New town

England

Following the building of Borehamwood, Middlesex, 12 miles north-west of central London, the first in a ring of major "first generation" New Towns around London (1946) were Stevenage, Hertfordshire, 33 miles to the north of London, and Basildon, Essex, 32 miles east of London along the River Thames. Hertfordshire built four other new towns, two in the vicinity of Stevenage (Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield), a third to the north called Letchworth, and Hemel Hempstead to the west. New Towns in the North East were also planned, such as Newton Aycliffe (which the social reformer and government adviser William Beveridge wanted to be the "ideal town to live in"), Washington, Killingworth, Billingham and Peterlee which were in both County Durham and Northumberland (except Washington and Killingworth which are now in Tyne and Wear). Bracknell in Berkshire, to the south-west of London, was designated a New Town in 1949 and is still expanding. Other London new towns from this era include Harlow in Essex and Crawley in West Sussex.