Letchworth

Please note this is gleaned from books and Google but as the URLs kept changing over years I made my own page with a little information about Letchworth The First Garden city.

Back in 1903 Ebenezer Howard had wanted to combine the advantages of town and country living, whilst avoiding the disadvantages of both. The original Garden City plans were drawn up by architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin , to include parks and open spaces, with tree lined streets with low density housing taken from Ebenezer Howard's book To-morrow: a peaceful path to real reform, published by Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd in 1898 the book was re-named four years later Garden Cities of To-morrow. In 1907 Barry Parker designed an offices for himself and Raymond Unwin on Norton Way South, Later Parker added living accommodation. Today the property is a museum that contains a record of the architects Parker and Unwin, with the gallery housing various exhibitions of local interest. In 1973 the property was extended to add a gallery.

If you enter Letchworth via the first UK roundabout and drive down the Broadway you will see a fountain that was built on some 3.7 acres of open space. This was not the first fountain, back in June 1959 The Letchworth Round Table at a cost of £600.00 had one built to commemorate their Silver Jubilee and was sited in the centre of the gardens with an ornamental pool . Then in 1963 after an event that happened in Dealey Plaza, Texas the name was changed to John. F. Kennedy Gardens in memory of a liberal saint, who would have implement so many policies that would have brought America into a new Utopia, but Lee Harvey Oswald an ex US Marine took his life from the open window of the School Book Depository for reasons we may never know or did he?

Then in 1977 the original fountain was replaced by the Letchworth Garden City Corporation to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's II accession to the throne. Over the years it fell into disrepair and was bricked over after the fountain pump burnt out due to people pouring soap powder into the water. Today it is no longer called Kennedy Gardens just plain ‘Broadway Gardens’ it's a shame the name was changed for without John. F. Kennedy Letchworth, the world as we know may have gone up in a big mushroom in 1962

This latest fountain cost in the region of £1.25m which they say did included work to Broadway Walk. If you look hard enough you will see the soap powder monkeys are back, lets hope they don't brick this one over. The gardens have also been the centre of activity for the Society's One Day Fun Day, held on the second Saturday of July each year.

In 2010 Letchworth town centre was revamped with many people feeling the town was losing more than it was gaining but it has made the town centre a place for the people which would have made Ebenezer Howard, Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin happy apart from all the pubs.

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"No good deed goes unpunished." ― Oscar Wilde