Ebenezer Howard’s vision of a Garden City was one that would combine the benefits of living in a town with those of living in the country. It would be a place in which people would both live and work in beautiful surroundings; in a city that would be not only a “city in a garden”, but also a “city of gardens”: an example of good civic design and architectural harmony.
The town is now very much bigger, and many residents commute to London and elsewhere. These and other social changes, particularly the car becoming the main means of transport and the growth of supermarkets, chain stores and multi-national industrial combines, mean that Ebenezer Howard’s original vision has had to adapt to the demands of modern living.
The use of space is generous by modern day standards, there are large verges between roadway and pavements. Trees are planted in abundance; there are both grand vistas in the formal part of the town that give way, seemingly effortlessly, to intimate domestic architecture. The latter representing one of the finest collections of English domestic architecture of the early 20th century.
To be merged with history!
