Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first

new towns A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

(designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and exemplifies the physical, social and cultural planning ideals of the periods in which it was built.

History

Welwyn Garden City was founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in 1920 following his previous experiment in

Letchworth Garden City 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 ...

. Howard had called for the creation of planned towns that were to combine the benefits of the city and the countryside and to avoid the disadvantages of both. It was designed to be 'The Perfect Town'. The Garden Cities and Town Planning Association had defined a garden city as

"a town designed for healthy living and industry of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life but not larger, surrounded by a rural belt; the whole of the land being in public ownership, or held in trust for the community"

In 1919, Howard arranged for the purchase of land in Hertfordshire that had already been identified as a suitable site. A company called Second Garden City Limited was formed in October 1919 to start buying the land and developing the town. On 4 February 1920 the company's board decided to call the new garden city Digswell, taking the name of the existing small village which would be surrounded by the development. Six days later they changed their minds, deciding instead to call it Welwyn Garden City, reflecting that the project was already been discussed generally as the "new garden city near Welwyn". On 29 April 1920 the company changed its name to become Welwyn Garden City Limited. Sir Theodore Chambers chaired the company, whilst

Louis de Soissons Louis Emanuel Jean Guy de Savoie-Carignan de Soissons CVO RA FRIBA (1890–1962) was the younger son of Charles de Savoie-Carignan , Count de Soissons ( with claimed descent, through an illegitimate son, from Thomas Francis of Savoy, Prin ...

was appointed as architect and town planner,

Charles Purdom Charles Benjamin Purdom (15 October 1883 – 8 July 1965) was a British author, drama critic, town planner, and economist. He was one of the pioneers and founders of the first garden cities, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City, the latter of whi ...

as finance director and

Frederic Osborn Sir Frederic James Osborn (1885–1978) was a leading member of the Garden city movement, UK Garden city movement and was chairman of the Town and Country Planning Association. He lived in Welwyn Garden City with his wife and fellow campaigner Lady ...

as secretary. The first house was occupied just before Christmas 1920. Cmglee Welwyn Garden City memorial garden

The town is laid out along tree-lined boulevards with a neo-Georgian town centre. It has its own environmental protection legislation, the Scheme of Management for Welwyn Garden City. Every road has a wide grass verge. The spine of the town is Parkway, a central mall or scenic parkway, almost a mile long. The view along Parkway to the south was once described as one of the world's finest urban vistas. Older houses are on the west side of Parkway and newer houses on the east side The original planners intended that all the residents of the garden city would shop in one shop and created the Welwyn Stores, a monopoly which caused some local resentment. Commercial pressures have since ensured much more competition and variety, and the Welwyn Stores were in 1984 taken over by the

John Lewis Partnership The John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company which operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose & Partners supermarkets, its banking and financial services, and other retail-related activities. The privately-held pu ...

. In 1948, Welwyn Garden City was designated a new town under the

New Towns Act 1946 The New Towns Acts were a series of Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to found new settlements or to expand substantially existing ones, to establish Development Corporations to deliver them, and to create a Commission to wind up the ...

and the Welwyn Garden City company handed its assets to the Welwyn Garden City Development Corporation. Louis de Soissons remained as its planning consultant. That year ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' compared Welwyn Garden City with Hatfield. It described Welwyn Garden City as a world-famous modern new town developed as an experiment in community planning and Hatfield as an unplanned settlement created by sporadic building in the open country. "Welwyn, though far from perfect, made the New Towns Act possible, just as Hatfield, by its imperfection, made it necessary." In 1966, the Development Corporation was wound up and handed over to the

Commission for New Towns English Partnerships (EP) was the national regeneration agency for England, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled by regional development agencies on a regional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor ...

. The housing stock, neighbourhood shopping and green spaces were passed to Welwyn Hatfield District Council between 1978 and 1983.Maurice de Soissons, ''Welwyn Garden City'', Cambridge, Publications for Companies, 1988 The

New QEII Hospital The New QEII Hospital is located in Welwyn Garden City and managed by East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. History The hospital was commissioned in 2013 by the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, at a cost of £30 million. It was desig ...

, completed in June 2015, offers outpatient, diagnostic and ante/postnatal services. A shopping mall, the

Howard Centre The Howard Centre is a shopping centre in Welwyn Garden City. It is named after Sir Ebenezer Howard, founder of the garden city movement. History It was built by Tarmac Construction and opened in October 1990. It was owned and managed by Slough ...

