Explore our digital walkthrough to discover the story of the Garden City movement and how Letchworth helped shape town planning around the world.
The International Garden Cities Exhibition was created to tell the story of Letchworth Garden City and its global influence on town planning. Formerly located at 296 Norton Way South, the exhibition explored the origins of the Garden City idea, the people who brought it to life, and the movement’s continuing impact internationally.
Through displays, films and interpretation, visitors discovered how the vision of combining the best of town and country led to the creation of the world’s first Garden City in 1903. While the physical exhibition is now closed, its themes and stories can still be explored through this online experience.
Ebenezer Howard, Garden Cities of Tomorrow, 1902
“It is deeply to be deplored that the people should continue to stream into the already over-crowded cities, and should thus further deplete the country districts…”
What is a Garden City?
C.B. Purdom, 1919“A town designed for industry and healthy living… surrounded by a permanent belt of rural land, with land held in trust for the community.”
The Garden City concept aimed to combine the advantages of urban life with the health and beauty of the countryside. Carefully planned neighbourhoods, green spaces and community ownership were central to the idea.
Letchworth Garden City, founded in 1903, became the first real-world example and inspired similar developments in Britain and across the world.
Garden City Principles
The Garden City movement promotes a set of principles for creating healthy and sustainable communities:
- Strong leadership and community engagement
- Land value captured for community benefit
- Long-term stewardship of land and assets
- A mix of housing types and tenures
- Beautifully designed homes with gardens
- Access to local jobs and economic opportunities
- Space for growing food, including allotments
- Generous green spaces and a surrounding countryside belt
- Walkable neighbourhoods with cultural and social facilities
- Integrated and accessible transport systems
These principles continue to influence planners, architects and policymakers today.
The People Behind the Garden City
Ebenezer Howard
Ebenezer Howard (1850–1928), founder of the Garden City movement, was not a planner or architect but a parliamentary reporter and shorthand typist.
While living in Chicago, Howard witnessed the challenges of rapid urban growth and began imagining a new type of settlement that blended town and country life.
His ideas were published in 1898 in To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (later republished as Garden Cities of Tomorrow). Just five years later, his vision became reality with the founding of Letchworth Garden City.
Barry Parker
Architect Barry Parker helped translate Howard’s ideas into the physical design of Letchworth. Working in partnership with Raymond Unwin, Parker developed plans that combined Arts and Crafts architecture, generous green space and carefully designed neighbourhoods.
After Unwin left Letchworth in 1906, Parker remained as consulting architect and continued to shape the town’s development.
Raymond Unwin
Planner and architect Raymond Unwin was one of the most influential figures in early town planning. Before working on Garden City projects, he gained experience designing housing for industrial workers.
His partnership with Barry Parker produced pioneering plans for Letchworth Garden City, New Earswick, Brentham Garden Suburb and beyond.
Unwin later became Chief Town Planning Inspector for the Local Government Board and helped establish modern planning practice through influential publications such as Town Planning in Practice (1909).
