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Garden Cities
[Sir] Ebenezer Howard
[Sir] Raymond Unwin & Richard Barry Parker
by
Online since 11th December 2009
Last changes: 31st of March 2013




'GROUP OF SLUMLESS SMOKELESS CITIES' 1898 by Ebenezer Howard, from 'Garden Cities and New Towns - Five Lectures' [1989] by David Hall, Robert Beevers, Michael Hebbert, Mervyn Miller, William Allen [and John Onslow], published by Hertfordshire Publications 1990
I.) Img. _01

Label [excerpt]: » -No. 7.-
GROUP OF SLUMLESS SMOKELESS CITIES
TOTAL AREA 66.000 ACRES   POPULATION 250.000
GARDEN CITY 9.000 ACRES   POPULATION 32.000
[…] CENTRAL CITY AREA 12.000 ACRES   POPULATION 58.000 «

'To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform'
by [Sir] Ebenezer Howard, 1898
The Social City
 

» Alfred Russel Wallace […] described the garden city idea as "Perhaps the only proposal that goes to the root of the matter (of land ownership) without being of such an alarming nature as to be for the present outside the sphere of practical politics." Radicals such as Russel Wallace were however soon overwhelmed among the membership of the Garden City Association by a much more moderate kind of reformer. « I.) 3 VI.) 13


Letchworth, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Google Maps 2009
V.) Img. _02

According to [Sir] Peter Hall XI.) the best approximation to Howard’s Social City [Img. _01]

Letchworth [1903]
Stevenage [1946 II.) 2 ]
Welwyn Garden City [1920, 1948 II.) 2 ]
Hatfield [1948 II.) 2 ]

Video:
http://vimeo.com/ 2 […]

» GARDEN CITIES OF TO-MORROW « 1902 III.)
http://www.archive.org/


Revised, shorter I.) 1 and most importantly evoking a latent Arcadian longing by branding that NEW title » Garden Cities … « this second edition of 'To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform' aims at a wide audience: [early green rhetoric VIII.) if you will]

Howard promises 'Real [Land] Reform' in a peaceful [i.e. non revolutionary] way, simply by buying VII.) 8 cheap [farm] land in a suitable location in order to develop a city. He would not only finance that acquisition [offering investors limited interest III.) 5 III.) 6 III.) 7 XI.) 12 ] through the increased real-estate value the new town would yield, but also facilitate communal features to its citizens from that gain. I.) 4

This [philanthropic IV.) 9 business model] of course only works in an ever-booming real-estate MARKET, where ["decent" "healthy" and "green" VIII.) 11 ] housing remains a scarce commodity - an incentive strong enough to pull new citizens [like a magnet].

Its financing requires 'Garden Cities' to be self contained [securing a monopoly on leases], of sufficient size [exceeding their break even limit, capitalizing on economies of scale] and to develop a strong local economy, for its site on cheap [!] available [and therefore remote] agricultural soil contradicts a commuting work force.

+ non-sprawling paradigm [preserving the green belt] …

Aside all righteous aspirations 'Garden Cities' needed to be [moderately] profitable, at least in public perception. They were not - but as an artifice "success" has remained the projecting force in creating New Towns.

The actual layout of such 'Garden Cities' XIV.) 23 is altogether an entirely different matter …

» A DIAGRAM ONLY. PLAN MUST DEPEND ON SITE SELECTED. «
http://www.idealcity.org.au/ […]

'Diagrammatic Plan of London' by [Sir] Raymond Unwin from 'Town planning in practice: An introduction to the art of designing cities and suburbs' published by T. Fischer Unwin, London 1909
XII.) Img. _03

Caption: » Illus. 100.- Diagrammatic Plan of London, showing the volume of passenger traffic entering London from the suburbs by railway during the month of October, 1907. The black lines indicate traffic for ordinary passengers, the hatched lines that of passengers using workmen's tickets.
Reproduced from the Report of the London Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade by permission of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office. « [page 143]

