Letchworth Garden City

Letchworth Garden City has been described as 'the town built on a book', a practical demonstration of the theories of Ebenezer Howard, father of the Garden City Movement, who published "Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform" in 1898. Dismissed as 'Utopian scheming', a start was made to build his amalgam of town and country at Letchworth within five years, with an influential master plan and housing designed by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin which set planning and environmental standards for the twentieth century. A distinctive community spirit, and a wide range of industries soon made the first Garden City internationally famous. In the 1950s a takeover of the original development company resulted in the passage of legislation to create the Letchworth Garden City Corporation, itself reconstituted as a Heritage Foundation in October 1995. The First Garden City Museum and several private collections have yielded a rich crop of photographs for this volume, illustrating the evolution of the community over the years.