised by typical mid twentieth century terraced and detached housing blocks - similar to the earlier houses built in the 1920s. As a relatively new town, development has occurred throughout its 100 year history. However, a huge urban and civic project is currently in development south of Welwyn Garden City. Called the Birchall Garden suburb, this civic project is aiming to provide over 1,900 new homes to the south Welwyn Garden City - as well as civic centres, schools, shops, and more!