Geoposition
51° 30' 30.28'' N, 0° 7' 31.31'' W
http://bing.com/

[Sir] Raymond Unwin, 1909

» It is the lack of beauty, of the amenities of life, more than anything else which obliges us to admit that our work of town building in the past century has not been well done. Not even the poor can live by bread alone ; […]
We shall need to secure still more open ground, air-space, and sunlight for each dwelling ; we shall need to make proper provision for parks and playgrounds, to control our streets, to plan their direction, their width, and their character, so that they may in the best possible way minister to the convenience of the community. « XII.) 21

» Nothing Gained by Overcrowding! « [Unwin 1912]


'Plan of Earswick' by [Sir] Raymond Unwin from 'Town planning in practice: An introduction to the art of designing cities and suburbs' published by T. Fischer Unwin, London 1909
XII.) Img. _04

Caption: » Illus. 171.- Plan of Earswick, near York, being built by The Joseph Rowntree Village Trust. « [page 233]

Geoposition
53° 59' 31.94'' N, 1° 4' 10.47'' W
http://bing.com/

1901
New Earswick was developed VI.) 13 by philanthropist Joseph Rowntree » … not as a charity but as an idependent trust … « XI.) 15

Planned by [Sir] Raymond Unwin and Richard Barry Parker [half-cousins and brothers in law] 1902 it anticipated the Radburn-System 2 3 4 5 […] XI.) 15

'Letchworth Garden City by 1910' planned by Richard Barry Parker and [Sir] Raymond Unwin 1904 image taken from 'Die Gartenstadtbewegung in England, ihre Entwickelung und ihr jetziger Stand' by Hans Eduard Berlepsch-Valendas [architect B.D.A], published by R. Oldenbourg München und Berlin 1911 [page 132]
IX.) Img. _05

Label: » Gartenstadt Letchworth. Herts. [Hertfordshire] Stand der Bebaung Im Sommer 1910 «

Caption: » Abb. 16. Plan der Gartenstadt Letchworth. Bebauungsstand [state of development in summer] 1910. « [page 132]

Geoposition
53° 59' 22.90'' N, 1° 4' 17.36'' W
http://bing.com/

1903
Letchworth Garden City [the first "Garden City"]
Planned by [Sir] Raymond Unwin and Richard Barry Parker 1904

» … after World War Two, aided by government subsidized decentralisation schemes, it was at last completted, on a slightly smaller scale than originally planned. Ironically, at that point it became the victim of land speculation, from which it was rescued by a 1962 Act of Parlament … « XI.) 16


'Hampstead Garden Suburb' planned by Richard Barry Parker and [Sir] Raymond Unwin 1906 image taken from 'Die Gartenstadtbewegung in England, ihre Entwickelung und ihr jetziger Stand' by Hans Eduard Berlepsch-Valendas [architect B.D.A], published by R. Oldenbourg München und Berlin 1911 [page 154]
IX.) Img. _06

Label: » Hampstead Garten-Vorstadt von London «

Caption: » Abb. 22. Plan von Hampstead. « [page 154]

Geoposition
51° 34' 50.51'' N, 0° 11' 25.49'' W
http://bing.com/

[1905 …] [1906 …] 1907
Hampstead Garden Suburb was » … not a garden city but a garden suburb; it had no industry, and was openly dependent on commuting from adjacent tube station, which opened just as it was being planned. « XI.) 17

Planned 1906 […] by [Sir] Raymond Unwin and Richard Barry Parker in association with Edwin Landseer Lutyens.

