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New page: '''Letchworth''', in Hertfordshire, south-east England, was the first garden city to be founded by the planner and urbanist Ebenezer Howard, in 1903. Its layout was designe...
'''Letchworth''', in [[Hertfordshire]], south-east [[England]], was the first [[garden city]] to be founded by the planner and urbanist [[Ebenezer Howard]], in 1903. Its layout was designed by [[Raymond Unwin]] and [[Barry Parker]], following Hoeward's ideas of the separation of industry and housing, and communal ownership of civic resources, and Unwin and Parker's views on low density housing grouped in tree-lined streets and ''culs-de-sac''. The town attracted some sympathetic employers to set up works there - notably the publishers Dent and the corset manufacturers Spirella (the latter something of an irony, as the popular stereotype of Letchworth woman was of a 'rational dress' enthusiast, who would have scorned stays). Although something of a showpiece, visited and admired by urban reformers fromacross the globe, Letchworth grew slowly and it was not until 1920 that Howard risked a second city-building venture, at [[Welwyn Garden City]]. Whether Letchworth was a success by Howards standards can never really be ascertained. He believed that 'clusters' of six or seven new garden cities, with a total population of 200-250,000, linked by rapid rail connections, could replicate the cultural, social and commercial facilities of a big city without the negative aspects of overcrowding, dirt and pollution; but this was never put to the test. Letchworth was also too close to [[London]] to develop an independent cultural life; and has since become a dormitory town for the capital.
[[Category:UK Towns and Cities]]
[[Category:UK Towns and Cities]]