, was built in the 1980s, incorporating a replacement for the original "temporary"

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

. There is a resurgence of interest in the ethos of the garden city and the type of neighbourhood and community advocated by Howard, prompted by the problems of metropolitan and regional development and the importance of sustainability in government policy. On the outskirts of Old

Welwyn Welwyn is a village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The parish also includes the villages of Digswell and Oaklands. It is sometimes referred to as Old Welwyn or Welwyn Village, to distinguish it from the much newer and larger ...

village, the Welwyn Roman baths are preserved in a steel vault underneath junction 6 of the A1(M) and are open to visitors. The local civic society, which aims to preserve and conserve the garden city ethos, is the Welwyn Garden City Society. The international ecumenical Focolare movement has its British headquarters at Welwyn Garden City. In 2008, during construction of a site for HSBC, 60 unsecured argonite fire suppressant cylinders discharged, killing one person, injuring six others and causing substantial damage. Three firms were later convicted of health and safety offences. 2020 saw the 100th anniversary for Welwyn Garden City with a series of celebrations planned. They could not all be done amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Welwyn Garden City had a population of 46,619 in 2011, and 51,735 (estimated) in 2016.

Governance

Welwyn Garden City is part of the

Welwyn Hatfield The Borough of Welwyn Hatfield is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in southern Hertfordshire, England, governed by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. It covers the two towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, Hertfordshire, ...

Borough and comprises seven local authority wards. It is in the county of Hertfordshire and the parliamentary constituency of

. Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has its offices in Welwyn Garden City. The MP for Welwyn Hatfield is Grant Shapps (

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

). The nearby town of Hatfield and the village of Welwyn have parish councils with limited responsibilities, but Welwyn Garden City has none, although it had one between 1921 and 1927.

Administrative history

The land earmarked for the town in 1920 straddled the parishes of Hatfield, Digswell,

and

Tewin Tewin is an English village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England between the towns of Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Welwyn (village) and the county town Hertford, it is within commuting distance of London. Tewin Wood is a very affluent re ...

. On 1 October 1921 a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

called Welwyn Garden City was created from parts of those four parishes. The new parish was initially part of the Welwyn Rural District. By 1923 the Welwyn Garden City parish council was based in offices on Bridge Road, on the edge of the site identified for the new town centre of the garden city.

Welwyn Garden City Urban District (19271974)

The parish of Welwyn Garden City was made an urban district on 1 April 1927, making it independent of the Welwyn Rural District Council. New offices were built on the site of the former parish council's offices at the corner of Bridge Road and The Campus. The new building was formally opened in January 1937. This building served as the headquarters of Welwyn Garden City Urban District Council until its abolition in 1974. Between 20 May 1948 and 31 March 1966 the development of the town was also administered by the Welwyn Garden City Development Corporation, set up under the New Towns Act 1946. Welwyn Garden City Urban District Council was granted a coat of arms on 15 December 1958. Welwyn Garden City Urban District was abolished under the Local Government Act 1972, merging with Welwyn Rural District and Hatfield Rural District to become the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of Welwyn Hatfield on 1 April 1974. No

successor parish Successor parishes are civil parishes with a parish council, created in England in 1974. They replaced, with the same boundaries, a selected group of urban districts and municipal boroughs: a total of 300 successor parishes were formed from the ...

was created for the town, and so it became an

unparished area In England, an unparished area is an area that is not covered by a civil parish (the lowest level of local government, not to be confused with an ecclesiastical parish). Most urbanised districts of England are either entirely or partly unpa ...

, governed directly by Welwyn Hatfield District Council (Borough Council after 2006). The Welwyn Garden City Urban District Council's former offices at The Campus are still used by Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council as its headquarters.

Geography

Welwyn Garden City experiences a maritime or oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification ''Cfb''), in common with the rest of the United Kingdom. The town experiences warm summers and cool winters.

Economy

Ever since its inception as a garden city, Welwyn Garden City has attracted a strong commercial base with several designated employment areas. Among the companies trading in the town are: *Henleys Medical Supplies Ltd *Baxters *British Lead Mills *Cashbrokers *The

Danish Bacon Danish Bacon was a brand under which Danish bacon was sold in the United Kingdom. The product had "Danish" stamped on the rind between wavy lines. The Danish farmers producing Danish Bacon and their co-operatives were represented by Danske S ...

Company (DBC foodservice) *Emis Professional Publishing * Figleaves.com * HSBC's high-security global data centre *

Roche F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX ...