» … heavily influenced by Sitte XIII.) and by [Unwin's] own German wanderings; … The result is an anomalous, heavily formal exercise in the City Beautiful tradition: … « XI.) 19



'Town Planning and Modern Architecture at the Hampstead Garden Suburb' 1909 http://www.archive.org/

 

Unwin & Parker seperated 1914, the practice became Parker’s in May 1915 […]

Plan of 'Welwyn Garden City' 1921 by Louis de Soissons, image taken from 'Milton Keynes: image and reality' by Terence Bendixson and John Platt, published by Granta Editions, Cambridge 1992 [reprinted 1998, page 219]
X.) Img. _07

Label: » DIAGRAM OF TOWN PLAN SHOWING ZONES ROAD & RAIL COMMUNICATIONS SHOPS. PUBLIC BUILDINGS. OPEN SPACES. ETC. «

Caption: » Louis de Soissons' 1921 plan of Welwyn Garden City: the axial layout of the centre and the curving residential roads were design ideas that re-emerged in the 'private new towns' of the 1980s. « X.) 22

Geoposition
51° 48' 7.33'' N, 0° 12' 31.58'' W
http://bing.com/

[1919 …] 1920
Welwyn Garden City [the second "Garden City"]
Planned by Louis de Soissons 1921

» … in the neo-Georgian style that by then had swept the Unwin-Parker neo-vernacular off the stage … a kind of Garden City Beautiful. « XI.) 18


Wythenshawe, Manchester, Google Earth 2009
V.) Img. _08

Wythenshawe, Manchester, Google Maps 2009

Geoposition
53° 23' 32.87'' N, 2° 15' 48.63'' W
http://bing.com/

1926
Wythenshawe planned by Barry Parker 1927 until 1941 […]

Introducing » … three American planning principles … the neighborhood-unit principle … the Radburn layout … … the principle of the parkway … « XI.) 20

http://en.wikipedia.org/

Along with terminology XV.) Ideals shifted from "Garden City" to "Satellite Town".

 

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References

 
  1. IN 'Garden Cities and New Towns - Five Lectures' [1989] by David Hall, Robert Beevers, Michael Hebbert, Mervyn Miller, William Allen [and John Onslow], published by Hertfordshire Publications in 1990
    http://books.google.at

    'Ebenezer Howard: The Man and his Message' by Robert Beevers
    Img. _ 01 [page 21, caption:] » 3. The Social City. The final version from Howard's To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, 1898 «
    1 [page 27]
    3 [page 28] Alfred Russel Wallace
    4 » Nevertheless, he [Howard] persisted with the idea […] that is was the intention of the board of directors "at a later stage" "to create a Trust which would purchase the estate from the shareholders and administer the garden city under the democratic control of the inhabitants. […] thereafter the idea was quietly dropped. « [page 29]

  2. 'Britain's New Towns' by Anthony Alexander, published by Routledge 2009

    2 Year of designation [ to commence the 'New Town' ]
  3. 'Garden Cities of To-morrow' by Ebenezer Howard, published by S. Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd. 'Second Edition' [1902], republished 2008 by Forgotten Books
    [Includes many text errors - see instead: http://www.archive.org/]

    5 » For landlord's rent or interest on purchase money £ 2400,00 at 4 per cent « [page 33]
    6 » K(Interest) The money to construct the public works with which we have been dealing is supposed to be borrowed at 4 1/2 per cent. « [page 54]
    7 Return for investments was limited to 5% IV.) 9
    » A limited dividend of 5 per cent is fixed; all profits beyond that are expended in useful public enterprises […] « [page 74]
  4. 'Urban Utopias in the Twentieth Century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier' by Robert Fishman, published by Basic Books, New York in 1977 http://books.google.at/

    9 a » "Philanthropy at 5 percent" was a familiar feature in English reform circles […] « [page 46]
    [this notion seems proverbial: "Pure philanthropy is very well in its way but philanthropy plus five percent is a good deal better" Cecil Rhodes] see also: XI.) 12
  5. Google Maps - 2009
    Img. _02 Letchworth, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield
    Img. _08 Wythenshawe, Manchester
  6. 13 a [Pre] financed cities [Model Villages] by philanthropists / entrepreneurs :
    Robert Owen's New Lanark [1786]
    Titus Salt's Saltaire [1853]
    [… http://www.archive.org/]

    and by members of Howard's 'Garden City Association' at the time [by 1902]
    George Cadbury's Bournville [1893]
    William Lever's Port Sunlight [1887, 1899 - 1914]
    Joseph Rowntree's New Earswick [1901 planned by Unwin & Parker]
  7. 8 The site of Letchworth Garden City was accquired as a freehold […] Common practise regarding English land ownership are leaseholds.

