book list
*The actual copy which I have is the 1970 facsimile reprint by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dugald MacFadyen was living in Allington Lane, Letchworth when this book was written. He was at one time Minister of South Grove Congregational Church, Highgate. In the foreword, MacFadyen explains that the book has two themes - one the ideal of the Garden Cities movement; the other the development of Ebenezer Howard's personality. The two themes are treated in separate chapters woven together into the book as a whole.
In chapter I, MacFadyen quotes Howard:
"I was born on January 29th, 1850, within sound of Bow Bells in the City of London at 63, Fore Street. My father's name was Ebenezer and he had several confectioners' shops round London. My mother was a farmer's daughter with good common sense, nothing brilliant about her. I had two elder sisters, Elizabeth being still alive, Mrs. Fred Harrison, and Anne Howard, who had a first-class reputation as a typist in the City of London...
"At the age of four and a half I was sent to a private school at Sudbury in Suffolk run by two maiden ladies, quiet, sensible women who wrote with quill pens. Here I was well taught, and looking back, I remember I had a special taste for poetry...
"At nine years of age I went to a school in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, owned my Mr. Dukes. I well remember there were nine acres to play in, a lovely fishpond and beautiful trees. One of the cedar trees was said to be the finest in Hertfordshire. "
In chapters II and III, MacFadyen continues with Howard's life, describing his first journey, when aged 18, to America, where he stayed for ten years. One episode described is Howard's acquaintance with Cora Richmond (later a well-known Christian Science lecturer) who, on one occasion, advised Howard to give up his endeavours to produce mechanical inventions, saying "I see you in the centre of a series of circles working at something which will be of great service to humanity." MacFadyen recounts Howard's marriage in 1879 to Elizabeth Ann Bills, after his return to England.
In chapter IV, MacFadyen tells of the influence on Howard of the utopian novel Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy, a Baptist minister born in Massachusetts.
"I had already taken part in two very small social experiments unsuccessfully and had twice visited the U.S.A., when in 1898 a friend lent me Looking Backward, just published in America but not yet in England.... This book graphically pictured the whole American nation organised on co-operative principles - this mighty change coming about with marvellous celerity - the necessary mental and ethical changes having previously occurred with equal rapidity.
"The next morning as I went up to the City from Stamford Hill I realised, as never before, the splendid possibilities of a new civilisation based on service to the community and not on self-interest, at present the dominant motive...
"Thus I was led to put forward proposals for testing out Belamy's principles though on a very much smaller scale - in brief, to build by private enterprise pervaded by public spirit an entirely new town, industrial, residential and agricultural. At this early stage I pictured such a town and all its departments as under the control of a body of Trustees supplying funds but at a low rate of interest...
"Shortly after this I wrote the first part of my book..." [the book being To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to real Reform, later re-titled Garden Cities of To-morrow]
Included in chapter IV are the minutes of the first meeting of the Garden Cities Association dated June 10th, 1899, together with a list of the names and addresses of the 13 persons present.
Chapters V and VI give an outline of the ideas in Howard's book To-morrow, and also some background of Christian Socialist ideas of the time in England. One quote which I like from chapter VI:
"There is a sturdy backbone of Puritanism in England largely represented by the members of the Society of Friends. Numbers of people of this type gravitated to the Garden City in the hope of realising the simpler life as described by Emerson: 'To live content with small means : to seek elegance rather than luxury : and refinement rather than fashion : to be worthy, not respectable : and wealthy not rich : to study hard : think quietly : talk gently : act frankly : to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages with open heart : to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never...' "
Also in chapter VI is a chronology of events from 1898 to 1903 which covers the formation of the limited company called Garden City Limited, and the formal opening of the First Garden City at Letchworth by Earl Grey on October 9th, 1903.
Chapter VII is about Sir Ralph Neville, Chairman of the First Garden City Company.
Chapters VIII to XIV deal with the development of Letchworth Garden City. There are 3 development maps of Letchworth dated 1913, 1923 and 1933. There are also in the book 16 black and white photographs of buildings and scenes in Letchworth.
The title of Chapter XV (34 pages long) is Welwyn Garden City. It includes 6 black and white photographs from the town, and 3 development maps dated 1922, 1926 and 1933 (reproduced below). There are 2 further photographs from WGC later in the book.
The WGC chapter begins with an account of the Panshanger Sale in which Howard purchased at an auction much of the land on which the town was to be built. The parent company (Welwyn Garden City Limited) confined its direct operations to the purchase and development of land, and the administration of the Sewage Disposal Works and the Water Supply. For other operations there were created subsidiary undertakings, mostly controlled and partly owned by the parent company. These were:
The account continues with the building of elementary (but not yet secondary) schools by the County Council, the formation of the Health Association and the Educational Association, and the building of churches by religious organisations. The population of the town had reached 9,000. The last 10 pages of the chapter entitled Welwyn Garden City are actually about Wythenshawe (a Garden Town built by the Corporation of Manchester) and Earswick built by the Joseph Rowntree Village Trust in Yorkshire.
Chapter XVI deals with acts of Parliament and legal matters.
Chapter XVII deals with the impact of the Garden Cities movement elsewhere in Britain and abroad. It also includes a reprint of the catalogue of a Town Planning Exhibition at Letchworth Grammar School in July 1933, the year after the Town and Country Planning Act was passed (1932).
The last three short chapters deal with (XVIII) Howard's knighthood and the international praise heaped upon him at the time; (XIX) his support for Esperanto; and (XX) brief details of his children, his second marriage in 1908 to Miss E. A. Hayward of Letchworth, and his death on May Day 1928 at 5, Guessens Road, Welwyn Garden City.
click on the images for a better view
Portrait of Ebenezer Howard by Spencer Pryse
The first Welwyn Stores
1922 development map
1926 development map
1933 development map
Welwyn Theatre - exterior
Welwyn Theatre - interior
Tree-lined road, showing formal arrangement
of detached houses with gardens
click on the images for a better view