Mr. David Ames: Letchworth - the first garden city utopia

The Heritage Foundation is a self funded charitable organisation reinvesting for the long term benefit of communities in Letchworth Garden City.

We support, fund and promote activities for Letchworth Garden City communities.

Ebenezer Howard1850-1928

1898

• Poor housing• Over crowding• High rents

What are Garden City Principles?

‘The advantages of the most energetic and active town life, with all the beauty and delight of the country, may be secured in perfect combination’

Ebenezer Howard – A Utopian vision?

‘the provision of hygienic conditions of life for a considerable working population’

First Garden City Limited 1903

‘whatever advantages the worker gains through living and working under the more wholesome conditions of the Garden City are not at the cost of his independence’

C B Purdom 1913

Utopia Through Design?

• Spacious homes• Clean air• Access to food growing• Walkable neighbourhoods• Good quality working environments

Utopian Reality

Master plan – key significance‘promises to call together a community inspired with some ideal of what their city should be…which will have in its life something more worthy to be expressed in its architecture than mere self-centred independence and churlish disregard.’

Raymond Unwin

Barry Parker & Raymond Unwin

Workers Cottages

Occupation

Good quality, healthy homes Parker’s Building Regulations

In many cases, dominated by lower middle classes and not the low skilled labour they were intended for.Some issues of class based geography, was an accidental implication of the master plan.

Employment

‘improvement of health and efficiency among people brought from London was most remarkable.’

WH Smith & Son 1911

Hijacked by the Middle Classes?

‘with magnetic force every fruit juice drinker, nudist, sandal wearer, sex maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist and feminist in England’.

George Orwell – Road to Wigan Pier 1936

‘half a day only once a year when we can meet as friends and throw off the veneer of iciness is almost a mockery’

1909 Commentator

Post WWII

1950 – 70s•Growth in housing – as part of national housing crisis•CPO•Fight to Save to legacy

Letchworth Today – A Utopia?

Garden City Principles

Community Ownership

Long term Stewardship

High quality design

Houses with gardens

Affordable homes

Allotments

Access to countryside

Green spaces

Local jobs

Local food sourcing

TransportRecreation

Culture

Prosperity is shared

Environment

Social

EconomicPhysical

Income

A self-funding charity re-investing in the

Garden City.

Prosperity is shared

Asset Value £128mTotal Income £10m Property Income £7.8m

OUR CHARITABLE SERVICES

through our charitable services and grant giving

The Garden City owns itself Governance

Board of Management (9)

Governors (30)

Nominated (10) Elected (6) General (14)

Conclusions

• Howard’s Garden City Principles can be linked to a utopian approach, addressing issues of the time

• The reality of Letchworth was that the founding years were positive, but there was a fear of the working class by the middle classes

• Today, the core Garden City Principles remain in Letchworth

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