Additional information
Terrain
- Town roads, parkland paths and woodland tracks
Landscape
- Garden City, 18th-century parkland (and golf course) and mixed woodland
Dog friendliness
- On lead on town roads and golf course
Parking
- Campus West Long Term car park (free on Sundays), off B195 in Welwyn Garden City
Toilets en route
- John Lewis store, Welwyn Garden City
About the walk
Hertfordshire has a key place in the history of the Garden City Movement. Within the county are Letchworth, begun in 1903, and Welwyn Garden City, the theme of this walk, started in 1920. The movement was the inspiration of the utopian socialist Ebenezer Howard, who published the cumbersomely... titled, Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform in 1898. It inspired the foundation of the Garden City Association in 1899 and the book was rewritten in 1902 with the somewhat snappier title, Garden Cities of Tomorrow. Complete town Letchworth was started by Howard in around 4,000 acres (1,620ha) of land to the west of Baldock. After World War I he began his next venture, refining his ideas after the lessons of Letchworth. Howard bought 1,688 acres (684ha) southeast of Welwyn at auction from the Cowper Estate in May 1919, adding a further 694 acres (281ha) in the October. In April 1920 he formed Welwyn Garden City Limited and the first houses were occupied by Christmas. The aim of both Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City was to create a complete town with industry and commerce giving a viable economic base.The railway that cuts through the middle of Letchworth, running north to south, had a profound influence on its layout, which was masterminded by a young, idealistic architect called Louis de Soissons. The principal boulevard is Parkway, which has parallel avenues of trees. Parkway and the semicircular Campus at its north end have the same axis as the railway, which also served to separate the city into two. On the east side were working-class housing and factories. West of Parkway is middle-class housing, much of it occupied by commuters to London. Our route crosses The Campus, goes down Parkway and then west to wind through the middle-class housing with its trees and hedges, many retained from the previous farmland. The style of buildings here is 'cottage Georgian', which works well at this scale. However, to the east of Parkway the larger-scale 1930s buildings, also by de Soissons, are in an overblown neo-Georgian style, complete with pedimented porticos or temple fronts. Welwyn's cereal factory, designed by de Soissons in 1925, is now a listed building. After World War II a third generation of planned towns arrived and Hertfordshire received Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield.
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