    10 In a German context leasehold estates cannot be traded or borrowed on. "Pacht" [lease] here remains a mutual agreement.
    In order to explain Howard's socio-economic prerequisites [in 1911] German architect Berlepsch-Valendas points out: "[In England] All land belongs to the sovereign [= state …]" [page 24 onwards]
  8. IN: ^ [Substituting "social" for "ecological", as its prerequisite …]
    ECOLOGICAL URBANISM: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the Future Conference at Harvard University Graduate School of Design April 3 - 5, 2009 http://ecologicalurbanism.gsd.harvard.edu/

    11 More urban metaphors are noted by Lawrence Buell
  9. 'Die Gartenstadtbewegung in England, ihre Entwickelung und ihr jetziger Stand [The Garden City Movement in England, its development and current state]' by Hans Eduard Berlepsch-Valendas [architect B.D.A], published by R. Oldenbourg München und Berlin 1911 http://www.archive.org/

    Img. _05 Letchworth Garden City by 1910 [page 132] http://www.archive.org/
    Img. _06 Hampstead Garden Suburb [page 154] http://www.archive.org/
  10. 'Milton Keynes: image and reality' by Terence Bendixson and John Platt, published by Granta Editions, Cambridge 1992 [reprinted 1998] http://books.google.at/

    Img. _07 [page 219] Plan of Welwyn, 1921
    22 Caption for Img. _07 [page 219]
  11. ^ 'Cities of Tomorrow [An Intelectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century]' by [Sir] Peter Geoffrey Hall, published by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing 2002 [third edition, published first 1988] http://books.google.at/

    12 » These calculations appeared realistic: in low-inflation late Victorian England, consols might pay as little as 2 percent a year; 'philanthropy plus five percent' IV.) 9 was a well-known concept. « [page 97]

    15 [page 102]
    16 [page 101]
    17 [page 104]
    Other "Garden Suburbs":
    Bedford Park [Ealing Garden Suburb 1875]
    Brentham Garden Suburb [1901, planned by Unwin & Parker 1907]
    18 [page 110]
    19 [page 108]
    20 [page 114]
  12. 'Town Planning in Practice: An introduction to the art of designing cities and suburbs' by [Sir] Raymond Unwin published by T. Fischer Unwin, London 1909 http://www.archive.org/ 2

    21 [page 4]
    Img. _03 [page 143, diagram of London] http://www.archive.org/
    Img. _04 [page 232, plan of Earswick] http://www.archive.org/
  13. IN: ^
    'Kunst des Städtebaus: neue Perspektiven auf Camillo Sitte' edited by Klaus Semsroth, Kari Jormakka and Bernhard Langer, published by Böhlau, 2005 http://books.google.at/

    'Politische Konnotationen des malerischen Städtebaus [Political Connotations of the Picturesque]' by Wolfgang Sonne [page 63 to 89]

    How do we [literally] perceive architecture, the city, the universe …?
    Some recognize to be "in" the world, immersed in reality [immanently enjoying it] others aspire to detach from misery, transcending to higher levels, [preferably] looking down on matters […]. What renders the "picturesque" an issue in architectural discourse are "renderings".
  14. IN:
    'Town Theory and Practice' edited by Charles Benjamin Purdom, published by Benn Brothers London, 1921 http://www.archive.org/

    'An Introductory Chapter' by C. B. Purdom [pages 9 to 46]

    23 Their 1919 definition: » A Garden City is a town planned for industry and healthy living ; of a size that makes possible a full measure of social life, but not larger ; surrounded by a permanent belt of rural land ; the whole of the land being in public ownership or held in trust for the community. « [page 34] http://www.archive.org/
  15. ^ 'Satellite Cities : A Study of Industrial Suburbs' by Graham Romeyn Taylor, published by D. Appleton and Company, New York, London 1915 http://www.archive.org/

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