The Garden City Movement

In 1898, Ebenezer Howard published 'To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform', which outlined his utopian vision for urban planning. He sought to combine the economic and social advantages of the city with the healthy environment of the countryside.

This gave birth to the Garden City movement. Howard's model proposed creating self-contained communities of predetermined size, ringed by agricultural greenbelts. The land would be owned by a trust to capture the uplift in land value for the benefit of the community.

First Implementations

Letchworth Garden City (1903) and Welwyn Garden City (1920) were the first real-world applications of Howard's ideas. His concepts heavily influenced the post-WWII New Towns Act of 1946, which saw the creation of towns like Stevenage and Milton Keynes.