Suburban Renaissance

Abstract

In the closing years of the 1800s, a wealthy Quaker wrote a paper that would profoundly influence planning policy and practice in the 20th century. When Ebenezer Howard published To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform in 1898, it was as a reaction against what he saw as the evils of contemporary urban living and as a call for a new form of development: the garden city. In 1899, Howard founded the campaign group that became the Town and Country Planning Association to promote the idea of garden cities before going on to establish Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire shortly after the First World War. However, partly due to problems resulting from a failure to create sufficient jobs in the settlements, Howard's thinking fell out of favour towards the end of the 20th century. However, ideas have a habit of being adopted anew. Last year, the TCPA published Re-imagining Garden Cities for the 21st Century, which received a warm response from housing minister Grant Shapps.