Garden Cities of Tomorrow

Long predating the environmental movement and probably the first example of “green” town planning and architecture anywhere, the new towns of the Garden City Movement were regarded by their inventor Ebenezer Howard as “common-sense socialism” — communally owned towns that were neither city nor country, where white- and blue-collar workers would live together surrounded by great belts of trees, powered by non-polluting light industries.

These were then actually built, in the 1910s and ’20s, in the form of places such as Letchworth, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Welwyn Garden City, to the designs of architects like the committed socialist Raymond Unwin. They were pleasant — if you could get to live there. The aim of creating cross-class cities independent of London remained a mirage, with the communally owned development companies soon monopolized by private interests, and the attractive workers’ cottages becoming desirable suburban residences for middle-class commuters into the capital.