GARDEN CITY MOVEMENT-SIR EBENEZER HOWARD

Sir Ebenezer Howard 1850-1928,English town planner, principal Founder of the English garden-city movement. HisTo-morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform(1898),reissued asGarden Cities of To-morrow (1902), outlined a model selfsustaining town that would combinetown conveniences and industrieswith the advantages of an agricultural location.

LIFEHe was born in Fore Street in the City of London. He was son of a shopkeeper. He started his education firstly in Suffolk, then Cheshunt in Hertfordshire and finally completing his education at the age of 15 at Stoke Hall, Ipswich. His formal education was limitedAfter starting work in a stockbrokers office at age 15, Howard learned shorthand and held various jobs as a private secretary and stenographer before becoming a shorthand reporter in the London law courts. Influenced by an Uncle who was a farmer, at the age of 21 he emigrated with two companions to the United States with the intention of farming. They travelled to the West and he settled on 160 acres in Howard County, Nebraska as a homestead farmer. This venture did not work out and soon discovered that he was not meant to be a farmer.

By 1876 he was back in England. He arrived at a time when the city was recovering from the great fire of 1871 which had destroyed most of the central business district. In 1904, Howards wife died; he remarried in 1907. Howard moved to live in the first Garden City, Letchford, in 1905. He first lived in Norton Way South for some time, and moved to Homesgarth in 1911. He was elected first president of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Federation in 1913, and became an honorary member of the Town Planning Institute in 1914. Howard moved to Welwyn Garden City in 1921, the second garden city he founded.

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Influences and Ideas

The now well discussed event that initiated practical town-planning in Great Britain and in many parts of the world was the publication in 1898 of the book, "To-morrow: A peaceful path to Real Reform," by Sir Ebenezer Howard The plan for Victoria consisted of an outer square containing 1000 houses and gardens second square slightly smaller within containing a covered arcade with workshops; similar to Howard's Crystal Palace containing shops and a winter garden, though possibly both were influenced by a similar plan to surround London with such a concourse.

a central square contained the more expensive houses and public buildings and the three were all connected with radiating avenues, tree-lined and extending from the centre

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The Garden City

A town was to be built near the centre of the estate to occupy about 1,000 acres. In the centre was to be a park in which were placed the public buildings, and around the park a great arcade containing shops, etc. The building plots were to be of an average size of 10 by 130 feet. There were to be common gardens and cooperative kitchens. On the outer ring of the town there were to be factories, Warehouses, etc., fronting on a circular railway. The agricultural estate of 5,000 acres was to be properly developed for agricultural purposes as part of the scheme, and the population of this belt was taken at 2,000.

It consists six magnificent boulevards--each 120 feet wide--traverse the city from centre to circumference, dividing it into six equal parts or wards

one section or ward of the town.

In the centre is a circular space containing about five and a half acres, laid out as a beautiful and well- watered garden; and, surrounding this garden, each standing in its own ample grounds, are the larger public buildings--town hall, principal concert and lecture hall, theatre, library, museum, picture-gallery, and hospital

The rest of the large space encircled by the 'Crystal Palace' is a public park, containing 145 acres, which includes ample recreation grounds within very easy access of all the people. Passing out of the Crystal Palace on our way to the outer ring of the town, comes Fifth Avenue--lined, as are all the roads of the town, with trees--fronting hich, and looking on to the Crystal Palace Noticing the very varied architecture and design which the houses and groups of houses display--some having common gardens and co- operative kitchens. The municipal authorities exercise control though proper sanitary arrangements are strictly enforced. Then comes 'Grand Avenue'. This avenue is fully entitled to the name it bears, for it is 420 feet wide, and, forming a belt of green upwards of three miles long, divides that part of the town which lies outside Central Park into two belts In this splendid avenue six sites, each of four acres, are occupied by public schools and their surrounding playgrounds and gardens, while other sites are reserved for churches On the outer ring of the town are factories, warehouses, dairies, markets, coal yards, timber yards, etc., all fronting on the circle railway, which encompasses the whole town, and which has sidings connecting it with a main line of railway which passes through the estate.

This is another diagram made by Sir Ebenezer Howard. It illustrates that the garden city (which he proposed) must be built around the central big city. Small town or garden city will grow around big city and will be connected with each other as well as big city with rail network and road network

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The Garden City Style

That every house should have its garden and should be so placed and planned that all its rooms should be flooded with light and sunshine, unblocked by other houses or by its own projections, were the main ideals.It was necessary to break away from the customary type of street with its endless rows of houses, cramped in frontage, hideous in appearance from the street, and squalid in the congestion of its back projections and its yards. These were the reasons for the style that was evolved and had a strong influence on all town planning since. The creation of a medium between social reform of the squalid cities and the integration of nature.

Below two are the two towns, named as garden city. These are the examples of the garden city founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard.

Letchworth Garden City

town in Hertfordshire, England.This Garden City as founded Sir Ebenezer Howard in 1903, was one of the first new towns, and is the world's first Garden City. Its development inspired another Garden City project at Welwyn Garden City, as well as many other smaller projects worldwide.

Welwyn Garden City

a town in Hertfordshire, England. Welwyn Garden City, as its name suggests, is a garden city, founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s following his previous experiment in Letchworth Garden City, and designed by Louis de Soissons

ROHITH ARADHYULA