The Howard Centre is a shopping centre in

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and ...

. It is named after

Sir 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 ...

, founder of the

garden city movement The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...

History

It was built by Tarmac Construction and opened in October 1990. It was owned and managed by Slough Estates from 1990 until 2004 when ownership transferred to

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is ...

. Land Securities managed the centre until its disposal in October 2009 to LaSalle who have owned and managed it since.

Description

The centre provides of space set across two levels; anchor tenants include

Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Boot or Boots may also refer to: Businesses * Boot Inn, Chester, Cheshire, England * Boots (company), a high-street pharmacy chain and manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom * The Boot, Cromer St ...

WHSmith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

Monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

and H&M. In April 2022, the then largest anchor store Marks & Spencer (occupying split across both floors at the centre's northern end) closed their Howard Centre branch and relocated to Stevenage.

Connections

The centre has direct access to

Welwyn Garden City railway station Welwyn Garden City railway station serves the town of Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, England. It is from on the East Coast Main Line. Train services are currently provided by Thameslink and Great Northern. History A station named ''W ...

, along with a ticket office within the centre itself, and is adjacent to the town's bus station. It is complemented by the older

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

store which is outside the centre but only a few minutes walk away, on Bridge Road.

References

External links

Howard Centre website

LaSalle website
{{Shopping centres in the East of England Shopping centres in Hertfordshire Buildings and structures in Hertfordshire Shopping malls established in 1990 Welwyn Garden City

History

Description

Connections

See also

References

External links