Garden Cities

The Idea of the Garden City

The logic of the garden city was simple enough. In essence, it amounted to a plan to build new settlements that would resolve the problems of town and country that afflicted late-Victorian society. In what has become one of the best-known rhetorical questions in planning, Howard asked, “The People—where will they go?” The answer, of course, was that they would go to garden cities, as these would offer the best of town and country while removing the worst. The garden city, he claimed, would offer “the advantages of the most energetic and active town life” in perfect harmony with “all the beauty and delight of the country” (Howard 1945, p. 45). Garden cities would act as basic building blocks in the progressive reconstruction of society—the “peaceful path to real reform” referred to in the title of the first edition of Howard's book.

The garden city itself was closely defined. An area of land would be bought to allow for a nucleus of building with a surrounding ring of farmland. The basic unit of settlement would have an ultimate population of thirty thousand within the built-up area and a further two thousand in the agricultural belt. Development would be strictly controlled and zoned to achieve higher environmental standards than were commonplace in cities elsewhere. In the very center would be an ornamental garden, surrounded by a ring of civic buildings and beyond that an extensive park. To complete the central complex would be a circular Crystal Palace, a wide glass arcade with shops and exhibitions. Radial boulevards would connect the center to the edge of the city, separating the various neighborhoods as well as providing access.

Hunger marchers in the garden city of Welwyn, Hertfordshire, England, in 1932. They are collecting money on their march to London to protest the high unemployment rate.

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