Ocado Ocado Group is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It owns a 50% share of Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer) and licenses its grocery fulfilment technology to global ...

PayPoint PayPoint plc is a British business offering a system for paying Invoice, bills in United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland and Romania. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The PayPoint network was set up in 1996 with the aim of ...

*Ratcliff Palfinger *Duncan Print Group *

Sigma Corporation is a Japanese company, manufacturing cameras, lenses, flashes and other photographic accessories. All Sigma products are produced in the company's own Aizu factory in Bandai, Fukushima, Japan. Although Sigma produces several camera models ...

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

has its head office at Shire Park, a business park in the north-east of the town. The site was once an ICI chemical works. Tesco gradually moved there from the late 1990s and has now closed its original Cheshunt head office in favour of additional Shire Park buildings. *VEGA Group *Welwyn Tool Group (formerly Welwyn Tool Company) *Hertfordshire County Council's county supplies and contract services centre The

Welwyn Garden City was once well known as the home of the breakfast cereal Shredded Wheat, formerly made by

Nabisco Nabisco (, abbreviated from the earlier name National Biscuit Company) is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International. Nabisco's ...

. The disused Shredded Wheat factory with its large white silos is a landmark on rail routes between London and the north of England. The factory, designed by de Soissons and built in 1924 by Peter Lind & Company, 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 ...

. Cereal production moved to Staverton, Wiltshire in 2008 when the owner,

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...

, decided that the factory required significant and prohibitive investment, due to the age of the building. Tesco applied to build a new supermarket on the site, but planning permission was refused by the local authority in January 2012 after significant public protest. In December 2018, the newly renamed "Wheat Quarter" area had planning permission approved for complete area redevelopment, consisting of 1,454 units, mainly homes, as well as office, retail and community uses. The former supermarket chain

Fine Fare Fine Fare was a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Their Yellow Pack budget own-label range, introduced in 1980, was the first own brand basic ranges to be introduced in the UK. History The company began as one single supermarket ...

had its head office in the town at one time, as did ICI's Plastics Division. There use to be a Xerox office located in Welwyn Garden City but closed in 2016. There is now a redeveloped and enlarged

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

in the town centre, and a

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqu ...

in Panshanger along Black Fan Road. Welwyn Garden City's proximity to London makes it a convenient

commuter town A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many ...

Transport

Cmglee Welwyn Garden City railway station

Buses are provided by Arriva Shires & Essex, Centrebus and Uno, with some assistance from

Hertfordshire County Council Hertfordshire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Hertfordshire, in England, the United Kingdom. After the 2021 election, it consists of 78 councillors, and is controlled by the Conservative Party, ...

. Arriva's 300/301 Centraline service links Welwyn Garden City to the major nearby towns of Stevenage, Hatfield, St Albans and

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

, as well as neighbouring villages

Woolmer Green Woolmer Green is a small village and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England. The 2011 census figure for the population (from the Office for National Statistics) is 661 people. History Situated between the villages of Welwyn and Knebworth, Wool ...

and

Knebworth Knebworth is a village and civil parish in the north of Hertfordshire, England, immediately south of Stevenage. The civil parish covers an area between the villages of Datchworth, Woolmer Green, Codicote, Kimpton, Whitwell, St Paul's Walden ...

. The 301 additionally connects both the nearby hospitals in Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City, while the 300 provides a direct link to recreational areas such as Stanborough Lakes in Welwyn Garden City and

Verulamium Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon ...

Roman town in St Albans. Service 314 is provided by Centrebus, connecting Welwyn to

Codicote Codicote is a large village, and civil parish about south of Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. It has timber-framed and chequered brick houses, of special interest being the 18th-century Pond House and the half-timbered Taverners Place (form ...

and Hitchin. The bus station is close to the railway station. Uno buses serve the nearby towns of Hatfield, St Albans,

Potters Bar Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882. In 2022 the population was ...

, Hemel Hempstead,

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

and Barnet. Uno buses also serve further out into North London. Both the 601 and 653 also provide links to the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

Green Line bus route 724 Green Line route 724 is a bus service currently operated by Arriva Southern Counties as part of the Green Line Coaches network. It runs on an orbital route round the north and western outskirts of London between Harlow and Heathrow Terminal 5, ...

runs a service from Welwyn Garden City to Heathrow Airport, stopping at stops such as Watford and

Rickmansworth Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and ...

