Welwyn Garden Heritage

We all know how lucky we are to live in Welwyn Garden City. You may be surprised to learn, however, that many people throughout Europe know this too and want to spread the word across the continent about how special garden cities really are.

Over the last 9 months the Trust has been talking to organisations in both Paris and Liege about making a bid for significant funding from the EU. The idea behind the bid is to use Welwyn Garden City as the example of what can be achieved when a garden city works well. We need to find out what exactly makes a garden city special so as to aid other ‘garden cities’ and new towns in Europe to reach the same quality of life.

The EU has launched a programme to do just this and the Trust was invited to participate. Much to our surprise we were the only UK organisation to express an interest and so now we are the sole UK representative on this hugely exciting project to rekindle the garden city movement of Ebenezer Howard. 

The project will involve

• Examining the key features of garden cities in the UK and identifying those that can be repeated elsewhere.
• Investigating approaches to involving the local community in St Denis, just north of Paris, with explaining and supporting the revitalisation of their garden city.
• Looking at the best modern techniques for refurbishing run down mining community housing in Belgium to achieve the most sustainable housing possible.

Like all projects involving grants of money we need to make a financial contribution from the Trust. Our UK partners to date include the Town & Country Planning Association and the University of Hertfordshire and discussions are taking place with others.

If you can help us spread the word with even the most modest contributions to help win significant EU funding to bring the Garden City Movement back to the forefront of modern town planning that would be greatly appreciated. Any donation will be gratefully received, you can find a suitable form by clicking here.

For more information on the Garden Cities Project , or the Trust in general please email or call us using the Contact Us facility.

The Trust held a meeting to outline its ideas on creating a Heritage Centre in Welwyn Garden City on 25th March to gauge the reaction of representatives of industry, retailers and public bodies. The result according to Tony Skottowe and his fellow Trustees was " A resounding chorus of approval."

An audience of around twenty 'movers and shakers' from the town were invited and were given a visual presentation by Rob Cowan of Urban Design Skills the consultants appointed to carry out an initial feasibility study for the Trust. Guests were shown what it might be possible for the Centre to offer the town and other local organisations if it becomes a reality.

Particularly encouraging was the response from one major retail operator who commented that "An outstanding building offering exciting new reasons for visiting the town would be a great asset". Understandably concerns were expressed about obtaining the funding for such an ambitious venture but the Trustees are already investigating potential support from a European Union scheme involving the importance of the Garden City ideals to modern urban living and the issue of sustainability.

The Trust will be holding a similar presentation for its supporters and any members of the public who are interested on the evening of Tuesday 12th May in Campus West. Please check our Events listing for details.

The Welwyn Garden Heritage Trust was recently invited to send a representative to an EU project in Paris based on the importance of Garden Cities throughout the Community. As it turned out Welwyn Garden was the only UK town to turn up out of all those contacted.

The meeting took place in St. Denis opposite The Stade de France, which is just to the north of central Paris, and involved people from Belgium, Germany, The Czech Republic, Hungary and France. There are numerous garden cities across Europe all based on the original ideas of Ebenezer Howard but adapted to create green havens in cities such as Paris and Budapest. The two themes of the meeting were “Tourism & Culture”, looking at how garden cities could work together to promote their towns and increase tourism, and “Garden Cities and Sustainability”, which concerns combining all the main features of the garden city concept with the need to create sustainable communities for the future. As part of the meeting delegates were taken on a tour of one of the ‘garden cities’ in St Denis.

Following its commitment to consult on implementation of the revived Estate Management Scheme (EMS) with both the WGC Society and the Trust an initial meeting was held on 22nd October.

First item on the agenda was publicising the EMS to everyone in the town, whether in the scheme or not, given that it is likely to affect all the residents in some way over time. The Council will be publishing and distributing a new booklet on the EMS that will be delivered to very house affected. WGCS and WGHT promised to promote the scheme to the best of their abilities via their members and supporters as well as using the respective websites.