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Welwyn Garden City
Welwyn Garden City  Welwyn Garden City shown within Hertfordshire
Population	43,252 [1]
OS grid reference	TL245135
District	Welwyn Hatfield
Shire county	Hertfordshire
Region	East
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WELWYN GARDEN CITY
Postcode district	AL7, AL8, EN6
Dialling code	01707
Police	Hertfordshire
Fire	Hertfordshire
Ambulance	East of England
EU Parliament	East of England
UK Parliament	Welwyn Hatfield
List of places: UK • England • Hertfordshire

Welwyn Garden City

Welwyn Garden City was founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s following his previous experiment in Letchworth Garden City. Howard had called for the creation of planned towns that were to combine the benefits of the city and the countryside and to avoid the disadvantages of both. The Garden Cities and Town Planning Association had defined a garden city as

"a town designed for healthy living and industry of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life but not larger, surrounded by a rural belt; the whole of the land being in public ownership, or held in trust for the community"^[2]

View to the northwest from the Parkway Fountain

In 1919, Howard arranged for the purchase of land in Hertfordshire that had already been identified as a suitable site. On 29 April 1920 a company, Welwyn Garden City Limited, was formed to plan and build the garden city, chaired by Sir Theodore Chambers. Louis de Soissons was appointed as architect and town planner and Frederic Osborn as secretary.^[2] The first house was occupied just before Christmas 1920.^[3]

The town is laid out along tree-lined boulevards with a neo-Georgian town centre.^[4] It has its own environmental protection legislation, the Scheme of Management for Welwyn Garden City.^[5] Every road has a wide grass verge. The spine of the town is Parkway, a central mall or scenic parkway, almost a mile long. The view along Parkway to the south was once described as one of the world's finest urban vistas.^[6] Older houses are on the west side of Parkway and newer houses on the east side^[4]

The original planners intended that all the residents of the garden city would shop in one shop and created the Welwyn Stores, a monopoly which caused some local resentment.^[2] Commercial pressures have since ensured much more competition and variety, and the Welwyn Stores were in 1984 taken over by the John Lewis Partnership. A shopping mall, the Howard Centre, was built in the 1980s, incorporating the original railway station.

Welwyn Garden City was designated a new town in 1948, when the Welwyn Garden City company handed its assets to the Welwyn Garden City Development Corporation. Louis de Soissons remained as its planning consultant. That year, The Times newspaper said: "Welwyn Garden City made The New Towns Act possible". In 1966, the Development Corporation was wound up and handed over to the Commission for New Towns. The housing stock, neighbourhood shopping and green spaces were passed to Welwyn Hatfield District Council between 1978 and 1983.^[2]

Arms of the former Welwyn Garden City Urban District Council

There is a sports centre, The Gosling Sports Centre, with a dry ski slope, golf driving range, indoor and outdoor tennis, squash, football pitches, an athletics track, a gym and bowls. There is an airfield at Panshanger, currently used by the North London Flying School.^[7] The King George V playing field, on the boundary of the old Hatfield Hyde village, was once used by the England football team for training. There are two golf courses: Panshanger, owned and operated by the borough council, and the Welwyn Garden City Golf Club, of which Nick Faldo was once a member. The Stanborough Park and lakes was the venue for a free annual Water Carnival and firework display and a November 5 fireworks display, both of which attracted large crowds from great distances.

Roman Baths are preserved in a steel vault underneath junction 6 of the A1(M) and are open to visitors.^[4]

There is a large hospital in the town, the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital.

There is a resurgence of interest in the ethos of the garden city and the type of neighbourhood and community advocated by Howard, prompted by the problems of metropolitan and regional development and the importance of sustainability in government policy.^[8]

After local government reorganisation in 1974, Welwyn Garden City was administered by Welwyn Hatfield District Council (now Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council). The nearby town of Hatfield and the village of Welwyn have parish councils with limited responsibilities, but Welwyn Garden City has none. There are indications that a change could be on the way with the establishment of a Welwyn Garden City Council, so devolving local administration to the town.

Argos Direct

Baxter

Bohemian Commerce Company Group

British Lead Mills

Carl Zeiss

The Danish Bacon Company (DBC foodservice)

Figleaves.com

First Quench Retailing

Roche

IBM

PayPoint

Ratcliff Palfinger

Schering-Plough

Tesco

VEGA Group

Welwyn Tool Group (formerly Welwyn Tool Company)

Xerox

Welwyn Garden City experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom.

Sir Frederic Osborn School, a specialist Sports College

Monks Walk School, a specialist Science College,

Tewin Water School for the Deaf

Stanborough School, a specialist maths and computing College

Lol Coxhill, saxophonist (Digswell Arts Trust)

Louis de Soissons, architect (Guessens Road and High Oaks).

Alesha Dixon, singer and TV presenter

Robert Duncan, actor.

Sir Nick Faldo, golfer (Sherrardspark Road).

Ian Fergusson, TV presenter (Panshanger)

Frederick Forsyth, author

Lewis Grassic Gibbon, author

Rob Hague, Drummer with S*M*A*S*H, These Animal Men and The Bleach Boys

Mark Halsey, FIFA referee

Harry Hibbs, footballer (Mountway)

Sir Ebenezer Howard, town planner (Guessens Road).

David James, footballer

Glyn Maxwell, poet and playwright

Sir Frederic Osborn, champion of the New Towns (Guessens Road).

Mat Osman, musician

Josh Morgan, musician

Edmund Purdom, actor

Dame Flora Robson, stage and screen actress (Handside Lane).

Dinah Sheridan, actor

Lisa Snowdon, supermodel

Una Stubbs, actor (Ravenfield Road)

Kev Summers, international football coach

S*M*A*S*H

George Sweeney, actor (Longcroft Lane)

Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC

Luke Cuitto Gale, left footer (Guessens General)

The Tweenies

Superstars (Stanborough Lakes and Gosling Sports Stadium)

UFO (Gravel pit in Cole Green Lane)

Holby City (Exterior shots of Queen Elizabeth II hospital)

Kellogg Company's cornflakes "Train Buffet Car" commercial (Railway station)