Howard Park and Gardens is a public

recreation ground A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...

Letchworth Letchworth Garden City, commonly known as Letchworth, is a town in the North Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire, England. It is noted for being the first garden city. The population at the time of the 2011 census was 33,249. Letchworth ...

, in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, England, laid out when the garden city of Letchworth was created. It is listed Grade II in

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

Register of Parks and Gardens The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

History

The park and gardens are named after

Ebenezer Howard Sir Ebenezer Howard (29 January 1850 – 1 May 1928) was an English urban planner and founder of the garden city movement, known for his publication '' To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform'' (1898), the description of a utopian city in whi ...

, who pioneered the idea of creating garden cities; they would benefit the whole community, they would be well planned and integrate the best aspects of town and country. The first garden city was Letchworth, on a site acquired in 1903. It was planned in 1904 by the architects Barry Parker and

Raymond Unwin Sir Raymond Unwin (2 November 1863 – 29 June 1940) was a prominent and influential English engineer, architect and town planner, with an emphasis on improvements in working class housing. Early years Raymond Unwin was born in Rotherham, Yorks ...

; it included a corridor of green space, which became the park and gardens, within a residential area. It was laid out from 1904 to 1911.

Description

The area is about . Howard Park, to the north, and Howard Gardens, to the south, are divided by Hillshott Road. Norton Way South is on the western border. The more informal Park has a large green space, a play area, a paddling pool opened in 1930, a refreshment kiosk and public toilets. East of the paddling pool is a memorial to Ebenezer Howard: a stone tablet installed in 1930, flanked by curved brick screen walls."Howard Park and Gardens"
North Herts Council. Retrieved 28 May 2022. In the south-west corner of the Park is the Mrs Howard Memorial Hall. It was designed by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, and was built in 1905–1906, the first public building in the new town. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, and is described in the listing as a smaller scale version of the Church of Christ, Scientist in Manchester (now the

Edgar Wood Centre The Edgar Wood Centre is a former Church of Christ, Scientist building in Victoria Park, Manchester, England. The church was designed by Edgar Wood in 1903. Nikolaus Pevsner considered it "the only religious building in Lancashire that would be ...

). In the more formal Gardens there is a bowling green and pavilion, paths and mature trees, and a wildflower area. In the south is the C F Ball Memorial Garden, created about 1936. The First Garden City Heritage Museum is situated next to Howard Gardens, adjacent to its western boundary. It was built in 1906–1907, as offices for the Parker and Unwin firm, in the style of a medieval

hall house The hall house is a type of vernacular house traditional in many parts of England, Wales, Ireland and lowland Scotland, as well as northern Europe, during the Middle Ages, centring on a hall. Usually timber-framed, some high status examples wer ...

; it is a Grade II* listed building.

References

{{Reflist Grade II listed parks and gardens in Hertfordshire Letchworth

History

Description

See also

References