. The

is in the town centre. Trains are operated by

Thameslink Thameslink is a 24-hour main-line route in the British railway system, running from , , , and via central London to Sutton, , , Rainham, , , , and . The network opened as a through service in 1988, with severe overcrowding by 1998, carrying ...

and run south to London King's Cross and Great Northern to London Moorgate and

run north to Stevenage, Hitchin,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. Welwyn Garden City is well-served by major arterial road routes, namely the

A1(M) A1(M) is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capit ...

and the A414. The Great North Road also passes around it next to the A1(M). In addition, there are other links to St Albans, Harpenden and

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable a ...

(via B653), Hatfield (via A1000 and A1001) and Hertford (via B1000). During the growth in car ownership in the 1950s and 1960s, the town struggled to build enough garages or hard-standing spaces for the additional vehicles, which has led to many properties losing their traditional hedges and front gardens to accommodate driveways.

Education

Welwyn Garden City has five secondary schools: * Sherrardswood School * Ridgeway Academy, a specialist

Sports College Sports Colleges are senior secondary schools which promote sports alongside secondary education. United Kingdom Sports Colleges were introduced in 1997 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in the United Kingdom. The programme enabled seco ...

(formerly Sir Frederic Osborn School, which was formed by the merging of The Welwyn Garden City High School and Attimore Hall School in 1968) * Monks Walk School, a specialist Science Academy * Knightsfield School for the Deaf * Stanborough School, a specialist

Maths and Computing College Mathematics and Computing Colleges were introduced in England in 2002 and Northern Ireland in 2006 as part of the Government's Specialist schools programme, Specialist Schools programme which was designed to raise standards in secondary educatio ...

(Formerly Welwyn Garden City Grammar School) A campus of

Oaklands College Oaklands College is a further education college in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It was established in 1991 when further education was reorganised. The college has campuses in St Albans and Welwyn Garden City, with a further provision in Boreh ...

is located near the town centre.

Culture

Cmglee Welwyn Garden City cinema library

Welwyn Garden City's Music Society gave its first concert in 1921 within weeks of the town's foundation; its choir and orchestra, led by James Ross, have performed a regular concert season in the town ever since. The town also boasts a Concert Club, which promotes chamber music recitals, and a Male Voice Choir. Welwyn Garden City Band was founded in 1934. The

Barn Theatre The Barn Theatre in Augusta, Michigan, Kalamazoo County, United States is one of the oldest summer stock theatres in the United States and the oldest one in Michigan. It also houses The Barn Theatre School. The barn theatre is just off the Sta ...

is a Grade II listed building on Handside Lane. Welwyn Thalians, an amateur dramatic and operatic group, has performed in the town since 1929.

Sport and leisure

The Gosling Sports Centre houses a dry ski slope, golf driving range, indoor and outdoor tennis, squash, football pitches, an athletics track, velodrome, a gym and bowls as well as a new trampoline park Welwyn Garden City football team founded in 1921, known as the Citizens, are based in Herns Lane. The King George V playing field, on the boundary of the old Hatfield Hyde village is the home o
Hatfield Hyde Cricket Club
since 1889, predating Welwyn Garden City by 31 years. The playing field was once used by the England football team for training. During the 1966 football World Cup the French, West German and Argentinian football teams stayed at the Homestead Court Hotel alongside the King George V playing fields. There are three golf courses: Panshanger, owned and operated by the borough council, Mill Green Golf Course located in Gypsy Lane and the Welwyn Garden City Golf Club, of which Nick Faldo was once a member. The Digswell Park Sports Association brings together Welwyn Garden City Cricket Club, Welwyn Garden City Bowls Club and the Digswell Park Sports and Social Club, at Digswell Park, Knightsfield. Welwyn Garden City Cricket Club was founded in 1921 and runs 7-weekend senior sides along with a youth cricket programme. WGCCC First XI competes in the Saracens Herts Premier League. The town has a rugby club called Welwyn RFC. The lake in Stanborough Park is the home of Welwyn Garden City Sailing Club (founded 1973) and the WGC Angling Club.

Notable people

See

List of people from Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England. It is located approximately from Kings Cross, London. Founded in 1920, Welwyn Garden City was the second garden city in England. In 1948, it was designated one of the first new towns un ...

References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control Towns in Hertfordshire Populated places established in 1920 New towns in England Intentional communities in the United Kingdom New towns started in the 1940s New towns started in the 1920s Unparished areas in Hertfordshire Former civil parishes in Hertfordshire Welwyn Hatfield